The Jester-in-Exile Goes to iBlog 4 and the 88DB.com Bloggers' Party (or, the floppy hat has gone out of style boohoohoo)

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So I was able to attend iBlog 4. Big deal.

Hahaha. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. It was a treat to be able to attend the 4th Philippine Blogging Summit, but I must say that I learned quite a number of things that ruffled the fur some. Mainstream media, be warned: I've got my proverbial gunsights trained on you.

Oh, and I got to go to the "Come as your blog" party sponsored by 88DB.com. It was a blast, but then the sudden stress of returning to the metro prior to Saturday night finally caught up with me. Oh well.

***
Quick run-through of my iBlog 4 experience:

Listened to JJ Disini's opening remarks; he was enthusiastic over the fact that the large number of attendees were newbie bloggers. Essentially, his spiel was on how blogging is changing media... something that I saw later wasn't exactly something that mainstream media is all too pleased about.

Head Geekette Charo spoke on the basics of blogging. One important note, newbies: be a bit circumspect about your content: Charo pointed out that what you post becomes "out there", and if you write about your private stuff, they won't be private anymore.

Brian Gorell had a ten-minute spiel on his blogging experience. You can watch the YouTube video here, where he talks about five things bloggers should think about.

The first set of blogger pitches came just before the break, and we had the bloggers of fromtheheartofged.blogspot.com, herestolife.wordpress.com, michellemorelos.com, mindanaobloggers.com, techathand.net, azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com, pinoyidol2008.com, survivorph.com, sirmartin.wordpress.com, and cafemom.i.ph talking about their blogs.

Karlo, Pinoy Blogero spoke of his transition to problogging. Alex Villafania of Inquirer.net got Karlo to admit how much he earns in a month (US$1,000, from all the blogs he maintains), and kind laughter ensued after his mother pretty much told him that Karlo wasn't going to get any allowance anymore. Lesson learned: don't bring your mom to a conference if there's a chance you have to admit that you're earning major moolah from problogging. Heh heh.

Juned wowed us with his presentation on photoblogging, and wowed us even more when he took out all seven of his shooters. Count 'em, kids -- one, two, another, another, and another... heh heh.

Jonas spoke of how his webcomics made the transition to print (nice work, man), and fielded a few questions regarding comics as ebooks for downloading. Bottomline -- webcomics will give publishers a run for their money (heh, their fault for not supporting comic guys, writers, and other such fellows in the first place).

Had lunch with Joy, her tita, and Azrael. After lunch, hung out with bloggers like partners-in-crime Arbet and Doc Tess and even a fellow called Mike Abundo (whoever he is haha).

After lunch were more pitches -- there was AJ and Mica, and a few others, but I was busy trying to find a way to record the event. (Should've quit, I knew it.) Oh, and yeah, I blurbed up FilipinoVoices.com.

Aileen and Coy then played their video on vlogging and podcasting. Sounds like a fun thing to try out myself, hmmm. Oh, and apparently Coy is thinking of doing politicasting? This I'd like to see!

The discussion on blogging vis-a-vis the 2010 elections culminated with the panel of Luz Rimban, Manolo, and Janette. It was about this point where I got rather displeased with mainstream media in general and Alex Villafania in particular, with his subtext about bloggers in general not having the same credibility as the mainstream media and for bloggers to be credible would be to make our content owned by traditional media outfits. ("We are the gatekeepers of information" -- what arrant arrogance for mainstream media to claim that, and to claim that bloggers cannot have credibility! I'll post on this later, believe you me.) On another note, Luz Rimban said that mainstream media does get material from bloggers (and I did hear comments from the crowd that assured me that were among the audience apparently victims of scraping or suchlike by outfits like ABS-CBN and The Manila Bulletin. Really? Hmm.) and that bloggers will probably fill the space that mainstream media cannot fill when they will be covering the elections, quite likely from the places and of the candidates they feel -- whether rightly or wrongly -- deserve the airtime. Manolo spoke of how the American blogosphere was a reaction (a rebellion, even, perhaps) against mainstream media; I'm guessing that this will be the same paradigm, what with the unfair attacks by mainstream media against bloggers, like that Korina Sanchez "Beware of the Blog" idiocy, the arrogant view that opinion bloggers who are ordinary citizen won't have the same credibility as mainstream media's columnists and talking heads (bleh, I'd rather read Rom than Patricia Evangelista, and that for our content to be valuable to the public as information it has to be owned by traditional media outfits (I'm reminded of the Glorietta Blast and how mainstream media had to play catch-up after bloggers wrote their firsthand accounts of the occurrence). Drat -- I really need to post about this issue soon; it really rankles me.

JJ Disini then spoke of the two legal issues that bloggers would face if they aren't careful -- the first being libel, the second being copyright infringement. The Q&A with him was fun, with the quotable quote -- "copyright infringement is a crime; plagiarism is simply bad manners." (Hear that, mainstream media? Manners? Heh.)

At the break, I hung out with Manolo, Arbet, Juned, Doc Tess, Eugene and a few others. Manolo and I spoke of our little disagreement on whether the blogosphere is pamphleteering or Hyde Park gone digital (Juned built the consensus with his adobo analogy), then the talk went on to heckling (and why heckling is a reason), how to write flamebaits (examples were posts saying that Manny Pacquiao is an idiot, posts saying that ABS-CBN's shows rock while GMA's talents suck), before we went back in for the last part of the conference.

Noemi spoke of her online advocacy of trying to change the Filipina's online image (as it is rather heavily inclined to either dating, marriage, or sex) and the success of their FilipinaImages.com project. (Noemi, I promise to write my post on Filipinas soon.)

Ria Jose spoke of the Mindanao blogging experience -- and I felt insanely envious of Mindanao bloggers, what with free WiFi everywhere in Davao, how the Cagayan de Oro City council is considering providing citywide free WiFi, and the way the towns and cities in Mindanao seem to really hold their bloggers in rather high esteem (as do their local mainstream media outfits). I think I remember asking Arbet what are the chances Bayani Fernando will push the Metro Manila Council to set up free WiFi in chaos central... fat chance. Hmmm -- I'm likewise thinking if anyone has written a list of establishments in chaos central that 1) provide FREE WiFi 2) provide power strips for bloggers and 3) don't mind at all if we stay for hours and hours at their place after getting just one coffee. A bonus, of course, would be if such a place was open 24 hours -- and I will give a wet sloppy kiss to anyone who takes me to one hahaha.

The day ended with an iBlog 4 shirt raffle (thank you, Noemi!), some sponsor raffles, and the obligatory class photo. Oh, and if you want liveblogging of the event, there's Shari's, and scads and scads of photos from Maki (I'm still looking for other albums of iBlog 4; leave a comment, anyone?).

Some of my own photos:

Malcolm Hall. The jester-in-exile dreads thee now.


Opening remarks by JJ Disini (the reason the jester-in-exile now dreads Malcolm Hall)


Charo

Brian Gorell speaking at iBlog 4. Too bad connectivity failed and we could thus not ask our questions.

Jonas

Luz Rimban

***
Afterwards, Manolo, Juned, Arbet, Coy, and I went to Katips on Katipunan Extension to wait for the start of the 88DB.com "come as your blog" party, and the group grew quite a bit later on. The conversation ranged from information availability vis-a-vis democracy, the pseudo-rice crisis (I must say, Lupita Kashiwahara is darned effective at her job), food and where to find good chow in chaos central, SM Kafagway (ewwww), Benj's "so-very-gay" glam rock coat (nyahahaha), and we had loads of fun before we went in for the party.

The party well, it was a party -- with human bingo sorta-kinda as a means to blurb up 88DB.com. Didn't think much of the food, but the beer, well -- it was beer. I didn't win the PSP, though; Karlo was in full PinoyBlogero regalia, as was BatangYagit.com (heck, FunnySexy looked perfect in her schoolgirl uniform), but it was Philos of ChickenMafia.com who was the winner... yes, friends, wearing a chicken suit makes you hot property -- Philos got all the girls in the party (heck, he got all the girls AND the guys haha).

Gaaad. The floppy hat is old hat -- pun intended. I think I'm going to offer to give a wet sloppy kiss to anyone who gets me a new coxcomb and belled shoes. Heh heh.

Some photos of the party:

Parteeee!

Lose Your Beer Belly on stage

Indolent Indio and Philos, ChickenMafioso

With StoxBnx3, a blogger-pal from the PCIJ comment threads

A video of the rocker bloggers Lose Your Beer Belly:



More photos, yet again, care of Maki. I want to look for more! Leave comments, would you please?

Oh, and linklove from the registration page:

Anton Estrada
Restrained Outbursts
Ditz-Revolution.net
Blog Me Not!
Karmee 3.0
Rex Interactive
Big Lady No More
Go Diane
MMMiii!
Spam for Free!
Tales from Disiniland
Grandquelly
Maven's World
Writer's Nook
The Official website of Jessie Ay-ad
Our Paradise Philippines
Benj's Busy Blog
Dipsoul's Scribbles
Desperate Gerald
raredog's chronicles
Taranta Moves
Never been Sober
A Bugged Life
WazzupManila
Scars of My Wrecked Soul
Diverted Cyberlife of a Political Life Planner
Grace Anatomy
Speak My Mind...
Oh Kaye!
Celeni
Rages from the Heart
Davao Photo
Coffee and Blunder
Pinoy Life At Large
ozy's musings
tahn
Walking in the Fields
elah
The McVie Show, season 7
Mentorings.org
In My Pocket
The Entrepreneurial Agitator
The VoiceMaster
My First One Million Pesos
abbyongyanco-lim.com
MagandangBalita.com
ISHues.com
Little Light
twistedkai
Spell Micael
Batang Yagit
Ready To Be Rich
No Fashion, No Life
Blogging Rights
Chinese na Makulit
Buhayblog
55 Sassy Street
The Mommy Zone
XpressMusic Corner
Just Wandering
Famous Anonymous
amomandmore
Reyn's Room
Beyond Limits
Everything and Anything Con-Con
The Dork Factor
http://ederic.tinig.com/
benedict88
Junkyard Hearts
512
bury me in this dress
marmalade skies
Aice Nice Concepts
The Strategic Lawyer
Inghinyero
Dilemmas
Homeschooling
TekKonsult
Teacherjulie.com
The Mercurian Scribe
Blog-o-Louis
Pink Urinal
Dear Shamy
tanggera
RE:trato
My Name Is Fernand Yim
Kwentong Kalibugan
Private Eyeel fillibusterismo
noli-mycorner
Inspiring Entries
Granado Espada - Dispatches from the New World
The Four-eyed Journal
Been There. Done That.
PinoyExplorer
The Diary of a Nice Girl
The Life of a Breadwinner
2fourteen
kaigachi: stories of a life
Chizbred - Tinapay ng Bayan
Hit the ground running
The [deranged] Writer at work.
Sweet World of Joan
The Political Buzzerbeater
How to Blog an Exploding Man?
DUKHA: Damdaming UmuuKilkil Habang Ano
Ved Zone V3.1
tonyocruz.com
Brodcst Msktir
Green Grin
Nerd Monkey
Yeni - Melon = :-(
inside a bum's mind
The Construct
My Quiet Zone
The Bachelor Girl
Think Of Me!
vaes9
Living life, technology and sports
Music Picks
Pinoy Ambisyoso
what transpired..
weapon of choice
Photority
Day's Stories
Child of Earth
Sui Generis
The Chicken Mafia
Funny is the New SexyRaising Boys
Faded Boxers
Tech At Hand Dot Net
Rebel princess' mind
Back Door
Toinkable Thots
lakbay ni lakay
The D Spot
supersonicprose
PinoyBlogero.com
A Writer's Journey
Makoy's Memoirs Of A Certified Blogger
Green Fields of My Menace
Comicology: The Study of Awesome
Musings of a Blog Convert
Komikero Comics Journal
Educe your E-juice: SaaS, Web 2.0 and Open Source in Asia
The Konoha Ground
Boyish Chick
Mark My World.
The Journal of The Jester-in-Exile
Hiraya: Endless JourneyOut of the Closet
Tsokolate con Karla
Visit Sagada
The [Whereabouts]
Project Manila
pssr... yosi tayo
From the Heart and Mind
My Boring Life... Now a Blog
Showbiz Intriga? Get It From Boy!
These are my confessions
Base Two
AKOMISMO
Sonnie's Porch
The Garapata Can Speak
maui
Back to School
Inverse Tu Tuldok
http://www.spot.ph/
thebignotebook
A Mysterious Life
No Need for Ink
Jay and Cathy: The Wedding
Geeky Rockstar
Scroochchronicles
Life With Ria
The Boy Mistook You for a Purple Toothbrush
langgam.org
Rebyu
Sweetperceptions
Tech Hive
Wits Suzara v2.0: The Invasion
Ramblings of a Mad Virus
The Mike Abundo Effect
Typing Free
thegrapebunch
In Random
Night Dreamer
Batang Baler
RobbyCruz.info
Misteryosa.com
Azrael's Merryland
Reminiscing
Marco, the site guy
Behind the Shrubbery
Runway2Reality
ES2PIDO: Estudyanteng Pinoy Dormitorian
The Journey of a Yogini
Pansit Eating mader-haper blog
Bababa ba?
Get in my head
Here's To Life!
Blue Pencil Chronicles
TaintedSong
Temporary Madness
Thinking too much is bad...
Walrus 3.0
Guro
JuiceLog
Asteeg.Net
Macuha.com
Fishyblue
fritzified.com
BONG
LordArtworks
Jehzlau Concepts
The DJ Who's Not a DeeJay
Miguel's Journal
An Apple a Day
BerneGuerrero
Buddy Gancenia VLOG: The Reality TV in Philippine Wedding
Punzi - Semper Fidelis
La Bigueña
Micamyx
AWBHoldings.com
Travel-Tayo
thE.thumBSuckeR
I Flail at Life
Ang Dabawenyo
Noisy, Noisy Man
Pro Quantum Bonus
FilipinaImages.com
Build that Geek
Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?
Prudence and Madness
The Armorer's Codex
Buddy Blogs
the bangus supremacy

***
Later, all. Snooze time.



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