By Carlo S. Ople

I was just reading the latest articles on the recently concluded Anti Con-Ass rally on Inquirer.Net. According to the police, this rally had the lowest turnout, around 6,000 based on their estimates.

The organizers, on the other hand, claim that they had 13,000-15,000 warm bodies. You got to ask yourself the question: despite all the outrage this issue has generated, why only 15,000 people went to the streets?

I’m sure there are varied reasons but at the end of the day the measurement of success for events like this is the number of participants. Sadly 15,000 is not representative of the majority of the Filipino people and can easily be dismissed by the politicians pushing for Con Ass.

However, the good news is that on the Internet, we have almost double the number of the people who went to the rally sign up on the “Stop Con Ass Now” cause on Facebook. As of this writing, there are almost 28,000 sign-ups on the cause.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Anna Valmero

THE Filipino online community slammed the approval of House Bill 1109 that set up a constituent assembly (ConAss) that might allow the administration to stay in power beyond 2010.

The approval of HB 1109 on Tuesday midnight empowered Congress to convene itself into a Constituent aseembly, where members of the House and the Senate could vote jointly to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Filipino quickly jumped on the issue, as they launched an online website called No to Con-Ass!. Others linked to this site, as they included an online badge that said, “Have you no shame?”

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Carlo Ople*

(Editor’s note: re-posted from author’s blog http://newmedia.com.ph)

AS most of you probably know by now, the House of Representatives approved HR 1109, more commonly known as the Con Ass (Constituent Assembly) resolution. I’m pretty sure that the Senate will take this up with the Supreme Court to determine if what the House did was in accordance to our constitution. Anyway, I wanted to focus more on what was happening on Facebook while the hearing was going on. Several opposition congressmen were actually micro-blogging on Facebook! Imagine that, hahaha! I took some screen shots for your viewing pleasure. Check out what some of our congressmen said in Facebook after the break. [Read the rest of this entry »]

By Carlo Ople*

A lot of people used social media to condemn Hayden Kho for his actions, which eventually led to a full-blown Senate hearing (not that I’m agreeing that we should have a Senate hearing for a sex scandal). Now his supporters are relying on Social Media to support and defend him. I was given a link by a good friend through Yahoo Messenger. Apparently, someone made a blog called “Give Hayden a Chance“.

The first post entitled “Let’s give Hayden a chance“, already has 16 comments as of this writing. The site counter on the sidebar also shows that around 400+ people have already dropped by the site. I’m guessing that it’s only a matter of time before the hundreds become thousands then maybe even millions.

It’s a bit annoying and amazing that this issue has been completely blown out of proportion. I fully support the women… but a Senate hearing for a sex scandal? Shouldn’t we be paying more attention to Swine Flu and the fact that there are 14 confirmed cases already in the Philippines? I can understand social media going “gaga” over the Hayden scandals because it’s a human interest story but for institutions to go as far as they have… man!

Carlo Ople is the main author of New Media Philippines, a blog that aims to help Filipinos maximize and realize the potential of New Media. Apart from being a blogger, Carlo also serves as a Marketing Manager for one of the leading online gaming companies in the Philippines. He is also a freelance digital marketing consultant and has worked with various politicians and business owners expand their reach and influence through the use of social media.

Editor’s note: With the author’s permission, we’ve updated this entry to clarify some terms.

By Carlo S. Ople*

Over the past few weeks, there have been talks going around on what advertising agencies and marketers should expect from bloggers. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, and I think I have enough examples and put enough thought into this to publish it on this blog.

Companies who want to tap bloggers should be aware of the different kinds of bloggers. Not all bloggers can influence your target market, and not all of them can have the same level of interaction with their readers.

I’ve generally defined the types of bloggers into these 4 categories: Value, Hobby, Journal and Google. There’s a fifth type which I’ll share at the end of the post. Note that these categories can overlap, and in fact some of the best bloggers have stricken a balance on how to be all 4. However, these are rare bloggers. Most of the bloggers right now just fall to either 1 or 2 of these categories.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Niña Terol

(Editor’s note: Originally posted on author’s blog)

1. For writers and other creative souls, blogging is practice. Participants of my Freelance Writing for Dummies class know this: I cannot stress enough the importance of blogging, especially for an aspiring freelance writer. Blogging offers a free platform for writers and other creatives to test out their ideas, hone their writing style, explore various subject matters, and begin developing a relationship with an audience.

Writing is very serious work, and anyone who wants to become a writer—whether full-time or part-time—must treat it with utmost respect. It is a demanding art-craft that requires the reader’s full attention once the page is opened, so the writer must ensure that the written material is worth the ink, the space, and the reader’s time.

Blogging, then, is like the rehearsal before the actual performance. It allows the writer to flex those critical writing muscles and get into character so that once “real writing” is needed, the audience won’t be disappointed.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO–A schoolboy and his father have unleashed software that lets people listen to YouTube’s vast collection of music videos as if it were a private collection.

Muziic software created by 15-year-old David Nelson enables computers to mine YouTube’s rich database of songs and play customized lists of tunes free of charge.

“The Muziic player is a pretty cool little thing,” said analyst Matt Rosoff of technology industry tracking firm Directions On Microsoft.

“It looks and works a lot like iTunes in that it is a downloable desktop application; but you get all the content from YouTube. You have an all-in-one-place library of music for free.”

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

During the victory party of their movie, “When I Met U,” commercial model and actress KC Concepcion disclosed that she would be having her own website soon.

“I’m making my own website now. That would be my official website. I love blogging. Lahat ng nasa utak ko, makikita ng tao dun. [People will see what’s on my mind through that ],” the young actress says.

Concepcion says she began blogging when she was still a student.

She joined multiply.com in April 12, 2005 and collected 188 contacts cum friends. In her multiply site, she wrote, “hi… i have no myspace. no active facebook. no friendster. no blogspot. just this. a little island in cyberspace. hope you enjoy the ride.”

[Read the rest of this entry »]

Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

EXPRESSING oneself in this digital age comes in different forms. You have blogs and videos, for instance.

Tang Teazperiment is among those riding on the blogging and user-generated video trend, as it launched an online show that features flash mobs.

A flash mob describes a large group of people who suddenly assemble in a public place to perform an odd action for a brief period, then they disperse.

“With the new media, teens can express themselves internationally,” says Ketchup Eusebio, host of Teazperiment.

“It’s such a relief for students because they don’t need connections with any media outfit but just their laptops and the Internet,” adds Andi Manzano, co-host Teazperiment.

The term flash mob was unknown until Harper’s Magazine Senior Editor Bill Wasik published an article on March 2006. Wasik began organizing flash mobs in May 2003 in Manhattan through social media networks or via email.

Cindy Abella, brand manager of Tang Fruit Teaz, said the show is a competition open to anyone who may want to submit video clips apart from the seven participating organizations in this project.

“Teazperiment is about channeling one’s boredom into something creative,” says Abella.

Seven school organizations from the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Trinity College, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, San Sebastian College, La Consolacion College and Far Eastern University-FERN have already submitted video clips, which will be judged by viewers.

Under the organization category, the video with the highest number of votes from the viewers would win P50,000. On the other hand, the top three videos from individual submissions would be rewarded an Xbox game console and a Rockband game (first prize), three Asus laptops (second prize), and Nokia cellphones (third prize).

The voting period for the organization category ends in March while voting for individual submissions ends in May.

In this week’s Talk of the Town (for both print and online), you will find an article I wrote about the social networking phenomenon. This issue also highlights the top 10 social networks (but there’s a disclaimer there that says the list changes depending on the source of the information) and the steps on opening a Facebook account.

Here’s an excerpt of the article:

JUST a few years ago, you could hear people say, “Call me” when they want to keep in touch. Later, it evolved into “E-mail me,” and with the explosion of mobile phones, “Text me.”

Thanks to the Internet, people are now connecting and interacting with friends and family through online social networks.

Just to give you an idea how big social networks are, MySpace has over 184.1 million members, according to “5 Facts about Social Networking Sites” published by Pipl website, an online search engine for people.

P.S. Just as I was writing this blog entry, I received some feedback about the top 10 social networks. They were asking why Multiply.com was not there in the list. Apparently, Multiply.com might be big in the Philippines, just like Friendster, but worldwide, it is not. Here’s one list, which I found very useful and informative. This list also provides a different picture.

What about you, what do you think are the top social networking sites out there?