Blogs, Culture and Identity in Indonesia

Of numbers and users

texastee — 2008-08-15T09:35:00Z

Numbers are always fascinating, especially to researchers, because they seem so reliable and definitive. It's time to have another look at current internet user statistics in Indonesia.

The latest APJII figures (counting up to the end of year 2007) estimate 25 Million internet users in Indonesia. That makes about 10% of the population.

Of these 25 Mil., only 2 Million (8%) are actual subscribers to an ISP. Hmm. The remaining 92% then must be made up of an estimate of multiple users (at home, office, school/university), warnet/wifi users and GPRS /3G users. (unfortunately, APJII doesn't publish the details of this estimate)

As a comparison: in Germany, where about 60% of the population are online, ONLY 5.1% of internet users DO NOT have internet service at home. (This comes from a survey of tns infratest and the D21 initiative)

The figures clearly point to the persistently high importance of the warnet/internet café for Indonesian internet culture, as well as mobile internet services. Perhaps it's this technology that is most useful for Indonesia at the moment, where the special geography makes the progress in establishing a broadband cable network that reaches the outer ends of the archipelago slow.

As Reuters reports in June this year, Indonesia is the fastest growing market for 3G technology in South East Asia. With around 16.3 Million subscribers. The operators are Telkom Flexi (PT Telkom), StarOne (Indosat), Smart Telecom, Fren (Mobile-8 Telecom), Esia (Bakrie Telecom) and Ceria (Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia or STI). Do these make up the rest of the total 25 Million?

I'm not a numbers person. Numbers confuse me. 16.3 Million seems to be a lot, and Indonesia is the fastest growing market in SEA?! What I make of it is this: Indonesians want to be online, and they want it to be affordable and flexible. They don't want to wait for the colossal Palapa Ring project to be completed to get online. Mobile services might be the way t go.

Part 5 of the interveiw Series: HANNY KUSUMAWATI - THE PRODUCER

texastee — 2008-08-04T11:53:00Z

Hanny personifies the female multitasking talent. She was the project manager of Pesta Blogger 07 , the first nation-wide bloggers' meeting in Indonesia. She works in the PR agency Maverick, writes for the company blog and on top of that, keeps her own, private blog. Oh, and did I mention she also plans to publish a book?

For Pesta Blogger 08, she will return to her position as project manager and member of the steering committee. As representative of Maverick, she will be the link between organizers, sponsors and bloggers - making it all happen! That's why I call her THE PRODUCER. Here comes the interview... beware, it's quite long, but also very interesting! So keep on reading ya... :)

Hanny, all smiles in a Jakarta ice cream parlor

Maverick company blog

Maverick is a PR consultancy. We deal a lot with the media and the issues of our clients, the most of them are multinational companies. Then we realized that in Indonesia, suddenly people started blogging. And issues and complaints, those are things you can post in your blog. If youre not a blogger, you will never know about this. You will never know when someone complains in their blog. The dangerous part is, when you realize that most of the journalists are also bloggers. As a journalist, in their newspaper they cant write about everything. They have an editorial position, space limitations. In their personal blog, they can write about anything. So when these people meet in the blogosphere they can pick up things from other bloggers. Whenever there are negative things circulating, the journalists can pick it up and even publish it in their conventional media. So unless youre a blogger and you play there, you wont know. Thats one of the reasons that Maverick decided that we have to keep up with this, we have to start blogging and know the people in it. The other thing is that usually journalists write about companies or about PR because they have the media. We as PR consultants dont have the media. Now the power equation is equal. We can now talk about journalists! Thats what we do in our blog, we talk about the gossip and rumors in publishing companies, and we talk about journalist, who moves where etc in a way, it makes our relationship with journalists even stronger. We have the click of the week at Maverick, where we feature journalists blogs.

The Maverick blog started about 2006. We like to understand the emergence of new media. Today it is blogs, we dont know what it will be in 5 years. As a company in the communications industry, we have to keep up with everything that comes up in the future. Like with youtube and podcasts, we have to understand whats going on. Thats one of the reasons why we started this blog. Apart from having a good relationship with bloggers, and also journalistss blogs. We can monitor what kind of issues there are in the blogosphere. The interesting thing linking, you can link a company, or restaurant to our website so whenever someone talks about us we know, because they link to our blog and we can reply to them! So its good, we know whats going on, we know what people talk about.

Personal Blog

For me, my personal blog came first, Im into writing. So when I was still in high school I started blogging, it was just like an online diary. I did not have friends who were also bloggers. So it died down. Eventually it started again, in early 2005, it was only for my personal satisfaction. Its still like an online diary somehow, because its me, it s my personal blog, I can do anything I like. The I started to know, that you have to go blogwalking leave your comments, leave your track to get feedback from others. Then I joined a writing community, we shared our blog address there, people started coming and commenting, stuff like that. Now after Pesta Blogger of course its getting more and more popular!

I want to be a writer. Im writing a novel right now. The blog for me is a place where I can write and experiment with my writing and get feedback. At the same time its like gathering a community, gathering people who like my writing as regular visitors. So one day when I launch my book I hope they will be there!

Its always good to find out how people perceive a writing, you get to know peoples taste as well. Mostly it is that people start talking about their own experience, like oooh, I felt that too, I know it hurts and all that. I try to touch their emotional sides. Especially now that there is also the Maverick blog I think I myself am more interested in personal blogs, because it makes you feel like a human, and people can see you as a human. In the Maverick blog people see me as a professional, read my postings as a professional in PR. I don´t want them to see me that way in my personal blog. So thats why I keep them separate.

Most of the bloggers in my network are also wannabe-writers, people who love to write. Because the way I write is bad, not literature kind of things most people I know are also writers themselves. The readers are mostly still men. Maybe because more bloggers are men.

Pesta Blogger

The idea started from my boss, Ong Hock Chuan, hes a former journalist who moved into PR. He is a geek for tech, he has his own blog as well. When we started the Maverick blog we thought, what about if we have a gathering for Indonesian bloggers. But at that time, it was meant to be a small gathering, maybe 20-30 bloggers, only to get to know the people behind the blogs. And then because were so busy, we kind of left if behind for more than six months. Until finally, Microsoft calls. They said: look, we have a budget, were planning to do something for bloggers. Do you know what should we do? So my boss said, well actually we were planning this thing with bloggers. We were planning to invite 20-30 but if youre sponsoring we can invite more people! So we invited 100 bloggers! We started with the media briefing, we told everybody that we were going to hold a bloggers meeting on national scale. And we contacted bloggers, like Enda and Wimar, inviting them to become the committee. At that time, we were just inviting people we know, it was the first time! Anyone, if you want to help, come help!

We invited journalists to spread the news, and then one of the Bloggers, a former journalists as well, Budi Putra, made a special Blog for Pesta Blogger. Bloggers were protesting: why is it only for 100 bloggers? So we said ok, if we can get more sponsors, so we can get more bloggers to come. We started to look for sponsors, from our former clients as well, and Nokia came in. They said hey we have mobile blogging features on our handphones and so why not, we can sponsor this. Then, one week before the event, XL Comindo, came in also as a sponsor. We could have it big! We could invite representatives from other cities as well!

The motivation for Microsoft Its close to their business. Its how they show their support, to show that they care about bloggers. Nokia have mobile blogging, so they try to grab bloggers as well. So does XL. They realize bloggers are getting strong, especially people who love to talk about technology, gadgets, computers, are close to the net and all that. I think theyre starting to realize that.

The sponsors loved it. There was a lot of coverage. You know the minister was there. They were satisfied with it. Actually they said: This year, can we make it bigger? Can we invite more bloggers? XL actually said hey, what about a road show? We will sponsor a road show, have workshops here and there, teach high school students how to blog. I said oh, if you arrange that it would be fine with us!

The involvement of Minister Nuh

Regarding the minister our Co-organizer is Bubu.com. The CEO, Shinta, she knows the minister closely because she owns Bubu Awards as well. Its a web design award on a national scale. She has a close contact with the minister so she is the one who took care of all that. Muhammed Nuh is great, as a minister he realized the importance of blogs and hes very open minded. Hes willing to listen. Thats why he came around and announced the National Bloggers Day! That does give him a good image around bloggers as well, because he is very spontaneous. We had a favorite blog polling during the event, and the minister said during his speech: Whoever wins this poll will get a laptop. People were not expecting that, even we did not know about that. So hes very spontaneous. Its great I think!

I dont know what he has planned for the support of bloggers on a political scale, but its great that in Indonesia, compared to Malaysia where you cant have as much freedom to blog as it is in Indonesia now. And recently, before Pesta Blogger there were some cases of blogs being banned in Malaysia, and the there minister there claimed that bloggers are liars. I think its a great statement for Indonesia that the freedom is there, the freedom to blog, express their opinions. I think its great for him as well. It could be an appearance for image as well, but I cannot speak on his behalf. We had readers from Malaysia and Singapore comment on our blog saying hey you are very lucky that your minister supports you to blog. I think its good for him, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

A lot of media like Tempo and Jakarta Post have their own blog right now. I think they realize that people need two way communication. They know how important blogs are in this era. A lot of their journalists friends are also bloggers. They are also bloggers. They realize the importance of blogs, especially in bridging the image of Indonesia to other countries. We have as much freedom as anyone. We have bloggers, professional bloggers even. I think for the media this was also interesting because it is new, the first national scale bloggers gathering. So the news were there. The minister came, national bloggers day was announced so of course the media covers this. The journalists tried to get exclusive interviews with the committee with Enda, as chairman.

The motto of Pesta Blogger

The motto was chosen by Enda: New Voice of Indonesia. It means first, blogs are the new media. People who use blogs are the new generation, the blog generation. And then it conveys our thoughts in a new way. Its very opinionated, very blunt, very honest. In blogs you can be whoever you like to be. You dont have to pretend.

Its a new emerging voice. We used to hear the media talking about one issue but now you have another voice, the voice of bloggers. You can even have an issue start in the blogosphere and spill over into conventional media. For example, we used to have a consultant at Maverick, Nila Tanzil, she also used to work freelance for a private TV station as a host, for a kind of travel, lifestyle show. One day she was invited to a country to promote their tourist destinations there. But then she did not get what she needs as a journalist, she was not allowed to take pictures here and there, so she was like, why are you inviting us here if we cant report whats going on, we cant take pictures, we cant take in a camera. Were not tourists, were journalists!

She wrote about that in her personal blog and also in Mavericks blog. So people stared talking some were sympathetic for her, some were cursing her so there were lots of pros and cons. And thats how it started, the blogosphere talking about this, bloggers writing about her experience and then one of the bloggers is a journalist. So he writes about that in his newspaper. And then it started to go out. Other journalists and other media started calling and asked her for an interview.

Plans for Pesta Blogger 2008

Pesta Blogger 2008 hasnt been planned thoroughly. But hopefully we can invite regional bloggers at least, from Malysia, the Philippines, Singapore. Get them to mingle with us, share our experience. This is what bridge blogging is supposed to do. Bridging differences, bridging cultures. Hopefully we can do that.

We try to get them to see Indonesia through the eyes of bloggers. Anyone can access Indonesian bloggers blogs. Many of those living in other countries do not know about Indonesia that well. They might be scared about terrorism and all that. But in the blogs its like a new world, that we go clubbing, go shopping in a mall, hang out. And people can see that actually, there is always another side of the story.

It can help us interact with others and help boost the Indonesian image outside. I think its also good when people blog in English.

A Bloggers Association for Indonesia?

The Bloggers Association is still only an idea. But we are thinking about that. What kind of organization could that be? Is it like an ethical association for bloggers, or can we support bloggers who are being sued for their postings? Were still trying to formulate that.

As far as I remember there have been 2 or 3 cases of bloggers being sued for what they write. But it died down quickly. Because the bloggers were willing to delete the post or to compromise. But you will never know what might happen, so when something comes up what should they do? Especially when their newbies the association could be like an advisor.

Links between blogging and business

I think blogs help companies to interact with their customers in many ways. So when youre a huge company and people have a complains about you they might call your customer service to complain but then they will go home and feel bad and maybe stop buying from you. But youll never know that because it stops there. Great about blogs is when people from the managerial level have access to it. So they can see actual people complaining, or giving input or suggestions, or even thanking them. And they can reply back to their customers. And actually when things happen they can get more insights, more information from the customers. It humanizes your company in some way. You know how frustrated you can get to a company or product and you dont know who to complain to.

Even though internet penetration is still low, we see that bloggers, or netters, are opinion leaders. Especially those prominent bloggers, they can shape the opinions of othrers. So its always important. It starts with a few. But they can share their stories, with their families, even if they are not bloggers. A snowball effect. Not to mention that journalists are mostly bloggers! Those who blog are mostly people who are opinionated, people who want their voice to be heard. I think thats important to understand.

We try to get our clients to interact with blogs and bloggers. Sometimes, when a certain issue relating to their brand comes up in the blogosphere we inform them, some of them start checking on blogs regularly, blogs that are related to their business. But I think for them to set up their own blogs, or anything like that, its a bit difficult because of the bureaucracy. It has to come from the headquarters. So what we do right now is to familiarize our clients with blogs and inform them about the issues generating from blogs.

At Maverick we have a corporate social responsibility program for NGOs. We train them on communications plan, on public relations, so they can improve their communication skills as well. Blogs are also great for non-profit organizations because its free, and they can start communicating their activities and be heard.

The NGOs are very interested to start their own blogs, although they are still searching for ways how to manage it. The program is open for NGOs in Indonesia, they can send us an application form and we look at what they have done. And if we think ok they need our help we invite them to our office for a day training, on communication skills, and PR planning.

Restrictions on E-commerce, like Ebay, Amazon and Paypal?

I think its because there were hackers issues, I dont know much about that. I think this happened because we do not yet have a cyberlaw that is applicable. People are still misusing. I think like at the Bloggers Meeting, when you have met these people and you know them, we remind each other. One of the functions of having the Pesta Blogger is to strengthen the community, and as bloggers we can also remind each other not to break the law, behave unethical. And you know, if a friend says that to you, you are much more likely to listen. This is what we can do in the meantime, make the community stronger, like a family. Get them to think I dont want to ruin the image of bloggers, because they are my friends as well.

I dont know much about bloggers in other countries, or how they usually interact. But I think in Indonesia, when they have regularly visited their blog it starts to feel like there is a connection, and actually, they start inviting each other to meet up somewhere. Some people say the internet makes social interaction not physical any longer, but I think its just another way of interacting socially. It starts with a blog, and then you have several people commenting there and you feel like you know these people! Then you arrange a meeting, to catch up.

Improvement of the blogosphere

First, the infrastructure of course. Get more people to blog... when you have this culture of writing, you should support that. The literacy is still low in Indonesia. I think infrastructure is a crucial thing when you want to strengthen the blogosphere. Most people here blog from their office because this is where they get free internet. We have to strengthen the community, provide the facilities for gatherings.

Some people are starting to make money from blogging. Some have ads, because they have lots of readers. Some of them get jobs as writers, because a publishing company reads their writing. Or you can get clients through your blog, when you write about your work. There are lots of things you can do. There are many ways to make money in the blogosphere.

I havent really felt any negative effects. So far its been great, really informative. I dont see any destructive forces!

The private and the professional sphere

One of my business clients knows my private blog and has read it. I think it doesnt matter. I think everyone has more than one life at a time. Like youre a student, a sister, a daughter you play different roles in life. I think as long as my personal blog can also add something positive to my professional life and vice versa this is fine. There are some journalists who visit my personal blog regularly, so when I have good contacts with them, it will benefit me as a professional. Because its nice to have the feeling to have met them, to know them. So if I need anything, an information, I can call them up. It has to be benefiting and complementing each other. As long as it is not destructive, my personal blog talking bad about my clients this would become unethical because I still work for this company.

Free access to everytihing?

Its a global problem with the net. The best is still to watch your friends, families. Its the responsibility of the parents to monitor what their kid does. I think the software companies have also provided software where the parents can block some sites. Everyone can participate to ensure the net isnt abused for anything like that.

Discussion culture

I havent heard of anything as extreme as bloggers getting threats to be beaten up because of liberal views, but when it comes to comments, yes there can be very harsh comments. The greatest thing is people can judge by themselves. They can read the comment and say: that is very harsh, I dont buy that. They can post their opinion there. It opens the chance for an open discussion. Especially in Indonesia, the people are still very passive, so I think in the blogosphere you feel more free because you dont meet face to face. You can always be honest whether you agree or disagree with something. So in a way its good when people start debating over the net, as long as they are still using polite language. Pros and cons are always there.

I think the culture here, most Asian people are a bit passive compared to Americans or Western people. They are hesitant to give their honest opinion about something because they are afraid they will hurt other peoples feelings. When youre in a room and speaker asks: who wants to ask a question? Maybe only one or two people raise their hands. But then when the seminar finishes they will come directly to the speaker and they ask their question. So they dont have enough courage to ask questions in front of foreigners. In the blogosphere people can do that because there youre only a thought, an opinion, not a person with all eyes on him. The talk is freer, you can be very honest. You dont have to be judged. Yes, this can make people also more aggressive. I have noticed that. Several postings or comments can be very aggressive, but when you meet them in person they are more shy and more calm.

PART 4 of the interview series: Q - THE TRADITIONALIST

texastee — 2008-07-20T15:22:00Z

Padhang Mbulan is one of the view blogs written not in the official Indonesian language but in one of the traditional languages, Javanese. The blog is concerned with Javanese customs, traditions and events, and written by a group of writes. After an initial euphoric start the blog died down and has not been updated regularly. Its last entry is from November 2007

One of the authors goes by the name of 'Q' and has agreed to answer some of my questions via email. Here is a summary of his answers, grouped into thematic blocks and translated into English. Q also is the author of a personal blog.

The concept

The concept from what it started is very simple. To make a blog in Javanese language is still very rare. Even though there are many Javanese speaking people that own a blog, it shows when they use Javanese expressions in their blog that is actually Indonesian, whether it is in postings, comments, or in a shoutbox.

And we did not intend to make a blog with a serious deiscussion about Javanese culture. We only wanted to speak about light things concerning traditions and culture of Java that we have experienced ourselves.

The original concept, when it was just in the form of idealistic ambition, was to help foster the Javanese culture so it would not be simply forgotten and so its values can still be benefitial for todays way of life.

This is our mother tongue, our language in our environment. Part of our contributors actually dont live in a Javanese language environment, but they are still Javanese that can still speak Javanese and understand Javanese culture up to a certain point.

And to make a blog in Javanese is something quite unique. A blog authors who want their blosg to get a lot of visitors, one of the requirements ist hat it needs to have a unique quiality, that makes it different to other blogs. Even though by making a blog in Javanese it limits the amount of visitors who will come, but never the less some of those visitors can be hoped to become regulars.

Padhang Mbulan menas moonlight. The name was inspired by a Javanese childrens playing song that it very famous that is also called Padhang Bulan. The song asks children to come play in the garden at the time of a bright moonlight. That fits to the concept of the blog that is like playing, to make light postings like a chat with neighbors while enjoying the moonlight.

The blog was started in 2005. But until now there are only 50 postings. Where 10 of them actually were written within the first month of the start.

In the beginning there were 9 contributors, it can be seen in the part "Ingkang Mbaurekso" : Eni, Isna, Kere Kemplu, Lantip, Nauval, Qyu, Rhay, Siberia, and Wisa (who wanted to be deleted because he stopped blogging). Then the last post her eis a writing that I received from another person, outside of the contributors. They sent a text via email to put it on the blog.

Bloggers often seem have that kind of sickness, enthusiastic and regularly posting when first owning a blog. But then when it has been running for a while they run out of ideas, don´t know any more what to write about, bored because they dont feel any real value that could motivate them to keep on writing.

Some of the bloggers who were contributors at Padhang Mbulan totally stopped to blog. Maybe because of the reasons mentioned abbove, maybe other reasons.

Then there are others who still sometimes make a post in their private bog, who have just run out of ideas what to write in Padhang Mbulan. That includes myself!

Blogs and traditional culture

I do think it is important to document and make public all the cultures of Nusatengara. From the blog Padhang Mbulan I could increase my knowledge about Javanese culture in the area of yoygakarta, for example, that has subtle differences to the Javanese Culture at Malang, where I grew up.

By an easy approach and a simple language you can raise the interest of people to at least involve themselves by reading.

Benefits of blogging

The Indonesian people are a people that like to socialize a lot. They like to have many friends from various bckgroungs. And through a blog they can make many friends by visiting each other´s blog. Those that are trapped in a routine work everyday where you have to sit facing a computer for hours and hours need a momentary compensation that they can get without going far from their computer, and that´s blogging. They can make a posting about whatever and wait for the comments from their fellow blogger friends, or they can visit the blogs of their friends to leave a comment or simply say hello in the shoutbox.

I´m not a jounalist blogger that writes postings to make a comment on every current event in the real world. I also very rarely visit blogs commited to these topics. I prefer going straight to the website of the media that can be hod responsible, that write news as they happen without mixing in their personal opinions. So I can´t say much about what people say about that one day blogs will be a medium next to newspapers and television.

What I can predict is if all people get used to share an array of issues to the public via blogs, that could become a very huge source of knowledge. But it has to be pointed out that blogs have no filter that can choose between writing that is reliable and trustworthy and writing that is of low quality.

Off Tpoic: Olahraga Gado-Gado, Take 2!!

texastee — 2008-07-11T12:40:00Z

This is slightly off topic, but never mind!

When I first started my research on Indonesian blogs, I came across the Blog Jalan Sutera, authored by Mas Pujiono. I started reading it from time to time and found an entry from November 12th, about 'Olahraga Gado-Gado'. What Puji was talking about is the new mixed-sport discipline called chessboxing.

Well now the funny part is, that chessboxing was invented in Berlin, which happens to be my hometown at the moment. And the guy who invented it, Iepe Rubingh, a Dutchman, happens to be the artists I work for a lot as a designer! So you could say I've been a fan of chessboxing from the very beginning!

Just a few days ago, on July 5th, there was another big chessboxing event held in Berlin. There were three fights that evening. Two fights before the main fight: A German guy vs. a Polish guy and a British guy vs. an Italian. As you see, chessboxing is becoming quite international!

Gianluca Sirci (IT) vs. Andrew Costello (GB), sweating over the chessboard

It's a sport where contestants have to be extremely fit both physically and mentally. The fight starts with a round of chess. This happens on a chessboard inside a boxing ring. The round of chess is three minutes long, after that time the chessboard is carried outside the ring and the boxing round begins. After the boxing round, the chessboard comes back into the ring and the chess game continues. All this happens extremely fast - the fighters have to switch between controlling their pumping hearts and adrenaline level to concentrating fully on a complex and fast chess game. It's not easy, let me tell you!

The main fight

Frank Stoldt (GER) looking grim in the boxing round...

The German defender of the World Championship title, Frank Stoldt, fought against young Russian Newcomer Nikolay Sazhin. After a long streak of wins, because of his experience and excellent skills, Frank Stoldt was beaten by this 19-year old Russian talent. It was an awesome fight and showed that there is now a new generation of chessboxers awakening!

...but finally having to admit defeat to super-talented youngster Nikolay Sarzhin from Siberia!

After the fight, I had a chat and a drink with the lucky winner Nikolay, and we came to the conclusion that it would be a nice idea to transform chessboxing into the true Triathlon of the 21st Century: Round of chess followed by round of boxing followed by round of vodka...

PART 3 of the interview series: RADITYA DIKA - THE POP STAR

texastee — 2008-06-28T15:23:00Z

I met Raditya in a busy restaurant at CITOS in what must have been his lunch break. Between slurping down noodles and sipping ice tea, he told me a lot about his early days as a blogger and what has changed now he's, so to speak, a teen idol.

Raditya is one of those young people that really baffle me with their energy and spirit. Still in his early twens, he is considered and A-blogger, has written several bestselling novels, owns the publishing house Bukune, and is now directing a movie - about blogging.

Raditya Dika (center)

First contact with blogging

I always kept a diary when I was young. When I got into the whole internet thing, I started making personal websites. This was about 1999 and at that point I didnt know about the term blogging. There wasnt such a name back then.

I stumbled on the website of an Indonesian girl living in Canada. This site was about her, her personal stuff. I thought it was sooo cheesy, but then the next day, I had my own blog up at blogspot.

I worte about my stories in high school, my friends and stuff. Then I started writing about my crush in high school. Eventually I told her I liked her, and she said I know, I read your blog! I started to feel how powerful blogs are. She googled my name, and she found my blog. After that I started to shift from writing about girls and highschool to my family. I bought the domain kambingjantan.com and eventually told my family and friends about it. And then day by day, there were more followers, they told me my writing was funny I never intended to be funny, but I began to do it consciously, to write jokes about my family, ordinary Indonesians lives or celebrities. I got the best Indonesian blog award in 2003, that gave me the confidence to bring my kambingjantan manuscript to the publisher. (in 2004)

I graduated in Adelaide in finance, now Im studying at the University of Indonesia in politics, while working at Bukune publishing house. Before that I was at Metro TV for Metro this morning. No I don´t want to be just a writer. Its just a habit for me. I just did it learning by doing.

In the beginning I write really sporadically. It was really bad. I was trying to get more and more attention by saying: I got a blog! I used a scandal (two celebrities who had something like a porno video) and wrote their names in the metatext of my blog. So when people searched on google, they stumbled upon my blog. That got my like 2000 unique visitors on one day and some of them read my stuff and liked it. And I also wrote graffiti kambingjantan.com everywhere. I found unconventional ways to promote my blog.

I usually blog at work now. Back then when I started I did it at home. At the time when I was in Adelaide I did it from my apartment. I usually have my notepad and a cellphone so I can take notes and develop them at home.

I use wordpress for my blog. I had someone else to develop it, to put all things into place. Before I started to blog I had a personal website. There I developed my own HTML code too. I did this in my first year at high school. I taught myself to do HTML. My technical background I get it from books.

From blog to book

My blog kambinjantan was published as a book at GAGAS media in 2005. They were some chick lit publishing house. Very ABG.

The publisher didnt know about blogs so I explained it to him. He said, this really sounds different, it sounds unique. Long story short, the book was published in 2005 and it became a great success.

I told him the blog has ineffective sentences, many abbreviations, it is really not written in good Bahasa Indonesia. But the publisher said, no lets not do any editing, lets take it as it is. Because blogs are a very different culture from writing novels. This way it will keep the soul of your blog.

And that was a predecessor for the whole book industry. Normally we have all these people, who look at the language, the formulas for good Bahasa Indonesia. People saw my book and said wow, this is really a breakthrough to all those limitations before. I wrote some expressions which have never been used in Indonesian language before, like dick. These words the young people use in their daily language but it has never been in literature before.

There was this whole huge wave of chick lit, teens love stories, and then I came out with kambingjantan, with this do-what-you-want/I-dont-care-what-you-think attitude and it really hit in.

Dealing with success

Of course I follow the statistics. After I became a writer I stopped writing the blog for a while. It all of a sudden was a different feeling, like I was not writing for myself anymore, like I was writing so that other people would like it.

And after the second book came out, I started to change my whole paradigm. I started to think, ah this is really my competitive advantage. So I started to use it to market my books. So very very long in advance, I starred writing, you know, Im working on my third book I started posting funny videos, to get the buzz going and then I had a preorder thing for my third book, preorder it before it actually comes out.

It became the number one bestseller of all time for GAGAS media and number two bestseller of all Indonesia (Kompas version). Since then I maintained my blog, but purely for that purpose. I get about 2000 unique readers a month. Page view itself, maybe 20 000. The sad thing is the more and more people read my blog, I have to pay more for maintenance it passes beyond its bandwidth limits

I don´t follow up all the comments anymore. I get so much feedback, also via email, it´s really too big for me too handle! and my friendster is really growing too. I pick one or two from the comments, to comment upon

Some people buy my book because of the historical value of the book. You know, the first blog that was turned into a book in Indonesia! And you have people who say: oh I want to publish my blog like Raditya Dika did, and then others will ask, who is Radyita Dika?? And it just spreads from there

Sometimes I write in my blog about my books, sometimes I take an idea from a blog. So its difficult to differentiate whether Im a writer or a blogger. But people see me more as a writer, in the sense of someone who writes a book.

People who come to the tour, to the show of my book, are ABG people, mostly girls! I never thought my readers would be this young! On my blog its basically the same people. I dont think theres anyone over 30 who reads my book and blogs.

A whole new genre?

In a way I guess Im inspiring people to blog, so I can get blogging to get bigger. I have been called upon to do seminars on blogging, that it can be profitable.

Gokil, Dr. Ngocol, Cacing Kepanasan, and there are two more blog books that I know of. Its just business as usual. Especially Cacing Kepanasan, (also at Gagasmedia) also with an animal in the title, this was like do we have a Radit No. two here? But I said ok, its good to have some competition. But after the book came out, it flopped.

And the same thing applies with other book blogs, the only thing that works was Dr. Ngocol. So they try the things that work and do it over again.

In my movie there are a couple of scenes which mention blogging. Some scenes where Im writing a blog on the screen. It has one funny scene of a bloggers gathering. Because the gatherings are a very popular thing for us to do.

My publishing company is trying to keep up with the pace of young people. Im trying to integrate the whole young people hype into a much higher context. Its called Bukune.

Indonesian blogging culture

Before my book got published, I spent more time reading others peoples blogs, commenting, but now not anymore I feel like Ive been left out a bit in the blogosphere these days. I don´t keep up with all the new stuff. When I go blogwalking I find really cool stuff. An elementary school kid writing about politics and stuff a person writing from the perspective of his cat

It is in our culture to exchange words. You can see people hanging out, we really like nongkrong, ngobrol, this is the basis of our culture, to be among other people. This is how blogs work, looking, leaving comments, interacting

In Australia, people like to blog in live journal because they can keep it private.
In Indonesia, we really like chatting. Just passing information around. The mentality is: I write for other people.

I think blogging in other countries is not as much a hype as it is in Indonesia, I dont know I really feel that way. I have been to Australia, and talked to friends from Singapore, from Malaysia, from Hong Kong, and its nothing like in Indonesia where you have these small groups of bloggers, alle connected. Here, when a bloggger says Im coming to Yoygakarta, he will have a whole group of bloggers waiting for him at the airport. They will say, youre my family now.

Mas Enda is my friend as well, he said he just forgot to invite me to Pesta Blogger!

I´m connected to BlogFam and Blogbugs. But Im not much into Blogfam because Blogfam is more for mommies and dads. At one of their meetings I was like the youngest person there. Blogbug is a lot younger.

Ideas for the future

I think we have to get more space in traditional media. Maybe some columns based on blogs, some TV show based on blogs I think we can exploit blogs in a much much more diverse way than just a person writing, and thats it. Television could integrate Vlogs

We should have international / Asian wide Blog gathering parties

If Indonesian people write more in English, people from other countries can see Indonesia through our own eyes. This could eventually benefit Indonesia.

And also, blogging as a function of citizen journalism, could be a function of control to this already biased media. Like Metro TV, it is owned by Surya Palo who is big in Golkar, and TPI is owned by Suhartos daughter blogs are really the front line of citizen journalism, to control the news itself to create a second opinion.

Thanks Radit! Good luck with the shoot in Australia...

PART TWO of the interview series: ENDA NASUTION - THE FATHER

texastee — 2008-06-16T09:40:00Z

Although a father in real life, he seems a bit young to be dubbed 'the father' of the Indonesian blogosphere. Nevertheless, he has gained this reputation, simply by being among the first bloggers to get serious about it, and by actively encouraging and supporting the blogging community with his know-how. He was the Chairperson of last year´s Pesta Blogger

I chatted with Enda Nasution about blogging culture in general, the atmosphere of the Indonesian blogosphere and I got some insight on certain 'hot topics' of Indonesian bloggers... The following is a recap of our chat, Enda´s words grouped into thematic blocks and only with minor changes and shortenings.

The benefits of blogging

I like the idea that blogs upset the current media industrys status quo, that was the first thing that attracted me to blogging. Giving access and voices to millions of people where they can write and express themselves easily, fast and without significant cost is pretty great!

I like to think that by blogging we are promoting ideas of solidarity, being open minded, accountable and participative, young people especially should not sit and stand aside but now can be heard and read as well. They will become more empowered, more confidant, more opinionated. To do that people need to read a lot, learn a lot of things, think structurally and communicate well. Those are qualities that I find positive and we as Indonesian bloggers want to promote and spread this attitude.

You can't blog in a vacuum. it's connected to one another, the blogging community motivates each blogger to keep blogging.

Some people are concerned about the quality of the content of blogs which sometimes seems trivial and self absorbed but I think those concerns, even though they are valid, are secondary. The first thing is that people start blogging, the quality will improve as the bloggers are exposed to more quality writing. Of course we as community will help anywhere we can. it's like the open source movement: given enough bloggers, the whole community will rise up.

But to tell you the truth I was much more optimistic 2-3 years ago, not that I am losing all hopes, but I am more realistic now, maybe it's the old age creeping inside of me or something

It depends on what to benchmark the progress of course, when asked whether bloggers will have a positive effect on the public I always say yes, on a personal level it promotes an attitude that I have mentioned before, which are positive things to have.

Internet users in Indonesia

I don't if techno-elite it's the correct term, but Indonesian internet users are better educated, have better income than the rest of non internet users. But in terms of profile, it consist of mostly male/female 18-28. With a rising number of even younger users

I was arguing on a piece on Jakarta Post in 2004 that this internet users act as influencer to the other non internet users, this was in context of the presidential election, my point was that the presidential campaign should pay attention to online more, or use online combined with on-ground volunteers.

Blogs and traditional media

Especially in Indonesias case there is a shortage of content from the online media. Here the number of topics covered online is limited, that's the hole that the bloggers have been filling in. On the other hand, the traditional media becomes an echo chamber of the blogosphere. Several times, magazines or newspapers copy paste word for word a blog post and publish it. Others use blogs as source of information. There are even plans to discuss blog posts on a radio program, giving a different twist on the whole new media - old media debate.

The only new media, purely online is detik.com. The other online media is the online version of traditional online media, like Kompas and Tempo. So I think the more correct term will be mainstream media vs. alternative media. The mainstream media all realize the power of blogs, their take on that is to create their brand of blogs. So wait for kompasblog.com, detikblog.com, tempoblog.com. It's coming.

But traditional media are often struggling with the web 2.0 world, because the internal push-pull interest inside. I think, most of their efforts online will stumble as well. They view online as another distraction with time and effort to put in.

The Indonesian example of citizen journalism is wikimu.com. It is overlapping, the Indonesian wikipedians, Indonesian bloggers and people who wrote in wikimu, but somehow i think each are different breeds.

Bapak Blog Indonesia?

All i did was to blog, quite at the beginning but I was not the first one. And I wrote an article to explained what blogging is, which became popular and is still referred to by people who want to know about blogging. I think it was started as a joke, not a serious/real position, nobody elected me or anything, but then it was picked up by mainstream media, and there I am. Especially after chairing Pesta Blogger in October last year. People and journalists will ask me: what's next and what do you see for the Indonesian blogosphere in the future etc.

The climate of the Indonesian Blogosphere

Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia I was on a conference in Manila discussing free expression in cyberspace and it was clear that Indonesia is one of the countries where we currently enjoy freedom of expression.

But then again, intimidation and repression can take many forms and can come from many groups in public. There is already a case of a blogger from Yogyakara threatened by a lawsuit and ordered to take down his post by a kyai (muslim religious leader) in Jakarta. The blogger took down his post, even though the threat was baseless. His post was not in any way directed to the kyai. But the blogger took down his post anyway.

In the near future I expect there will be more vertical and horizontal conflict in the Indonesian blogosphere, vs. mainstream media, vs. other parts of the public.
Right now I think we are still in honeymoon, everything handy dandy

The atmosphere here is very communal, Indonesians love to chit chat and hang out together, and that has now translated to online behavior too.

Bloggers, friends and enemies

From what Mohammad Nuh says, his perspective on blogging was that it's a positive activity, for the youth especially, and he said that anything positive, especially for the youth should be supported because the future of a nation depends on it's youth.

Roy Suryo I think holds a grudge against the Indonesian blogger community. He seeks attention from the media and positioned himself as an expert in IT and the telecommunication industry, where in fact he really doesn't know that much about both subjects. I think the blogosphere does have an impact on RS image, journalists are now more reluctant to ask him for his opinion, especially for important stuff, but on the celebrity gossip he still appears from time to time.

Kampung Gajah is just an inside joke that we have, but its because a lot of figures in the Indonesian blogosphere are members there. So flow of information sometimes starts there and is shared to the groups, or vice versa.

Thanks Enda!

I´m back. I promise. And a treat to beigin with: Recap of my chat with Wimar Witoelar

texastee — 2008-06-11T14:44:00Z

Oh dear boys and girls, not sure if you will still talk to me after this long hiatus. I´m not going to go into the details of why but I´m determined to go ahead with some fun stuff from now on.

Do you remember my teaser post a while back. Well I am now finally starting to put short versions of the information I got by chatting to some Indonesian bloggers online. (I transcribed the recording, then shortened and grouped the information into thematic blocks. I tried to stick to the original text as much as I could.) The interviews/chats all took place in January/Febuary 2008.

To me the blogosphere seems like a big family clan, where there are dominant and influential figures, some outsiders, moderators, provocateurs and so on. Following this logic, let´s start with someone who sees himself as the mascot of the Indonesian blogosphere....

PART ONE: WIMAR WITOELAR - THE MASCOT

Perspetif online

On my blog, ideas are discussed seriously, but in a popular manner. People like how I present things on Television or in my articles, so we also present it that way in our blog. It is a multimedia enterprise.

In 1993 I got an invitation to do television talk show. In 94 it got banned by Suharto, but because of that it became more popular and so we went to the radio an on to live stage shows. The radio show is still going on until now. Broadcasting on 150 stations around the country. We are very strong in that area, we have won awards, for television and radio. The online version, perspektif online actually came as an afterthought, just for fun. But we are consistent, even in the way we have fun, we take things seriously. It is also very recognizable. I have a logo that appears everywhere. We have T-Shirts. It is very branded. But everybody knows we are serious. When Suharto was ill, the foreign press quoted what I wrote. I think we appeal to a lot of people.

Everything that is said in the TV show can be discussed on the radio, on the internet or newspaper articles. It cycles. So to me, there is not so much difference between the traditional media and the electronic media. I appear all over. Kompas or other newspapers like that find it difficult to adapt to web 2.0. Their websites are more or less internet depictions of the print versions.

Everything we have is interactive, everything we write depends on collective intelligence and everything we write is connected to our social networks. We did the web 2.0 thing even before I knew the definition.

The internet is a peoples movement. Our site got most hits during the election campaign for the governor of Jakarta.

My show Our Governor got taken off air because the governor didnt like it. I then moved the issues to the blog and the discussion continued over there.

When we started the blog I didnt even know what a blog was. We just tinkered around with it. I am an internet person since the very beginning, by training I am a computer scientist. But I am a practitioner not an expert. I dont know the statistics.

Up until now, we dont make money with this. We have a professional PR company, where we make our money.

Indonesian Blogoshphere

Im on the steering committee of Blogger Indonesia. I am their mascot because they say I am the oldest blogger and I am also the most visible. Otherwise others wouldnt know what blogs are. I was Invited to be part of the show, but Enda Nasution, Ong Hock Chuan, Budi Putra, Priyadi, Wicaksono, that is the true committee. And of course Shinta of bubu.com

The internet in Indonesia is not only for a tech-savvy elite but for eager communicators. If they want to speak out, and know that they can do so, someone will lead the to blog. Someone will give them access to computers. It is not based on technology per se, but on the desire to communicate. Young people are bloggers, members of friendster or facebook. The techno-savvy are more like consultants, there are a few of them that spread the word. Then it goes from mouth to mouth. The bloggers are not techno savvy. They are curhat - people. (people who like to express their feelings) there is a small circle of techno savvy who think up innovations in blogging, who discuss where its going, but they are not the persons who drive the traffic of blogs. Most people who blog know nothing about the internet or computers, they write very well or take photographs

I think Indonesia has a pent up capacity for writing. When Suharto went away this came to the surface. There was a surplus of magazines. In Suhartos times to publish a magazine, you had to pay a lot for a license.

The role of the internet during the students movement

I can point our several links between the internet and Suhartos downfall Yes, mailing lists and emails were important. I was a student activist also in the 60ies, as well as in the 90ies. In 98 at the time of students movement the internet proved as an excellent tool to mobilize. We could show up with 500 000 people in no time. Perspektif online was actually based on a strong mailing list, and it is still now.

Secondly and more specifically, the internet proved to be a powerful tool in reporting. Newspapers quickly lost track of the movement but it had news portals, specifically detik.com. It single handedly created the revolution in internet publishing. 6 reporters tried their hand at making a website. And because they appeared at the time of the internet boom, it quickly developed from a 6 person project in the basement of a stadium into a company with a high market value t at one time. And then it dropped again. They have been left behind by citizen journalism. They are not bloggers. Now they have a 400 people company that does advertising etc.

The internet has always been at the core of anything that is new in communication. If you look at political movements you will find out Partei Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) was almost built up on the internet. I admire their use of the new medium. So certainly it is part of the reform and people of the establishment dont quite know how to deal with it.

The role of the government in the development of internet access and computer literacy

With all due respect to Pak Habibie and Minister Nuh because I know them both, they have no role at all in the development of the internet. Habibie is an expert designer of airplanes. He is a man of the past generation. Habibie was never available via emails. Gus Dur on the other hand is.

The Habibie Center is a very political group. A group of intellectuals to continue the dialogue and of course they raise technology issues. But being involved in technology issues is very different to hacking around on a computer. They talk about it but I dont think they do anything.

Mohammad Nuh is a nice person who was lifted from being director the 10th of September Institute of Technology , very old school. He doesnt understand the internet either. In fact when he declared the Hari Blogger, he was doing an illegal act because you cannot declare a national holiday without the consent of the parliament. But he is a nice guy and well, dont take it too seriously. As long as he comes and makes us feel good. He provided a prize. I always say when you want to do something well do it without the help of the government. It only constrains you more.

The internet infrastructure is provided by Telkom. The ministry is just hanging on and looking at it. Theyre supposed to take the initiative but theyre not. The ministry is basically a political organization to accommodate people who had nothing to do after the ministry of information was disbanded. When we had the Department of Information under Harmoko it issued permits for newspapers and controlled the media. President Wahid abolished it because it was unnecessary and also authoritarian. But being in a hurry he didnt realize that he put thousands of people out of a job. And when Megawati came along she decided ok, lets call it informatics instead of information because the people are allergic to everything related to mind control. Let it deal with information technology. But they didnt understand it at all! Maybe its gotten better now.

Thanks very much Pak Witoelar for giving this in depth insight and as always, sharing your opinion and being open for discussion!

MySociety: getting involved with politics web 2.0 style

texastee — 2008-04-10T10:47:00Z

The greatest thing I heard about on re:publica, the German annual blogger´s festival, has got to be MySociety. MySociety is a group of websites from the UK that all aim at getting people involved with local issues and their community. In their own words:

mySociety has two missions. The first is to be a charitable project which builds websites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. The second is to teach the public and voluntary sectors, through demonstration, how to most efficiently use the internet to improve lives.

In oder to achieve that, Tom Steinberg, Francis Irving and Matthew Somerville, the founders of MySociety, have developed sites like FixMyStreet.com and TheyWorkForYou.com.

On FixMyStreet you can report problems in your neighborhood like pot-holes, street light etc. by simply entering your Zip-code and marking the specific area on a map. The report is then sent straight to the council responsible for this area. The site also shows when a reported problem gets fixed. It get´s even better with TheyWorkForYou. On this site you can find all members of parliament (MPs) and all Lords, subscribe to feeds of their activities, browse their last statements, monitor their voting behavior and much more.

I really think this is clever use of the internet and I hope that we get similar sites in Germany and Indonesia soon!

Noelle-Neumann's Spiral of Silence and voicing opinion in the blogosphere

texastee — 2008-03-18T11:05:00Z

I just scanned a paper by Korean researcher Jeong Kim that links the Spiral of Silcence theory to processes in the blogosphere. In short, SoS theory states that individuals with opinions that contradict majority opinion tend to remain silent, while individuals who feel like they are representing the majority tend to speak up.

Jeong Kim asks what this concept means in the realm of blogs where, in contrast to 'big media' such as TV and newspapers, minority opinions can (technically) be easily voiced and interaction is possible on a one-to-one level.

What´s particularly interesting about this paper is the researchers methodology: he asks two (quite prominent) Korean bloggers to act as his informants and to reveal in their blogs two attitudes which are considered to be minority opinions in Korean society: open pro-Americanism and pro-Japanism (?). A rather funny experiment, I believe. it kind of makes me want to try this myself...

Anyway, the paper comes to the conclusion that in the blogosphere, voicing out minority opinions can lead to an (unforeseen) high level of exposure, sometimes leading to the point where the blog author chooses to beomce less visible by closing the blog, moving it, or limiting the visibility of certain posts and comments. Jeong Kim says that blogging is characterized by a 'paradoxical interplay between struggle for and struggle by visibility'. Quite true, isn´t it?!

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND EXPRESSIVE FORMS BY D. SNOW - PART 2

texastee — 2008-03-06T16:30:00Z

I´m finally back with some thoughts on collective identity. Since I am interested in the types of identities that tie together a group/network of bloggers, I thought it might be a nice idea to start off with some basics on the concept of identity in theory.

I chose to quickly sum up an article by David Snow
that provides a nice overview of the conceptualization of identity, especially collective identity, in different scholarly works.

He notes that, at the base of every interaction amongst individuals or groups lies the reciprocal attribution and avowal of identities. Identity is thus a key factor in making social interaction possible.

Conceptualizations of identity differentiate three identity types: personal, social and collective.

Social identities are meanings attributed to others in order to place them in social space, it is similar to the idea of social roles, such as teacher or mother.

Personal identities are the meanings attributed to oneself.

Collective identities are a bit trickier. They overlap with social and personal identity. Snow notes that there is so far no consensual definition of collective identity (CI). However, an essence seems to be a shared sense of We-ness- including a sense of shared attributes and experiences and the idea of a contrast or relation to a set of others Embedded in the sense of We-ness is the possibility of collective action (for a common cause).

Another common theme that runs through literature is the insistence that CI is a process rather than a fixed property. CI is transient and subject to modification and transformation.

CI can technically emerge among any social group, ranging from small cliques like fanclubs to broad categories such as gender, ethnicity or religion. The majority of research has focused on the last type of groups. Another characteristic is that CI is often studied in the context of social movements.

In the predominant view, CI is a construct, it is invented, not biologically or culturally determined.

There are several points of interest for the study of CI, for example the area of Identity Work, which focuses on how CI is created, expressed, sustained and modified. At the core of this is the study of generation and maintenance of symbolic resources that distinguish the group internally and externally.

Other fields of study are Identity correspondence conflicts, or the types or layers of CI.

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND EXPRESSIVE FORMS BY D. SNOW - PART 1

texastee — 2008-02-11T21:17:00Z

I will begin this post with a confession: when I started my research, I didn´t have a clear plan laid out, no solid hypothesis to guide me and no neatly packed set of theories in my backpack. I figured I would stumble upon what I need along the way, and kind of adapt my research to what I find. (I hope my professor doesn´t read this.)

However, I am all along driven by the idea that blogging and the concept of identity are closely linked, my little private theory being that blogging is a process of generating collective identity. (Not the 'big' identities that most research on identity focuses on, such as 'being black' or 'being Christian', but rather small, fluctuating identity groups that form and disintegrate as needed)

I´m thinking of...

... collective identities that may begin with the postulation of an identity by and individual (the blog author) which in itself would be a construct of individual identity and cyberidentity

... or with a group of authors who have already for themselves constructed a small collectivity which they wish to stabilize/extend in the blogosphere

... and participating readers who adapt, transform and reproduce this identity through their comments, links and reactions...

... this in the end wil result in a set of shared symbols, memories and thus shared meaning that still has to do with, but is much more than the initial identity the author(s) proposed...

... which CAN have the power to result in shared action, be it online or in 'real space'...

... but could also be the RESULT of a shared action...

... which would bring me to the text by D. Snow which I was going to discuss here in first place! Since it is already late, this wil have to wait until tomorrow.

MAREN HARTMANN, MY SUPERVISING PROFESSOR

texastee — 2008-01-31T11:46:00Z

I just got back to Germany after a pleasant and informative stay in Jakarta. One of my first visits here was to see Prof. Maren Hartmann who has agreed to supervise my paper.

Maren Hartmann now teaches communication sciences at my uni (University of the Arts, Berlin) with a focus on sociology of communication and new media.

She has published several books and articles on the subject of new media and cyberculture, among these:

Hartmann, Maren (2004): Technologies and utopias: the cyberflâneur and the experience of being online. München: Reinhard Fischer Verlag.
Hartmann, Maren (2001): The netizen: an impossible concept? In: Inter/Sections: the journal of global communications and culture. Vol. 1, Nr. 1, S.9-24
Hartmann, Maren (2003): Situationist Roaming Online. Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) Conference Proceedings. Melbourne.
Mobile Communication in Everyday Life. Ethnographic Views, Observations and Reflections

She has studied and lectured at several universities in the UK and has fortunately also agreed to let me write my paper in English!

WHAT`S TO COME

texastee — 2008-01-22T11:15:00Z

Yea due to a lot of things happening at once I´m more than a little bit lagging behind with updating the progress of my research.
This is just let you know real quick what´s going to come:

Interviews with Pak Pujiono of Jalan Sutera one of my favorite blogs which is quite hilarious... with Santy and Ollie of Jakarta Daily Photo... with Irha of the Makassar Blog Community... with Enda Nasution... and many more!

FIRST STEPS: CONTENT ANALYSIS PT2

texastee — 2008-01-18T09:07:00Z

Results

Certainly, looking at only10 Blogs out of possible 400.000 blogs means that I am far from being able to give accurate, representative figures that speak for all Indonesian blogs.

However, there´s this wonderful term called qualitative representativity which applies when content or statements start to repeat themselves and no new aspects seem to come up, so basically the researcher has a fairly well funded notion about having seen the range of possibilities. I´m going to try to apply it here, even though some of you may not agree.

Base data

Out of 10 Blogs, 8 were written by male authors, one by a female and one by a group of authors whose sexes were not specified.

→ I have heard from numerous (trustworthy) sources that there are about as many female bloggers as male bloggers. I have two explanations to why the ratio appears to be in favor of men here:

1. pure coincidence (mathematicians could calculate the chance of this to happen, but I can´t)
2. Perhaps there ARE as many female bloggers out there as male, but they tend to not participate in events like Pesta Blogger so much. Maybe they don´t have the time (family) or maybe they don´t like to be as exposed? Something I should investigate further

9 out of 10 authors name cities on Java as their home, 6 of these name Jakarta (The capital) and 2 name a city outside of Java. (Some claimed more than one location)

→ Yeah, Java seems to be the hub of internet activity, still, most likely due to the lack of infrastructure such as broadband access and Wifi cafés /Warnet in more remote parts of the country.
→ However, this shows me: bloggers aren´t necessarily true Jakartans or from other major cities. They tend to live there now but may well come from someplace else. They seem to be people with high mobility, able to adapt to places and to identify themselves with more than one home.

7 out of 10 are written in Indonesian, one mixes Indonesian and English posts, one mixes Indonesian and Javanese posts and one is written entirely in English.

→ This, I guess, is not so surprising. It´s obvious most bloggers use the Indonesian language, on the other hand the ratio of bloggers using English might be higher than in other countries due to the popular concept of bridge blogging (blogging about one country in the aim of making it more visible to the outside world)

→ Interesting, but also not so surprising is the integration of Javanese (as one of the more traditional Indonesian languages) into the realm of the blogosphere. My explanation for this is that Indonesians love language, the use of expressions, slang terms and dialects is very common. So it does make sense that Javanese speakers will make use of their language skills, also as a way of displaying local patriotism or a sense of belonging.

→I forgot to count the number of posts that use an English title or English expressions or phrases in the text. They were many, many. It seems to me, that English comes easily to Indonesian bloggers, that it´s used and integrated into their own way of speaking without giving it much thought.

8 out of 10 are written from a personal/subjective perspective while 2 mix entries with a subjective flavour and neutral/objective entries.

→ Ok, the above probably sounds confusing. What I looked at here is the language mode of the posts. Written from a personal perspective (I experienced this and that) or a neutral perspective (This and that happened)? Blogs are a highly subjective media, so the dominance of the personal perspective is to be expected. It will turn interesting when comparing this to blogs in Germany. Germans tend to dislike giving away personal information and tend to prefer the objective and factual. I should find out if this is true also for the language of German blogs.

None of the blogs follow a strict thematic concept. 2 out of 8 are truly open to all kinds of content (personal experience, news technology, economy, entertainment, etc) the rest mix one underlying theme with varying off topic posts. 3 out of the remaining 8 deal with technology as underlying theme, 1 with cyberculture and the blogging community, one with photography, one with language and humour, one with personal experiences.

→ There might to be a connection to the results above. If the blogger as a person becomes apparent, then blogs will probably be open to all kinds of experiences of this person rather than being restricted to one sole aspect. Again, comparing it to German blogs should be interesting.
→ Technology, as in tips on how to use certain software, the newest gadgets etc. is one of the most popular themes in the blogging world. Not surprising also that all 3 of the technology-focused blogs are written by men.

The frequency of posting is at about 4-6 posts per moth for most blogs (5 out of 10). 2 post with a frequency of up to 10 posts per month, 3 with a frequency of 2-3 posts a month.

→ yeah this is kind of basic. I think 4-6 posts per month is a frequency that comes naturally to blogging. Again, I´ll wait till I´ve compared it to German blogs.

The average number of comments to one post is 9,9. However, there was one major deviation with 72 comments to one post. This entry analyzed the debate about an internet-company fraud.

→ At first I was surprised about the high number of comments. However, I have heard that this is quite normal in German blogs too. We also have to take into account that the bloggers participating at Pesta Blogger are probably pretty involved in the blogging community, thus used to commenting and generating comments on their own blogs.
→ Some posts stand out in terms of how many comments they generate. The more controversial, funny or outrageous, the more comments. Naturally. Later on in my research I will look at theses hot topics more closely.

54 out of 100 posts use and illustrative photo or image
4 out of 100 posts are photo-stories: a series of photos on one subject with little or no text.
2 out of 100 posts include only one photo plus caption.
3 out of 100 posts include video. They were all in the same blog.

→ blogging is a surprisingly languae-based media. In Indonesia, this habit may be amplified due to the lack of high-speed conncetions. However, adding a illustrative photo to the text is common.
→ Other than that, only few posts went into exploring the use of multimedia elements. Photos are clearly dominant, only one blogger inserted video elements. Notably, this blogger was also the only female blogger. I should look into the use of multimedia and see if it´s connected to gender!

to be continued!

MEETING WIMAR WITOELAR

texastee — 2008-01-16T06:54:00Z

A few days ago I had the honour to meet Wimar Witoelar, who´s blog perspektif online is one of the most popular Indonesian blogs. (Though of course the blog can´t really be separated from the range of media that make up perspektif)

WW- who says he´s something like the mascot of Indonesian bloggers - and I spoke about the role of blogs in contrast with the traditional media. WW told me about his early experiences with the internet during his university time and during the turbulent late 90ies. He set me on track by giving an honest opinion about the involvement of Minister Nuh and Pak Habibie in the Indonesian internet revolution.

Hopefully, I´ll manage to get parts of the interview with WW online soon!