Ouf...I can't do my live reporting as the wi-fi provided could not connect my friend's laptop to the internet.
I did my reporting for wikimu.com, it is still waiting for the moderation before going on air. This is the article that will be publish (sorry it is in Bahasa Indonesia, wait until I finish the one I did for OMNI...soon, I still have some agenda this evening...including going to the church...he...he...he...).
British Council Blogger Day
Setelah acara Pesta Blogger Nasional tahun lalu, bulan April ini blogger Indonesia kembali berkumpul bersama, kali ini atas undangan dari British Council. Banyak suara kecewa yang terdengar di dunia maya karena jumlah blogger yang diundang sangat terbatas, hanya seratus orang dalam pengumuman resmi di website panitia BC60 Now. Rupanya undangan ini berhubungan dengan ulang tahun ke 60 kehadiran British Council di Indonesia.
Ballroom Ritz Carlton Hotel Pacific Place tampak sangat ramai, ternyata acara ini berlangsung secara bersamaan dengan acara lain dari British Council “A festival of bright ideas” yang berisi pengenalan terhadap institusi pendidikan di Inggris.
Acara untuk para blogger dibuka oleh Mbak Dina Lucky dari British Council, sekaligus membuka kesempatan kompetisi live blogging, secara bersamaan juga diumumkan akan adanya perlombaan blogging dari British Council selama tiga bulan mendatang.
Acara pertama adalah perkenalan terhadap beberapa program yang bisa membantu mempermudah dan mempercanggih penampilan blog seorang blogger. Pembicara dalam acara ini Mas Zeddy Iskandar memberikan gambaran mengenai Windows Live Writer, Microsoft Popfly.
Sementara acara berlangsung sudah banyak blogger yang memulai melakukan live blogging. Sayang sekali ternyata sarana wifi yang disediakan kurang memadai, sementara kondisi gedung juga menyulitkan penerimaan layanan 3G. Jadi niat saya untuk blogging langsung selama acara, yang katanya baru pertama kali dijadikan kompetisi di Indonesia, tidak bisa berlangsung sukses.
Sesi berikut dimulai oleh Mbak Miund mulai ngeblog tahun 2004 karena diajarkan oleh teman yang sedang sekolah di luar negeri. Tulisan-tulisannya ternyata menjadi populer dan kemudian dijadikan buku. Dari buku dan blog saling membantu publikasinya.
Demikian juga dengan mas Radit yang awalnya senang menulis buku harian sejak kelas 4 SD dan kemudian tertarik untuk berpindah menulis ke blog (kambing jantan). Mas Radit juga kemudian menghasilkan buku-buku yang awalnya juga berawal dari kepopuleran blognya.
Mas Wicak yang di dunia blogging lebih dikenal sebagai Ndoro Kakung Pecas Ndahe, yang sehari-harinya berprofesi sebagai wartawan, maka blog menjadi media alternatif untuk menampung tulisan-tulisannya di luar tugas perusahaan.
Blog bisa menjadi sangat bermanfaat ketika misalnya terjadi bencana, seperti ketika terjadi bencana gempa bumi di Jogjakarta. Sebuah kelompok blogger Bangsari, menggunakan blognya sebagai wadah untuk mengumpulkan dana sebagai sumbangan untuk membantu warga di daerah Bangsari, sebuah pelosok di dekat Jogjakarta. Blog juga bisa menjadi sarana untuk berbagi ilmu seperti bagi para guru dan murid. Ada juga blogger (ndobos) yang mengulas mengenai keberadaan burung-burung langka dari Indonesia.
Blog bisa menarik dari isinya, maupun dari desainnya. Yang mampu menggabungkan keduanya tentunya bisa menghasilkan sebuah blog yang lebih menarik. Mas Wicak mengumpamakan memiliki blog seperti memelihara tomagochi atau tanaman anthurium, harus selalu dipelihara agar tidak mati.
Bang Enda Nasution yang berperan sebagai moderator di acara ini, juga berbagi kisah mengenai komunitas blogger yang bisa saling berbagi dan saling menguatkan.
Masalah lain yang juga sempat disinggung dalam acara ini adalah hal-hal yang bersangkutan dengan RUU Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik. Tampaknya para pembicara memandang lebih penting bagi pemerintah untuk memperhatikan masalah Hak Kekayaan Intelektual (Copy Right) daripada mengatur pemblokiran situs-situs yang dicurigai memiliki konten pornografi. Dalam pembicaraan ternyata memang ada juga penulis yang mengambil isi blog orang lain dan berani menerbitkannya. Pemilik blog yang secara kebetulan melihat buku yang diterbitkan kemudian mengajukan somasi. Memang hal-hal penting seperti ini yang lebih penting dimasyarakatkan agar masyarakat Indonesia bisa semakin belajar menghargai hak kekayaan intelektual orang lain, dan di lain pihak juga bisa terbantu untuk mempertahankan hak-haknya sebagai penulis atau penghasil karya kreatif.
Perbincangan lain sedikit menyinggung masalah negatif yang juga hadir dalam dunia blogging, misalnya saja cyber bully, dimana komentator bisa memberikan ejekan dan tekanan yang tidak menyenangkan pemilik blog.
Masih banyak hal lain yang terungkap dalam perbincangan itu, antara lain ada seorang blogger yang diterima bekerja karena yang mewawancara pernah membaca blognya. Jadi, bagaimana? Anda tertarik ngeblog? Acara hari ini secara resmi juga meluncurkan kompetisi blog dari British Council yang akan berlangsung selama tiga bulan, dengan topik ulasan yang berbeda setiap bulannya. Mau tahu? Tengok http://bcnow60.org/blogger-day/
Showing posts with label British Council Blogger Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Council Blogger Day. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Saturday, 5 April 2008
What is a Blogger Day?
When I first heard about the British Council Blogger Day, I thought it would be more than the National Blogger Party. I knew after the party (by an unintended browsed) that there were a lot of expatriates who are blogging from Jakarta regretted that they did not have the invitation to come to the meeting. I was a bit surprised that the invitation aimed only for Indonesians, but it was “National”…so perhaps they were looking to map the number and the location of Indonesian bloggers. I did see some expats (at least some Caucasian visitors, as some other Asian journalists –either blogger or not- couldn’t be guessed only from their physical appearances) in that National Blogger Party.
I think a blogger day is the chance to meet as many bloggers as we can meet in that offline meeting. It is a chance to enlarge our network and exchanging views with new acquaintances that could be continue online afterwards.
Recently an Indonesian who claimed himself as a real techno-savvy has made a statement that made some Indonesian bloggers’ very crossed! He called bloggers as hackers, and also as somebody who doesn’t have works to attend to, who do like to copy-paste others’ piece of work. I did not hear or read this statement myself, but I did read it in a lot of postings.
Last year the Jakarta Post printed in its front page (October 28, 2007) the headline “Blogging party gets official stamp of approval”. The Communications and Information Muhammad Nuh gave the Indonesian bloggers a special day (October 27) as the National Bloggers day. This year, because Indonesia is fighting against pornographic materials in the internet, there might be chances that we would not able to enter international sites. The government will block risky sites, they will produce a list to give to the ISP providers to be banned. Now, all Indonesian internet users are nervously waiting for that list to come. We are also afraid of the impact of pornographic sites to our children, but closing links can also closing our chance to be the part of the global world. So, the British Council’s invitation to perform a special British Council Blogger Day, is like a confirmation for bloggers (mostly to Indonesian bloggers) to do the right thing…continue blogging…yet, keep it on the right track! I did hope that it will be also a chance to meet international bloggers.
Today, I found a post by Jakartass about this British Council Blogger Day. He’s got a lot of interesting points that I would like to copy the whole blog post in my blog (he….he…he…kidding, I’d like to keep this blog as my personal journal of a citizen reporter), and the comments are also showing that the expats are (again) uninvited. Is it going to be true? We’ll see on Sunday!
He pointed out “famous blogger” (in parentheses) perhaps because he did not know these bloggers who write their blogs in Bahasa Indonesia. He admitted in the comment that his readers are mostly outside Indonesia. He stated the probability that Indonesian Anonymus is more popular here in Indonesia. This blog is also written in English, so is it English is the only language that can suit the label “famous”?
I’m a new in the blogosphere, I came to blogging through the Citizen Journalism websites. I’ve seen different characters of readers through the CJ websites. Indonesian readers are different with the International readers. I've chosen deliberately to became a bridge blogger. I don’t have enough time and energy like Mer, who can blog in three languages…English, Indonesian, and Sundanese (local dialect)! I don’t really care about being famous or being the celebrity blogger, as long as I’ve got good friends around the world. Friends who share the same concern as I do, friends who will support me when I am mentally down in writing, and friends that will enriched my way of seeing things! Thank you friends!:)
“Quantity is more important than quality?” The same questions popped in my mind when I saw the British Council Blogger Day's competition. How would we go to a meeting and ending up just writing in front of our laptop computers? (Actually I only have PC, but I’m going to ask my friend to bring along her laptop so I can borrow it…he…he…he…what’s friends are for?) No, that meeting is the chance to be mingling with new friends. I’ve got my lesson in Seoul, and from all the bloggers meetings that I attended lately…get in touch with others! But think of creativity…How could we make quantity and quality work together? Be creative! Isn’t that what British Council is promoting through their activities? Be a creative person!
I do need to quote these long sentences from Jakartass’ blog as it has something important for a citizen reporter. For longer reading go straight to his blog.
I do think it is important to write that long sentences down here, as I often found myself confused between blogging and citizen reporting. Editors in OhmyNews International would like to have the report as current as it is, while I do not want to challenge my credibility (even as merely a housewife) to write something that I’ll regret. I have also seen that misunderstanding can easily came out of misperception in the way readers read our writing, so there are times I did have friends helping me out by making their comments on my article before I am able (and confident enough) to publish it.
When I read the challenge given by British Council to write online during the meeting, I was thinking of Seoul again…when we were asked to submit our articles on that International Forum of OMNI Citizen Reporters. I am not able to do it yet. I think the best way is either to do it later or to cooperate with another friend who will receive the whole story, editing it, and work on it while we are still engaging in getting direct information. There should be a way to improve cooperation in producing better news. Be creative…see you on Sunday!
I think a blogger day is the chance to meet as many bloggers as we can meet in that offline meeting. It is a chance to enlarge our network and exchanging views with new acquaintances that could be continue online afterwards.
Recently an Indonesian who claimed himself as a real techno-savvy has made a statement that made some Indonesian bloggers’ very crossed! He called bloggers as hackers, and also as somebody who doesn’t have works to attend to, who do like to copy-paste others’ piece of work. I did not hear or read this statement myself, but I did read it in a lot of postings.
Last year the Jakarta Post printed in its front page (October 28, 2007) the headline “Blogging party gets official stamp of approval”. The Communications and Information Muhammad Nuh gave the Indonesian bloggers a special day (October 27) as the National Bloggers day. This year, because Indonesia is fighting against pornographic materials in the internet, there might be chances that we would not able to enter international sites. The government will block risky sites, they will produce a list to give to the ISP providers to be banned. Now, all Indonesian internet users are nervously waiting for that list to come. We are also afraid of the impact of pornographic sites to our children, but closing links can also closing our chance to be the part of the global world. So, the British Council’s invitation to perform a special British Council Blogger Day, is like a confirmation for bloggers (mostly to Indonesian bloggers) to do the right thing…continue blogging…yet, keep it on the right track! I did hope that it will be also a chance to meet international bloggers.
Today, I found a post by Jakartass about this British Council Blogger Day. He’s got a lot of interesting points that I would like to copy the whole blog post in my blog (he….he…he…kidding, I’d like to keep this blog as my personal journal of a citizen reporter), and the comments are also showing that the expats are (again) uninvited. Is it going to be true? We’ll see on Sunday!
He pointed out “famous blogger” (in parentheses) perhaps because he did not know these bloggers who write their blogs in Bahasa Indonesia. He admitted in the comment that his readers are mostly outside Indonesia. He stated the probability that Indonesian Anonymus is more popular here in Indonesia. This blog is also written in English, so is it English is the only language that can suit the label “famous”?
I’m a new in the blogosphere, I came to blogging through the Citizen Journalism websites. I’ve seen different characters of readers through the CJ websites. Indonesian readers are different with the International readers. I've chosen deliberately to became a bridge blogger. I don’t have enough time and energy like Mer, who can blog in three languages…English, Indonesian, and Sundanese (local dialect)! I don’t really care about being famous or being the celebrity blogger, as long as I’ve got good friends around the world. Friends who share the same concern as I do, friends who will support me when I am mentally down in writing, and friends that will enriched my way of seeing things! Thank you friends!:)
“Quantity is more important than quality?” The same questions popped in my mind when I saw the British Council Blogger Day's competition. How would we go to a meeting and ending up just writing in front of our laptop computers? (Actually I only have PC, but I’m going to ask my friend to bring along her laptop so I can borrow it…he…he…he…what’s friends are for?) No, that meeting is the chance to be mingling with new friends. I’ve got my lesson in Seoul, and from all the bloggers meetings that I attended lately…get in touch with others! But think of creativity…How could we make quantity and quality work together? Be creative! Isn’t that what British Council is promoting through their activities? Be a creative person!
I do need to quote these long sentences from Jakartass’ blog as it has something important for a citizen reporter. For longer reading go straight to his blog.
Writing is not easy. Yes, we can all rant, but if we post in haste, then we generally regret our utterances. The only times I have ever posted more or less on the spur of the moment are when I have reported earthquakes, sometimes before the official media. Enda Nasution, the moderator of the session on 'tricks', has my respect for setting up the Indonesia Help blog in the immediate aftermath of the Aceh tsunami. I joined him in posting various links, and the site was resuscitated following the Yogya quake.
Apart from those few times, I have generally ruminated and cogitated for some time before posting. This one, for example, has been worked on since Monday, albeit in my head, and subsequently re-edited. That old adage about 'sleeping on it' works wonders. I keep folders of notes which I probably won't use, yet are available as resource material if a spark of literary creation is ignited. Good writing isn't easy, and making it easy to read is even harder.
I do think it is important to write that long sentences down here, as I often found myself confused between blogging and citizen reporting. Editors in OhmyNews International would like to have the report as current as it is, while I do not want to challenge my credibility (even as merely a housewife) to write something that I’ll regret. I have also seen that misunderstanding can easily came out of misperception in the way readers read our writing, so there are times I did have friends helping me out by making their comments on my article before I am able (and confident enough) to publish it.
When I read the challenge given by British Council to write online during the meeting, I was thinking of Seoul again…when we were asked to submit our articles on that International Forum of OMNI Citizen Reporters. I am not able to do it yet. I think the best way is either to do it later or to cooperate with another friend who will receive the whole story, editing it, and work on it while we are still engaging in getting direct information. There should be a way to improve cooperation in producing better news. Be creative…see you on Sunday!
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
British Council Blogger Day, a birthday celebration!
I believe God is working in His own way. I was really busy trying to focus my mind, trying to put first thing first, when a friend who was chatting with me suddenly mention about a blogger day presented by the British Council to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its presence in Indonesia.
People has their own way of celebrating birthday, as an example Kris Biantoro, an Indonesian famous entertainer celebrated his 70th birthday by calling out the nationalism from the Indonesian youth. You can watch his spectacular way of celebration through Kompas-tv.com
Titiek Puspa, another famous entertainer also presented "Titiek Puspa, a Legendary Diva", her biography as an artist facing her 70th birthday. The event was also reported by a contributor from wikimu, Ollie.
And now...I'm going to the British Council Blogger Day! I've said that God has His mysterious way of matching our schedules (at least my schedule...) because I was actually planned to visit the orphanage of defective children with my neighbours (from the Catholic church) that day. Due to one and other problems we delayed it until the next week. It was suppose to be our Easter activity, but the situation was forcing us to delay that. Good for me because my agenda is now open to go to the BC Blogger Day!
It is interesting for me to join this event as I hope there I will meet more bridge bloggers. In the National Blogger Party I was still searching my ground as a blogger, today I think I've got a better ground.
I was really close with the British Council Library when I was a university student. I found a lot of interesting books in that Library. At that time the local university libraries did not provide any multimedia materials, so we were searching that to the libraries belong to the international cultural centers, e.g. the British Council library. The Library was handed over to the Ministry of Education in 2004. I did visit the new library, I hope it will continue to enriched young Indonesian with interesting materials. The library also has a special library facilities for the visually impaired persons.
I think the British Council after 60 years in Indonesia still has the enthralling aspect of creativity that makes us keep viewing it with the same exciting expression...new challenge, new events, and new joining programs...I'm hoping to be able to catch the atmosphere and bring it back to my blog.
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