Mindanao Bloggers

BlogFest.Asia, the first-ever pan-Asia bloggers’ conference, became a venue for introducing the Mindanao Bloggers Community to the world. Put together by the DotAsia Organisation (the registrar for .asia domain names) in Hong Kong from 6 to 8 November 2009, 3 Filipinos were present at BlogFest.Asia to provide the audience with primers on the Philippine blogosphere. (Actually there were 4 Filipinos there, but the fourth one was invited as the representative of Creative Commons – Asia.) It was the experience of Mindanao’s bloggers, however, that really got the attention of many of the participants.

There were delegates from all over Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, mainland China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar. Conference participants were bloggers, new media watchers and influencers, even traditional media practitioners. A number of the participants became very interested in the Mindanao Bloggers experience, especially in the area of community building, after I delivered my Peace Initiatives through Blogging presentation (see below).

The gist of my talk was to showcase the fast-growing community of bloggers across Mindanao, and the objectives of the MBC. I related to the BlogFest.Asia audience that the point of our existence was not to help achieve peace, but to show the world that there is peace in Mindanao. That Mindanao is a vibrant place with a variety of cultures, traditions, histories and peoples. Interestingly, it was the process of community building that shone through for the BlogFest particpants.

In fact, community building became one of the birds-of-a-feather discussions on the second day. The Vietnamese delegates, in particular, were very interested in the Mindanao experience because, apparently, the idea of organized bloggers doesn’t seem to sit well with their government. Delegates from other countries also expressed varying degrees of difficulty in building bloggers’ communities due to government repression.

Another salient issue that seemed to be common to many was the problem of censorship, most outstanding of which is the ‘Great Firewall of China.’ Delegates from the People’s Republic related to us how challenging it was for bloggers and users of social networking services to attain freedom of speech in a repressive regime. And yet, China has, according to one of the speakers, millions of bloggers.

I was joined by Juned Sonido and Tonyo Cruz at BlogFest.Asia. Juned and I were recommended to the organizers by the Mozilla Foundation, Tonyo by GlobalVoices Online. Juned was supposed to have delivered an update on the Philippine blogosphere, but due to time constraints was not able to; he was, however, able to contribute during the ensuing discussions. Tonyo gave a very inspiring presentation on the contribution of bloggers to society when Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines.

During my stay in Hong Kong, I was able to touch base with a couple of non-profit organizations that could become partners of the Mindanao Bloggers Community in its endeavor to achieve its goals. Also, I was able to invite them, as well as the BlogFest delegates, to join us in Zamboanga City for the 4th Mindanao Bloggers Summit. It would really be a welcome and exciting development should our annual Summit become an international event in 2010!

MBC’s presence at BlogFest was, I believe, an opening salvo. There will certainly be more opportunities for us to become involved in more international events. Aside from the recognition that this brings to the Community, our participation in such events brings goodwill to Mindanao, and deeper appreciation of the beauty of our beloved island.

BlogFest.Asia was the first of its kind in the region. Kudos to the organizers and hosts for a wonderful and eye-opening experience! Hopefully there will be a second pan-Asian bloggers conference in another Asian city next year!

Possibly related posts:

1. Communicators’ forum for peace
2. Blogging for peace initiative
3. The 3rd Summit
4. Poll: to BB or not to BB
5. MB Summit resolutions