racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

When Abe Olandres was appointed to the helm of the blog herald and subsequently took me in to help with management (long story—you can email me if you want to learn about it), several fellow Filipino bloggers lauded it as an accomplishment. Some considered it a “Filipino takeover” of the blogosphere. In fact, it was even covered by Inq7 on its tech pages, which is a big thing, considering inq7 is among the most popular of Philippine sites. Coverage in inq7 spikes up traffic, and is akin to being DUGG frontpage (though not on such a massive scale).

Why the fuss? We didn’t even purchase the Blog Herald ourselves. (Don’t ask me how much the purchase price was. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.) We were merely trusted enough by the new set of owners to manage editorial, marketing, and technical aspects of the blog.

Still, this is a big deal, in my opinion. It’s an accomplishment not only for Abe and myself. It’s another feather on the caps of the Pinoy Blogger—and I mean this as a collective. By this I mean it’s not by far the only accomplishment that Filipino bloggers have achieved in the international realm that is the blogosphere. There have been many others before us.

Let me point you to Abe’s recent post about 2007 as the year of the Pinoy Blogger.

See, when I took the position over at Blog Herald, there was quite a mix of ruckus and excitement. It was in the news (well, our news) and some people were asking me why there was so much excitement in our little part of the world about the development.

I explained that our generation (i.e. Filipinos) have become known around the globe as any of of these types of people—domestic helper, nurses, sea men, care-giver, or call center agents. In short, we’re looked down by most as cheap 3rd-world laborers. I have aunts that are working as nurses in the US for decades, uncles, cousins on a cargo ship at sea, relatives who are domestic helpers (OFW is the proper term) in Singapore; HK, older cousins who graduated as nurses but ended up as care-givers in UK and even more younger cousins who are now waiting for their Nursing Boars exam results. So, a fellow Filipino taking over a top position in a pre-dominantly western niche is real news.

It’s in response to Joey Alarilla’s article on inq7 about a media revolution in the Philippines not happening in mainstream, mass media, but in new media—particularly the blogosphere.

I donit think it’s sensationalistic to say that Filipinos are taking over. At the risk of using a horrid cliche, I believe we are now seeing the tipping point for Filipino presence in the blogosphere. This is another arena where Filipinos can compete globally—and succeed.

One point that I didn’t elaborate on in my CNET Asia post is that the Filipino bloggers I cited are all based in the Philippines, which is significant given the brain drain and the feeling of our countrymen that they have no choice but to seek greener pastures abroad.

Knowledge is Power

It’s all about redistribution of capital. Arguably, most of the worldis riches in terms of financial resources still lies in the hands of the developed countries, the first world—mostly the west (I am an economist, yet I speak in terms of “first world” and such, even though they’re considered obsolete). However, in this Information Age, the foremost capital is Knowledge (with a big K). And arguably, we Filipinos—and others in developing economies—are every bit as capable as those in the developed world to develop this new capital.

I say redistribution, because we suddenly find ourselves capable of wielding this new power, wherein previously one would require material possessions and riches to be considered powerful. Knowledge is, after all, something that you don’t need machines to produce nor dig deep underground into, nor use heavy machinery to forge. Knowledge itself, is that that creates value and even material wealth for the enjoyment of people.

Of course, it is something that also has to be developed and nurtured (and need I say how important a good education system is?). And successful blogging is an offshoot of having the adequate skills and knowledge—the ability to think critically, and the ability to communicate effectively.

For now, I’m thankful that I belong to these exciting times.

So does 2007 hold good promise for the Filipino Blogger? Well, I do hope so! And Iim going to do my part to make sure of that.

Things sure happen fast. After my post about higher resolution satellite imagery available for Metro Manila, I got in touch with my colleague, j4s0n, to brainstorm on what we could possibly do with such a development. Just a few days later (about half a day’s worth of work perhaps), he announces his latest Web app, Pinoy Locator.

The concept is simple. Find where you are on the map (or satellite imagery, in the case of the Philippines) and post your shout-out. These are then collected and presented as those cutesy push-pins on Google Maps that pop up messages when you click them.

It’s still a very basic means of using Google Maps to pinpoint one’s location, or even geo-tagging establishments and landmarks, but it’s a good start. As I wrote on PinoyTechBlog,

If you ask me, this could be a good precursor to a contributor-driven directory of places in the Philippines. For now, such geo-data is available, but commercially (meaning you can have it but you have to pay for it). Of course, there’s the issue of accuracy and filtering mechanisms. One problem with Web 2.0 is having too much trust on the user (even if systems can be gamed, after all). But hey, for a country that Google forgot when it put up vector and geo data online with Google Maps, something like pinoylocator is a good start.

So do try it out. Here’s where I live—approximately, at least (lest I get pestered by stalkers). People have been tagging establishments and other landmarks such as malls, rivers, and the like, and it’s great to see the map being filled up with useful stuff. Please feel free to tag your location, too, and even your favorite places.

Maybe we can build up a database of geo-tagged places this way so we can start with a true iBegin or LocalBrit type of Web app. I’ve really been itching to have a more usable and functional version of Clickthecity—I mean, it has good content and comprehensive information on a lot of places but I can’t see them on the map! And what about mapcentral? It has lots of information, too, but the interface leaves much to be desired.

Hey, does anyone have vector or geo-data you would like to share (or perhaps even sell)?

I’ve been making teasers and pitches on our offer for free .com.ph domains for Filipino bloggers. Well, it’s all about establishing our own Philippine ccTLD as an ideal place to be for Pinoys, and we would be shelling out our own funds just for this.

What’s the catch, you say? Well, nothing much, really—we just ask you to be active at blogging. We don’t even intend to monetize the domains, at least in the short term. Let’s just put it this way. Domains (and TLDs) are like real estate. You develop them and the value grows over time—not only the value of the specific xxx.com.ph domain, but of the com.ph namespace itself. I think you’d be pretty tech-savvy enough to understand these concepts (especially since you’re reading my blog!) by now.

Recently, I’ve been explaining that the .com.ph domain and web hosting would be free for at least a year. People have been picking up on the idea (i.e., Manuel, Yuga, Erwin, Raymond) and some are quite concerned about sustainability and continuum, in that a user might be expected to pay up in the second year. Let me clarify that it would be for at least a year, and the deal will not necessarily end there.

So actually there is a small catch, but it’s not really a condition wherein we will be asking for you to give us something in return. The only condition is that the recipient would be using the domain actively—that is, you would continue to actively blog on the com.ph domain given to you (say, a couple of times a week would be great, but there’s really no set frequency or number of postings). In that case, we will continue to provide domain and hosting for free, for as long as the sites are active (I’m going on record on this)!

I’ve already got a handful of inquiries. If you are interested, please do send me an email at jangelo (at) racoma (dot) net (yes, .com.ph will work, too) with your blog URL and a few summary stats, such as how long you’ve been blogging, and your uniques, visits, and pageviews for the past couple of months—we’re interested in knowing a bit more about your blogs and blogging activity, of course.

Update: Check out this post for further details. We’re just about to set up the initial set of bloggers. If you’re interested, again, do send me an email.