CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners in the 2007 MediaConnect Asia Technology Journalist Awards sponsored by Vignette.

We’ll post the video clips of the awards night as soon as they’re uploaded to iVDO We had a lot of fun during the awards night and throughout the Kickstart Asia 2007 conference itself.

Here’s the list of winners:

Best Business Technology Title — MIS Asia
Best Technology Industry Title — CommsDay ASEAN
Best Personal Technology Title — Straits Times’ Digital Life
Best Technology Website — CNET Asia
Best Technology Blog — The Loose Wire Blog by Jeremy Wagstaff
Best Technology Reviewer — Philip Wong (CNET Asia)
Best Technology Industry Journalist — Erna Mahyuni (PC.com)
Best Business Technology Journalist — Stefan Hammond (Computerworld Hong Kong)
Best Consumer Journalist — John Tanner (Charged)
Best Gaming Journalist — Leung Wai-Leng (Straits Times’ Digital Life)

INQUIRER.net was a finalist in four categories but unfortunately we didn’t bring home any award. But that’s OK — it was an honor to make it to the finals, and we’ll just hope for the best next year

BINTAN, Indonesia–We just arrived here at the Nirwana Gardens resort for the Kickstart Asia 2007 information technology forum on July 26 to 27.

I’m covering the event together with INQUIRER.net/hackenslash reporter Alex Villafania, David Dizon of ABS-CBN Interactive, Jenalyn Rubio of ComputerWorld Philippines, Billy Allardo of PC World Philippines, Michael David Tan of Enterprise, and John Nieves of Gadgets. Photo shows us at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport yesterday. From left to right, that’s Jenalyn, me, John, David and Billy. Alex took the pic.

We’re looking forward to the different sessions, with topics ranging from Web 2.0; the Internet; CIO issues; fixed and wireless communications; and enterprise/network security.

On Friday night, we’ll also attend the MediaConnect Asia Technology Journalist Awards sponsored by Vignette. INQUIRER.net is a finalist in four categories.

More updates soon, as we’ll be blogging this event apart from writing articles and taking video clips for iVDO, our online video channel in partnership with Yahoo!

JUST wanted to share the good news: INQUIRER.net has made it to the finals of four categories in the regional MediaConnect Asia Technology Journalists Awards, which is organized by Singapore-based MediaConnect Asia and sponsored by Vignette.

INQUIRER.net is a finalist in the Best Technology Website category for its Technology channel, which is edited by INQUIRER.net executive editor and VP for Content Development Leo Magno.

Meanwhile, this blog, @play, is a finalist in the Best Technology Blog category.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

CHECK out the very first iVDO clip to be embedded on the INQUIRER.net homepage, courtesy of the new media manager system developed by our Tech team.

Stella Kim, president and CEO of South Korean firm O2 Media, which developed the popular O2Jam online music game published in the Philippines by IP e-Games, is pretty lucky indeed, heh She’s made history as the subject of this first embedded video, which I took while hackenslash reporter Alex Villafania interviewed her. To find out more about Kim’s visit, check out the hackenslash story.

It’s another milestone in our goal to help establish multimedia journalism in the Philippines. It hasn’t been that easy to gather all the pieces and integrate them, but we’ve come a long way in just a few months, including building a blog network and forging a partnership with Yahoo! for our iVDO online video service.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

I’M happy to announce that blogger Toni Platon-Tiu of Wifely Steps has agreed to blog for INQUIRER.net, and that we’ve launched her blog Happy Nest, which is all about positivity and the good things that can make your every day better.

Lord knows we could all use a dose of positivity, what with all the horrors and injustices we read about all the time. I’m not saying journalists should sugarcoat things — the truth should be the truth, no matter how bitter a pill it may be to swallow — but we also have to find a way to balance things. To take a break from the outrages we’re exposed to everyday. To show readers that not everything has to be tragic in order to be newsworthy.

Because the truth is that the world isn’t completely evil or hopeless. The truth is that a lot of good is happening out there. And people have to know about it.

[Read the rest of this entry »]