Sui Generis

Community vs Association

Jan 21, 2009 blogging

Thanks for coming back. =). Glad to see you. If there's anything I can do for you, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email, or leave a comment, introduce yourself. I'd love to connect with you. Or if you have your own blog, why not let me promote your work?

Ok I’m not really back yet. But I thought that this news is big enough for my to break my hiatus. So apparently, an official “Association of Bloggers (Singapore)” has been formed.

For the record, I have nothing against the individual bloggers who have started the Association. I respect them and applaud the effort.

But when it comes down to it, I think this is a horribly misguided attempt. I like the idea of trying to bring together the community of bloggers. But I don’t agree with this at all.

I think it’s pointless and unnecessary, bordering on egotistical. DK, one of the commitee members, blogged that “I feel that as more and more companies and government bodies start to engage the new media, there is a need for an official association to accredit bloggers”. I could not disagree more with him this time. There is absolutely no need for this. The whole fundamental point of blogging, in my opinion, is the openness, the fact that it’s the voice of the individual, the amateur. A blog does not need an “official association to accredit” it.

And to think that they can represent all the local bloggers? I’m sorry, I have to say that’s just plain egotistical. And there’s nothing much for me to add about the whole “legal entity” aspect of it.

It’s a nice attempt, and I know their hearts are in the right place. But this time, I have to say that plain and simple, I think this is ridiculous and unnecessary.

What we need is to build the community. Not establish an association.

Tags: association, blog, Blogosphere, community, singapore

On Hiatus

Jan 13, 2009 Announcements, blogging, Personal

There’s a part of me that really doesn’t want to do this, but I think it’s the best decision to make – for myself and for this blog, and you guys.

But yes, as the title of this post says, I’ll be going on a blogging hiatus for a while. How long, I’m not sure, but you can subscribe via RSS or via email to stay posted, and get informed when I come back. And if you want to talk to me, I can still be reached by email, and occasionally by IM (IM details in the sidebar)

I just feel that in my current condition, I don’t think I can provide proper value to all of you reading this blog. And rather than take up your time and attention, I’ll take a step back for now. I’ll be back though, when I get my own life and issues sorted out, and hopefully I’ll come back stronger than before. I hope you don’t forget me, and hope to see you around when I do come back.

But for now, that’s all folks. It’s been a great journey, and I hope you’ll join me again when I’m ready to continue it.

Tags: blog, hiatus

Making Things Happen

Jan 3, 2009 blogging, Marketing, Random

Been reading a number of posts about 2009. And more than anything, it seems like 2009 is going to be the year for action. Yes, it’s something I touched on in my previous post, but that was a little long and rambling-ish, and so yeah.

Mitch Joel wrote about how “Results speak louder than words“. Valeria Maltoni says that “Actions speak louder than words“, and encourages us to “Teach. Lead. Learn. Love.”. Chris Brogan shared his goals for 2009, “to equip and build armies”, and “moving needles”.

Seeing a trend? I certainly am. I think this is the year where these things -social media, etc – are really going to start maturing. We (myself included, for sure) need to really start executing, and not just talking about all of these ideas. And not just executing, but executing with concrete, measurable results.

We need to start leading, and making things happen.

What can you make happen in 2009?

Tags: 2009, action, execute, leading, measurable, New Year, social media, statistics

Merry Christmas

Dec 25, 2008 Announcements, blogging, Personal

I know I haven’t been around for a while. And I’m sorry for that, really. I’m really sorry I’ve been very on-and-off for months. And yeah, I just thought I should take some time off to just really sort out everything that’s on my mind and all.

But yeah, just wanted to wish you guys a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays. =).

I was already sort of planning on doing this (and I have already been quiet here for a while), but since Richard Millington blogged about “shutting your community down“, I figured I might as well come by and announce it.

So don’t worry, I’m still alive. And you can still contact me if you want to – I’ll still be glad to hear from and talk to you guys. I’ll be back, probably on January 1, 2009 – and hopefully better than ever.

Tags: blogging, break, Holidays, Merry Christmas

WordPress Direct Misses The Point

Nov 26, 2008 blogging

Mashable tells us about WordPress Direct, which has apparently reached ten thousand users.

What do I think of this? I think it’s really sad – the number of people who don’t get it.

Yes, you can probably make a blog with decent content using a plugin like that (albeit by stealing it from others). And yes, you probably can earn money from it, because it’s optimized and all. And it doesn’t take that much work.

But in my opinion, in doing so, you miss the whole point of blogging. Blogging shouldn’t be about making money. Far from it. It shouldn’t even be about the content per se.

More than anything, in my opinion, blogging is about the community.

It’s about who you’re reaching, who you’re interacting with. It’s about the connections you make, and the people you can influence or inspire. It’s about connecting with like-minded, intelligent people and improving each other.

That’s the value of blogging, in my opinion. It’s about the people, the community.

Why do you blog?

Tags: community, People, Plug-in, relationships, wordpress, Wordpress Direct

The #1 Way to Build a Community

Nov 4, 2008 blogging, Events

Image via Wikipedia

Over the weekend I attended a few sessions at Podcamp Singapore and the Digital Media Festival. The one thing that struck me the most was the idea of going where the people are.

At DM Fest, the topic came up when I was talking to someone just after a session about communities. I was asking his opinion about whether it made more sense to use your own logins if you’re trying to build a community, or to try and leverage technologies like OpenID so people can use other accounts to join. The answer was a pretty obvious one.

At Podcamp Singapore, the topic came up in both the sessions I attended. Coleman talked about choosing the right medium – text, audio or video. As you can imagine, one of the main factors discussed was about audience preference.

The other session I attended was by Amsie from Curious Foodie, who shared her journey on blogging. During the session, the discussion went on a very nice (in my opinion) tangent when the owner of fourcardflush, a poker blog, asked for advice on how to build the local online poker community – the poker community in Singapore is largely unseen online. The suggestions? To go out into the offline community, take part in the games, and build from there.

3 very different sessions, with different focuses and applications. But the common general theme is quite prevalent.

The easiest way to build a community is to go where the people are. Don’t just try to pull them to where you are. Go to where they are, join them, and build relationships first. Then do you thing, and they will follow.

Tags: audience, blog, community, OpenID, podcamp singapore, singapore

Liveblog: Podcamp Singapore, Part 2

Nov 1, 2008 blogging, People

The second session I’ll be live blogging is Amsie from http://curiousfoodie.wordpress.com. She’ll be sharing her story and her blogging journey. I’m starting a bit late, so the first 10 minutes aren’t covered. But yeah, here’s the liveblog and my thoughts.

Tags: blogging, curiousfoodie, journey, Personal, podcamp signapore, podcampsignapore