THANKS to HappySlip, the US-based Filipino-American video blogger, the Philippine Department of the Tourism (DOT) has recently been awarded the Grand Bronze Anvil Award and the Anvil Award of Excellence.

The DOT launched its online public relations marketing program to reach out to Americans to visit the Philippines, according to Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano in a statement.

The Grand Bronze Anvil Award is given to the most outstanding public relations tool designed and implemented during a year, in this case, in 2008.

“I am very pleased that our venture into Internet marketing and PR to reach and invite thousands of North Americans to visit the Philippines is once again recognized by the country’s PR industry,” Durano said.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

If you’re a Facebook addict just like me, you’ve probably seen this already:

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Okay, I’m not that addicted to Facebook to join the virtual mob against moves to change the privacy terms of this popular social network. But some of the 175 million subscribers are up in arms, including tech expert Leo Laporte. (One of his more recent tweets declare: Facebook backs down. Put down the pitchforks and call off the rabble. http://bit.ly/zM1gy).

So what’s this fuss all about and why are people against this new privacy policy.

In a blog, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explains:

Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now. It will reflect the principles I described yesterday around how people share and control their information, and it will be written clearly in language everyone can understand. Since this will be the governing document that we’ll all live by, Facebook users will have a lot of input in crafting these terms.

You have my commitment that we’ll do all of these things, but in order to do them right it will take a little bit of time. We expect to complete this in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we’ve changed the terms back to what existed before the February 4th change, which was what most people asked us for and was the recommendation of the outside experts we consulted.

Actually, you can be part of the writing of this new privacy policy, which Facebook calls the Bills of Rights and Responsibilities. Go check it out.

Witnesses have quickly posted a video of the plane crash in Buffalo, New York.

Here’s one of the video clips posted on YouTube by user SpikeTheCowboy711 who lives in Buffalo, New York.

Excerpt of the details of the crash:

NEW YORK — (UPDATE) US media reports say 49 people were killed when a commercial plane crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York.

Officials told reporters several people were killed, including one on the ground, but declined to confirm reports that all 48 people on board the plane were killed.

US media reported the Continental Airlines plane was arriving from Newark, New Jersey before crashing some eight kilometers from the airport.

MSNBC said the plane hit the home and burst into flames at 10:10 pm (0310 GMT).

CNN showed burning wreckage in the center of a residential neighborhood and reported that two people were taken to a local hospital.

Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO—Compete.com has crowned Facebook the most popular social networking website, saying it racked-up nearly 1.2 billion visits in January.

The Internet-tracking firm released social-networking website rankings that show MySpace slipped to second place during the course of the past year while micro-blogging service Twitter catapulted to third place from 22nd.

News Corp-owned MySpace saw approximately 810 million visits in January, while Twitter was visited 54.2 million times, according to Compete.

“No surprise here,” a Compete reader using the online name Bauer said in a comment viewable Wednesday at a chat forum at the US firm’s website.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

IN the spirit of the upcoming Valentine’s Day, we’re giving you a chance to say it out loud, why do you love to blog? What compelled you to blog? What keeps you from blogging? Declare your love for blogs.

Fire away!

Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO–A service that targets Twitter users for marketing messages is reining in spammers as advertisers strive to take advantage of the popular micro-blogging network.

TwitterHawk is limiting marketers to sending only a single message each to any particular Twitter user every six hours, according to a message at the firm’s website on Monday.

TwitterHawk runs a service that scours Twitter messages for key words and then fires off missives that are essentially advertisements targeted in a manner similar to Google matching online ads to search queries.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

Filipino bloggers are now picking up Filipino songwriter Gary Granada’s recorded complaint against GMA Kapuso Foundation, which he accuses of allegedly using his study without his permission.

A blog called “Ang Kape Ni LaTtex,” says Granada’s recorded complaint has been making the rounds via blogs, Plurk, Twitter and e-mail. The blog says:

In a nutshell, Mr. Granada, a noted Filipino singer-composer, voiced his sentiments against GMA Kapuso Foundation, regarding a jingle that he composed music for. According to Mr. Granada, GMA rejected his study for the jingle, but allegedly used his revisions for the lyrics (which was provided to him by GMA), and based the final tune on the musical structure of his study, all without attribution or pay. It would be best that you listen to the audio cast and hear it in detail and come up with your own opinions regarding the issue.

What makes this audiocast special, however, is the extent of Mr. Granada’s use of New Media — or, “Web two point oh” — to detail his complaint, in a totally unprecedented manner, and against Mainstream Media to boot!

Filipinovoices blog has also picked up on the issue.

Rarely do we ever write about the music industry here at FV, but this specific case will be an exception, only because this is a case of an entire media company denying a wrong that it has done, especially to a very talented composer like Gary Granada.

Songwriter and Composer, Gary Granada, was given lyrics which he was supposed to translate into music. This music would ultimately be used by GMA for a Kapuso foundation media campaign. But, GMA ended up not using Gary Granada, but it seems that they used his musical creation in the end, and basically ditched Gary and gave him nothing at all, not even a claim on the work itself, because as GMA says, Gary’s work was a “collective” work.

Ang Kape ni LatTex notes that Granada’s complaint is “totally unprecedented” because of the use of the Internet to air his sentiments.

What makes this audiocast special, however, is the extent of Mr. Granada’s use of New Media — or, “Web two point oh” — to detail his complaint, in a totally unprecedented manner, and against Mainstream Media to boot!

In the audiocast, he included a clip of his original study, the final product, and a detailed explanation on the musical structure of both, including the musical theory behind his gripes and a re-rendered tune comprising of his accompaniment and the tune used in the final cut of the jingle. To say that Mr. Granada maximized new media to explain his side is an understatement — he clearly understood that this is the best possible way to make people understand the situation in its fullest extent.

By Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON–TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington announced Wednesday he is taking a break from writing for his influential technology blog after being spat on at a conference and getting death threats.

Writing on techcrunch.com, Arrington, 38, said an unidentified man “walked up to me and quite deliberately spat in my face” on Tuesday at the Digital, Life, Design conference he was attending in Munich, Germany.

“In the past I’ve been grabbed, pulled, shoved and otherwise abused at events, but never spat on,” Arrington said. “I think this is where I’m going to draw a line.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

REALIZING the power of blogging to disseminate information, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is tapping the Elections Education and Information Department (EID)’s blog to give updates on the ongoing voters’ registration.

“Now that we have the technology available and stable, the Comelec will use the bagongbotante.ph blog website to give voters here and abroad updates about the ongoing registration and at the same time, to gather feedback from voters, especially the youth,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

Jimenez said the Comelec aims to educate the youth on how registration is being conducted in the National Capital Region and to encourage them to register as voters.

“Unlike before when technology is unavailable to us and blogging is a domain for hobbyists and experts, now is the right time–when we have access to technology and blog systems are more stable–to fully utilize the power of blogging to encourage Filipinos to register and exercise their rights of suffrage,” said Jimenez.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

This case about Quezon City Science High school students supposedly criticizing their school’s policies through their blogs brings to mind issues of freedom of expression and responsibility.

Based on earlier reports, these four students blogged about certain policies they deemed “unfair.” For that, they were suspended. As one student recalled:

“It’s not true that there was due process. We were asked to submit letters of apology and we thought that was it. Next thing we knew, we were suspended for ten days,” he added.

The school reportedly submitted a recommendation that the four students be suspended for 10 days, which was later approved by the Department of Education’s division. Later –or after news about the suspension of these students was picked up by media, the DepEd revoked the suspension and ordered an investigation.

When I was still in high school, it was unthinkable to criticize school policies. We do discuss about such things. But they were all done privately among us, students. Back then, there was no Internet to speak of. No blogs. No social networks.

Today, it’s quite different, as some teachers and college professors I have talked to attest. Yes, some teachers know that students blog and that they are now more vocal about their feelings about school policies, subjects, and even the teachers themselves. Some teachers may find this “inappropriate.” But others chose to tolerate it.

Question is: what can teachers/principals/school official tolerate?

Based on this report, the students claim they were not given due process when they were suspended. Also, they claim that the blogs were “private,” meaning only “friends” have access to it.

The report indicates that the students’ blogs were allegedly critical of the school principal, Dr. Zenaida Sadsad.

At this point, it’s hard to say whether or not the school was right in suspending these students. Students do have the right to express what they feel, but since they were done “privately” albeit through the Internet (think of discussions in a private mailing list that are posted in a public list), are they answerable to the school?

On the flipside, it is also apt to ask whether or not these students have gone beyond merely venting their feelings to the point of already maligning persons involved.

What do you think?