You asked for it, so now you have it!

We ran a poll asking you if you wanted to have a bulletin board for Mindanao Bloggers, and "Yes" won.

The Mindanao Bloggers Forum is now online at www.mindanaobloggers.org.

It’s still very, very new. In fact I’m still popping the bubble wrap! Meaning, there’s not much in there yet but two forums for suggestions and for complaints. Please feel free to make use of the first (the second, well, I don’t think you’d have anything to complain about… unless we take too long to finish the boards!)

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Here’s the list of the top 100 Mindanao Blogs for 2007. The list was taken from the registered blogs found in the Mindanao Blog Directory. The blogs’ ranking were based on the data taken from technorati and feedburner.

To the authors of the following blogs, congratulations!

1. http://www.alleba.com/blog
2. http://www.mindanao.com/blog
3. http://www.jehzlau-concepts.com
4. http://www.batangyagit.com
5. http://www.vinceleste.com
6. http://spaceofinfluence.blogspot.com
7. http://blog.jammedph.com
8. http://aclworld.blogdrive.com
9. http://www.dotastrategy.com
10. http://ptlavina.wordpress.com [Read on»]

The winners of the You Got Blogged! DigitalFilipino.com / MindanaoBloggers.com Review-a-Blog Competition are as follows:

• FIRST PRIZE: A Councilor Who Makes a Difference by Rey Ian Corpuz
• SECOND PRIZE: Mandaya Moore-Orlis: Blogged Beyond Humor by Caesar Balatero
• THIRD PRIZE: PRC Board Exam Results by Conrad Miguel Gozalo

Congratulations to our winners!!!

And congratulations to those bloggers whose blogs got blogged! You will also receive a special prize from us. We will e-mail the winners and bloggers regarding their prizes.

We’d like to thank all those who participated in and supported the YGB! online event. Hopefully in future MindanaoBloggers activities, we’ll be as successful as the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit!

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to DigitalFilipino’s Janette Toral, who sponsored the YGB! contest. To keep yourself abreast of the goings-on in Philippine I.T., join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!

The You Got Blogged! review-a-blog competition is now concluded. No more entries will be accepted. As of midnight today, we have 22 entries. Please click here to view them.

Thank you very much to all the bloggers who participated in this event! And thanks are also in order to our sponsor, the DigitalFilipino Club.

Please watch out for the announcement of the winners on 21 December 2007.

Good news to all bloggers from South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City! You guys now have your very own blog aggregator site — www.minsur.net.

Recently, Avel Manansala of General Santos expressed an interest to promote the blogs of South-Central Mindanao (hence, minsur.net), and ultimately, to make known to the world what’s going on in this region. After discussing at length, we arrived at the decision to create a blog aggregator site, just like what Davao has had for nearly a year now. [Read on»]

The You Got Blogged! review-writing competition is on its final stretch. Deadline for submission of entries is on 14 December 2007. We will accept entries up to 11:49 PM of that day. So far, we have 19 reviews on the list.

You have 5 days to join and get a chance to win $150!

Lately, I’ve been getting some requests to put up a Bulletin Board for the Mindanao Bloggers community. While it might be a good idea, other people think it’s overkill. We do have our mailing list already, you know… Still, a bulletin board (a.k.a. forum) is a proven way of building an online community.

So, to settle the issue, I’m running a simple survey right here. On our sidebar, you’ll notice a new poll running: Who Wants to Have a Bulletin Board Here? Click on “Me” if you want us to install and maintain a forum on this site; or choose “Not Me” if you think it’s just a waste of bandwidth. (Don’t forget to click on the VOTE button!)

Let’s have the poll up until we have a good number of respondents already.

The Mindanao Blog Directory has breached the 200-link mark and, as of this writing, now has 207 blogs listed!

That’s 207 blogs to choose from for your entries in the You Got Blogged! blog review competition.

The purpose of MindanaoBloggers.com — as well as that of MBS1’s and the You Got Blogged! contest’s — is to get the word out about the blogs and bloggers of Mindanao. The desired net effect is the improved image of our beloved island.

Another way that we can achieve our objective is to feature Mindanao blogs right here. Take a look at the sample feature below. If you’d like to be featured here, please fill out this form.

Only blogs that are listed in the Mindanao Blog Directory will be featured. So if yours isn’t listed yet, go right ahead and submit your blog! [Read on»]

Fellow Mindanao bloggers! As promised, the Summit Resolution is now published for everyone to read and accept or reject. Please view the document here. Since we’re bloggers, let’s seal the Resolution with our marks by way of comments. A simple “I agree” or “I do not agree” will suffice — but nobody’s stopping you from getting creative.

It was really a pleasure and an honor to have met so many bloggers. The registration list showed a tally of around 90-something attendees, not including The Usual Suspects and the resource speakers. Pretty impressive for a first major event! I really look forward to MBS2! I hope that, by then, we will have seen the fruits of MBS1 come to bear.

The MBS1 e-Tickets have now been sent out to all the bloggers who have complied with the posting requirement. If you have posted your “I’m going to the Mindanao Bloggers Summit” article on your blog, and you haven’t received your e-Ticket yet, please contact us and include in your message the URL of your post.

I noticed that some of the emails bounced. This might be a reason why you haven’t received your e-Ticket yet. If you feel this is so, please contact us and include your correct email address.

If you haven’t posted the required article yet, please do so as soon as possible. Once done, please send us the full URL of the post via this contact form. Here’s another example of the required post.

It’s less than a week to go before the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit!! We’re all excited already, and a bit nervous…

One gimmick we’re thinking of doing is to have a number of bloggers introduce their blogs on stage during the break between talks. There will be about 4 spots for this. The organizers will do a random selection of which bloggers get to present. On the day itself, during the Summit, these chosen bloggers will be called upon by Migs, our emcee.

This is a good way to get your blogs noticed! So if I were you, I’d prepare a brief presentation, just in case. We’ll have a projector and Internet over there, so no need to make slides. You’ll be given two minutes to present your blog. If you do it right, that’s just enough time to get your message across.

See you in Davao!!!

The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit is just over a week away, folks!!

We need volunteers. Davao-based bloggers who can spare the time and energy, we’d sure appreciate it if you could help us run this event. So far, I’ve gotten the commitment of Winston [Batang Yagit] and Christian [tianx project]. Thanks, guys!

Volunteers will help in the registration and venue management. There will be a meeting for all volunteers and organizing team members early next week. I’ll announce this via our mailing list.

I hope we get a good number of generous souls to give us a helping hand!

I got this from my friend, Sarah Matalam:

The BIGGEST JOB FAIR in Mindanao, aptly called “Career Gateways 2007“, is happening soon. The caravan will kick off at the SM Entertainment Center in Davao City on October 17, and at the KCC Convention Hall in General Santos City on October 19.

“Career Gateways” is organized and hosted by JIB e-Academy, with the participation of nine different call center partners in Cebu and Manila, such as SIX-ELEVEN GLOBAL SERVICES, E-TELECARE, TELETECH, SYKES, VIVENTIS, e-PLDT VENTUS, TELEPERFORMANCE, ADVANCED CONTACT SOLUTIONS and CALLBOX. We will be inviting all graduating students and applicants who are interested in taking a bold step in the BPO industry.

So come on over and bring multiple copies of your résumé and get hired on the spot!! Tara na!!

What do these three have in common: Swiss Deli, Café Prego, Picobello Ristorante Italiano?

Well, aside from being excellent F&B establishments in Davao, they are all owned by Signor e Signora Venuti and their partners. And, they’re now sponsors of the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit!

Swiss Deli is a restaurant in Lanang, and they make their own sausages, cold cuts and pastries. Recently, they’ve added a new wing, which also has a wine cellar with an enviable selection of wines and spirits. Café Prego is in Gaisano South Citimall in downtown Davao. It’s a nice little coffee shop with good coffee and good company. Picobello Ristorante Italiano, also in Gaisano South, offers some of the best pizzas you can find in the city. Afternoons you can buy one and get another pizza for free!

These three places don’t have their own website yet, so I’m going to make them one. And since they’d like their site to be one that can immediately display their offerings and events, I’ve offered to create a blog for them, using WordPress. More on that later!

Romano & Rochelle, grazie molto! Danke schön!