By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

NOW on its fourth year, the recently held iBlog blogging forum at the University of the Philippines Diliman Law Center showcased different aspects of blogging, with several bloggers serving as speakers.

Charo Nuguid, who maintains The Geekette Speaketh, gave first-time bloggers an overview of blogging, as well as resources where users can get tools that will get them into the social networking scene.

Controversial Australian blogger Brian Gorrell also made his presence felt in the event through a video blog that welcomed the participants. Gorrell emphasized the need for people to speak out their minds. However, he cautioned that while blogging can be a form of communication, bloggers will almost always receive flak from those who do not agree with certain missives. Nevertheless, Gorrell stressed that bloggers should continue with their craft.

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By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

FILIPINO bloggers and fans mobbed Filipino-American video blogger Christine “HappySlip” Gambito during a “meet and greet” event with local bloggers and fans.

More than 100 Filipino bloggers and fans came to the event held at the Mag:net Cafe on Bonifacio High Street in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. The event was organized by the Department of Tourism and Internet portal Yehey!

Local bloggers and fans were initially given a chance to ask several questions, which Gambito answered readily with a tinge of humor. She then gave each fan a chance to meet her up close. Among the fans who came were children.

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A GROUP of teachers will be talking about blogs as alternative tools for education.

The Bloggers Kapihan has invited two well-known teachers who use “old” and new tools of web publishing to extend learning beyond the classroom. Sharing their experiences are Martin Perez of the Philippine Science High School and Danny Arao of the Department of Journalism of the UP College of Mass Communications.

More details:

The BK Crew presents Bloggers’ Kapihan 2.0: Blog Ed 101. This time around, let us tackle the importance of blogging in learning, learning in blogging and blogging as a tool for alternative education. The event will be held on October 13, 2007, 1:30 p.m. at the Ramon Magsaysay High School in Quezon City.

Blog Ed 101 is in cooperation with the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), a nationwide network of educators from different schools, colleges and universities.

Tonchi Tinio, chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, will also dive into the controversial CyberEducation Project of the Department of Education during the event.

ONE of the things that struck me most while covering the Philippine Blog Awards Saturday night was the invocation of Fr. Stephen Cuyos, who is himself a blogger and podcast host.

At times as humorous as it was heartfelt, the good priest’s prayer was a timely reminder of our need to be responsible bloggers. Sure, we blog for different reasons, and as I’ve said many times, including in this blog post for CNET Asia, bloggers are not journalists, and journalists, even though we may blog, are journalists first, with different standards, different values, than bloggers.

This does not mean, however, that we cannot celebrate our differences, and learn from each other. Frankly, the danger I see now in everyone’s  mad rush to become bloggers, and of companies, politicians and other groups to court the favor of bloggers, is that people may no longer see the need for objectivity, or learn to distinguish press releases from real stories.

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HERE’S the list of Philippine Blog Awards winners in the major award categories:

Podcast – Happy Slip

Photo Blog – Senor Enrique

Fashion and Lifestyle – Bryanboy

Sports – Who Rides Vespa?

Business — Reflections of a BizDriven Life

News and Media — Inside PCIJ

Sociopolotical — Philippine Commentary

Home and Living — Wifely Steps

Entertainment — Retzwerk

Travel — Ivan About Town

Tech — Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments

Personal — Misteryosa.com

And the special category awards winners are:

• Far from Neutral for best blog design
• Kwentong Tambay for best OFW blog
• Blu3zin3 for best Free Custom Theme
• iPAP for best plugin/extension blog

Blogger’s Choice Award winner: Market Manila

HI, I’m a blog addict….

I just love saying that now that Pam Pastor has officially joined us. Welcome Pam.

Okay, the list of nominees for the main categories of the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards is out.

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GOT an e-mail from Janette Toral of Digital Filipino signaling the opening of the iBlog3 registration. For those unfamiliar with it, iBlog3 (the “3″ is because it is currently on its third year) is the yearly workshop series for the Filipino blogging community. If you are a casual or professional blogger and would like to learn, share and enjoy the company of other bloggers from around the Philippines, then iBlog is the place to be. iBlog3 is a free seminar by the way so there is really no reason why you should miss this.

iBlog3 will be held at the School of Economics Auditorium, in UP Diliman from April 13 to 14.

I will actually be giving a talk on professional blogging in the afternoon of the 14th so if you are interested in learning more about how exactly blogs are used to generate money, then do attend my talk. Last year’s iBlog was very memorable as it was a non-traditional way to meet people with similar interests (and end up scoring a date) as well as spreading and promoting your blog to other bloggers as a way of sharing the link love.

See you there!