2007: Year of the new bloggers

I've been pondering lately on how this year went for the local blogging community. Of course, there were several major events here and there but all I could say is that the last half of the year indeed has shown us that bloggers, even if they are just new or not your usual high-profile ones, can make a difference online. Here are some examples:

1. Aileen who just had her blog anniversary is known for organizing the very successful Taste Asia 1 and Taste Asia 2 events. Her capability to influence traditional businesses like SM has awaken other establishments to take this community seriously.
   
   
2. Not all contest can be just about prizes. Even the uncanny can attract attention and that is what Paolo's Pinoy Evil Blog Awards did. Today, Paolo is transforming himself as a self-sustaining blogger and his adventures of making money online can inspire newbies out there.
   
   
3. Karlo of PinoyBlogero attracted a lot of attention with his talent in creating button images and unselfishly sharing his talent to causes that interests him too. Lately, he organized a blog of the month contest which is giving much needed exposure to new bloggers out there.
   
   
4. Coy also launched his vlogging awareness campaign and I believe this is a great move and opportunity for more Pinoys to get into it. The future is multimedia and makes the blogging experience more exciting and even competitive.
   
   
5. Gibbs Cadiz' passion for theater and using blogs as a medium to spread the knowledge about it is a good case study that other special interest groups should seriously look at. Not to forget PinoyCentric who is an active collaborator on this too.
   
   
6. Mon showed that a writing project is not necessarily limited to voting of blogs but can be a celebration of one's gaming hobby. It seems Mon found a niche and organized activities like his blogging carnival and more contests!
   
   
7. Dine Racoma is now using her blog to encourage her readers to explore doing work at home in this growing outsourcing business. She was the primary inspiration behind the Filipina Writing Project.
   

Another thing to note is the emergence of blogging segments that is born out of cooperation from bloggers with the same vision and goals.

1. In Manila, you'll find Benj, Bikoy, Ederic, Jhay, JM, Mong, Sarah, Shari, Martz, Tonyo, and Vencer organized the Bloggers' Kapihan that reaches out to educators and high school students in bringing blogging knowledge to them. The next generation of bloggers, I could say are pretty lucky, as there is so much activities out there that they can participate in and enrich their knowledge if they want to.
   
   
2. In Davao City, the usual suspects worked together to make the Mindanao Bloggers Summit a success.
   
   
8. PJ Punla also just had a Granado Espada players/bloggers meet-up fostering camarederie among fellow game players and exchange some blogging tips as well.
   

Next year, I believe that more new bloggers will step up and be inspired to mount their own initiatives that will make blogging fun, bigger, and encourage further participation. There shall be no monopoly of ideas or neither claim leadership of this community as each and every blogger can be a leader and do good.

For those of us who have been blogging for more than 2 years or more, this provides an interesting challenge to reinvent ourselves and remain competitive. My note to self includes:

1. Spare time to reach out. Read new blogs and make time to do that.
   
2. Avoid the situation where you'll only linked to the people you know and those you like. Give link love to those who produce great content that gave me great or fun learnings for the day.
3. Develop new content and share knowledge that may benefit those who are interested to learn about it.
4. Lastly, keep my feet on the ground and be thankful to those who helped during trying times.

On a last note, last day of submission to the Filipina Writing Project is on November 24. You Got Blogged will also receive entries up to December 14.