Learning More about Citizen Journalism

Hectic schedule made me a bit frustrated on providing time to write. I've still contributed some pictures but yet some other plans are kept in my mind...

I'm happy that a journalist based media worker had given me some questions on two articles I wrote for wikimu. She is doing her research for her master degree in journalism and was interested in analyzing those two articles. I'm happy because that way I can see which type of writing that took the interest of readers. Actually it would be nice to be able to know which type of article is interesting for common readers, and which one is interesting for those journalists. She promised me to send the soft copy of her thesis. At least I can see how interactive the article for her, and how did she grab my answers for her questions.

I've been watching how the media reacted to citizen journalism. I've also experienced how some media tried to use citizen journalism but only for their own sake. I'm not going to say which media are they. From the positive token, I think the Jakarta Post is an example from the media who used citizen journalism as a good interactive communication with its readers. An example of their balance reporting on opinion can also be seen in the articles about the annual memory of May Riot. After publishing an opinion writing that the writers have not forgotten it, which I paste in my previous posting, it was also published another opinion in a routine column of its Sunday edition.

Our national celebration of amnesia

Sun, 05/17/2009 1:36 PM | On the Town

As a scrawny high school kid in my red-checkered uniform with my black solidarity arm-band, I witnessed history in 1998. The euphoria of people-power was thick in the air of Jakarta.

We demanded reform, and we demanded the smiling tyrant be toppled from his 32-year reign. May 12 was a day of chaos. The streets of Jakarta were a battle ground. People screamed and threw rocks, while others looted everything from television sets to mattresses' and shampoo.

As the protest and mayhem escalated, the demand for Soeharto to step down reign was finally met. He announced his resignation with a big grin. The look was insulting: it was as though he believed he had done nothing wrong.

The old man proclaimed "ora pate'an", a Javanese phrase which means "nothing to lose" (whether he was president or not). Millions cheered in victory, but the damage was already done.

Contrary to Soeharto's claims, much was lost. Lives were lost. Buildings and businesses were destroyed. And my sisters were never the same after being violently raped.

Following the turmoil, blame games and cover-ups were thrown about on our television screens. The words "provocateurs" and "anarchy" suddenly became popular. Claims the mass action was provoked by a treacherous group connected to military generals was the word on the street.

Change, you ask? Reform became just another word in our history books. Certain parties reaped benefits from the revolution, while the majority of Indonesians gained nothing.

2009; eleven years later, some of the student activists who demanded reform have now joined the comfortable ranks of government, working for the very things they fought against in 1998.

The murders of university students during the protests remain unsolved to this day. Eleven years is a long time to wait for justice. However, it is not long enough for us, the generation that experienced it, to forget.

We were there. Why have we forgotten? Why have we ignored it, as if it never happened? Was it all in vain?

Last August, in celebration of Independence Day, a television station aired a 30 second bumper about national heroes. Along with Tjoet Njak Dien, Diponegoro, and those who fought against the colonialists for independence, was one man who made my heart stop: General Soeharto. Eleven years ago, he was a villain, a mass murderer, a man responsible for chaos. Now he is officially a TV hero. Men who a few years ago were implicated in the death and disappearances of students are now candidates in the presidential race, and they have a significant number of supporters.

Have we forgotten, or have we been conditioned to forget?

I have contacted several people involved in the 1998 riots and asked them to recall the events.

My then boyfriend was a high school student back in 1998. He wasn't an activist, nor was he directly involved in the action. But the atmosphere of the moment encouraged him to get involved in the euphoria.

"My school mates and I went to the University of Indonesia to join in the action, but we weren't taken seriously by the students. On our way back, we passed through an area where we saw a mass of people, got off the bus and joined in," he recalled.

Now he is a business executive. He hardly ever thinks about 1998 and is cynical of terms like "change" and "revolution".

"I think people who experienced 1998 have a reason to be apathetic. We saw that nothing really changed after the reform. Now we just do what we think is best for ourselves. The government will always remain the way it is," he said.

Lisa was also affected by the events of eleven years ago. She had her home looted by bunch of strange men. They broke in and accused her of hiding people in her house that was located near a big university.

"They kept asking *Where are you hiding them?' but I had no idea what they were talking about. We had an young son and we didn't want to fight back."

Now the Indonesian Idol fanatic claims to be disgusted by anything political. "Whenever there is political news or anything confronting on TV, I just change the channel. I don't give a shit. I just want to be a good wife and mother. As long as my family's happy, I'm happy." she said.

The "magic box" and its mind-numbing programs have proven to be an effective yet subtle lobotomizing tool. But can we blame apathy on the media alone? Every year, newspapers print stories related to the events of May 1998. Televisions air bumpers with dramatic musical scores portraying the events. As long as things remain the same, why should we expect people to care? Here in Jakarta, aside from a few political activists demanding justice for murder and rape victims, it is business as usual. Just yesterday, I served a coffee and a croissant to my regular customer, Rika, a senior student at Trisakti - the university where four students were shot dead on May 12, 1998. I asked her if her and her friends were commemorating the tragedy. "Maybe..I don't know. That's way before my time," she said hesitantly.

Oh well, can you really blame them for their apathy? For those of us who still care, families of the victims demanding justice for their losses - people who are still struggling for change you have my respect and support.

Keep loving and keep fighting.

- Kartika Jahja

That is what I do like from a media, the objectivity of seeing one topic. Both articles are against public amnesia, but the way it was presented were different. The second article was also including how the public amnesia could be developed.

Actually these other way of presenting stories made me thinking back into the case of our military action in East Timor and the truth that was seeking by the family of the Australian journalists. I've made a note as a citizen journalist before, and I think we can learn a lot of things if media keep their objectivity open to the public, and also hearing and digging into public opinions as well. And public opinion is actually the content of citizen journalism outlets.

BC Blogger Day...D-day!

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/

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.

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!

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.

News

I’m going to Jakarta Tourism Summit 2007. As an architect I am interested in urban tourism and environmental issues (see more discussion issues from JTS website). As a housewife I am confused on providing my time to be there. As a citizen reporter I am urged to be there…

Now I knew the different between current issues and news. Some days ago my brother commented on wikimu; “wikimu is quite something as a media, it reported the British Council event before the news posted in British Council’s own website”.

Actually wikimuwas also the second in the internet reporting about an earthquake. Yet, we can post even a very short article to keep it really update. We don’t have to worry about the length of the article. Off course we do need to be linked to the internet. This is the only obstacle. A fellow citizen reporter from Papua finished his study in Yogyakarta and came back to Papua without internet access. We miss his reports. Communication comes through articles. If voices could not be voice out then frustration can be the output. We need to speak and to listen to each other to gain a better cooperation in building this country (the most important thing is still the ACTION!).

Current Issue

What is a current issue? The daily Jakarta Post is the earliest (I knew) reported the National Bloggers’ Day. The daily Kontan published the event’s report yesterday. The daily Kompas wrote a page about blogging and the party today. Yet, my article (today, November 2) was turned down by the senior editor of Ohmy News as something “too old”.

I’ve read a T-shirt’s design wore in the bloggers’ party “No one cares about your blog”. I do think that people do care as long as it is something that they think is important.

Nobody wrote about the Indonesian bloggers meeting in OMNI so I do think it is still a current issue. Perhaps, my way of presenting it was wrong. I do not master how to write a feature. One of my articles that I sent to a mainstream media here was never published, and I overheard that the editor was confused where it would fit, Feature or Opinion.

It is so hard to work as a citizen reporter without the proper facilities. I’m glad that my writing about fighting the poverty can get published in Ohmy News. Then, I was already struggling with the problem of my new modem. I just bought it about three months ago through Telkom, so I could still ask for its replacement. As there were Lebaran holidays it was a long wait until I got back my modem. Before I had the chance to get it connected (glad that I did not connect it), the computer broke down. The electricity wire got struck by the thunder storm (one of the 480 thunderstorms on that afternoon, as stated by the BMG). So I’ve got to go to the Blogger Party without having a proper research. I printed out my invitation in my brother’s house just after I left my children in my parents’ house to go for the party.

My article reporting the National Bloggers’ Party for wikimu was commented by a reader as a very modest report. Although it is about my way of using the word Bapak (Mr) or Bapak Menteri, but I knew that it was also too plain….I wrote it in a restaurant borrowing a friend’s notebook.

After the Lebaran, my domestic assistant did not come back. So the proportion of handling the house chores are abundant. Without my personal computer I am paralyzed. While I usually can cut my sleeping hours to write, now I can do nothing…

Do I become addicted to the internet? Addicted to blogging? I hope not! I’ll always remember the articles about blogging that I read in OMNI, one from Claire George, and the other one from Nicolas van der Leek. I hope I can prepare myself to have a more balancing life in my relation with the internet.

I’m going to ease down…

The important thing is to deliver the content. And I do need to remember to make check and recheck before delivering it. I won’t change it to have instant sensational news.

I like the term citizen journalism as it gives me the feeling of being a citizen in the global world as well. It also gave me a chance to do things that I won’t have as a housewife. I won’t have the chance to visit Seoul on an invitation if it was not for the article I wrote about wikimu.com.

The term grassroots journalism is not really appealing for me. Why? Don’t know…, it is just that the word “citizen” gave a better direction as for “right and obligation”.

In the Bloggers’ party there were seats reserved for the press, but as it is a party without the presence of the president we were free to take pictures. Journalists or non journalists were all free to go to the front and take pictures.

I know now that I should put my blog under the term of bridge blogging. Let my current issues be something currently thought in my mind.

Hopefully my computer can be fixed soon, and I’ll be able to concentrate on writing my current thoughts in my blog. (He..he..he..this post is still written using another borrowed note book).

New Voices of Indonesia Speak Through the Internet.

Pesta Blogger Nasional Celebrating the First National Bloggers’ Day in Indonesia.

Indonesian government acknowledges the value of Indonesian grassroots’ voices that speak through the internet. Voices from the mailing lists, Readers’ Forum, to the voices of bloggers in the internet are now considered the new voices of Indonesia (Suara Baru Indonesia).

The Minister of Communication and Information, Muhammad Nuh, opened the First Indonesian Bloggers’ Party (Pesta Blogger) that served about 500 bloggers on the 27th October 2007 in Jakarta.



Indonesian bloggers came from Sumatera, Sulawesi, Java, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore joined the party. It was also a celebration of the first National Bloggers’ Day. The government gave its support and will guarantee the freedom of speech in the internet. Yet, bloggers do need to remember their responsibility in presenting their country through the cyber space, and to help building Indonesia through their views and developing critics.



As an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands the internet will surely be the best tool to make a faster and easier connection to unify the citizens. The Indonesian bloggers are now approximately 130,000 people, which is far beyond the huge population of Indonesia. While developing the ICT to serve Indonesian people, it is also important to raise people’s awareness of their position as bloggers in presenting Indonesia to the global world.

This bloggers’ day celebration took place a day before the celebration of the Youth Pledge Day. It was hoped that the spirit that unified the youth in 1928 will be renewed and unified the Indonesian through the power of these new voices.

The internet is more familiar to the young people in Indonesia. There are plenty of teenlits published by youngsters after their blogs. But as shown in this first Indonesian bloggers’ party, a blog is not exclusively maintained by youngsters. I met the oldest blogger in the party, a seventy six-year-old, Prof. Dr. Iwan Darmansjah. His blog is mostly about health and medicine, and he said that he already kept it for ten years.

As in an Indonesian wedding party, where people can meet a lot of friends and be introduced to new acquaintances, the party was served to all range of age. There were also some seventh grader students and ninth grader students who maintained their blogs for about one or two years.

Family and school seemed to have a good influence in introducing blogging to youngsters. I’ve met a family whose members are all keeping their own blogs. First, it was to cater a long distance relation between parents as the father had to work far from the family. Then it became a habit that was followed by the children. The eldest son, who did not really keen on writing, started his first blog about Play Station Games. Now he is also posting to another blog as a part of his school assignment. The younger son started his blog last year when he was a sixth grader student. While his father’s blog is called ndobos (Javanese word for nonsense), he named his blog anakndobos (the child of ndobos). He wrote about his daily routine. He was frankly said in his post about the bloggers’ party that he kept playing Game Boy as he did not understand what the minister was talking about. Yet, as he revealed to me, he never wrote any complaint about his parents in his blog.

I think this is the different between blog and diary. When I was his age I wrote a lot of things in my diary, including my complaints for my parents or teachers. It was wonderful to look back at the diary and learnt how I grew up and to keep reminding myself on things that I might now act as a parent. While diary can be keep personal, blog is meant to be a public share.

Blog is a way to communicate to each other, relate to new acquaintance, or even fight for defending arguments. It will do good deeds as long as we keep it in the cyber world noted Ong Hock Chuan. He is a Malaysian blogger, a former journalist who is now a technical advisor for Maverick (the Public Relation Company that also helped worked out this event). In his blog he posted an article about the dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia on a traditional song known to Indonesian as a song from Maluku, East of Indonesia. He received 249 comments from Indonesia and Malaysia. While the discussion was heated in the cyber space, hopefully a better understanding of the different views could ease down the anger in the real world.

This big event was organized by some senior bloggers with Enda Nasution as the chairperson of the steering committee. The committee was consisted of some popular names like
Budi Putra, Nukman Luthfie, Wimar Witoelar, Shinta Danuwardoyo, Wicaksono, etc. Bloggers’ communities came using their own T-shirts’ design. Some were advertising their community, and there was also an activity from the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia community (Jakarta) to raise education fund for children from Bangsari, a village near Yogyakarta.


In the first session which was moderated by Wimar Witoelar, stories of bloggers came out. From those who can have their books published, to those who found the spouse through blogging activities. Another blogger lost her job in a TV station after a story she posted in her blog provoked anger from the Malaysian Minister of Tourism. She revealed her gratitude to other bloggers who kept supported and encouraged her during her ordeal. In this session Adrianto as the CEO of wikimu.com was also giving his words. He said that wikimu.com as a citizen journalism website is the participatory form of citizen in revealing their opinions. I have noted that more people are now attracted to write for citizen- journalism websites, and only some of these writers have their own blogs.

The second session divided the participants into several topics. The topics were personal blog, celebrity blog, current issues, bridge blogging, women’s issues, on-line marketing and sales, and technology blog.

I registered myself in current issues as I’d like to know more about how to handle current issues in my limited time for writing. I think it is important to know how to make an objective view if I want to cover current issues for my blog. My blog Buah Pena was constructed after I knew citizen journalism website. I consider it as my diary as a citizen reporter. I like the term citizen journalism because it reminded me of my duty as a citizen of my country and also as a citizen of the world. The moderator for this group were Wicaksono (a senior journalist), and Rudiyanto (an NGO worker).

This second session was very informal so I did placed myself between two groups, Current Issues and Bridge Blogging, to be able to hear both discussions. While the participants for Current Issues were plenty, the participants for Bridge Blogging were only about ten persons. Moderated by Ong Hock Chuan, the topics Bridge Blogging was mainly concern about the function of a blog as a bridge to give information about Indonesia to the world.

Actually the conversation in the group of Bridge Blogging was more interesting for me, but my interest in grassroots’ objectives on current issues kept me longer in the bigger crowd. As an excerpt from Bridge Blogging, I got that language is still the main obstacle for bridge blogging but there are plenty of friends who will be happy to help out. Then, community of mailing list, forum, or citizen journalism website can become an additional resource of knowledge and help. The voices from bridge blogs are important to give more opinions on Indonesia outside the voice of the mainstream media to the world.



There are two important things that I dig out in this session. First, as a blogger I do not have to worry about current issues. Just be ourselves. That way we can produce a better view on any current issues that took our interests. Then, for being a bridge between Indonesia to the world it is important to be very objective. Networking communities can be a big help to gain more knowledge and to build a better blog performance.

Between the two session people made their vote for their chosen blogs. This vote brought some prizes such as Nokia Hand Phone. A lap top was a spontaneous gift from the minister for the most voted blog. It was such a party, but it was also a start for a bigger job. To be the real new voices!