My Social Networking Scrap

I am one of those social networking junkies. I have a smattering of accounts in different social networking sites - Friendster, Multiply, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and even the more serious ones (which I think is also a form of social networking) LinkedIn and Shelfari. I cannot really pinpoint where I spend a lot of time in coz I use it for different things.

I use Friendster mostly as a contact point for friends from school. Multiply is where I spend time randomly checking on friends who upload photos or blog and in some rare instances I check out what's being sold by some enterprising entrepreneurs. Facebook is where I play Mario Brothers (haha), my friends list in there isn't really controlled since I just approve (almost) anyone who invites me. I don't spend that much time on MySpace and Orkut, I just find it to be a totally different world, but it's where I've been getting quite a number of hilarious invites/scraps -

Here are some things I've been getting (and I have not deleted any of it for gloomy days) -

if i say hi.......u may say whoz this....
if i ask for chat....u may say why??....
if i ask u for a coffee.....u may say wt rubbish....
if i say i liked ur profile......u may say m flattering u.....
if i ask for frnship.......u may say m flirting......
so can u plz suggest me hw to start wid a new relation.........????
till u reply i am trying wid a request........."plz check me out".......m here lookin for new frns.

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..............how r u
Aileen
nice name.....
I am ur friend........ u add to me
I DON't know........ ur language..
plz tell me in engaliash
ok kiss

And here's the best one I've received -

Hon'ble

Princess,

First of all I bow down my head at ur feet and kiss ur sandals to show my devotion towards u, princess my owner I want to be ur pet doggy or ur pet slave which u likes, please give me some space near ur feet.

Regards
your pet doggy
Jacky

I could not help but grin over that last scrap. Imagine, somebody call me Hon'ble (does it mean honorable or honey-able?) and Princess. I giggle everytime I read that scrap. I guess to each his own and that's why social networking sites attract different types of people and culture, and, I might add, comfort level (for usage).

There's an upcoming conference for social networking entitled, "Social Networking & eBusiness Conference Philippines" which looks interesting. I wonder if there's someone who could explain why I get all these scraps from nowhere and what is it in a platform that attracts a certain set of people. Is it because of the interface? The features? Culture? The person who invited you? What makes one site successful over others? Will social networking sites eventually be a huge place for commerce? What's the huge fuss behind social networking anyway (aside from generating revenue)? Maybe this conference will answer some of my questions.

Well, if you wanna be my friend... add me up!!!

Getting Inspired by Technopreneurs

I had the chance to join three Filipino technopreneurs last night at the E-Commerista 3.0 through Andrian Lee's invitation - Gabby Dizon, Jonas Diego and Gio Bacareza - and it's really inspiring to see how they've managed to turn their interests into successful businesses and here are just some thoughts that I wanted to share.

Flipside Games

I noticed that a lot of my friends who are developers now dreamed that they wanted to develop their own game "when they grow up" and this was their reason for taking up computer science back in college. Gabby Dizon, CEO of Flipside Games, said that the reason that he went into game development is because he "did not want to grow up". He used to work as a developer for Inq7.net and grabbed the first chance when they opened a slot for game development. Eventually he started his own company and has been successful in this endeavor. He even just got back from a gaming conference from SFO.

Integrated Art Services

I call Jonas Diego "Mr. Comics". I met him about a year ago through blogger-friends and I was glad to find out that we had common friends - artist friends from back in college and my former boss' son who publishes comics. I have very high respect for artists since I can only draw stick figures and coconut trees (seriously!). I believe it's one talent/hobby that's really hard to "monetize" unless you are very, very gifted. I truly admire Jonas for turning his first love into a very successful venture. During the "day" Jonas manages Interactive Art Services which caters to international clients for their storyboard needs. I think that this is a great way to showcase Filipino artistry.

Chikka.com

The Philippines still holds the title for "Texting Capital of the World" and that's the industry where web company Chikka.com has been very successful in. If you're a Filipino I'm pretty sure that you use Chikka's SMS services (tipid sa load!) and that's the company that Gio Bacareza represented during the event. I've been using Chikka for several years already and it has been very useful for me. Chikka has also re-engineered their service and it allows you to log-in all your IM services into their services and your IM friends can seamlessly communicate with you even when you are offline. Cool huh. Gio also mentioned that they'll soon be launching a service for bloggers.

I have neglected to make posts about "Good IT News in the Philippines" the past couple of months and I should just DO IT since there are so many exciting things happening around the country.

Here are some photos from Libby -

Thanks for the invitation Andrian!

Content Scraping

Wikipedia says that web scrapping (or content scraping) is when content is copied and mashed up to create a scraper site... for the non-techie... it's simply PLAGIARISM! Rawr!

One of the major reasons why I started blogging is because I wanted to revive my muse. I've been writing since I was a kid, but I stopped for about 8 years and only found my way back again a couple of years ago. I try my best to come up with original content and I hope I succeed in doing that.

I have friends who had to report abuse because their content was being copied in bulk! I have been a victim of content scraping (both for text and photos) as well, but it's nothing really major. I try my best to come out with original content because I think it's quite un-creative (and unethical) to just copy another blogger's post and criticize it on your blog, unless it's a meme (and meme's are usually fun to do!).

Here are some exercises I do whenever I'm stumped: (1) Get 5 objects near you, make a story out of it. (2) Or chronicle everything you did today and ask yourself, "What's the most interesting thing that happened?" (3) List down all your expenses for the day and answer the question, "What purchase gave you the most value for your peso?" (4) Or go answer a survey/meme, I normally do that to psyche myself up for work on blue Monday mornings.

There are days though that my muse totally deserts me, so I just normally don't force the issue and take a break. So, what do you do when you face a blank sheet?

Localized iGoogle Gadgets

Just wanted to show some new gadgets developed by Hamilton which he shared in our group:

(1) Latest on the ZTE NBN Controversy



(2) Philippine Stock Exchange Ticker


Other localized gadgets from the Philippines you might be interested in, done by Andrew:

(1) Ratified.org (relevant for bloggers)

(2) GMA News

(3) Philstar

(4) Inquirer

(5) Business World

Pretty nifty eh? My iGoogle wish list include: TV guide, local comics (I want Pugad Baboy!), something to do with OPM, local entertainment news and maybe local recipes (like a recipe of the day).

Now I regret not taking up computer science back in college!

Go, add `em up in your iGoogle!

iGoogle

Ahhh this blog's been really quiet the past few months, been quite busy. I just bumped into this video on iGoogle awhile ago and it easily explains what iGoogle is all about.



I customized my personal home page a couple of months back and aside from mail, the weather, a to-do list I've included some pets in it - some fishes and a pig! - and I know Pacman is so very 80s, but that's the only game I'm really good at. I wish though there was an iGoogle theme for the Philippines.

Google Apps for Education

The Google for Educators event held last December 6, 2007, at the Bro. Andrew Gonzalez Hall of De La Salle University, was a success! Thank you very much to the Philippine Society of IT Educators and DLSU for hosting us.

Jeff Keltner basically spoke about different tools that educators can use for the classroom and explained what Google Apps for Education is. Here's a video of the whole talk -



*Taken from the Google Youtube Channel



Here are links to services Jeff spoke about in his presentation -

Google for Educators
Tools for Classroom
Teacher Community
Google Apps for Education (you can also sign-up here)
Google Summer of Code

Filipino Google Apps Help Group

If you have any other questions kindly email me. Thanks!

P.S. For those needing certificates, I'll be coordinating that with PSITE. Thanks.

STI Roadshow

November 29, 2007 - Baguio City



Photos by: JayDJ and Mhel/Kim

Related Posts about Baguio:
Lakwatsera Ako
An Apple a Day

December 7, 2007 - Cebu City



January 9, 2008 - Bacolod City
January 11, 2007 - Kalibo, Aklan
January 22, 2007 - General Santos City
January 25, 2007 - Cagayan de Oro
January 29, 2007 - Ormoc
February 7 to 8, 2007 - Manila

For students who wish to join the blog writing contest, please leave a comment with your name, your STI school and the link to your STI convention blog post.

At the Advertising Congress

I expected to experience a grueling long-trip to Subic yesterday, but was surprised to have a pleasant one despite of the fact that the driver was a tad bit reckless and arrogant (he should be taken off the streets!) and we were hailed by the MMDA for swerving (he got off by bribing him with PhP20! - BAD, BAD, BAD!).

Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager for SouthEast Asia of Google Inc., delivered a talk about the "Future of Internet" and cited mainly that marketers and advertisers should make sure that their campaigns should take an integrated online and offline approach. To learn more I'm doing a whole day hands-on workshop on December 11 in coordination with the Philippine Trade & Training Center.

Here are some photos from the event -

Derek and iGoogle

Derek's here in Manila and here's a video Erwin Oliva of Inquirer.net took earlier today where Derek speaks about getting more local content from users and developers from the Philippines.



Check out Erwin's full story at Inquirer.net.

New Blogger Feature: Slideshow

I was pleased when I got word about the newest Blogger slideshow feature. I've got loads of photos on my Picasa account and I've always wanted to have random photos to show in my blog. And it's easy to do! All you need to do is log-in your Blogger account and add it through your blog lay-out. You can choose to show random photos with Picasa, Flicker, Photobucket or any photo RSS feed.

Here's how I did it:

1. Add page element through the lay-out section of my blog.


2. Set the photos to come from my Picasa RSS (you can find the RSS link at the bottom of the Picasa album you want to showcase).


3. Here's how it looks in my personal blog.

Google for Educators

We're hosting a workshop for IT educators/school IT administrators!

Here are the details -

What: Internet for Educators

Speakers: Jeff Keltner, Product Manager, Google Apps for Education
Aileen Apolo, Google Country Consultant - Philippines

Topics: Google Apps for Education/Tools for Classroom

When: December 6, 2007, Thursday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Where: De La Salle University, 20th Floor Brother Andrew Gonzalez Hall, Multi-Purpose Room, 2269 Taft Avenue, Malate, Manila 1004


How to join: Kindly fill-out the form and then check the guest list if you've been registered.

Name:
Email Address:
Company Name/School
Website Address
Mobile Number
Landline
Plate Number and Make of Car
Other Colleagues Who are Coming
Comments
How did you hear about this event?	mailing list my blog a friend/colleague a talk I attended

create form


Sign-up now! Limited slots available.

December 3 Update: Please make sure you have been registered, the guard will not let you in if you're name is not on the list. Thanks.

December 5 Update: Registration closed. Please make sure you're on the list and for those bringing a vehicle, kindly make sure you've included the plate number and make of car. De La Salle security is very strict. Registration starts at 1:30 p.m. and talk proper at 2:00 p.m. Please be prompt.

Google TechTalk

I would like to thank all the developers who attended for taking the time out to attend the event last night. I also want to thank the tireless volunteers who helped out to keep the event organized -

The Registration People - Sweetie, AJ, Cel
The Schwag People - Jehz, Anne, Chel
The Bouncer este Usher - Juned
Cliquebooth People - Markku and Dax (thanks Mimi and Karl!) - download your photos!
GSoC Mentors - Ben, Zak and Rom
Mom's Personal Angel - Miguel (he wasn't there though)
ACCEED - Jigs



We are very much interested to hear your feedback, comments and suggestions. Kindly sign-up for the group. I'll make more announcements in the group. I'll also update this post to include the links that Jay and Franklin showed last night.

I wonder who's going to be the developer who'll make the most popular gadget for our country? Interested to make one? Download and read the SDK. Done with your gadget? Lemme know so I can help you out with getting it to the team. Check out the Developer home page as well for more videos.

For those interested to become Google Summer of Code mentors, check out the GSoC page.

Anyway, RJ David was kind enough to cover the event and upload the talk on Youtube.

I'm Hurt... Ouch

I've been trying to watch TV again lately since I've been trying to stay offline after 10 in the evening since I usually start at around 8 in the morning. Fair enough right? Yeah right, it's 11:30 in the evening, I'm watching TV in my bedroom but I have my laptop on my lap and I'm feeding off from the wifi coming from my study room. Pfffttt...

Anyway, I was delighted to watch quite a number of TV commercials. They're all new to me since I haven't been really watching TV. What caught my attention tonight was PLDT's cutesy TV ad for its wireless landline (they're following Bayantel's lead now). It's where a guy is on the phone courting a girl and then he finally manages to tell her his feelings and then he asks if they were an item already. Then he kinda falls off his seat - because his Dad hits on the brakes - and the girl tells him that she has a boyfriend. Dad then teases him about the moves he was taking. Guy ends the scene by saying "I'm hurt... ouch!"

I have a good feeling that this line will pick up, the same way "Suportahan taka" picked up a couple of years ago. Remember the ad? -



Aside from catchy lines and ad slogans, there are other things that you should mind when doing ads. I learned these things on the job when I launched a brand from scratch by doing a full media campaign and when I did consultancy work for a property developer. I realized that I learned so much when I was looking at some flyers last night at Cafea. Here are some things to remember when producing ads:

1. When making flyers or other print collaterals, be OC (obsessive compulsive) about the images you are using. Looking at several flyers of properties I noticed that the images used were the same for different properties of the same developer. If your developments all look the same, then you should just have one flyer and just state the different locations instead of trying to fool consumers that they all look different.

2. When making radio ads, especially for mobile services make sure that the syntax you are trying to communicate will be easily understood by listeners. When reviewing your ads, do not wear your brand manager's hat, put yourself in the shoes of your target market. If you're the only one in your company who can remember all the syntax/codes, then your service offering has some serious problems.

3. The KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) is very much applicable when doing TV ads, or any kind of ad for that matter. Sometimes it is so tempting to show off your intellect by making puzzle-like ads, but with the short attention span of consumers (like me), then better keep it simple. Your ad is only as good as the few seconds that a consumer will actually pay attention to it.

And may I just say that I think at this day and age, it is a MUST to have at least some online presence for your company.

And, now I shall plug my upcoming business workshops and activities -
November 19 - De La Salle Lipa/Google TechTalk
November 23 - 20th Advertising Congress
November 27 - Marketing Your Business Online at PTTC
November 29 - Google University for STI in Baguio
December 1 - Google Analytics at PHP Philippines
December 6 - Google Apps for Education and Tools for Education
December 10 & 11 - Marketing Your Business Online at PTTC (hands-on)

Google for Entrepreneurs, Marketers and Advertising Agencies

Learn more about marketing your business online! We have the following workshops for entrepreneurs, marketers and advertising agencies/specialists.

Those with websites will get a FREE Google Adwords coupon worth PhP2,500.

November 16, Friday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

November 27, Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online (postponed to December 11)
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

November 28, Wednesday

ICT for Business
Google Advertising Case Studies for SMEs
in cooperation with Digitalfilipino.com
National Computer Center
Quezon City, Metro Manila
*To join this, please get in touch with Janette Toral.

December 10 & 11, Monday & Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online (hands on workshop)
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

A Night for Developers

We're hosting an event for Philippine developers!

Here are the details -

What: TechTalk with Google Engineers (from Mountain View, California)

Topics: Google Gadgets, Google Open Social & other developer products

When: November 19, 2007, Monday, 7:00 p.m.

Where: 3rd Floor, SGV Hall, ACCEED Conference Center (beside AIM, in front of Greenbelt)

How to join: Sign-up your name and your programming language by leaving a comment below. You can check if you've been registered by checking out the guest list.

Sign-up now! Limited slots available.

=================================
11-13 11:45 a.m. Update: We can only accommodate 150 developers for now. For those who signed-up and did not reach the cut-off, kindly wait for further announcements. Your comments are just on hold. Please check the guest list if you've been included. Thanks po!

11-13 9:24 p.m. Update: Please keep posted for further announcements. Thanks po!

11-14 10:20 a.m. Update: Added 50 more slots but it's been filled up already. Kindly check the guest list if you've been included. Registration closed. Thanks for your support!

How to Survive

I remember a speaker say in a convention, "If you're business cannot be found online, then where the hell are you?" Surprisingly, not many local businesses still cannot be found online and that convention I attended was one of the marketing forums that was held about 5 years ago.

I've been in the online advertising industry for more than 5 years and the growth has been tremendously slow. Why? There are many reasons why, but I think the greatest obstacle to its growth is fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of trying things out. Technology after all could sometimes be intimidating.

I always tell those who attend my speaking engagements not to fear anything when it comes to technology. "You can always click on the "undo button" or reboot!" That's what my Kuya told me when he enrolled me in logo programming classes when I was ten years old. And I still follow that principle (why do you think I started blogging? to learn about all these new stuff available online! and it's FREE!).

"It's easy!" I told several marketing bigwigs I had lunch with during the National Marketing Convention when they asked me if I could teach them to blog (I haven't gotten around to organizing that bit for them though). Well, all you basically do is educate yourself (see some tools on the sidebar) and you'll be well on your way to becoming a wholistic marketer (print, radio, TV + web and mobile!).

Find out more by listening to my colleague, Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager - Southeast Asia, Google Inc. when he talks about the "Future of Internet" in the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress.

I also have a series of workshops for "Marketing Your Business Online" in partnership with the Philippine Trade Training Center and Yehey.com on the following dates:

November 16, 2007 (Friday)
November 27, 2007 (Tuesday)
December 10 & 11 (Monday & Tuesday)

Those who will attend will get PhP2,500 worth of Google Adwords coupons. For more details please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC.

November Activities

November 12, Monday

Google University
Miriam College
Quezon City, Metro Manila
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

November 16, Friday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC

November 19, Monday

Google University
De La Salle Lipa University
Lipa, Batangas
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

TechTalk: Google Gadgets, Google Open Social and other Google developer products
ACCEED Conference Center
7:00 p.m.

November 21 to 24, Wednesday to Saturday

20th Philippine Advertising Congress
Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center
Subic Bay Freeport Zone

*November 23, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
The Future of Ads
Speaker: Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager Southeast Asia, Google Inc.

November 27, Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC

November 28, Wednesday

ICT for Business
Google Advertising Case Studies for SMEs
in cooperation with Digitalfilipino.com
National Computer Center
Quezon City, Metro Manila

November 29, Thursday

Google University
STI
Baguio City

Google Translate

My friend was weirded out about getting emails in Spanish - emails that didn't look like spam, but were subscriptions on something. What it was, we didn't know because the whole email was written in Spanish.

And then I remembered, we could actually translate the text! So I quickly went to Google Translate, copied and pasted some of the text from the email. From the translated text we found out that it was a subscription to an online magazine and there was an unsubscribe link to it. Problem solved!


BTW, with Google Translate you can translate text or a website in a number of languages, do translated search (like search in i.e. English and then get results in Spanish) and then you can also find words in the dictionary. Pretty nifty huh?

At least now whenever some of my friends sent me emails in another language (they like doing that to me) or whenever I want to read blogger friends who write in another language, I can easily translate what they wrote and understand what they're trying to say.

Blogger Play Gadget on iGoogle

A few weeks ago Blogger launched Blogger Play and I thought that it's really cool to see photos as they are uploaded. I get transfixed with the thought of peering into the lives of other people - makes you realize that you are just one of the many, many unique people in the whole wide world. Weird huh.

Anyway, I also like tinkering around my iGoogle page (which is now available in Filipino, which means you can get feeds written in Filipino as well) and I've so far placed some fish to feed, a flying pig, the weather (I monitor Manila, Legaspi and Davao coz I have dear friends and relatives in the area), a to-do list and I've recently added the Blogger Play gadget.


What are you waiting for? Try it! Try it! Just sign-in to your iGoogle using your Google Account (which is also your Gmail account) or if you're already logged-in just type http://www.google.com/ig in another tab (for Mozilla Firefox users) and the page will come out. Then include the gadget in your page by clicking on "add a gadget" (magdagdag ng bagay-bagay) and look for (or search) Blogger Play, then just click on the "add" button. When you go back to your iGoogle homepage the gadget will be there and you can just move it around the page.

Then you can just sit back and be mesmerized. Cheers!

Youtube Custom Channel

Guess who has their own Youtube Custom Channel - MYX!

MYX is ABS-CBN's music video channel that I personally love and I was really happy when they decided to have their own custom channel in Youtube.


A custom channel is like having your own TV channel. You can upload your personally made videos and you can use this to promote your company's products and services or you can use this to keep in touch with your family and friends by sharing videos of your adventures and misadventures (if any).

My custom channel is a mix of a lot of things - mostly music videos I get to take whenever I attend music-related events or videos with my family and friends. I'd want to do some DIY videos though, maybe when I manage to budget some time for it I would.

How to make your own Youtube Custom Channel? It's easy! Just visit Youtube, sign-up for an account and then play around with the settings and then upload your videos. And you don't need a video camera to create videos - I just normally use my digital camera and maybe I'll try using my webcam as well. I don't even edit my videos (and that's one thing I really want to start doing). It's that easy. And it's FREE!

What are you waiting for? Create your Youtube Custom Channel now!