Rules

The Parsec Awards are presented at the Dragon*Con Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. The rules for this award are established as follows. Participants understand that these rules may be subject to clarification and change without prior notice.

THE PRIZE:

One winner will be determined in each category to receive the Parsec Award trophy and the right to claim the title of Parsec Award winner in their category for that year.

NOMINATION CATEGORIES:

For each of the categories, up to 5 submissions exemplifying excellence will be named as finalists. [details]

AWARD DETERMINATION PROCESS:

(Step 1) Call for general nominations:
Anyone can nominate a podcast, be it a listener or the podcaster herself or himself.

(Step 2) Inform nominees and request samples:
Each nominee will informed of their nomination and will be asked assemble a sample of their podcasts as can be found in the Submission Guidelines. A category will not be awarded for the year if only 2 (two) or fewer eligible podcasts have submitted samples.

(Step 3) Five finalists are determined for each category:
The Parsec Awards Steering Committee and their staff will determine a list of five finalists in each category. Each podcast will be evaluated by a set of numerical ratings based on criteria specific to the nominated category:

Audio and/or Video Quality
Content to Category
Presentation

All participants acknowledge that the awards process involves subjective judgment on the part of those making award determinations and that artistic merit and ranking is highly influenced by personal preference. Nevertheless, every effort will be made in the selection of finalists and awarding the winner to be as fair and objective as possible.

(Step 4) Selection of five finalist judges and announcement of finalists:
Finalists will be announced and the final award determination will be made by independent judges selected by the Steering Committee. These judges include fans, scientists, authors, etc., from inside and outside of the podcasting community.

(Step 5) Final Judges vote:
Each finalist judge submits their scores for the category they are judging, and the scores are combined with other judges scores to determine the category winner. The steering committee members do not participate in the final judging.

(Step 6) The Awards Ceremony:
The awards will be presented at the Dragon*Con convention held in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Podcast producers need not be present to be awarded, but the winners will not be announced until the ceremony.

TIMELINE:

Nominations accepted: April 1st through May 27th.
Submissions will be due no later than midnight (PDT) on June 15th.
Samples will not be accepted after this deadline, and we encourage you to submit your samples earlier.
Finalist list will be compiled and assembled by the Steering Committee, finalists submission provided to the finalist judges by mid-July.
Winner list based on judges scores compiled by early August.
Dragon*Con 2013: Parsec Awards Ceremony on Saturday, August 31st.

Steering Committee member ineligibility:

Members of the Steering Committee do not make the final selection of award winners and are ineligible to receive an award in any year in which they are members of the committee. Podcasts to which they have contributed are eligible for award but the board member must recuse themselves from any involvement in either the nomination or selection process.

The Steering committee reserves the right to make adjustments to the nomination and awarding criteria as necessary.