It was a great pleasure for me to represent Laos as a blogger to participate in the ON|OFF event which held in Jakarta, Indonesia Dec 2 – 4, 2011. I had a great experience meeting all those great bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, celebrities and Indonesian community. I express my sincerely thanks for the US Embassy in Vientiane for this valuable opportunity.
It started back in 2007, Pesta Blogger was Indonesia’s first ever blogging conference. Blogging was the main platform to express and share ideas interchangeably. But since then, other platforms, social media for instance, has become a big part of their blogosphere. It’s not only connecting people in social network cyberspace but, as a tool, it helps people’s ideas and expressions to spread even quickly and efficiently to a wider range of targeted viewers. Like Indonesia, social media has become tremendously popular among internet users. The purposes range from creative collaboration, social movements, knowledge and ideas sharing, or simply networking. Thus, the social media scene is very vibrant and dynamic and it has grown significantly across ASEAN region. To keep moving on, the event has changed its name to ON|OFF.
In total, there were bloggers from 9 countries in the region, but unfortunately our fellow from Myanmar cannot come due to his tight work schedule.
On the 3rd of Dec, before going to the event, the US Mission to ASEAN team joined us for breakfast to welcome us and have a casual discussion about the program. After breakfast, we arrived to the ON|OFF event.
We arrived at the main event at Epicentrum Walk Hall. There were approximately 1000 – 1500 participants showed up and I was very nervous and excited, but suddenly got familiarized with the place and the people automatically. Our roles were that we have 2 speaking opportunities, firstly at the main stage which we had short & timed presentations and the second one is the discussion panel where we started talking about our own country’s social media scene and let the audience throw questions to us interactively.
After a long-lasting day at the event, we continuously moved on to cocktail reception hosted by the Ambassador of the United States Mission to ASEAN, David L. Carden and Ms. Rebecca Riley. I have met great people, talked to ambassadors from ASEAN countries and invited guests. The food and drinks were marvelous and the atmosphere was very informal which has made everything look a lot easier.
On the 4th, we attend to a sharing session at @america, located in Pacific Place Mall. The topic for the sharing session is “ASEAN’s Digital Landscape”. We were asked to introduce ourselves and make a brief background about our country’s digital landscape. The interviewed went quite good, we were also questioned from the audience. I enjoyed the program and found the whole program insightful and beneficial in promoting exchange of information in the Southeast Asia region.
Below here are the list of bloggers from ASEAN region
Muhamad Reeda Malik | Brunei Darussalam | Http://Anakbrunei.Com.Bn/
Reeda is the founder and Manager of #Brunei Channel on an Internet Relay Chat Network called the Undernet, which is one of the largest real-time chat networks in the world, with approximately 45 servers connecting over 35 countries and serving more than 100,000 people weekly. He is also founder of anakbrunei.org, a popular Bruneian photoblog with social commentary on the current events related to Brunei Darussalam and Bruneians both at home and abroad. Contributing writer from Brunei Darussalam for cnet Asia technology blog, Kurapak Teknologi.
Kounila Keo | Cambodia | Http://Blueladyblog.Com/
Kounila is a graduate of Media & Communication at the Department of Media & Communication at Royal University of Phnom Penh. She has been freelancing for Agence France Presse and some international media publications since 2008. So far, she has attended workshops and conferences on traditional and new media in Asia and Europe. When she does not write, Kounila blogs prolifically about Cambodia at Www.Blueladyblog.Com. New media is her newly-found passion.
Iman Usman |Indonesia | Http://Imanusman.Com/
Iman is a 2nd year student of Universitas Indonesia majoring International Relations. His passion in social activism and community development takes him to lead Indonesian Future Leaders and Youth Parliament Indonesia. In his spare time, he also actively contributes to promote ASEAN Community as ASEAN-Indonesia Youth Ambassador. In the beginning of 2011, his blog was named as the 1st winner of Microsoft Bloggership 2011 Competition, and he is invited to New York as one of Recipients of Global Teen Leaders 2011 by We Are Family Foundation.
Sounay Phothisane |Laos | Http://Blog.Sounay.Com/
Sounay is a website design freelancer who loves to dedicate his time and effort on building websites, blogging, and utilizing social media for the Lao community. Besides being a temporally employed specialist lecturing in Mahasarakham Business School in Thailand, he has contributed to his talents by promoting Laos to the social online community. He has published websites relating to Laos and its rich culture,VientianeHour.Com.
Marcus van Geyzel | Malaysia | Http://Www.Loyarburok.Com/
LoyarBurok.com is the only community blawg in the known universe. In 2006, Lord Bobo Barnabus, the Wonder Typewriting Monkey, mind-controlled several homo sapiens with the Lord’s awesome powers of telepathy and got them to start LoyarBurok, to provide a forum for everyone with an interest in anything and who do not wish to take themselves too seriously – to pontificate (with their tongues firmly lodged in their cheek) on frivolous issues such as those concerning the state of the world, human rights, government, legal profession, judicial system; and to to create awareness and activism on issues of concern such as to help redress violations of human and animal rights, and to seek improvements in the way they order and structure their lives. Continuing their quest for world domination, there are now more than 300 LoyarBurok writers from around the world, steered by more than 20 faithful editorial MastHead minions. LoyarBurok has also birthed on-the-ground activities, advocating human rights and justice.
Flow Galindez | Philippines | Http://Angsawariko.Com/
Flow is a blogger and a proud advocate of UN World Food Programme, WFP’s Philippine Connector and advocates causes like climate change and HIV/ AIDS awareness, education, child and women’s rights. He blogs about various topics, such as advocacy, entertainment, events, lifestyle, news, tech and gadgets, movies and theaters and foodie stuff.
Zheng “William” Wei | Singapore | Http://T.Qq.Com/Zhengwei_
William is the online editor / Assistant Vice President for Zaobao – the largest Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper. In 1994, the newspaper launched its online version, Zaobao.com, and today it serves a a news portal that also draws news from other parts of the region. William developed this online news portal even more, increasing its pageviews more than 5 times since he took over, and brought Zaobao to win “Best Print Media Website” for 3 consecutive years.
Arthit Suriyawongkul | Thailand | Http://Bact.Cc/
He’s an avid blogger from Thailand, and is very active in promoting freedom of expression, and creative commons in Thailand’s social media sphere. He is a Pedestrian-in-Residence at Opendream, Coordinator for Thai Netizen Network and also a board member of Creative Commons Thailand that works in providing licenses for creative works on the internet. He’s working in the areas of ICT for developments, internet freedom, journalism, and information rights. Right now he’s approaching his final year as a graduate anthropology student. Traveling regularly in Southeast Asia.
Tai Tran | Vietnam | Http://Www.Taitran.Vn/
Tai blogs about finance, investment, fund management as that is his passion. He has three-years experience as Business Consultant and Analyst. He’s also a Funds Management postgraduate with top score and scholarship. Possesses solid domain knowledge of Technology. He has been blogging about his area of expertise since 2002.
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