4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit Part 2

The Summit proper was held on October 30, 2010 at Garden Orchid Hotel, Zamboanga City.

The lovely secretariat at the registration table.  At the far end is Mr. Ryann Elumba, Lead Convenor of the Summit, tinkering with his laptop.

The emcees (seated)  for the summit proper reviewing the program while waiting for it to start.

I like the dramatic effect of the stage.

Dance troupe from Zamboanga City who performed at the start of the program.

Some of the participants

The awarding of the winners of the 2010 Philippine Blog Awards Mindanao

The winners of the Philippine Blog Awards with their trophies.  Some of the awards were accepted in behalf of the winners who were not around.     Below are the winners :

                           Beauty and Fashion   :      Get Prettified 
                           Food and Beverage   :     Kusina ni Maria
                           Lifestyle                    :      Mindanaoan
                           Personal                   :      Ganda Ever So Much
                           Photoblog                 :      Charm Tamba Point & Shoot Photography
                           Technology               :      Alleba Blog   and   Something Geeky
                           Travel                       :     Gensan News Online Mag

 

The Iligan delegates with Ms. Aileen Apolo-de Jesus of Google Philippines and Mr. Juned Sonido

Ms. Aileen talked about what's new in Google and Blogger.com. After her talk, she gave away some Google items like t-shirts, keychains and ballpens. 

With Bobby Soriano of Tactical Technology Collective

Mr. Bobby discussed about internet security.  I think everybody got scared when he showed the slides with screenshots of websites opened by some participants in the room which he can also view in his laptop.   The participants forgot for a while about lunch as they ask questions on how to overcome or avoid your sites being seen by others.   Mr. Bobby said that to be safe, one has to convert from http to https or use Mozilla Firefox to browse the internet since it already has a built-in security system.  He also said not to use the same passwords for many accounts and  always log out from your account after using it.

With Arriane Serafico, staff of Senator TG Guingona

Ms. Arriane gave a presentation in behalf of Senator TG Guingona.   She talked about what Sen. Guingona think of blogging and bloggers.  So, what do Sen. Guingona like about bloggers?  Our transparency.  Our openness to engage.   Our creativity.    The Senator has been making steps in using New Media in his goal of reaching to the public and in letting people know what's going on in the senate.   Visit his video blog. 

With Jay Jaboneta of the Presidential Communications Operations Office

Mr. Jay discussed on the New Media's role in Pres. Aquino's Government.   The Aquino government have already started finding ways using the New Media in reaching out to the people and promoting transparency.  There will be 4 phases for the development of the New Media Infrastructure, namely :  Phase 1 - website, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Friendster, Multiply (August 2010);  Phase 2 - Text, Email, Citizens Concerns Website (November 2010);  Phase 3 - E-Serbisyo, Digital Partners (January 2011);  and Phase 4 - Open Government (July 2011).   

This is the first government that made use of the internet to reach its constituents.   I just hope that their endeavor would be a success and that the people will cooperate to bringing change and progress to the Philippines.  Progress cannot be achieved by just the government.  The effort should be hand-in-hand with the people. 

With Mae Paner, the Juana Change icon

Ms. Mae showed us her latest video which touched on the RH Bill controversy.   Juana Change has been making advocacy on change using video blogs.  You may check the Juana Change videos in Youtube. 

 

With Ryann Elumba, Lead Convenor of the 4th Summit

With Oliver "Blogie" Robillo, founder of the Mindanao Bloggers Community

at leftmost is Romar Amin, Food Critic Writer who incidentally is a Brother Mason of Pat, my husband

With the Zamboanga Bloggers - Charm Tamba, Grace Sojor, Yolynne Medina and Ryann Elumba

With the Davao couple bloggers - Ace and Kerslyn Nierva

With some of the bloggers from General Santos City and Ryan Nabi of Basilan City (rightmost)

A call for all bloggers in Mindanao by Mr. Romeo Montenegro of the Mindanao Development Authority

The participants may not have been that many but the summit turned out to be very successful because of the information  shared to the participants by the speakers.   The summit ended with a hope and inspiration for the Mindanao Bloggers.  That we are not alone.  The Mindanao bloggers should unite for a single cause - promote the beauty of Mindanao to the Philippines and the rest of the world.  

4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit Part 1

It is already the 4th edition of the Mindanao Bloggers Summit but it is my first time to attend such event.  It was held at Zamboanga City on October 29-31, 2010.   I didn't know what to expect from the event.  My boss just instructed me to attend and get some information we can use in Iligan.   On the first day, a Blogging Seminar was scheduled at Ateneo de Zamboanga University.  I was thinking this could just be an introduction to blogging, for beginners.   When we arrived at the venue, the seminar already started and most of the participants are students.   There were also a few teachers who attended.      

The first speaker was Ryann Z. Elumba, lead convenor of the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit.  He talked about what blogging is.     Some information I already know from my attendance to a blogging seminar in Manila last year.   I told myself, "yeah you know them already, but you are not applying it still."   And it made me smile and ask myself how many times do I need to attend seminars to be able to religious apply the techniques and religiously post in my blog.  So, I listened on.

 

After sir Ryann's lecture, he showed us a video of Ms. Janette Toral,  the author of Blogging from Home and www.DigitalFilipino.com   She was supposed to be one of the speakers but could not make it so she just sent a video giving her message to the participants.  

The second speaker was Ericson Alieto, a faculty member at Western Mindanao State University.  He discussed Blogging for Education. This topic was really new to me.   I was amazed to know that they already started using the blogging format in teaching their students.    They have found a way to motivate the students into acquiring knowledge, which for most of them are boring stuffs but when delivered in a different medium - the internet -  the students' interest to the subject changed.   They are now more responsive and more eager to learn and discuss.   While listening to the lecture of sir Eric, I thought of Iligan City and said, "is this teaching method already in our schools?".   I have to find out when I get home.   

The first speaker in the afternoon was Yolynne Medina of eLearning Centre, Inc.   Her topic was about "Conquering the Net in 140 characters" which is actually the use Twitter.  :-)   140 characters is the number of characters allowed when posting messages.   I could think of it as a cellphone- the old models which has a limit of 150 characters.     It was a short talk but an informative one specially for those who have not yet used Twitter or just started using it, like me. ;-)  And I like the way Yolynne presented it.   Simple yet catchy because of the graphics. 

The second speaker was Oliver "Blogie" Robillo from Davao City, founder of the Mindanao Bloggers Community created in 2007.   He talked about web publishing in Wordpress.   I have first learned of Wordpress last March 2009 when I attended a Problogging workshop in Manila with Abe Olandres.   I started creating my blog about Theory of Constraints in Iligan City using Wordpress.   But when I attended Jomar Hilario's internet marketing workshop in September 2009, I shifted to Blogger to try earning a semi-passive income since Wordpress does not support Google Adsense advertisements, but Blogger does.  :-)   Sorry po Sir Blogie, hehe.  

The second and last speaker was Avelmar Manansala from General Santos.  He talked about Place/Locality Blog.   This is a blog which focuses on promoting a locality, your own community.  In his case it is General Santos City.  His blog URL is www.GenSantos.com - GenSan's News Online Magazine.    He talked on how blogging has changed people's perspective of General Santos.   He  blogs on everything good happening to General Santos - new businesses, celebrities performing, the best food to eat, the best place to stay, etc.  And the biggest effect of blogging so far, is that General Santos (together with Cagayan de Oro and Davao City) has been excluded in the French, Japanese and Canadian Travel Advisories in June 2010.   Which made me think, Iligan City has to have those kind of blogs too since many are also hesitant to visit Iligan because of the peace and order situation in the neighboring communities.    So, my first project before the year ends is to improve the iligan tourism website which me and my husband has been currently developing.    

After a very inspiring talk from sir Avel, we had a photoshoot of the group - participants from Davao City, General Santos City, Iligan City and Zamboanga City.   We waited for the arrival of Ms. Aileen Apolo-de Jesus of Google Philippines and proceeded to a mini-city tour.    And that would be another post.  :-)