ICT 2007 Keynote Speech

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 26th, 2007

Below is the keynote delivered by General Serge Remonde on behalf of President GMA. I typed the whole thing from hard copy. Interesting things to note would be the mention of Bayanihan Linux rollout, the eLibrary project and the information network via an open exchange network via the Internet.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is unale to join us today. She has sent me instead to give the foreign delegates a warm welcome to the Philippines and to the Filipino entrepreneurs her deepest appreciation for furthering the growth and development of ICT in the Philippines, in the following message. – PMS Director General Serge Remonde
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SM Hypermart: 100 Bloggers Eating Simultaneously!!!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 19th, 2007

I’ve been asked to act as one of the food marshals for a big blogger event in July. Here are the details:

WHO: Bloggers of all ages and sizes
WHAT: SM Hypermarket Invites Bloggers to get a “Taste of Asia”
WHEN: July 3 2007 7:00PM
WHERE: Taste Asia, SM Mall of Asia

To join just leave a comment on this blog or over here and we will gladly accommodate you.

To view the updated list of registrants, please visit this page.

As an aside, the event marshals were classified by blog niche. I really found it shocking revealing how our Google country representative classified my blog as a “lifestyle blog” (as opposed to tech) based on the contextual advertising that was being generated on my sidebar. A Bugged Life is a lifestyle blog. I have a life after all.

Only in the Philippines!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 12th, 2007

Postcard Text: Executioner at the turn of the century

Today, the Philippines celebrates Independence Day. A bunch of blogger friends decided to start a meme with the peculiar postcard in question. We found this postcard thanks to Juned (read: most cultured blogger in the PH!!!) who invited a couple of us over for his birthday celebration over the weekend.

The postcard is a (hilariously) shocking microcosm of the Philippines in the early 1900′s as a port city that was subject to different cultures including occupation by the Americans, the Spanish and the Japanese. We achieved independence in 1898, but lost a lot of cultural Manila – Intramuros particularly, because most of it was sacked. A lot of history books say the Philippines and the native Filipinos were short changed, and that our freedom was given for free, since there was a steep price that other countries didn’t want to take responsibility for – which included rebuilding Manila. Even at this time, Filipinos sure knew how to take things lightly.

Obviously this was a gag photo. The real would have been on a scaffold with Guardia Civils on each corner. Some historical trivia, the orginal garotte used to execute Padre Burgos. Gomez, and Zamora survived until it was burned to cinder during a fire, sometime between WWII and the EDSA Revolution. — Juned

Here are the guidelines:
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We are all teachers

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 10th, 2007

A few posts back I talked about certain events that led to my demise as a geek, thus closing some doors, albeit temporarily, to my fabulous musical career.

I will share a little bit more about my personal life zeroing in on my passion as an educator, as people have wondered why I never took a communications or arts course in college. I graduated college with a course in Development Education, sort of like a mix between development studies and a full-fledged education course. It was a course designed to train you with skills in the craft of teaching, the psychology of learning, andragogy (‘how adults learn’) and a little bit of organizational development.
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Regie Pablo of Globe Telecommunications Summits Mt. Everest

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 7th, 2007

I’m currently at Circles Buffet at Shangrila Makati attending a press conference for Regie Pablog of Globe Telecommunications, who was the 7th Filipino to summit Mt. Everest and plant the Philippine flag (as well as the Globe flag and Globe Visibility access point) onto Mt. Everest. This is another great mark for the Filipino people!

Here is a short fact sheet:
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Where are the car bloggers?

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 4th, 2007

And a voice cries out from the Web 2.0 wilderness .. “Where are the auto enthusiast bloggers?”

Technology, entertainment, politics, religion, fashion, pets, and even support groups — we’ve got them niches covered in the Philippine blogosphere. Now I thought we got them all covered, but I had an epiphany a few days ago after posting this particular press event on Blog and Soul.

There were some who were interested to attend but attending an automobile press conference did not spike the same interest in terms of response as say, a technology or food event. This is funny too because we have a huge online motorcycle community as well as a number of Vespa bloggers. More interestingly too that Filipinos are all hot about cars and car parts. Are there no dedicated car bloggers around? And if there are, why aren’t they well known as compared to the traditional media equivalent as C!, Evo, Tech and Tuner and Top Gear?

Afterthoughts from the geek cocktails at m:cafe

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at June 1st, 2007

Thanks to the heads up from MIgs as well as an invite from Clair Ching, I was able to attend a geek social at the m:cafe last night. Sponsoring the evening was Exist Software Engineering Chairman Winston Damarillo with friends from the software industry. Aside from meeting great people, I validated my theory on the geek hierarchy. Being among the “geek elite” where most of them were programmers software engineers, I was able to touch base with some of the more prominent names in the software and technology industry.
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Geek Chorus Convenes on Friday June 1 2007

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 31st, 2007

The Geek Chorus will be having its first general assembly this Friday, June 1 2007, 7:00PM at mag:net cafe, Bonifacio High Street. As this will be the first geeks of the round table meet up, salient points of geekdom shall be discussed such as the discourse of action to be taken in the next several weeks until the culmination of the first year anniversary, namely the construction of a working siege weapon.

If you are interested in helping out in the activities listed, do come to this meeting.

Migs Paraz has questions. I have answers.

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 29th, 2007

Here is a short interview from Migs Paraz. This is a tagged post from him. If you want me to send you my set of five interview questions, just leave a comment expressing your interest.

About the Mac. I’m having Mac Envy. Give me a good reason not to get a Mac. OS X’s Safari doesn’t render post quicktags in the WordPress dashboard. You can install Windows and it will become prone to viruses.

About blogging. It’s your advocacy. What’s the strangest experience that blogging has brought you? A number of companies “monitor” my blog. When I go to press events, I feel a cold shudder running down my spine as I write “Jayvee from A Bugged Life.” It’s all good really. It is a little disconcerting but at the same time flattering to be on the phone with a PR agency and the first thing they say is “hey we were just with [name of client here] and they said they read your blog.” The strangest experience is when people find out my online persona is cooler than my real life

About your cellphone blog: what’s the favorite cellphone you’ve owned? I never really had a favorite. I guess with all the phones I’ve owned, they each had a special place in my heart with different strengths and weaknesses. I guess I treat them all like my children – I did my best with all of them. Contrary to what people think, although I’m a geek, I only change phones once every two years as SMART gives away a free phone depending on your retention plan. No questions asked.

About new media. Which media mogul (past or present) would you like to trade places with? Chris Anderson, editor in chief of WIRED and author of The Long Tail. I’ve learned to put up a virtual board of directors to help run my life. Borrowing principles and attitudes from different people in my preferred industry helps me keep a smiling face, a positive outlook and one hand in my pocket. Chris is a brilliant editor, having steered WIRED to become something like the NatGeo of tech. And that Long Tail book. Oh don’t get me started on that. I can go on and on.

About people. Who’s the most interesting blog celebrity you’re met or communicated with online? There are so many, but Darren Rowse of Problogger leaves a good impression on me. My relationship with Darren has many levels. First, I was a fan of his blog ever since 2006. Second, he is technically my boss at b5media and I sometimes ping him on Skype to clarify work-related stuff. But among all these times, Darren has what I like calling a “unity of life” where how he is on his blog is exactly the same way he is in chat, in his internal podcasts and in the forums. It’s something I admire because it spells a genuine and sincere character.

Juned asked to be tagged. This is my interview with him. Riz Sanchez also answered my questions to her dismay! My interview questions are very thought provoking.

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

On posting press releases on your blog

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 28th, 2007

Nope. You aren’t required to write about the media events you go to. There was no obligation to in the first place, but of course it would be nice if you did. I guess in traditional publishing, writing an article or including a press release would have more to do with having real estate space for that sort of thing or it also would have to do with “sucking up” to a client (the sad case in Philippine media) …

In fact, this “non requirement” was reinforced with insights from a publicist friend who finds it an embarrassing practice to follow up TV, radio, and print media companies because it sounds too much like a hard sell, and on a personal level, downright annoying to the editorial team. You end up sounding like a wet market vendor or a stock broker at his game (not that I have anything against stock brokers or vendors). Going this far may even destroy sincere relationships, as they may have been made under false pretenses.

I like writing about the events I attend because it helps in the long tail end of things. Certain keywords are added to my site which I otherwise would not even have if I didn’t go to the event. Since blogs have unlimited real estate anyway and the cost of one post is really more about time spent writing, I say go and write about that fantastic event you went to.

Posting a block quoted press release isn’t the nicest of things to do though. It shows, a least for me, that the event wasn’t so great as it took someone else’s copywriting skills to create a canned writeup of the event. Press releases are tools for information and quality control, especially in print. But this is a blog, and being so, a free-er environment to express your thoughts about events that you attended.

Blog and Soul Event tomorrow

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 21st, 2007

As of 8:08 PM Monday, the Blog and Soul Movement has space for six more bloggers for the Nike event tomorrow. Nike has excitedly extended the invitation to a total of ten bloggers from five.

Hi there! Do come and join us tomorrow as we launch our partnership and new ad campaign for Nike-Team Pilipinas! =) We will not only give you all one hell of a good time but we will also be giving away limited number of Nike-Team Pilipinas dog tags for our blogger friends! =)

Sign up here.