2010 Asia Blogfest and the lessons learned

This post is one of the few non-Buddhism related posts but shall post it anyway because at the end of it, there is still some lessons to learn from it.

I friend went to the 2010 blogfest Asia conference held in Penang since 2 days ago and the below was what he reported. This is an event for Asian bloggers (so it seems but Americans attended too...so it may not be stricted actually...or maybe it was because the Americans were working in Asia) held only for the second time. The first time was held at Hong Kong.

Security and Privacy awareness
This was one of the smal breakput sessions and was conducted by one guy called "Bobby". He is supposedly the internet security expert. He shared with the audience and made most of the audience think that the new media is not safe. If you are in a group photo and someone posted in the facebook, there is no way you can take it out... unless he/she is your close buddy. Otherwise anyone can just misuse the photos you put up there. And he gave an example of how people can find out you are gay or not by the "annoucements made by a feature in facebook that tells people "so and so is now friend with so and so." If they are both males, Bobby said people may think they are gays. Gosh! males and males cannot be normal friends, but must be gays? His example is not so good. Maybe another appropriate example would be any married or not married couples thinking of flirting with other partners, may be more careful who they are friends with on facebook. That's because by your comments and chats on facebook, your spouse (who presumably may be on facebook too) can find out. But of course, there is the option of blocking her/his account...then again he/she can always create another fictitious account under another name unknown to you right?

Then Bobby told us about the possibility of an "evil twin" existing in cybercafes with wifi facility. He was saying that places with wifi that does not have user and password may not be safe. That's because another person sitting in the same cafe may also have a name similar to the wifi login id as the cafe operator. Sounds scary?

We were also adviced to use "https" in our internet address instead of just "http". "https" is more secure.

OMY
Another breakout session that was interesting was the one conducted by one Singaporean called Alvin. It is a web created in Singapore and bloggers can submit their blogs to them for evaluating and if approve, omy.sg will have your blog link in their weblink. They give out blogger wards for interesting and original content blogs. There are several criterias on what they look for in a blog. Alvin shared with us some of the technics on how to increase internet traffic to your blog. One of the suggestions was to be controversial. He gave example of this lady named xiaxue in Singapore who commented negatively on a handphone and attracted so much attention all over the world that she eventually became the ambassador for some phone manfacturer or something.

WELCOME DINNER
There was a welcome dinner held at QE2 near the ferry terminal and near Hainan restaurant. The food was good and the environment was "chic". Before the event, there was the 988 fm radio people givin out stuffs such as Eu Yan Sang chicken essence, Bio-essence creams, umbrellas, etc if you can answer their questions.

COUNTRY sharing
On the first day as well as the second day, there were some sharing of usage of blogs/ facebooks and other similar new social media in their respective countries. It was very eye opening as we now knwo that internet usage in some countries are very expensive (such as Myanmar) and in some countries like communist countries, they are very heavily monitored. But then we were also informed that in some supposedly democratic countries, their internet access and thuings that they write are also monitored by the government agencies. It was good to hear people from Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Phillipines, Indonesia speak about internet usage , in particularly use of these new social media in their own countries. There was even one American speaker who enlightened us on the situation in China. He name is Peter.

YB Liew Chin Tong and Mr Foo session
On the second day there were some sharing between these 2 people from the political divide. One is from DAP and the other MCA. But because it was more of a sharing session, they didnot really bash each other up. It was good as they were both candid in sharing abouyt the realities of using the new social media in Malaysia.

And here comes the dharma lesson - at the last day, the organising chairman mentioned a word that strucked a cord within. It was a lesson so central in Buddhism that it just had to be mentioned here. He said that no matter how good this is (referring to the blogfest), don't get attached to it! My goodness... is he a manifestation of Buddha? These are wise words from him. My thoughts were that it applies to every other things in life. Ok.. then "No attachment" "Let go". Somehow everywhere I go, there sems to be something that reminds me of important dharma lessons. Gurus seems to be everywhere. And the guy who said it may not even be a Buddhist.

So there you are, we still have some Buddhist elements in this blog. Cheers!

Reference links: http://www.2010.blogfest.asia/