But when the journalist tell me that she’d failed to search the web for information or find blog posts about the topic in discussion, it irritates me. If I can use a single keyword, e.g. the name of an even to find an entire page of blogs posts discussing about it in Google, I don’t see why you can’t. Now that I think about it, I regretted sending links and information over to them. It’s their job to search and investigate, not mine.

Blogging has helped me record my life, happenings and memories in a way that’s openly searched, read and used by anyone that chances upon my blogs. Some of these posts come in very useful for future referencing or if there’s a need to provide a set of comment with regards to that particular event that happened months ago, blog posts surely serve a better memory refresher than trying to squeeze your braincell dry trying to remember what happened or who were there etc. Especially if you keep your posts organised and accompany it with related photos, videos or links, referencing back your past is made easy and possible through blogging.

Every journalists, in the digital space or not, need to get into the talks and walks first, before trying to make sense of something totally new to them and try to draft an article on it based on interviews and hear-say from others. Why not take the plunge and dive into it yourself and experience it? That’s one thing bloggers love. Experiencing things first hand. We would rather spend time attending an event and trying out the product in real life, then just reading off a press release. We take action first and blog later.

Are you picking up social media tools and learning to be human in the digital space already? I hope you do!

Companies reluctant to woo customers with tweet nothings

Larger version

Larger version

Nothing to comment on this right now since it was from two months ago. Progression and growth digitally is too fast too furious. Something two months ago may not be news anymore. Just want to post it up as a record for my own reference. And if you’d missed this, for your reading too.

It was the first social media discussion that got all hot and sweaty (literally) over at Open Room tonight. Only Ogilvy dares to do something that most brands and agencies are afraid of, mixing the traditional media (TM) journalists with the social media (SM) bloggers together in the same room to discuss about Journalism. And may I quote, Journalism as explained in my trusty dictionary in my macbook states that – “the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television.” Hmm… nope, it didn’t include bloggers nor online digital storytellers. Let’s see what Wikipedia (the community dictionary) explains Journalism…

Journalism is the production of news reports and editorials through media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. Journalists—be they writers, editors, photographers, broadcast presenters or producers—serve as the main purveyors of information and opinion in contemporary society.

There. The community speaks.

What am I trying to proof here? The way content is consumed depends on the way a person prefers or are aware of. Both the TM and SM know very well about this and they do well serving their own group of audiences. Let’s take the big boy in TM for instance, they’ve got BT for the business minded individuals, New Paper and Wan Bao for the tabloids and sensational news, and they’ve got magazines catered for different types of population. As for ST, guess I’m classifying it under the general category. Just like most of the blogs here in Singapore. No niche, just write whatever they were told to and censor whatever that’s not to be told.

In SM, there are blogs, websites, forums and lots of people we can follow on twitter, facebook, plurk or whichever social networking site you can name. But the smart users who are using these tools read, follow or participate in their selection due to their choice and needs. I won’t follow someone whose tweet nothing but conversation between his/her followers nor will I want to read a blog on a regular basis if that writer simply posts random things that doesn’t matter to me. Smart users know how to filter out the noise and focus on what matters to them. Same goes for TM. No one (with no reason other than its job responsibilities) will read every single publication and every single page in the TM publications.

Yes, I agree with Daryl that habits die hard (for the older generation), but for the young ones, we pick up new things everyday and our habit changes as we grow together with this new channel of information that’s available for free. And these young ones are eventually going to continue to grow and progress and changing their daily habits. Whether or not reading the newspaper daily will eventually become one of their favorite pastime in years to come, no one knows. Perhaps they’ll still read about the news, but from other channels and ways. So the questions now is how are the TM and SM storytellers evolving and embracing this change to match what may come in the future? Its about delivering the right content when the user wants it. Not when you think they want it. Consumer always have their final choice. No one can force them.

Than there’s the thing about credibility and professionalism. TM journalists state that they are the credible sources, but what about the many misquotes, over sensationalizing of topics, featuring article of certain products as there’s sponsorship involved, reporting of things that they see only one side of the picture, and publishing news that are of no need for public concern e.g. death of someone due to suicide. Personally I have got bad experiences with these things. How can I trust 101% that the TM is giving us accurate and credible news? What about the parts that were not published?

If citizenship journalism is encouraged by the TM, than what makes the differences from a blogger reporting about an incident or happening on their own blog or twitter as they’d encountered it and a citizen that posts up to Stomp? Citizens are encouraged to Stomp about happenings so that the big boys can get the traffic from tabloid or gossip hunters to visit their website, increase their pageviews and get advertising dollars from all the flashing irritating banner ads. If they can do that, than why can’t the bloggers?

On a final note, I’ve to say this again – I read what I want to read, if I’m not interested in the war that’s happening out there nor the new jet that some army purchased, I can’t be bothered. When I really need to find them, I search! If google or yahoo (or bing) doesn’t list your content within the first 3 to 4 pages, I’m sorry you didn’t reach me. Eventually I’ll get my source from somewhere else. Whether or not the source is 100% reliable, its all up to the smart reader to decide.

Updates – posts I want to remember

• POV from Daryl, one of the panelists at Open Room
• Interesting analogy by Lucian
• Ian’s thought never fails to make me put on another thinking cap
• Brian’s shares the building of future media organisation (with reference to Monocle.com)

First lets see what’s a tweetup. In my own words, its a mashed-up for meet-up that happens for people using Twitter. Hence tweetup. Simple right? So when I came to know about the first sgtweetup by @CarlGriffith, my immediate impression was, “Yeah! I’m going to meet more new people!” And that’s what happened. (For me!) I got to catch up with old friends, especially nice seeing @emoh whom I knew back in my days at Made With Love, and I met lots of new ones too! *waves!!* I regretted not getting to meet everyone there. There will be a next one I’m sure! In fact @inrsoul has already started the next tweetup with beer and tapas on 21 May! (Sorry guys, can’t make it for this one. Heading to BKK the next day.)

Perhaps if the organisers had read about this before sgtweetup, the not so accidental hiccup wouldn’t have happened. Still kudos to @CarlGriffith for starting this and it was really a great turn-up! Just something to share from experience, if there’s going to be any form of plugging or presentation happening at such gatherings, everyone would have been more understanding and appreciative if it was made known to us from the start of the invitation. Coming in as a form of “surprise” for this usually turns the attendees off. Especially in social media, these things may get blown up pretty quickly if not handled well. And it just doesn’t help when the models had no idea what Twitter was about nor what they were expecting to do and meet at sgtweetup.

For those who don’t know what’s happening, search for sgtweetup on twitter (and go all way back to tweets from 14 May 2009). You can also read about it from Ingrid’s post, Daryl’s thoughts and Ian shared his views too.

So to answer my own questions from my opening:

Was it good? – Well in my opinion, I achieved my own purpose of being there and so its good.

Could it have been better? – Definitely! As Carl puts it, its his first time organising sgtweetup and surely lots of room for improvement. (This one I know best! Because I’d organised quite a number of social media gatherings like this.)

And what’s the difference between #smbsg #websg #sgtweetup and Tweet! Tuesday? – This question I’ll need a paragraph or two to discuss. So read on if you’re keen to find out…

Here’s my take on the brief introduction of the various gatherings/ events (in 140 characters):

#smbsg is like a corridor where neighbors meet to share about social media and how people are generally using them.

#websg is where the real hardcore web developments enthusiasts and designers meet to improve the usability of the web.

#sgtweetup is a gathering of tweeters in Singapore to meet, chat and be merry (with no agenda nor plugging hidden).

#tweettuesday is Not another stand-around-and-network-whilst-eating-free-food session. Its where people meet to share and learn about twitter and perhaps anything social media.

Out of the above four social events surrounding the new media (social media) or web scenes, I’m involved in two of them, #smbsg and #tweettuesday. And of course, there’s Blogout!, Barcamp and many other social events too. IMHO, all of them exists for a reason, and all can co-exits in the already small populated community of digital users here in Singapore. But like all social events, any agendas should always be made known to participants prior to the date so that they can come prepared and expect things to happen. Perhaps also because of the many types of events surrounding the same few platforms, participants are confused. And some would have already set their expectations when they attend. Organisers for future such sessions, it’ll be good to spell out the agenda (if any) and what to expect in the event page or invitation.

Well, I hope my post has shed some light to the blurred situation that was tweeted on and on after #sgtweetup. Looking forward to what’s coming up next here in Singapore. For me, I’ll be first looking forward to my trip to attend Barcamp Bangkok next weekend! Anyone reading this will be there? We should gather and go for drinks while we’re there! Or shopping at Platinum Mall anyone?

On a side note, after all that happened, I’m very upset that many of us actually helped tweeted and spread the words out to so many people about #sgtweetup! And someone just conveniently brought in his/her brand/client! Now I feel cheated!

Updates

• Photos by @inrsoul are up in flickr!
• with more updates to come I hope…

For future events organisers, if you’ve got cameras and bloggers, give us a card (SD, memory xD or whichever that fits your product) to use and take home. This is much appreciated than some thumbdrive or even a DVD!

Thanks Canon for the thought and looks like a great start to more of such events! Congrats to the team!

More on the products later… got few more in the list that’s loooong overdue!

Happening THIS Saturday at 7PM. YES! 7PM! Not am ok! We’re having super late breakfast this time round. Perhaps it should be Social Media Beer instead! I’m sure Tangs serve Beer, please bring cash as its BYOB night! This is happening at Tangs Island Cafe on the upper most level (can’t remember its 3rd or 4th or 5th??) but ya! Just take the lift from inside the mall and head up to the highest level accessible to public and you’ll find us there!

Beside the usual discussion on social media and networking and good company, we’re putting you into a dark challenge! Between 8.30pm to 9.30pm, Tangs will be participating in Earth Hour! Yes! 60 mins of darkness. Can you keep your cool and enjoy the session in candlelight with the rest of us? Come try it out! It’s going to be quite an experience!

If you’re not going to be there, don’t forget to switch off your lights and if possible all electricity around you too during Earth Hour ok! Help save our planet!

For more details about SMB6, please check out our official blog and facebook event page. Oh! And if you’re twittering, blogging, flickr-ing or watever-online-ing about SMB6, don’t forget to tag it with #smbsg6!

See you on Saturday!!

Psss… we’re also going clubbing and dancing after that! Join us too! Time to let our hair down down down down down…

Here are the updated slides which I shared during Blogout! 2009 last Saturday at 8Q SAM.

The problem with such kind of slides is that if I upload the exact deck used during the session, 90% of viewers will probably not understand what I am trying to convey. That’s why, I’ll try to edit it and make it sensible for those who wasn’t there in person to hear my sharing.

After doing two sessions of sharing about my discoveries and experience in blogging and social media, I’m kinda missing those days where I teach my kids in school. Guess somewhere deep down in me, I’m still having the mind of a teacher.

Perhaps one day, after god-knows-how-many-more-sharing like these, I might be able to get invitation to share in schools. Even if its not locally, just pay for my flight and accommodation and I’ll be there! This I got to learn more from Preetam.

Hope these slides will come in useful. Especially if you’ve just started blogging or are planning to. I created this with my personal experience and knowledge, so treat it like a story while you scan through these slides. It should tell you my story.

Two days before Christmas last year, I met up with a few guys (officially) for the first time. I was told about their plans for Blogout 09, an event too close to my passion to miss, and that’s when I started my first project with The Digital Movement (TDM).

It took us 2 months of countless emails, gtalking and late night meetings to put the show together. The experience with TDM had been a love-hate journey. But I’ve to thank Howie, President of TDM, to give me the opportunity to be part of the team.

Apart from the love-hate journey with the organising team, the planning process was an adventure on its own. When we started putting together the list of speakers we hope to invite for Blogout09, I was tasked to handle the contacting and putting together of the event’s program. My first for such an event in term of scale and format. Indeed quite a challenge. But with support and discussion with the team, we decided on it, and I started the exciting part, getting in touch with Yongfook and Joel Postman. Both experts in their areas and interests. One whom I’d been a fan for sometimes now, and now I’ve converted him as my inspiration. (Yah! I want to be as hot as him!) So you can imagine the excitement in me when I dropped him that first invitation email to fly to Singapore! Let’s keep the crazy fan talk for another post. Moving on to Blogout09…

When Blogout09 day finally arrived, the 48 hours that followed was like living in a roller coaster ride. Seeing the many new faces on the two days makes me very happy. This means we’re not only living in a world made up of the same few people which we see at almost any other blogging/ social media related events. This means that there are many out there who are as interested and wanting to learn more about the mystery and science behind this new generation of media. This means that there’s good hope for the future of social media and blogging or whatever we should call it in years to come. Just visualizing this makes me a very happy person.

So why did I say that it ended with a mixed of emotions? Well, at the end of the two days, I was happy cause most of those who came were happy, I was sad because it was over, I was excited cause of the many possibilities waiting ahead, I was smitten-ed, I was hopeful for what’s to come with TDM, I was angry as some things could have been better carried out, I was tired due to lack of sleep, I was kinda lost too! Anyway, these feelings will be sorted out soon.

Much have been discussed and brought up during the two days. Some can be found on twitter at #blogout09. Hoping to continue the discussions too from the two days, a discussion board has been set up in facebook. Let’s see if the offline conversations at Blogout09 can be brought online and carrying it on till the next meetup.

I’m going to be spending more time over the next couple of days (or even weeks) to reflect and think about the points I’d noted. Don’t want to clutter everything under a single post. Else this post might only go live two weeks after Blogout!

While I carry on pondering about the things I learned from this experience, here are some photos from Day 1…

The amazing audience and friends

The new way of photocopying

Yongfook goofing while camwhoring

Yongfook, me and Joel

More mobile uploaded photos can be found here for Day 1 and Day 2 and the rest on flickr. I’m sure there’ll be more photos to come as the other photographers share them.

My first encounter with Barcamp was Barcamp SG II in May 2008. No posting found in this blog on that because that event didn’t interest me enough for me to share? Nope. I didn’t blog about it because I left within an hour after arriving. It was one that targeted at the developers and I kinda got lost in there.

Good thing we’ve Preetam onboard this time round, with his experience with many Barcamp sessions from different countries, we know this was going to be a great one. And it was!

Here’s my experience, breaking down into 1) as a planner, 2) as a speaker and 3) as a participant.

As part of the planning team for Barcamp SG

I don’t know how I got involved in the first place, got an email for a gathering of various thought leaders and community leaders in Jan. That session was rather unproductive imo. Group was too big for any proper discussion to get through, and there wasn’t much of an agenda or structure set prior to the meeting. Somehow the only thing that got through from that session was the date of the event.

Discussion was supposed to take off and be carried out online in a google group, but after a month of waiting, nothing seem to be happening. That’s when some of us got worried and decided to just take up the planning part and get Barcamp going.

After a couple of hour discussion with Preetam, Bill, Kelvin and myself at a cafe, things got started and planning finally took off. The Barcamp SG3 wiki was up, registration forms up, sponsors started to come in and Preetam spent much of his time organising and putting pieces together.

And as all Barcamp, there’s really nothing much to worry about on the camp day. Everyone just help themselves to whatever was there and get themselves engaged. IMO, the beauty of Barcamp is for learning and interaction to take place in a messy yet structured environment.

See! No one’s needed to mend registration too!

Our aim is to shift Barcamp to become a less tech/ developer centric event, and hope to bring in more people from different walks of life together. There’s no money to pay, nor money to waste. Just lots of engaging conversation, sharing, learning and fun! I can’t wait for the next camping session!

And I concluded… you don’t need a big team to get things done. Small team can work wonders too! Its the quality not the quantity that matters.

As a speaker

Barcamp is really about sharing and provoking thoughts with participants. And that’s what I hope my sharing did. Interestingly, I signed up for a pre-scheduled session via the Barcamp SG3 wiki and also put up a by-voting session. So I ended up hosting two Barcamp sessions in the same Barcamp! One was on “How i Live Blog” and the other on “How facebook communities cannot work for your brand?”.

Guess those who came for my “How i Live Blog” session mistook my title. It was really meant for a session where everyone shares how “i” (they) live blog. But only one of them in the room had done live blogging before! And I wasn’t prepared to conduct a live blogging workshop. So instead, the session became a discussion of the tools for live blogging and how twitter and various hashtags feeder help improve interactions between people in a live set-up. If you’re wondering why we use #barcampsg3 in our tweets, that’s to consolidate all tweets from Barcamp SG3 together and these can be viewed at hasttags. Users can also follow live updates during such events with #tags at http://tweetgrid.com/ and http://twitterfall.com/. Personally, I prefer http://twitterfall.com/ and will sure be using it more often!

The session was pretty interesting and I think many of us learned couple of new things during that 25mins. Love the spontaneity!

I’ve some thoughts in mind about live blogging. Will post that up in another post sometime next week. It should an interesting piece for discussion.

The other sharing which I’d spent 8.5hours preparing was on “How facebook communities cannot work for your brand?” Again, the session was meant to be a trigger for participants to see and reflect on how they have used facebook and how they can improve and better engage their audience. Perhaps I should have structured my sharing in a more direct and less thought provoking way.

For those who were at my session, mind sharing your thoughts and feedback too? I would love to hear from you. You can drop me a note in the comments or contact me directly.

I did some tweaking with the slides since it’ll probably make less sense to those who wasn’t there. So here I’ve uploaded an updated version with more slides on the thoughts and minus the introduction part about myself.

Here’s some of the reminding people at my sharing…

I will be sharing the full findings from my “How do I facebook?” survey in another post. Perhaps, I might do a Part 2 with some of the questions you all asked that day. If you have any in mind, do share them here too so we can compile and do a “How do I facebook part 2″ together.

As a participant

So how was your Barcamp Singapore 3 experience? Share them here and also help with this simple survey too.

The beauty of social media… more links to follow about Barcamp SG3…

• Speakers slides are available at Slide Share
• Photos from Barcamp SG3 on flickr
• #barcampsg3 on twitter at hashtags
• Join Barcamp Singapore in facebook

Other blog posts on BarcampSG3…

• Barcamp SG 3 – “How to produce & publish your music album online, practically free, without a music production company or distributor” by Ivan
• BarCamp Singapore 3: a truly socially constructed experience by Kevin
• Live from Barcamp: How to bluff your way through an interview on Information Architecture by Brian
• Live Blogging from BarCamp 3 afternoon session by Farinelli
• Barcamp 3 at Singapore by Chin Yong
• Barcamp Signapore 3 by Coleman
• Barcamp Singapore 3 by Minggen
• Barcamp SG 3 by Aaron
• anymore to add to the list?

That’s the end of Barcamp SG3! Next up will be BlogOUT09!!! Have you registered already?? I hope to see you there too!!

Started my blogging journey with them in September last year and had contributed a little ever since. But it sure was an experience that any blogger should at least try once. (Or more because once is never enough with the new facelift!)

Let’s first take a look at the overall view of the new Yesterday.sg…

What do you think of it?

At first look, I already felt that its very familiar and an easy to use and navigate site. The commonly seen content on the left, and sidebars with all other information and links on the right. The top navigation bar leads you to the highlights of the site. If you’re regularly reading blogs, this interface shouldn’t be hard to get used to. But than, the more I look at it, the more I feel that the sidebar on the front page is a little too cluttered.

I showed it to my relatives after our dinner last night, and they were kinda lost surfing the site. Although all of them said its nicely designed but almost all of them just scrolled up and down the first page and didn’t know what to click next. The site only managed to capture less than a minute of their attention. If you’re lost too, why not just check out the following pages I’m recommending here first to orientate yourself.

The Heritage TV (HTV) page

Here’s the video of what goes on behind the scene…

Talkback (aka Forum)

And finally the Gallery

Few more things to share about the website. Two things that attracted me from the sidebar is the “Today in history” and “Did you know” portions.

Like any social media platform, registered users get a profile page. And here’s how mine looks like…

Overall I like the changes and improvements made to the website. Its way much better than the old Yesterday.sg. But still rooms for improvements. Perhaps a admin/backend page too for users who’re not familiar with wordpress.

Like all sites and communities, the next challenge for the team is to build the followings and engage their participants.

All the best to the team!

Go check out the site yourself! And register to take part in the discussions too! Check out Yesterday.sg.