Seminar by AZAM on responsible blogging

AZAM is loosely translated as Sarawak Movement for Progress

Blogging is still something very new to me. It all started with me loving to read and having no platform to express my opinion on what I have read. A blog serves that purpose. However, the more I blog, the more my interest grow (and still growing) and such, it was a lucky moment when I was selected to attend a seminar on ethics and responsibility of blogging recently.

I arrived super early for this event as I received numerous messages to be there by 8 am so I actually arrived before that as an act of being responsible! Anyway, I brought Tami Hoag along to keep me company so time passed pretty fast while I waited for the seminar to start. It was supposed to start only at 9.30 am!  I also had time to post on my FB and that made me felt real savvy indeed! hah!

Tami came along for the ride

The seminar had a pretty interesting mix of speakers. Actually, any mix would be interesting to me at this point! I super loved Dr Danilo Arao from the Philippines. He was an ideal choice as the opening speaker as he spoke extremely well, exceptionally humorous while being able to disseminate the information to the audience effectively. The next speaker was Prof Salleh Buang, a well know personality in the legal world. For someone who’s in his 70s, he also spoke with conviction but unfortunately, the subsequent speaker, Mr Edruce did not make any positive impression on me at all.

Mr Cyril Dason, the speaker from Sarawak Bloggers, the person whom I owe my invites to, spoke passionately about the importance of total freedom of speech for blogs, tweets, etc. According to him, without such freedom in social media, there’s no point to having a social media plateform. He wasn’t a polished speaker (can see that he's nevous) but his raw undiluted passion shown through and I am convicted by what he shared. Great job, Cyril.

The highlight of the event was the session by Rockybru, a journalist as well as a controversial blogger with lawsuits behind his name. He shared that he had 16 million unique visitors to his blog so I guess a lawsuit or two don’t really bother him. Speaking on the topic on gatekeepers, my expectation from him was extremely high and I hung onto his every words hoping for that pearl of wisdom to drop but unfortunately he wasn’t that impressive in his presentation and didn’t get that pearl I was looking for. Instead, I felt like I just had a cup of lukewarm coffee.

Rockybru is on the left. 

I was extremely zonked when I got back home after this whole day event. Even though I just sat and listen, it was mentally tiring but the experience was worth it. Thank you, AZAM for the opportunity.  It was a great effort and is fully appreciated!

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery just as the event was starting so one takeaway lesson would be to equip myself with backup battery for the camera. I have to make do with the camera from the phone.

Comments

  1. Cyril DasonOctober 26, 2011 at 8:53 AM

    Hahaha.. The comment on my presentation, it is indeed true. This was like my 4th public presentation only I think? You should have seen me at my first, I was a nervous wreck!

    Ppl say that it shd be peanuts for me because I teach in school, but presenting in front of educated people brings out a very different fear.

    Hope to improve more in the future. Thank you for coming, and the feedback. Cheers!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Purple Queen FairyOctober 27, 2011 at 12:17 PM

    Thanks Cyril for the comments. With practice, comes improvement. You heard it first here! Sya.

    ReplyDelete
  3. cutebunNovember 1, 2011 at 12:37 PM

    Wow! Nice talk!
    Cutebun

    ReplyDelete

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