Bisaya Bloggers

The get-together of DigitalFilipino.com Club members and Davao’s IT professionals last 14 May 2008 at Casa Leticia was an eye-opener for many first-timers. There were more than 30 Dabawenyos who attended, most of whom were, before then, uninitiated into this different sort of organization. Janette Toral, initiator and representative of the Club, was delighted to see so many attend the event.

The DigitalFilipino.com Club is a nationwide association of e-commerce practitioners and enthusiasts, IT professionals and companies. It is a business organization, in that its focus is on how to maximize Filipino talent in bringing success to members’ businesses. I have been a member for several years now, and I have directly benefited from my membership. Twice already I have closed business deals with other members, thanks to the networking activities that the Club constantly conducts.

Members get access to valuable research material, the Club’s extensive knowledge base, and the chance to network with entrepreneurs and corporate members.

The meet-up last 14 May was the third leg of Janette’s three-city roadshow. According to her, compared to the ones in Manila and Cebu, the Davao event had the best attendance and participation. In Davao, there are only a handful of members — but hopefully this will change in the coming weeks.

The format of the event was simple and straightforward: a presentation by Janette (which doubled as an update of sorts for Davao-based members), and then a report by yours truly on upcoming IT-related activities. Attendees were also given the chance to introduce themselves and their companies. For the more aggressive, it was an opportunity to let everyone know about their products and services.

Fred Nadela of Brokenshire College, Maria Jose of Apex Innovators, and Bert Barriga, representing one of the newest software development houses here, were some of those who enthusiastically apprised us of the latest developments in their respective companies. Lizabel Holganza of MTC Academy, and president of ICT Davao Inc., announced upcoming events that relate to the IT industry. Janette remarked that the Davao attendees were wonderfully participative.

After the presentations, everybody got the chance to catch up with colleagues and meet new ones. I’m pleased to report that I was able to observe quite a few business deals being initiated during the informal networking session.

We are already planning on a follow-up meeting for Davao members and candidates in August. Hopefully, more Dabawenyos will decide to join the DigitalFilipino.com Club. For information on this, please feel free to contact me, or visit www.e-commercephilippines.com for more information.

After a long spell of being away from Davao, leading e-commerce advocate Janette Toral will be back in town for a long-awaited “eyeball” of DigitalFilipino Club members. In particular, the upcoming event will be the Davao E-Commerce and E-Business Owners Meet-Up, on 14 May 2008 (Wednesday).

Here’s the official press release:

The DigitalFilipino.com Club is organizing a networking event where e-business and e-commerce industry players can catch up and exchange updates in the industry.

Who can attend?
Anyone interested in e-commerce or e-business (entrepreneurs, business/technical decision makers, ad agencies, media advertisers, Internet marketers, payment gateway service providers, bloggers, web developers, web designers, Internet and e-commerce trainers / instructors) are more than welcome to attend.

Why attend?
Meeting local e-commerce entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, service providers, online movers and shakers. Let’s network for fun and professional purposes. Talk about developments in the industry. Any excuse to meet like-minded people on a Wednesday late afternoon.

If you’re interested to know more of the digital world and e-commerce, join us! For more information, please send me a message via my contact form.

I am inviting all bloggers, especially those who are from Mindanao, to submit your nominations for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008. The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs is an initiative of Miss Janette Toral of the Digital Filipino Club.  The project, which started last year, aims to recognize ten new outstanding blogs who [...]

Not that I’m naïve, but it was a shock when I saw what results come out on Google when you do an image search for “Filipina”. I’ve been encouraging my friends to join Janette Toral’s “Filipina” Writing Project, and one of them showed me the current Google image search results. To put it very lightly, I was utterly dismayed. I don’t even want to describe it here, for fear of adding to the already negative connotation of the keyword.

The “Filipina” Writing Project aims to debunk the current search results associated with the keyword “Filipina” coming out of major Internet search engines. By generating more positive content related to this keyword, and via the pervasive effects of good SEO techniques, the Project hopes to spread an improved — and true — image of the Filipino woman. (more…)

Blogger Jayvee Fernandez caused quite a ruckus in several Philippine blogs recently when he accused Janette Toral of “misrepresenting the Philippine blogosphere” for her own merit.

Clueless that I was, the first person I asked, via IM, about Jayvee’s “Bloggers, MISrepresent” post was Janette. She then told me that she suspected that she was the subject of the post. The two, it seems, have now settled the issue. Disclaimer: Janette writes a weekly column for the newspaper I work for but I do not deal with her.

I will not deal with Jayvee’s criticisms of Janette’s presentation. But I don’t think his criticisms are enough to support his allegation that Janette misrepresented “the Philippine blogosphere.”

But a core issue in the whole exchange is something that I feel strongly against. Some people have this unfortunate tendency to box blogging–and the people who practice the craft–in.

Bloggers, including Filipinos, are a varied lot. We’re not a clone army.

Some make a living off their blogs, others don’t. Some are journalists who blog, others are bloggers who are now also journalists. Some blog to get laid, others get laid off because of blogging. Some are atheists, others are devoutly religious. Some use WordPress, others Blogger, Multiply, Serendipity, etc. Some are link whores, others are plain whores (and I love them for it). Some are good cooks, others are kitchen disasters waiting to happen.

To represent such a diverse group of people, you need to have an extreme case of schizophrenia.

(more…)