Thursday, August 23, 2007 Toral: Blogging for advocacy By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
THERE are three on-going blogging writing projects at the moment that I encourage readers like you to check out. They show how a blog can be a powerful medium to create awareness and get readers involved in a good cause.
Wika 2007. One project that caught me by surprise is the ongoing Wika 2007 project by PinoyBlogosphere.com (http://www. pinoyblogosphere.com/wika2007). It is a group writing effort that aims to trumpet the beauty and strength of the Filipino language, in line with this year’s Buwan ng Wika theme: “Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa” (“A gift of tongues for a strong nation”). Instead of writing entries that get submitted through mail, blogs were tapped as a medium where interested participants can join. All they have to do is write their entry in a blog and submit it to the writing project page.
From Aug. 6 to 18, the project received 57 entries from bloggers all over the country. As one of the sponsors, this turnout is surely impressive and shall be a record to beat in terms of value for money.
You Got Blogged. Another writing project that I’m closely monitoring is the You Got Blogged! A review-a-blog competition (http://www. mindanaobloggers.com/events/review-a-blog). Anybody in the world may join this competition, but the spotlight is on the blogs on Min-danao, Philippines.
This is one of the many activities happening to support the upcoming Mindanao Bloggers Summit this Oct. 27 in Davao City. Another highlight of that event is the Mindanao Blog Awards.
The Filipina Writing Project. Last July, I got an e-mail from Dine Racoma of the D Spot (http://dine.racoma.com.ph) asking if I could organize a writing project to support an ongoing advocacy in reclaiming the keyword “Filipina” on the Internet.
Right now, when people search for the word “Filipina” in major search engines, it mostly leads to sites that don’t provide a fair reflection of Filipino women. With that, the Filipina Writing Project (http://w3o. blogspot.com) was born last Aug. 8. This will run up to Nov. 28 and the intent is to encourage the creation of relevant and insightful content about the Filipina.
If this is done right, by December, all those who joined this writing project can find their work appearing in search engine results for the keyword “Filipina.” I realize that such may be too ambitious but we won’t know and learn until we try.
I’d like to encourage business and nongovernment organizations to explore blogging as a means to push for advocacy and awareness. There is so much that can be done through this medium.
