Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.
Lead Philippines: Can't believe this is still happening in the country. If the government does nothing, I won't be...
Keith Bacongco: who could we forget Alecks here in Mindanao... aside from PCIJ trainings, he also helped us a lot...

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hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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To blog or not to blog?

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | April 4, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Filed under: General

(or the inside story on "Inside PCIJ")

IT all started with a month-long fellowship for Southeast Asian journalists on online research and publishing that Yvonne Chua, our training director, attended at the Stockholm University in October last year. Part of the training introduced the participants to weblogging (or simply blogging), which has already become a rage in the US even among journalists but which has not caught on as much among Filipinos whose technological gadget of choice is the mobile phone.

Upon her return, Yvonne brought home an enthusiasm for blogging as yet another journalistic tool that the PCIJ can use in its work. A blogging conference held at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society in Harvard late last year fired up her interest all the more.

My (belated) turn to be captivated by the blogging idea came in late January this year when I had the opportunity to attend Asia Source, a technology camp for NGOs devoted to free and open source software held in Bangalore, India. Given my primary task at the Center, I was assigned in the open publishing track where we tackled web development tools like blogs, wikis and CMS (content management systems).

Though I’ve heard of blogs before, even citing a handful of Pinoy blogs in a story on the use of new technologies in the 2004 elections, I saw no need — and time — for it. But the Bangalore experience changed all that, and by the time I came back it became a matter for Yvonne and me to entice the rest of our colleagues in the PCIJ on the prospects of our own institutional blog.

It wasn’t easy. We had long-drawn-out discussions trying to see how a blog will fit into the scheme of things at the Center. It didn’t help that blogs have been put down by journalists themselves, spawning an often acrimonious debate framed on the clash between old and new journalism. Scott Rosenberg depicts this debate as such:

“Many bloggers see themselves as a Web-borne vanguard, striking blows for truth-telling authenticity against the media-monopoly empire. Many newsroom journalists see bloggers as wannabe amateurs badly in need of some skills and some editors.”

We did see through the hype. For all their unmediated, raw and personal nature, blogs, after all, are helping expand the media universe. Eventually, we thought better to heed the wisdom of journalist-bloggers like Doc Searls, who counsels that

“Weblogs will inform old media. They will increasingly be a source of information that traditional media will rely on…”

and J.D. Lasica, who advices that

"(m)edia organizations would do well to incorporate (blogging) into their Web sites as an important new addition to the journalistic toolkit."

A blog, we think, would provide us space for tidbits from data-gathering and additional information for our published reports, as well as enhance our ability to offer our insights and commentary on media-related issues and other matters that are within PCIJ’s area of expertise and interest. It will also, we hope, redefine our relationship with our readers and expand our access to other points of view.

In late February, we created a private test blog with a popular free hosting service to better familiarize ourselves with the activity — and to discuss some more via blogging. By mid-March, almost everyone seemed raring to start the official blog, especially with every PCIJ story published in the papers and posted on our website, and the daily dose of media issues cropping up. Next to be hurdled, however, were the technical aspects of setting up the blog — hosting it, installing the software on our server, and deciding on its look and feel.

In between, we also consulted with a lawyer, who happens to be a blogger (not the sassy one who is popular among Pinoy bloggers though), on the legal implications of a blog to our work as journalists. A little cautionary counsel concerning libel and copyright aside, JJ Disini’s advice was very encouraging. "If you ask me,” he said, “I’d like to see PCIJ itself and its writers blog if only to set an example for other media players.”

Along the way, a survey of the blogosphere revealed to us a few more exciting things. One site devoted to tracking blogs all over the world has counted close to 45,000 such sites (and growing) in 182 countries. The Philippines is ranked ninth in the list — and first among Southeast Asian countries. There is also a community of local bloggers now organized under Pinoyblog.com. To date, there are 1,244 registered members.

The other interesting discovery is that the PCIJ is not a virtual unknown in the blogosphere. Our website counts Pinoy blogs and blog hosts like Blogspot/Blogger, MySpace and LiveJournal among its top referrers. All this, we thought, holds a lot of promise.

In the end, we decided to go for it and chose the first day of April to launch the blog, the significance of the appointed date certainly not lost on us. The usual office work load, other previous commitments, and technical hassles brought about by a busted cable modem, however, have pushed the launch to today, Monday, April 4, 2005.

So now we’re officially part of the blogosphere. That said, let’s begin blogging.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 people have left comments

Hey Alecks! Great post. Sorry I wasn’t able to respond to your last text earlier. Yep, RSS is still not working. Perhaps a second question after “to blog or not to blog” would be “to publish RSS or not.” As an avid blogger and reader of blogs, I find RSS publishing to be quite a boon, given the content-aggregation advantages.

Welcome to the blogosphere.

Best regards and more power!

Angelo
http://jangelo.i.ph

jangelo wrote on April 5, 2005 - 1:22 am | Visit Link

Pati PCIJ, sumali na rin sa pagbo-blog. Welcome to the club.

johnmarzan wrote on April 5, 2005 - 5:09 pm | Visit Link

Hi Alecks, I believe there are several journalists in the country that are now blogging (myself included). I write technology news mostly so I expect most readers to be online. Anyway, congrats to PCIJ.

cyberbaguioboy.blogspot.com

erlem2000 wrote on April 5, 2005 - 5:25 pm | Visit Link

PCIJ joins the fray!

The good folks at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism have joined the blogosphere. Read their reasons for doing so in INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories. They hope that, A blog, we think, would provide us space for tidbits…

Manuel L. Quezon III wrote on April 5, 2005 - 8:47 pm | Visit Link

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.

And Erwin, we’d also appreciate it if you can provide us the URLs of fellow Filipino journalists you know who have blogs of their own so we can provide a link to their sites from ours.

Alecks Pabico wrote on April 5, 2005 - 10:08 pm | Visit Link

This is great! Congrats to PCIJ I worked as a Senior Consultant here at CSEZ and as a former Associate Editor during college days. Welcome to the real world

Regards,
Brodee

Brodee wrote on April 6, 2005 - 12:53 am | Visit Link

I have been a great fan of PCIJ ever since it made headlines on its Kabuki Lady exposes and I am sure glad they are now in the blogworld. I guess the local blogosphere would evolve one era farther into the future.

Major Tom wrote on April 6, 2005 - 4:06 am | Visit Link

This is a great development! pcij.org is one of my favorites. Reading it regularly and following its articles became a daily ritual. Honestly, there was even a time when I thought what if I as an ordinary citizen I can contribute/share insights and truth on some issues?

Time has come. Blogging provides the space. Mabuhay!

ester wrote on April 6, 2005 - 8:52 am | Visit Link

Hi! This blog is great!

Many Filipinos have gone into blogging. Most of us are registered in http://www.ricebowljournals.com.

Kudos to your blog!

lyraliza wrote on April 6, 2005 - 9:48 am | Visit Link

Congratulations. You’re now aiding spammers via Wordpress.

Spammers are “alegedly” paying the wordpress site to host bogus articles on their site. Blogs using wordpress software link to it’s own website hence wordpress is ranked as an authoritative. In effect, it lets spammers get their rankings on Google boosted because wordpress links to them in the bogus spam articles.

Welcome to the Internet.

Ed wrote on April 6, 2005 - 11:26 am | Visit Link

welcome to the blogosphere!

i suggest you check out http://feedburner.com/fb/a/home so that you won’t need to have 2 feeds (i.e., rss and atom).

http://filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com/

vonjobi wrote on April 6, 2005 - 11:36 am | Visit Link

vonjobi, i’d prefer a blog to have two feeds. different rss aggregators display RSS and atom differently (i.e. there are features supported by either that aren’t supported by the other). somehow, i prefer atom with bloglines.

great! RSS feeds are working. Inside PCIJ is just half a click away.

angelo

jangelo wrote on April 7, 2005 - 12:49 am | Visit Link

much thanks for the linkback to my blog.

no more mercurian retrograde, me hope :laughs:

best regards.

jojo wrote on April 13, 2005 - 2:53 pm | Visit Link

[...] April 4, 2005 - the Philippine Institute for Investigative Journalism launched its blog. [...]

» 2005 Philippine Blogging in Review @ Ambot ah! [ technology news and reviews ] wrote on December 31, 2005 - 1:20 pm | Visit Link