Maverick Indonesia

Pak Menteri: “Dijawil saja…”

Whether you agree with the Indonesian Government’s actions in the Web, or not, you have to give it to Communications and Information Minister Muhammad Nuh.

Last week he was sitting on a couple of potentially explosive issues: the Government’s decision to block YouTube and other social networks because of the Dutch film on Islam called Fitna, and the passage of the Electronic Transaction Law UU ITE).

On a more minor scale, but perhaps more emotional because it is closer to the heart, was the fact that Bloggers were unhappy about Roy Suryo, the President’s technology advisor who has been responsible of a string of comments that bloggers felt were misleading and harmful to the image of bloggers in Indonesia.

So on Monday he called for a dialogue session with some of the more well-known and active bloggers in the country. (more…)

Why do you blog?

If you have a personal blog, but you do not know for sure why you blog in the first place, that’s forgiven. But as a corporation, you need to answer this question before you wade into the blogosphere. You need to be clear whether you want to better communicate with your customers, to market your product/services, to become an opinion leader in your industry or for some other purpose.

When you set up a corporate blog, you have to be aware that the blog will represent your company–as well as your company’s reputation. Thus, ideally, a corporate blog should reflect or portray the characteristics of the company you’re working at. Is it fun? Is it conservative? Cool or elegant? Open or closed?

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An Email from Singapore About PR and Blogging

Today, we have just received an interesting email about our blog from a Singaporean student, Yun Ying Sim:

Hi!
Thank you for your prompt reply!
I’m actually a student from Singapore and I see that you guys are a cool group of people. It is indeed very cool to see a PR firms blogging! It’s like blogging and PR is such a sensitive topic after the whole walmart-edelman incident. PR firms in Singapore are still quite apprehensive towards using Blogging as a PR tool.
Is it like that in Indonesia? Are clients open to using blogging as a form of PR?
Cheers!

Thanks, for thinking we’re cool Ying Sim!

Yes, we are aware that some PR firms and companies are sensitive about blogging.

But, as our name suggests, we are mavericks and why we blog is because we’re that type of company that is open, eager to engage people, clients, journalists and anyone else interested in public relations, Indonesia and communications in general.

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Toyota Luncheon

 

Apparently, companies in Indonesia have started to discover the potential of the blogosphere. Last Wednesday afternoon (20-Feb-08), several prominent bloggers including Ndoro Kakung, Paman Tyo, Unspun, and Media Ide Bajing Loncat were invited to a blogger’s luncheon by Toyota. During the luncheon, Achmad Rizal, Dept. Head of Communication Dept. of Toyota Astra Motor revealed their plan to launch the new Corolla Altis by February 28, 2008. (more…)

Another Blog-celebrity?

Rangga Wardhana, a blogger from Purwokerto, has become a perfect example on how the blogosphere can turn you into a celebrity, in a positive or negative way, in a split second.

Rangga has published ‘stolen’ active credit card records he hacked, and posted the information in his blog—making the data available for everyone and making him the new celebrity in the blogosphere.

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Pesta Blogger 2007!

I was given the task to blog about Pesta Blogger 2007, the nationwide gathering of bloggers that attracted about 400 bloggers and 100 guests on November 27. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to this task done until now because of work commitments. I know, I know, it’s a little bit late in the day for such a posting but better late than never. Besides Priyadi has just completed the audit report and posted it on pestablogger.com, and that puts a bit of finality on it enabling me to relax since I was one of the team members from Maverick charged with seeing to the smooth running of the event. So here goes my account:

Saturday, October 27th, 2007 was blessed with bright sunshine. We could all see it from the huge windows of Blitz Megaplex which is on the 8th floor of Grand Indonesia. Our team was there by 8am. Shortly afterwards we had one or two enthusiastic participants showing up way ahead of everyone else wanting to claim their Entry Code or reservations to attend and enjoy Pesta Blogger 2007.

 

Registration desk was filled by big smiling faces of Maverick staff, helping out in giving out 500 goodie bags.

By opening time at 11am the place was already packed with bloggers, some lining up to claim their reservations while others who had been registered took the opportunity to meet fellow bloggers, introduce themselves to new ones and take lots of photos together.

Shortly after 11 am the bloggers were asked to enter the auditorium where the event’s main activities would be held. Inside, State Minister for Information and Communication of the Republic of Indonesia, Muhammad Nuh gave an opening ceremony speech and officially made October 27th as National Bloggers Day.

 

 

This was followed by a talk show hosted by Wimar Witoelar and four panelists: Budi Putra, Enda Nasution, Mohammad Nuh, and Adrianto Gani. These icons of the blogosphere, I believe, are very concerned about the future of blogging in Indonesia. Bravo!

One of the highlights of the event was the interactive voting for the participants’ favorite blogs in different categories, namely online marketing and sales, women issues, technology, personal blogging, celebrity blogs, current issues, bridge blogging ( blogs that are written in English so that the wider world has an alternative window to the happenings in Indonesia) and the New Blogger Award, for those who have started blogging in the past six months. From 216 Indonesian blogs that were nominated by Indonesian bloggers, three top blogs from each category made it to the shortlist where the participants at Pesta Blogger 2007 get to vote their favorites.

After lunch, there were the breakout sessions hosted by well-known bloggers. Many of the groups had quite impassioned discussions and virtually the only complaint about the breakout sessions was that they were too short.Finally, the bloggers trooped back to the auditorium for the finale of the event, which comprised a summary of points discussed in the breakout sessions, followed by the announcement of the winners of the favorite blog categories. The winners were:

1. Online marketing and sales category: Media Ide Bajing Loncat
2. Women’s issues category: Fashionese Daily
3. Technology blog category: Ilmu Komputer.com
4. Personal blog category: Istri Bawel
5. Celebrity blog category: Jennie S. Bev
6. Current issues category: Perspektif. net
7. Bridge blogging category: Enda Nasution
8. New blogger award: Lidya Wangsa

Each received a certificate, and on the hand it was only Lidya Wangsa who received Nokia N73 Music Edition.

Here’s a few interesting comments or reviews from bloggers who attend Pesta Blogger 2007 that I found on the blogosphere: Priyadi on his personal blog, priyadi.net wrote: “Yang menarik dari sini adalah diketahui bahwa salah satu peserta berasal dari Poso dan tidak bisa kembali lagi karena kehabisan uang. Di akhir sesi salah satu sponsor memberikan tiket kembali supaya yang bersangkutan bisa kembali lagi ke tempat asalnya.”

One of the sponsors, XL Business Solutions jumped to their aid and agreed to pay their return passage.

There were also many bloggers who came from other cities to show their existence in the blogger community. They are Angkringan (Yogyakarta) , Anging Mammiri (Makasar), Go Ranah Minang (Padang), loenpia.net (Semarang), and Bali blog community who unfortunately could not attend by they did send felicitations to pestablogger.com.
Another interesting comment was from Rendy Maulana who wrote on www.rendymaulana.com “Seharusnya acara ini masuk MURI, karena ini merupakan acara blogger terbesar sepanjang perjalanan Blog di Indonesia, Suara Baru, pemersatu dari berbagai komunitas yang ada di Internet, apakah panitia mau mengklaim ini sebagai acara terbesar kepada Muri ?” This is sounds like a great suggestion.

And last, I found this one very unique yet impressive: Cak Andry wrote on Human vs Machine PestaBlogger 2007: “Pesta Blogger 2007 is a lot like having sex for the 1st time. You’re excited but you don’t really know what the hell you’re doing. And some way, one way or another, it’s over too fast.” There were other many interesting reviews from bloggers, I just couldn’t fit all here.

Thank you for the support and participation to make the national-scale blogger gathering a reality. Pesta Blogger is organized by Maverick together with Bubu Internet and is supported by the Ministry of Communications and Information. The main sponsors are Microsoft Indonesia, Nokia Indonesia, and XL Business Solutions. The media partners are Kompas Cyber Media, Koran Tempo, The Jakarta Post, and O Channel.

By: Finnie

Pesta Blogger 2007–officially launched!

Finally, we have officially launched Pesta Blogger 2007 yesterday in Anomali Coffee, Jakarta Selatan. Though lots of bloggers in the blogosphere have discussed about this gathering for quite a while, yesterday’s briefing was very alive with questions and discussions generated by our journalist friends.

For those of you who haven’t heard about this event, Pesta Blogger 2007 is the 1st national-scale blogger gathering in Indonesia that will be held on October 27, 2007.

The theme is “Suara Baru Indonesia”, whereby we’d like to celebrate the birth of a new generation (bloggers) who have used a new media (blog) to express their thougths in a new paradigm (that is more informal, personal, and opinionated), and have started to form an influential role over the Net.

Thanks to Enda Nasution as the Chairman of Pesta Blogger 2007 and all steering committee members: Budi Putra, Fatih Syuhud, Lita Mariana, Nukman Luthfie, Priyadi, Ratna Ariyanti (Atta), Wicaksono, Wimar Witoelar, and Yosef Ardi who have shaped-up Pesta Blogger 2007; also to Bubu Internet as co-organizer, Depkominfo, Nokia Indonesia, Microsoft Indonesia, The Jakarta Post, Koran Tempo, and Kompas Cyber Media, that have fully supported this event.

For more information about this upcoming bloggers’ celebration, please do visit the official blog pestablogger.com regularly.

Let’s celebrate our ‘voices’, bloggers!

*image (up) courtesy of Ndoro Kakung

Jakarta And Blogging

A new post on Enda Nasution’s blog mentioned that according to Businessweek.com, Jakarta is on par with cities like Beijing, Mumbai, and Philadelphia as one of the top 30 cities in the world for blog postings and comments activities. So I went to the website — and it’s true! It’s sad, however, that we still lost out to Singapore, but I agree with one of the comments on Enda’s blog: This is mostly due to the unavailability of cheap internet connection, even in Jakarta.

This little information is interesting, especially in the face of the current controversy about the proposed amendments to Press Law No. 40 (1999). Could it be that the prospect of a less-than-independent mass media little by little drives away consumers from the mainstream Press to the more independently written blogs? Or is this simply because a growing number of audiences feel that the mainstream media no longer sufficiently fulfills their need of information?

In any case this proves that blogs, online message boards, and mailing lists represent a growing trend of direct opinion forming and delivery, as more people take their cue from what they read in this media which is uncontrolled (or shall we say unrestrained) by conventional yokes, formulate their own opinions, then post it again in the same media, further influencing others at a rate that television and newspapers never even dreamt of. Something to think about, right?