I rarely ramble, but here are a few things that have been on my mind lately.
1. We need more valuable and diverse local web property. All I see are blogs, forums and micro sites. It would be nice to venture into original and useful properties to build value. But then again, it might be the culture as well.
2. I think it’s silly that a number of bloggers bear some sense of enmity with journalists in general. It’s not about what medium you write in, it’s who you are that makes you. Just because it’s “new media” doesn’t make journalism “old media.” A little respect would go a long way. We’re all more closely intertwined than you think. So are bloggers better..? Again, it’s about what you do. Can’t we just quit it and learn from each other?
3. I think know that IPTV or Internet television is going to make bigger waves in 2009. Smaller area for penetration, higher quality control for content. And the ironic thing is that it won’t be snowballed by television networks.
4. I have another big hunch that we’ll be seeing less of “Make Money Online” in 2009 and more of “Make Meaning Online.”
5. Arise, local venture capitalist to fund new media projects!
I abandoned myself to certain realities when I was a lot younger. That first, in order to keep to a certain lifestyle, a job in education would definitely be noble, but not practical. I was young and restless. Second, I believed in the philosophy that you can’t teach what you don’t know and being a fresh grad with barely any experience in worldly things would pale me in comparison to Richard Dreyfuss (who bares a startling resemblance to Rico’s dad) in Mr. Holland’s Opus or Robin “O Captain! My Captain!” Williams in Dead Poet’s Society.
So after college, I had in my arsenal a whole bunch of theories on andragogy (adult learning), child psychology, “best practices” and teaching philosphy. I was envious of friends who worked for the big agencies like Ogilvy, the McCann group, BBDO, etc. It was then I began to doubt having taken the wrong course. Deep inside though, I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe not entirely. But I guess being hard headed (dalawa ang puyo ko) I wanted to convince myself that I was right.
Steve Jobs, in his “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” 2005 commencement speech addressed how past decisions will only, but always, make perfect sense much later on, …you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future..
So I trusted. I gave up Integrated Marketing Communications for a Development Education course. I gave up working in PR or advertising so I could do some work in Batangas with farmers and in Negros Occidental Oriental for a family farm school, not to teach, but to develop curricula. (Hyuk) I guess the joke’s on me as I’ve wounded back working with agencies for PR and advertising.
And my units in Education? Well, this letter only proves one thing.
That Steve Jobs was right. 
