Maverick Indonesia

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?

KCM Community & d’Blog

Have you ever heard about Kompas Cyber Media Community - Indonesia Around The World?

As a subsidiary of Kompas.com, KCM Community is a page dedicated to KCM readers who are scattered in all parts of the world, as stated in their headline: The World Just A Click Away!

In this page, you can view light and crisp article in Kolom Kita, human interests issues in Potret, and discover delicious foods in Mak-Ples (it reminds us to Mak-Nyus’ phrase used by Bondan Winarno in his culinary show as he tasted delicious foods); but Mak-Ples here stands for ‘Makan & Plesiran’ (Eating Out & Travelling).

You can also find other interesting columns here, including Love Talk, Urban Life (by lifestyle expert, Samuel Mulia), and Jalansutra (collection of articles written by Bondan Winarno about his traveling experience).

However, good news for Indonesian bloggers all around the world: KCM Community provides a special column called d’Blog, that provides links and descriptions of Indonesian blogs! To have your blog listed here, you can fill in a form on the bottom of the page, by typing your name, your blog (and its URL), plus giving a short description about your blog.

And… voila! Welcome to the KCM Community’s blogroll!

Budi Putra is no longer in Tempo

Budi Putra, a journalist of Tempo, has no longer worked in the publication. He decided to become an independent writer, specializes in issues on technology for printed and online media abroad.

“I learned a lot during my five years in Tempo”, he says. “Now is the time for me to move ahead and realize two of my passions, which are to be an independent writer and a full time blogger”.

A full time blogger? “Yes, why not? We need someone who is brave enough to declare him/herself as a full-time blogger”, he says. Blog is a new communication tool and sooner or later will become more powerful. “I want to encourage Indonesians to take part in the development of this new tool”.

“Apart from that, now I have more time to enjoy life. FYI, now I’m in Bandung, enjoying a lovely afternoon with my family”, he says. Oowwwhh.. that’s so nice. I envy you, mas Budi!

Although now he’s no longer with Tempo, he will still be a contributor for Tempo’s blog. He’s also actively blogging at CNET Asia, Asia Tech, 3GWeek, The Gadget, Blog Jurnalisme and Indonesia Tech.

Good luck, Mas Budi. All the best for you yaaah!! And please, since now you have more free time, come and visit us at the orange house!

On blog code of ethics

An interesting topic above was discussed last Friday during sharing session with our special guests – Mas ‘Ndoro Kakung’ Wicaksono and Mas Budi Putra from Tempo. Big thanks for these Indonesian leading bloggers for dropping by.

It was really a perfect time for us to have them around since we were really curious on their opinions about blog code of ethics. This was related to one of the Mavericks’ ‘unpleasant’ experience with her recent blog posting about a complaint to an organization.

Through a lively session Mas Budi shared his comment that blog must have certain rule to follow. The fact that blog has become accessible anytime anywhere and by everyone - then the content must be based on the facts that bloggers have experienced. Meaning, not any single of bluffs is allowed!

Important to note that blog is one of the new media for everyone to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings on any issues they are interested in. Thus, bloggers have the absolute rights to voice their opinions and have feedbacks/comments from their links.

A good example brought up was Sun Microsystem case. One of their customers posted his disappointment on the product through blog. Soon after, the CEO of the company replied him by admitting the company’s lack of service and therefore he apologized for the unfortunate condition. He emphasized in a polite way that nothing on this earth are perfect and that would include one of their failed products. Also, he ensured that the same thing wouldn’t happen again in the future.

Yeap, The CEO had successfully made a respective image towards the company! This example reflected the blog power as one of the effective medium for corporate to stay close with customers and be updated on what’s going on with them.

Mainstream Media Enters the Blogosphere

We have sung our praise for Tempo for entering the blogosphere through its Blog Tempo Interaktif recently.

Not only that The Jakarta Post will most likely follow suit, as written by Unspun, I’ve also been told that Bisnis Indonesia is also considering launching a blog. They’re still in the preliminary stage of determining the concept though. Just a thought… Something like what The Age has done is pretty neat.

Anyway, can’t wait to see how it all pans out!

Maverick blog in “Top Ten Blogger Indonesia 2006″

Today’s our first day back to the office and Ong suddenly informed me that Fatih Syuhud has listed our blog in the Top Ten Blogger Indonesia in 2006.

What an honor, and this is quite a New Year’s present for us all. Thanks Fatih!

This is what Fatih wrote:

My friend, Ong Hock Chuan, is the founder of the blog, calls it the Corporate Blog. It’s written collaboratively by all guys in Maverick, a media and PR consultant. I wonder how Ong still has time to blog in between his must-be hectic activities. A good example for any other Indonesian entrepreneurs to learn to get rid of the “I am very busy” culture.

Actually Ong has been more active in his unspun blog than the Maverick blog, but he has been overseeing it as well.

Anyway, Maverick bloggers will be conducting a major activity this month, so make sure that you keep checking in.

Again, happy new year!

A new JAKARTA “AREA” Blog

It’s very nice to find another resource or reference on our beloved city of Jakarta on the blogosphere. It’s also nice to know that this blog is written by professionals (no, not the DKI Jakarta city officials) whose job is to find out everything about this city, with emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment, and also on some current issues like the monorail.

So, we’d like to welcome AREA magazine as they have emerged in the blogosphere, complete with the tagline “I AM JAKARTA”.

AREA Magazine is a free Jakarta community magazine that has actually run for 3 years. In fact, the launch of their blog is also to celebrate this achievement. Why do I call it an achievement? Well, as you already know, after the SIUPP was no longer in effect, the number of publications in Indonesia went really high, much higher than the actual number of readers.

Free magazines are just one of the publications that seemed to have sprung up and filled the racks of coffee shops and restaurants, free for anyone to pick up, take home, and then totally forget about it…. because… well… it’s free.

In its first edition in October 2004, AREA came out with 40 pages of what it called “the obsessive guide to jakarta’s impulsive lifestyle and entertainment”. I guess one of the first tasks of the owners is to prove to the public that setting up this magazine was not just an impulsive thing that they did.

Their move to go into the blogosphere is actually nice. I hope to find some useful information about my city in there. I am sure that soon when I google a topic or a place in Jakarta, that it’s most likely to show up in their page.

However, I’m actually quite bothered by the main page of the blog that looks like it’s one whole magazine crammed into one space. That’s just too much scrolling up and down effort. There’s also a blog entry on recommendation for food joints in Tebet, which is one of the main columns of AREA print magazine, and is a copy of their September issue.

I think they should figure out what they wanna achieve through this blog. We hope they don’t just copy paste everything from the magazine into webspace because that’ll be redundant.

Another question is whether a blog is the right format that they wanna use (in this case, the friendliest for internet users). Do they really want to create conversations or do they just want to have an existence in the cyber world (just because everyone else is blogging)?