Mindanao Bloggers

We now have 5 entries in the You Got Blogged! competition. Here they are:

Review on “Alternat1ve Energy”

This is the very first submission, written by Victor Uba, who reviewed Marc Javellana’s alternative-energy blog.

Review : New*Davao A city arises

Doris Calceña reviewed Shealthiel Oczon’s blog, which forms part of a growing number of blogs that aim to promote the city of Davao.

Mandaya Moore-Orlis:Blogged and Reviewed

A review by Jessica Madrazo of the unapologetically gay blog of Mandaya Moore, who will remain anonymous… for now. (By the way, can anyone guess why Mandaya’s “married” name is Orlis?)

You Got Blogged: Jemme

Itanong Mo Kay Jemme is a blog that is entertainingly informative. Review by Winston Almendras.

My Review on Wyzemoro Blogs

Hector Miñoza provides a fresh perspective on the often intense nature of Jun Macarambon’s Wyzemoro blog.

Nine (9) more weeks to go for the You Got Blogged! Review-a-Blog competition! I’d like to invite more people to come and join this review-writing project. Help us get the word out about the blogs of Mindanao.

Our contest sponsor: Join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!

MindanaoBloggers.com’s sidebar space was getting kinda crowded, so I decided to take the site navigation links out to free up some precious real estate. Those links are now in the header area, right below the title.

You’ll notice there’s now a third badge at the top of the sidebar. It’s for the Mindanao Blog Awards. How do you like the logo? It was designed by Andrew, who turns out to have skills not only in programming, but in graphics design as well! We chose the vinta as the representative symbol of the Mindanao Blog Awards because it is one image that is instantly recognizable as “Mindanao” anywhere in the country.

We now have 5 entries to the You Got Blogged! DigitalFilipino.com / MindanaoBloggers.com Review-a-Blog Competition (the first one listed is not an entry — it’s just a sample). And to date, we have more than 80 blogs already submitted in the Mindanao Blog Directory, all available for review!

We’re trying to get more Mindanao blogs listed in the Directory. There are still quite a number of provinces with no listings. I’m happy to announce, though, that we’ve just had our first blog submissions from Sultan Kudarat and from Zamboanga City. Davao City has the most number of blogs registered, but I’m surprised that there are only 2 from Cagayan de Oro City (Misamis Oriental). When I was there last June, I had the impression that there were more bloggers out there — for one, they do have more SEO practitioners there than in Davao.

It’s the first of August, and it’s the opening day of the You Got Blogged! DigitalFilipino.com / MindanaoBloggers.com Review-a-Blog Competition. Here’s an overview of the steps necessary to participate in this blog contest.

Step 1

• Browse the Mindanao Blog Directory, and choose a blog that you’d like to review.

Step 2

• Write a 300- to 400-word review of the blog you’ve chosen. Be thorough yet concise. You may use English, Tagalor or Visayan (Cebuano) to write your review.

• Don’t forget to cite the source! Link to the blog you are reviewing from your post.

Hello everybody!

We’re running a one-of-a-kind blogging contest right here, and absolutely everyone is invited to participate! It’s called You Got Blogged! DigitalFilipino.com / MindanaoBloggers.com Review-a-Blog Competition. Quite a mouthful, yes, but so are the prizes! We’re giving away US$150 for the first prize… but this just might be for starters!

This competition will involve bloggers reviewing other people’s blogs. The catch is, only blogs listed in the Mindanao Blog Directory may be chosen for review. Our purpose here is to promote a wider awareness of Mindanao’s blogs, thereby increasing understanding of the island’s various and variegated cultures.

So what are you waiting for?? Head on to the competition announcement page now!

Calling all Mindanao bloggers! Submit your blogs to the Directory and have your blogs reviewed! Blog owners, whose blog reviews win, will also win prizes!

Special mention also for Jehz Laurente, once again, for creating the “You Got Blogged!” badge that you see on the competition page. Thanks Jehz!

We’d like to thank our very generous sponsor for this competition, the DigitalFilipino Club — the country’s most progressive and most forward-thinking I.T. organization. Join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!

After taking into account several salient considerations surrounding the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit and the 6th Mindanao ICT Congress, the MBS1 organizing team has unanimously decided to set the Summit’s date on 27 October 2007 (Saturday). This is final. We apologize if this slight flip-flopping with the Summit’s event date has caused confusion or conflict.

So let’s move forward!

The program is steadily filling to the brim! We just might make the Summit a whole-day affair, instead of just a half day. There’s still time, however, for you to request for more talks — if you’d like to see more topics, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do!

It’s official. The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit (MBS1) will now be held on 20 October 2007 (this is also a Saturday). This is in keeping with the decision of the people behind the Mindanao ICT Congress to move all the events a week earlier.

We, the organizers of MBS1, sincerely apologize to anyone who might have already made arrangements to come to Davao for an October 27th event. Hopefully you will still be able to make it to the Summit.

On a positive note, we will be running an MBS1-related contest! Watch out for the announcement on this blog!

The Mindanao Bloggers Summit, as has been mentioned before, is part of the larger 6th Mindnaao ICT Congress (MICT). As such, the Summit will stand to benefit from the promotions and marketing that the MICT organizers will do. However, it is apparently also under the mercy of the same organizers’ decisions.

This week, the MICT steering committee decided to move the Congress from 23-24 October, to 19-21 October. The reason? The week 22-27 October will see many IT- and non-IT-related events, such as the Davao Trade Expo, so that the MICT might not get the attention that it deserves.

Hey there, bloggers of Mindanao!! Here’s yet another directory for you to submit your blogs to — right here on MindanaoBloggers.com. Just click on the Blog Directory link on the sidebar and you’re good to go!

The Directory is arranged by region, and then by province (which lists all the towns and/or cities within its jurisdiction). The categories do not necessarily pertain to your blog’s content. Please submit your blog(s) according to your place of birth or where you’re generally blogging from. But it’s up to you, really.

No, I’m not talking about this baby blog of ours. The Mindanao blog, if there ever was one, is Bob Martin’s and none other. Although he’s American and has been living here less than a decade, Bob has been to more places in Mindanao than most of us! Check out his Lakbayan map: you’ll see he’s covered more than 80% of the country’s 2nd largest island already. (Some of us were astounded when, one day, he showed us photos of his trip to Tawi-Tawi!)

What I appreciate the most in the Mindanao blog is that it’s honest, down-to-earth and very today. Reading Bob’s posts, I can see how much he cares about how the world perceives his adoptive home. We all know the bad image the world holds of Mindanao (due in large part to unfair and incomplete reportage); they’re not all untrue, but the bad press has certainly been more damaging than the real deal. The Mindanao blog balances this — dare I say, cancels out the negative publicity?

For the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit this coming October, the organizers have finalized the Sponsorship Packages during the meeting earlier this evening. The web page that details the sponsorship opportunities also contains a link to the Sponsor’s Pledge Form.

The Summit, which aims to gather bloggers from all over the island of Mindanao, will involve rather heavy logistics and other financial considerations. In order to defray the cost of organizing this potentially historic event, we would like to appeal to your generosity. We hope that you will find it in your heart to assist us in our endeavor.

The Program of Activities has also been updated. Please check it out!

What an auspicious day! Lucky 7 three times over!

And the day indeed augurs well for MindanaoBloggers.com as the blog welcomes the contribution of Carlo Lamason, a.k.a. Ar-wee-der-yet. Carlo has a travel blog with the same monicker, and I suggest you go check it out because it’s one entertaining series of travelogues.

Like myself, Carlo wanted to be a pilot since he’s fascinated with aeronautics, but says he’s now contented to be a passenger. Which is a good thing for us, because now he gets to blog about his various travels! Hailing from Las Piñas, I thought I’d invite Carlo (even though he’s not a Mindanaoan) to provide his own unique insight on Mindanao destinations and culture for this blog. A fresh, from-someone-outside-looking-in kind of perspective.

OK. I’ll allow Ar-wee-der-yet to let us in on his character himself. Hopefully, he’ll be with us physically during the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit.

Here are more updates to this blogsite. I’ve removed the blogroll from the sidebar as it’s starting to grow a really long tail now… hehehe! So, the list of blogs is now on its own page: www.mindanaobloggers.com/blogroll (the link to this page can be found at the top of the sidebar).

For now, only the contributors to this site, as well as The Usual Suspects, will be allowed to have their blogs linked / displayed in the blogroll. In the near future, we’ll come up with a more link-love-friendly way to accommodate more Mindanao bloggers! But if you’d like to contribute now, do let us know via the Contact Form.

An image link to the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit Information Page is now on the sidebar, courtesy of Jehz Laurente (who also created the site’s link badge).

More updates in the coming weeks!

Aileen Apolo, Google Philippines Country Consultant, will be in Davao City again for another round of seminars for the benefit of SMEs, SEO practitioners and bloggers. This time, however, particular emphasis will be placed on schools. Aileen has previously touched base with students and faculty during her last visit in March. But this time, she will meet with schools in order to apprise IT admins and students on the wonders of Google Apps.

Aileen will be in Davao from 29 June to 2 July 2007. For the schedule of activities, please check out the I.T. Talks! blog.

I’m in Cagayan de Oro! My friend Rodney has a speaking engagement here, for the Northern Mindanao ICT Summit tomorrow, and I tagged along for the purpose of touching base with Honey Caragos and other bloggers in this city. I thought I’d take this chance to promote the upcoming Mindanao Bloggers Summit.

In the picture are (from left): Mito Pontillas; Chepay Estorgio; Amelia Belocura; Runel Pequiro (an SEO practitioner here); Charlie Tablada; Blogie and Honey.

Chepay was saying that there are more Cagayan de Oro bloggers. Great! I hope many of them will join the Summit in October.