Filipino writers go blogging to draw readers in

Sept. 16- I attended the Pistang Panitik lecture at the SMX beside Mall of Asia. Present were Filipino writer/bloggers Marnes Kilates, Dean Alfar, Vlad Gonzales and Sonny Villafania.

This happened within the event Manila International Book Fair (already on its 29th year). There were at least fifteen people who attended the lecture. It was basically meant to let people know that some of our Filipino writers have happily found a kind of second space for their writings, no longer bound by the question of where to put their writings when there are no available publishers around. For Dean Alfar, blogging, he said, reacquainted him with his writing gift, having had to set aside his creative guns to work for an advertising agency. Then his closest cousin died and when he finally started on his keys in his laptop, the words just flowed out. There was no turning back for him since then.

During the open forum, writer Abdon "Jun" Balde, Jr. asked if the writers in the panel were not afraid of de-valuing their creative work (i.e. novels, poetry) by posting it online. That their work would lose their value in print and people would no longer buy the printed copy. Alfar answered it by saying initially that he did not have such a fear, and went on to explain that, in fact, most writers in the U.S. had gone into posting whole novels online. But instead of losing out in print sales, the sales of their books actually went up. People did buy the real thing when they read it online and liked it.

I share Alfar's views on this. After the said talk, I went around. If you were there yourself, it would have seemed like Solomon's treasures, and any bibliophile would have hyperventilated and panicked. And the good news is, tadah: that Filipinos came and bought books. I saw students calculating in their minds what they could buy with their extra allowance, old people in wheelchair followed by their maids, mothers with their kids. Powerbooks and National Bookstore had the largest booths, but the other printing houses, whether school based (UST, U.P., St. Paul,) or private ones, did have their fair share of the sales (which, come to think of it, shouldn't be so surprising, as branches of Booksale, that second-hand bookstore, have already cropped up everywhere...which means they're thriving...which means Filipinos are buying books...and reading).

Developing the Filipinos' love for reading is still at the core of these writers's reason for going online, they admitted, and not for the blogging money. And yes, they are letting the world know that they exist in this corner of the world.

I left the book fair with a sudden craving for dark chocolates.

Meeting the SEXY MOM!

Last July 1, 2008, I was able to attend the seminar "Riding the Web 2.0 Wave: Issues and Challenges in Research and Advocacy Today. This was sponsored by the Institute for Labor Studies and Vibal Foundation at the DOLE Ople Hall in Intramuros, Manila.

Being involved in a government web site myself as a content editor (www.ncca.gov.ph), I soaked up all that was discussed during the seminar. Web 2.0, coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, is a phrase used to describe a change in the way people use the internet. I was particularly taken by the presentation of speaker Robert Matthew Romero. He said that these days, we have become our own broadcaster, our own DJs, our own publisher. Because of the internet, people have ceased being merely an audience. Instead, we have become participants and collaborators, with our content contributions becoming the media. WE HAVE BECOME THE MEDIA. He pointed to currently existing Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites (flickr, friendster, multiply, facebook), social bookmarking (http://del.icio.us/.), RSS (really simple syndication, which makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner), and mashups (hybridb applications, i.e. google earth project). Romero posed the challenge to government agencies to take advantage of these Web 2.0 technologies to bridge what he termed as the Digital Divide. And that the sooner government agencies start using the Web 2.0 technologies to extend their services to the public, the sooner will the end users benefit. In relation to this, the participants were introduced to Wikipilipinas, the country's own online encyclopedia built by the readers themselves. This knowledge sharing and dynamic content building was also exemplified for the participants in the web site http://www.filipiniana.net/

The highlight of my attendance to the said seminar, of course, was my encounter with the Sexy Mom herself. Ask any blogger, and chances are, they've heard of Sexy Mom. Sexy Mom is Ms. Dine Racoma whose own web site has already attracted 331195 visitors (as of Aug 14, 2008 when I checked)based on the blog counter that said: "since 2006". Try googling "sexy mom," and her web site comes up on top of the list. Yes, she candidly admitted that she has received flak for the label "sexy mom" as one reader had once confronted her. But she explained that her reason for using "sexy mom" was far from what that reader had harangued her for. She explained that she started that blog after retiring from the corporate world. She became conscious of her figure, and one time, she asked her children if she had started to look fat. They replied that she was the sexiest mom for them. Hence, the now famous tag for her site. But lest you think she was writing sleazy material, go check http://dine.racoma.com.ph. She writes about almost anything, sharing with the readers lessons in her experiences, even by merely writing about her granddaughters. And rather than take a beating from that angry reader, she has since shared her knowledge and energy with a web site that is helping erase the sleazy image attached with the word Filipina. She happily talked about the web site http://filipinaimages.com/, which she co-founded with Noemi Dado and Lorna Dietz. The site is a collaborative effort of all bloggers who believe that the Filipina deserves a more empowered, better image online. Her presence for that afternoon's seminar was by itself already a proof of her message. That yes, Filipinas are sexy, but more importantly, that Filipinas had, all along, been carrying worthier labels. So, I was happy that afternoon to discover, so to speak, a proud sexy Filipina mom. And this photo here is my proof of that. Don't you just love us here? :)