My extended answer is, “Of course. Why wouldn’t we?”

First, let me note that support for “competitive blogging” does not disallow non-competitive blogging. For instance, I personally will blog regardless of competition, blissfully unaffected by the Eddies or my Technorati ranking (mine is 68–big deal). The two can (and do) live side-by-side, because the web has dismantled the supply-and-demand barriers to self-publishing.

Having said that, even for myself informal competition affects my blogging in a positive way. The nature of any competition is to compare one subject to another and judge aspects of one to be superior. Informal competition is when I compare my blog post to better posts by colleagues, and am motivated to improve my writing or posting style–either to existing posts or to future drafts.

To this end, competitive blogging can encourage improvement and innovation in individual blogs. When I read Chris Lott’s blog posts on ChrisLott.org and especially Cosmopoetica, I’m reminded to reflect deeply before I publish, and to enhance my posts with appropriate media. His posts also exemplify good linking tactics. But Chris is probably not up for an EduBlog award, so why did I choose him? One, because his blogs are personal favorites of mine; they fit many of my own interests and (excepting politics) perspectives, and, two, to prove that moderately popular blogs can still thrive in niches.

Competitive blogging can reward and call attention to those who have put in extra effort or have best utilized their natural/developed talents. This may be an incentive to bloggers, but more importantly it’s deserved recognition that serves as a kind of justice.

Awards and recognition may help readers separate the milk from the cream, the chaff from the wheat, the cliches from the originals. I at least have no time to waste reading mediocre, let alone lousy, blogs. That’s why we read movie and book critics, right?

Models of good blogging encourage networking and promote diverse interactions, as the best bloggers frequently and astutely link to colleagues, neighbors, and even critics.

Even if you dispute the “authority” of traditional institutions, it’s hard to dispute the popular authority garnered by folksonomies or democratic measures such as the nomination/voting process used by edublog awards. Sure, not all blogging awards do this, but most consider public opinion in addition to the more objective criteria found in their rubrics. Technorati uses a number of more sophisticated, Googlistic measures, and we could apply some of these (and more!) to automate different measures of “significance”; for example, relevant interlinking, significant comments, conversion rates, etc can come into play for authority ranking as well.

I end by asking, “Why not?” but it’s not a rhetorical question. I submit that if you disapprove of the awards or authoritative ranking systems, ignore them. If you don’t care about competition don’t engage. Those of us who find consistent, authentic value in competition will utilize it to our advantage. But if someday you’re devastated that didn’t get an award for your blog, don’t complain to those who chose to play.