Getting speakers for iBlog3

Earlier, I mentioned about my quest for encouraging speaker volunteers and topic suggestions for iBlog3. So far, there are several who heeded the call and gave interesting topics. This includes:

• Blogging for Newbies (Chris Haravata)
  This covers blog software, widgets, Google Adsense, digital media, and blog hosting.
• Do's and Don'ts of Personal Blogging (Lauren Dado)
• Personal Blogging Success Story (Noemi Lardizabal Dado)
• Unlocking your creative blogging potential (Marcelle Fabie)
• Injecting humor in blogging (Anton De Leon)
• Blogging as alternative publishing for comic book creators (Jonas Diego)

We got interesting topic suggestions as well and hope to be able to find bloggers interested in sharing their knowledge in these areas:

• Photoblogging
• Blog themes: food, travel, etc.
• Philippine Libel Law and its implications on blogging
• Drafting of Bloggers Code of Ethics
• Blogging Success stories (Philippines' most read bloggers, Bloggers who won awards)
• Government Blogging
• Political Blogging
• Cause-oriented Blogging (including Corporate Social Responsibility, Personal Social Responsibility)
• Blogging and the Filipino diaspora
• Philippine Politics and the blogosphere (trends and trendings)
• The social relevance of the pinoyblogging (trends and trendings)
• Blogging and Journalism (print, radio, online, tv)
• Blogging as a tool for educators
• SEO for blogs
• Pro-blogging and e-commerce
• Blogging for advancing one's career

Interested resource persons can email me at jtoral(at)iblogph.org

Ituloy AngSulong iBlog3!

iBlog3: The 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit

This morning, I catched up with the UP-ISP team, headed by Atty. JJ Disini, to prepare for iBlog3: The 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit. Details will be posted on the official website within the day.

We are aiming for up to 300 bloggers to attend the event.

In addition, we recognize the concerns last year about parallel break-out tracks that made a lot of participants miss important presentations. That is why iBlog3 shall be a 2-day event this year. This will be on April 13 and 14, 2007.

Like last year, I am in charge of the content, receive topic suggestions, accept speaking proposals, consolidate the topics, help out in the sponsorship, among others.

I will definitely make sure that I won't have any trainings again this time so I won't miss it.

iBlog3 is aimed at aspiring bloggers, newbies, and the maturing blogging community.

There will be topics for beginners, professional bloggers, legal concerns, political blogging, media and the use of blogs, literary, multimedia, education, and the growth of communities.

We will aim to get sponsors so we can serve great food, nice tokens, collaterals, giveaways, and have a bloggers party on the 1st day!

So mark your calendars and let all bloggers converge on April 13 and 14 at iBlog3: The 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit! As always, this event is FREE!

Ituloy AngSulong iBlog3!

Related topics:

• Thank you for supporting iBlog2 (April 2006)
• Filipina Bloggers at iBlog2 (April 2006)
• A sense of purpose (May 2005)
• Meeting Expectations (May 2005)

Ituloy AngSulong and Running an SEO Competition

Earlier, I gave my initial thoughts about the Ituloy AngSulong contest and why I joined.

I first joined a keyword campaign of sort with the Filipina awareness movement. The idea then is to have as many site as possible to use the keyword Filipina, so that porn and dating sites won't dominate the 1st page of search engines when someone queries Filipina.

Lately, I suggested to JJ Disini about the possibility of coming up with a keyword campaign of sort for iBlog3 (The 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit) happening in 2007.

Should that proceed, these are the things that I will take note of based on my experience with Ituloy AngSulong.

• There should be a sign-up cut-off date. If there's no cut-off date, others may safely tend to work on their entry, without any commitment, and once their site is penetrating search engine rankings - where they are almost certain of winning something, that is the only time they'll join.
  
• Sponsors link must be up right from the start. There's no requirement right now that the sponsor's link must be up at the moment one signs-up. There's a possibility for entries who will not post sponsor links immediately. If they are sure of winning already, one can have the option of just posting the link a day before the awarding and there's nothing in the rules that will penalize or disqualify them from that. This creates uncertainty to those who complied with the rules right from the start whether to take the same action. Combine this with no sign-up cut-off date, the playing field may not appear even and fair immediately.
  
• Separate division for old domain and new domain. If necessary, of course if you have ample budget for prizes. Then have an overall winner.

Of course, these are just ideas...