Blogscapes

About a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Twitter Writing Contest organised by Copyblogger.

Well, the results of the Twitter Writing Contest are out and posted in Copyblogger’s latest posting.

Alas, yours truly didn’t win the 8GB iPod!

But here are the winning entries, taken from Copyblogger:

First Place:

Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.

Second Place:

Tony was a snitch, so I wasn’t surprised when his torso turned up in the river. What did surprise me, though, was where they found his head.

Third Place:

When Gibson hit that homerun in the fall of eighty-eight, my old man had never been so happy. He hugged me for the first time. I was eleven.

First Honorable Mention:

Happily sobbing she held the boy, her memory of his violent conception falling away. She had learned to love him, this would be her revenge.

Second Honorable Mention:

The priest at the funeral home asked if she had been a loving mother. The children all stared at each other. The silence spoke volumes.

Last year, I wrote a post about racist bloggers in Singapore.

You’d think that after that episode, bloggers would be more careful about what  they blog about. I mean, come on, it would be pretty naive to still hang on to the notion that blogs are for your own eyes only, and that  they have no real consequences beyond the virtual world.

But, just yesterday, another Singaporean blogger has been arrested for putting up a racist blog. The 24 year-old goes by the onscreen moniker, Fragrance Prince.

When I tried to access the Fragrance Prince blog, I was given the message that the blog is only for invited readers. Looks like he’s wised up a little.

Anyway, some other bloggers managed to get hold of his so-called apology on his blog before he restricted access to it, and according to them, this is what Fragrance Prince said,

Quoted from http://fragranceprince.blogspot.com

Sincere Apologies
Dear Readers,

I would like to express my sincere apologies for any misinterpretation to my blog entry.

I regret having mentioned this entry in my blog which I didn’t expect it to turn out to be like this, I should have been more mindful.

Once again, I am sincerely apologetic for the recent events that had happen.

Your’s sincerely,
Franco

Well, apology or no apology, Fragrance Prince’s words have certainly caused a stink on the blogosphere and beyond.

Yesterday, I wrote about Malaysian blogger, Raja Petra being jailed for sedition. Anyway, to follow-up on that post, he’s now agreed to post bail.

And it’s none other than his 54 year-old wife, Marina Lee Abdullah’s words, “I want you back” that helped Raja Petra change his mind. No doubt, his wife is concerned about his welfare and deteriorating health in jail especially when he’s embarked on a hunger strike.

Well, looks like there won’t be a need for any more candle light vigils for him.

Key Malaysian blogger, Raja Petra has been charged for sedition after he wrote an article that suggested that key Malaysian politician, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, is linked to the killing of a Mongolian woman.  The Malaysian blogger has been jailed and has gone on a hunger strike!

According to the article in Today, on April 2001, “Raja Petra and about 10 other opposition activists were rounded up under the Internal Security Act — which allows for detention without trial — for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. He was detained for 52 days, during which he refused food and water”.

Raja Petra is the editor of the Malaysia Today news portal and he was jailed on Tuesday after being charged with sedition over his online article, and his portal is a popular news blog that promotes discussion about Malaysia’s political and social scenes.

He is the first blogger to be charged under the Sedition Act and he has refused to post bail set at RM5,000 ($2,150), choosing to go behind bars till his trial begins on Oct 6, and using his jail time to make a statement. 

This case will be closely watched, especially at a time when society is starting to come to grips with the use of the law on the blogospehere.

The blogosphere is thriving! This is especially so with the number of China’s Internet users hitting new highs. Even in the rurul areas of China,  the numbers surged 127.7% in 2007.

In fact, China has become the fastest-growing Internet population with 221 million online users. This makes it a tie with the number of users in the US. The number has exploded despite the Chinese government’s efforts to curb access to materials they deem as offensive or pornographic. Remember the cute policeman and policewoman policing the Internet and screens of the Chinese online users? Perhaps, it is because of the imposed curbs and censorship that has caused the surge in online use.

This growing number of Internet users is seen as a cause of concern for Chinese officials who feel that users would turn to the Internet for their subversive activities and discussions.

Or perhaps they need not worry so much as many Chinese have turned to the Internet to rally support amongst the Chinese against the pro-Tibet acitivists during the Olympic Torch Relay through the various countries.

Perhaps, the Chinese government would like to take a leaf from the Malaysian government in its about turn in moving from ignoring and criticising the Internet to embracing it. It’s now calling all its members to write blogs and use new media to connect with the electorate and general public. It’s learnt its mistake of not using new media, thus leaving a void for other online discussions to take place without it.

In Singapore, blogs, websites and other new media abound to supplement and complement the news in mainstream media and serve as alternative forms of engagement. 

I do believe that using new media would in a way help to engage with younger voters and members of the public, but new media in itself would not do much - you would still need good, quality content, and online conversations that would be open to all, and of course, an open mind.

I wrote about the singer and star of WE WILL ROCK YOU, MiG Ayesa and his clever use of new media a couple of weeks back. As mentioned then, MiG is on Facebook, Youtube, MySpace - you name it, he’s on it.

Of course, he’s not alone in this. You look at the Facebook pages, and you will see anyone and everyone from David Beckham to Carrie Underwood having their pages and fansites there.

And of course, no person is more of a whiz at drumming up support than a politician! Take a look at the Facebook pages and you will see more links to their other websites, MySpace pages, and more.

Perhaps, not surprising, Obama’s page is ranked number 1 on Facebook, with 772,905 fans as of 15 minutes ago.

Hillary was a few positions lower with 146,816 fans and much lower down is McCain with 112,940 fans.

Hm… I wonder if these pages and the figures represent a microcosm of the larger voting public of America…

obama-vs-hillary-vs-mccain-on-facebook

It seems that the 2-second generation is taking over! Micro-blogging seems all the rage now, with more people using Internet-enabled cellphones to blog while they are on the go, something also known as moblogging (mobile blogging).

I just read the other day about how Twitter is getting more and more popular, and it is now another platform that bloggers need to use to keep their readers updated on what they have posted.

There’s a Twitter guide that you could read to help you get started. It’s really about giving your friends in your Twitter network live updates of what you are doing in as few words as possible!

In a jump-on-the-bandwagon kind of way, I got myself a Twitter account, so don’t be surprised if a you get a little twitter from me!

I’ve been reading the book by Ted Demopoulos entitled “What no one ever tells you about blogging and podcasting”:

The book is a compilation of blogging and podcasting tips that  he’s compiled based on his interviews with successful bloggers and podcasters. Ted Demopoulos is particularly interested in seeing how blogs and podcasts add to the marketing/businesss mix of companies.

I have picked up some interesting tips such as using stats counters like Blog stats and Sitemeter (which I have since added) to help provide more info on the blog’s readership, as well some useful reminders about the need to include links and blogroll.

He also mentions an important point about the need to ‘listen’ to what’s out there in the blogosphere as well. All too often, bloggers are caught up with blogging and tend to forget to read others’ blogs. You can only join in the conversation in the blogosphere by reading, leaving comments or emailing the bloggers, and inviting them to read your blog and leave comments too. Thus, disabling a ‘comments’ feature is a big no-no, according to the author and the people he interviewed.

You can also read more about Ted Demopoulos’ thoughts and musings on technology, business and their intersection in his blog, The Ted Rap.

In the book, the writer also shares some useful blogs to read, and I’ll share some of the useful links here with you:

 Marcom Blog

InfOpinions

Buzzoodle

BlogWrite for CEOs

Practical Blogging

Copyblogger

Bloglogic - news from the blogosphere

SEObook

Podcast Roundtable

Talkr - Letting blogs speak for themselves

It’ll be worth your while to check out the above links!

A few days ago, I blogged about how blogging could be bad for your health. In a way, I have come to realise how true some of the health risks mentioned about blogging are.

On a few occasions recently, I have been online for a few hours straight, blogging, Facebooking, MySpacing, Youtubing and all, and you know when you are online, some times the time just flies by! And sometimes when that happens, I don’t realise that I’ve been stuck in the same position, and you guessed it, major cramps and backache!

And I’m sure that doesn’t even come close to what professional bloggers experience, esp the two bloggers, Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, who died of heart attacks.

There’s good reason for bloggers to take note of blogging hazards and take care.

And that reminds me, time for a vision break and the laptop is starting to cramp my thighs!

I came across this unsettling albeit interesting article on NY Times online” In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop . 

The article talks about professional bloggers who blog away at home almost non-stop as they are paid by the posts, many of whom are suffering. There have been two casualties so far: Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack just two weeks ago, and another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary in December. Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

One common area between them is that they blog about one of the most competitive categories inblogging, which is ”about technology developments and news”. There is a ”vicious 24-hour competition to break company news, reveal new products and expose corporate gaffes”.

Many other bloggers also mention they have ”weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet”.

With more money and influence found online, it looks like this scary trend is set to rise?

Perhaps, there should be a mandatory rest period for time-out and exercise that could be in built into all blog hosts, so that bloggers are reminded to focus on something else every half an hour!