Jom memblog untuk berniaga...

I originally posted this article on ICTpenang Crowdvine, but it was in plain-text format due to Crowdvine's lack of support for rich text (as of yet). Read on... (sorry if you can't understand it -- it's in Malay language).

"Blog" dan pengaruhnya telah hangat diperdebatkan di Amerika Syarikat bermula tahun 2004 apabila ahli politik tempatannya menyelar penulis-penulis blog yang mengkritik kerajaan atau ahli-ahli politik, sambil menyimpulkan bahawa penulis-penulis sedemikian yang hanya menulis sambil berpakaian baju tidur ("pajamas") justeru tidak cukup berwibawa untuk penerimaan orang ramai.

Tidak lama kemudian, pada awal tahun 2007, setelah penulisan dan pembacaan blog menjadi popular di kalangan ratusan juta pengguna Internet ketika itu, rakyat Malaysia pula dijerumuskan dalam kancah perbicaraan media umum (mainstream) apabila ahli-ahli politiknya mula menyelar penulis-penulis blog bersifat "SOPO" (sosio-politik) yang kebanyakannya mengkritik kerajaan. Menteri Penerangan Malaysia pula terus mengemukakan gelaran " goblog" untuk penulis-penulis sedemikian.

Kini, Technorati, sebuah engin gelintar yang menganalisa perkembangan "blogosphere" menganggarkan lebih daripada 100 juta blog yang diselia oleh puluhan juta penulis-penerbit (tidak termasuk lebih 250 juta laman media sosial seperti profil Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, LinkedIn dsb.), yakni lebih kurang SATU penulis blog setiap SEPULUH pengguna Internet, menjadikan kumpulan penerbitan ini sebagai yang terbesar dalam sejarah peradaban manusia berbanding dengan penerbitan makalah-makalah lain seperti suratkhabar ataupun majalah dan jurnal.

Kalau dikira ribuan emel-emel yang telah saya hantarkan ke pelbagai kumpulan elektronik (di platform Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, BBS, FTP, Usenet, Web Egroups dsb.) sejak dari tahun 1992 dan pelbagai penulisan di laman Web sejak tahun 1993, mungkin saya boleh digolongkan dalam kumpulan puluhan ribu "blogger" yang pertama di dunia. Begitupun apa yang membezakan blog dan karya-karya lain yang diterbitkan dalam ruang sesawang ialah kekerapan dan formatnya -- blog memerlukan disiplin yang tinggi untuk tukang karya agar sentiasa menulis sekurang-kurangnya sekali seminggu, dan dipaparkan berbentuk diari atau penerbitan makalah formal, seperti akhbar atau majalah, lengkap dengan tarikh dan keupayaan carian sama ada menggunakan kata-kata kunci (keywords) tertentu atau label ("tags"). Menyedari tren sebegini, walaupun agak lambat, saya sendiri telah mula menyelia beberapa blog secara serius sejak awal tahun ini. [Saya mula menggunakan aplikasi khusus untuk pemblogan termasuklah blogger.com dan LiveJournal seawal tahun 2000]

Hari ini, blog bukanlah hanya media penerbitan anak-anak walaupun kebanyakan blog bersifat sedemikian. Penulis blog popular seperti Michael Arrington di laman Techcrunch.com, cukup dihormati dan diikuti oleh jutaan pembaca termasuk lebih 600,000 pengguna Internet yang melanggan penulisan beliau dan ahli-ahli kumpulannya melalui sindikasi RSS - bandingkan dengan langganan akhbar The Star atau New Straits Times misalnya yang kurang daripada separuh jumlah tersebut! Contoh lain untuk blog popular termasuklah laman engadget, gizmodo, Huffington Post (oleh Arianna Huffington), Pete Cashmore's Mashable.com, BoingBoing, TMZ (celebrity sightings) dan Chris Pirillo (bekas hos program-program di TechTV).

Malah, beberapa penulis blog di Malaysia mampu menjadikan aktiviti sebegini sebagai kerjaya profesional mereka dengan penulis-usahawan terkenal seperti Liew Choon Foong, Gobala Krishnan, Samsul Zamzuri, Kenny Sia dan Chan Lilian yang mampu menjanakan pendapatan lima angka (RM) setiap bulan daripada sumber pengiklanan dan penulisan berbayar di blog masing-masing.

Jika diamalkan secare efektif, blog boleh dijadikan sebuah alat yang cukup berkuasa untuk perniagaan anda. Lihat saja bagaimana beberapa ahli perniagaan dan teknokrat terkemuka seperti Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), Joichi Ito (Creative Commons), Bob Parsons (Godaddy - syarikat penghosan Web terbesar di dunia), Tim O'Reilly dan Tim Berners Lee menggunakan blog sebagai alat untuk meningkatkan kesetiaan pelanggan atau pembaca serta menambah pelangan-pelanggan baru. Di Malaysia pula, kita ada Tengku Zafrul (Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Tune Money -- anak syarikat Air Asia Group), Timothy Tiah (CEO of Penang-based NuffNang Malaysia, yang mana beliau bersama-sama dengan pengasas syarikat yang sama tapi berpejabat di Singapura, dinamakan oleh majalah terkemuka BusinessWeek sebagai sebahagian daripada 25 Usahawan Muda Terbaik di Asia) dan sudah tentu, Nasir Sobri (oops, I only maintain a company blog, not a personal one, yet -- not ready to be so bold yet).


Sudahkan ada blog?

Pernahkah anda membaca blog? (Anda sedang membacanya di saat ini!).

Apakah itu blog sebenarnya? Mari kita rujuk Wikipedia untuk mengetahui apakah yang pengguna Internet katakan tentang blog:-

Blog (singkatan untuk web log dalam bahasa Inggeris) ialah sebuah laman web yang kemasukan-kemasukannya ditulis menurut urutan kronologi dan dipaparkan dengan tertib terbalik.

Blog memberikan ulasan atau berita mengenai sesuatu tajuk, umpamanya makanan, politik , atau berita tempatan, dengan sesetengah blog berperanan lebih sebagai buku harian peribadi dalam talian . Blog yang tipikal menggabungan teks, imej, dan pautan ke dalam blog, laman web, dan media lain yang berkaitan dengan topiknya. Keupayaan para pembaca untuk meninggalkan ulasan mereka dalam format interaktif merupakan ciri yang utama untuk banyak blog. Kebanyakan blog umumnya adalah blog teks, walaupun sesetengahnya bertumpu pada gambar foto ( blog foto), video (vlog), muzik (blog MP3), atau audio ( podcasting), dan merupakan sebahagian rangkaian media sosial yang lebih luas.

Istilah "blog" merupakan kata lakur untuk perkataan "web" dan "log" (Web log). "Blog" juga boleh digunakan sebagai kata kerja yang membawa pengertian "untuk memeliharakan atau menambahkan isi kandungan ke dalam blog."

Jadual isi kandungan

• 1 Sejarah
  • 1.1 1983-1990 (Pra-HTTP)
  • 1.2 1994–2001
• 2 Lihat juga
• 3 Bacaan tambahan
• 4 Rujukan
• 5 Pautan luar

Sejarah

Babad, buku Commonplace, buku harian, perzin and persatuan akhbar amatur boleh dilihatkan sebagai pendahulu-pendahulu blog. Sebelum blog menjadi popular, terdapat banyak bentuk komuniti-komuniti digital, termasuk:

• Usenet
• perkhidmatan komersil dalam talian, seperti GEnie, BiX, dan CompuServe yang awal;
• senarai emel; ^[2] dan
• sistem papan buletin (BBS).

Pada dekad 1990-an, perisian forum internet seperti WebEx mencipta perbualan selari dengan "bebenang". Bebenang merupakan hubungan topik antara perutusan-perutusan pada " papan gabus" metafora. Sesetengah orang telah mempersamakan blog dengan gerakan Mass-Observation yang diasaskan pada tahun 1937 di United Kingdom.

1983-1990 (Pra-HTTP)

Usenet ialah perantara bersiri yang utama yang terangkum dalam takrif Jaringan Sejagat (WWW) yang asal. ^[3] Ia menonjolkan Kumpulan Berita Tersederhana yang membenarkan semua pengeposan dikawal oleh seorang individu atau sekumpulan pengguna yang kecil. Kebanyakan kumpulan berita tersebut hanya merupakan forum-forum perbualan tersederhana. Bagaimanapun pada tahun 1983-94, satu kekecualian, iaitu mod.ber telah dicipta, dikendalikan, dan dinamai sempena Brian E. Redman. Secara tetap, Redman dan beberapa rakannya akan mengeposkan ringkasan pos-pos dan bebenang-bebenang yang menarik dari laman- laman web yang lain dalam internet. Dengan gaya penerbitan jurnal bersiri, kehadiran dalam jaringan pra-HTTP, serta persamaan yang rapat dengan bentuk blog kini yang biasa — ia menonjolkan pautan ke laman-laman web yang menarik yang dipilih oleh pengguna blog — mod.ber mempunyai banyak ciri yang biasanya dikaitkan dengan istilah Blog. Walaupun demikian, mod.ber menamatkan operasinya selepas lebih kurang 8 bulan.

1994–2001

Blog moden berkembang daripada buku-buku harian dalam talian yang digunakan untuk menyimpan huraian selari tentang kehidupan-kehidupan peribadi mereka. Kebanyakan penulis ini merujuk kepada diri sendiri sebagai penulis diari, wartawan, atau penulis jurnal, dengan sebilangan kecil memanggil diri sendiri sebagai " eskribisionis" (escribitionist).

Gelang laman web (webring) Halaman-halaman Terbuka merangkumi ahli-ahli komuniti jurnal dalam talian. Justin Hall yang menggunakan blog peribadi sejak dari tahun 1994 ketika masih belajar di Kolej Swarthmore umumnya dianggap sebagai salah satu pengguna perintis blog yang awal, ^[4] bersama-sama Jerry Pournelle.

Bentuk-bentuk jurnal yang lain juga wujud dalam talian. Satu contoh yang terkenal ialah jurnal John Carmack , seorang pengaturcara permainan. Jurnalnya yang diterbitkan melalui protokol jari telah dibaca secara meluas. Laman-laman web, baik laman korporat mahupun laman peribadi, masih kerap kali menonjolkan bahagian-bahagian "Berita" atau "Berita Terkini", seringnya di dalam laman utama masing-masing dan disisihkan mengikut tarikh. Salah satu "weblog" berasaskan berita ialah Laporan Drudge yang diasaskan oleh Matt Drudge. Drudge menggelar diri sebagai pemberita pengingkar walaupun beliau jelas tidak suka akan pengelasan ini. Lagi satu contoh ialah Institut untuk Ketepatan Awam yang mula mengeposkan siaran-siaran berita yang menonjolkan petikan-petikan berita seperenggan daripada laman-laman web yang lain banyak kali seminggu mulai dari tahun 1998. Satu contoh pendahulu yang awal yang patut diberikan perhatian ialah laman web peribadi gurauan Kibo, legenda Usenet yang sentiasa dikemaskinikan.

Weblog-weblog yang awal hanya merupakan komponen-komponen laman web biasa yang dikemaskinikan secara manual. Bagaimanapun, pengembangan alat-alat untuk memudahkan penghasilan dan pemeliharaan rencana-rencana web yang diposkan mengikut tertib kronologi terbalik menyebabkan proses penerbitan boleh dilaksanakan oleh lebih banyak orang yang kurang mahir dari segi keupayaan teknikal. Ini akhirnya menyebabkan sebuah kelas penerbitan dalam talian yang terdiri yang menerbitkan apa yang diakui sebagai blog pada hari ini. Umpamanya, penggunaan perisian berasaskan pelayar kini merupakan suatu aspek "pemblogan" yang biasa. Blog-blog boleh dihoskan, baik oleh perkhidmatan- perkhidmatan pengehosan blog yang khusus, mahupun melalui perisian blog, seperti WordPress, Movable Type, blogger atau LiveJournal, atau dalam perkhidmatan-perkhidmatan pengehosan web yang tetap seperti DreamHost.

Istilah "weblog" dicipta oleh Jorn Barger pada 17 Disember 1997, manakala singkatannya, "blog," dicipta oleh Peter Merholz yang secara bermain-main memecahkan perkataan weblog menjadi frasa we blog di palang sisi blognya, Peterme.com pada April atau Mei 1999. ^{[5][6] [7]} Ini dengan pantasnya diterima, baik sebagai kata nama mahupun sebagai "kata kerja" dalam bahasa Inggeris ("to blog," bermaksud "mengedit weblog atau mengeposkan perutusan ke dalam weblog").

Selepas sebuah permulaan yang lambat, pemblogan dengan pantasnya mencapai kepopularan: laman web Xanga yang dilancarkan pada tahun 1996 hanya mempunyai 100 kemasukan menjelang 1997, tetapi melebihi 20 juta pada bulan Disember 2005. Penggunaan blog meledak pada tahun 1999 dan selepas nya, dipopularkan lagi ketibaan-ketibaan hampir serentak alat-alat blog pengehosan yang awal:

• Open Diary yang dilancarkan pada Oktober 1998 tidak lama kemudian berkembang sehingga beribu-ribu kemasukan dalam talian. Open Diary membuat pembaharuan kepada ulasan pembaca dan menjadi komunit blog yang pertama yang para pembaca boleh menambahkan ulasan mereka pada kemasukan blog penulis yang lain.
  
  
• Brad Fitzpatrick, seorang pengguna blog yang terkenal memulakan LiveJournal pada bulan Mac 1999.
  
  
• Andrew Smales mencipta Pitas.com pada bulan Julai 1999 sebagai pilihan yang lebih mudah untuk mengendalikan "laman berita" dalam laman web. Ini diikuti oleh penciptaan Diaryland pada bulan September 1999 yang lebih menumpukan pada komuniti diari peribadi. ^[8]
  
  
• Evan Williams dan Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) melancarkan blogger.com pada bulan Ogos 1999 (dibeli oleh Google pada bulan Februari 2003).

Pemblogan menggabungkan laman web peribadi dengan alat-alat untuk memudahkan perpuatan ke halaman-halaman dalam talian. — khususnya permalink, blogroll dan TrackBack. Ini, bersama-sama dengan enjin carian blog membolehkan pengguna blog untuk menjejaki bebenang-bebenang yang menghubungkan mereka kepada orang-orang lain yang mempunyai minat yang sama.

Bacaan tambahan

• Alavi, Nasrin. We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs, Percetakan Soft Skull, New York, 2005. ISBN 1-933368-05-5 .
• Bruns, Axel, dan Joanne Jacobs, ed. Uses of Blogs, Peter Lang, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-8204-8124-6 .
• Kline, David; Burstein, Dan. Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, Squibnocket Partners, L.L.C., 2005. ISBN 1-59315-141-1.

Rujukan

1. ↑ Blogosphere melihatkan pertumbuhan yang sihat.. (2006-11-08). Dicapai pada 2007-03-15.
2. ↑ Istilah "e-log" telah digunakan untuk menghuraikan kemasukan jurnal yang dihantar melalui emel sejak dari seawal Mac 1996. Norman, David (2005-07-13), Pengguna dikelirukan oleh blog, < http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2005-07/msg00208.html> (retrieved on 2007-Feb-20), Para kakitangan dan pelajar penyelidikan mengalu-alukan 'E-Log'. Kolej Universiti London: (Disember 2003). Dicapai pada 2007-02-20.
3. ↑ Berners-Lee Tim. Jaringan Sejagat: Cadangan untuk sebuah Projek HiperTeks. Dicapai pada 2007-03-22.
4. ↑ Harmanci Reyhan (2005-02-20). Masa dah tiba untuk memeriahkan kehidupan anda — Justin Hall, pengguna perintis blog, berundur pada umur 31 tahun. San Francisco Chronicle. Dicapai pada 2006-06-09.
5. ↑ " It's the links, stupid", The Economist, 2006-4-20. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
6. ↑ Merholz Peter (1999). Peterme.com. The Internet Archive. Dicapai pada 2006-07-21.
7. ↑ Kottke Jason (August 26, 2003). kottke.org. Dicapai pada 2006-07-21.
8. ↑ Jensen, Mallory A Brief History of Weblogs

Pautan luar

• 
  

.

• Carta pembandingan perisian blog oleh Online Journalism Review, USC Annenberg
• Pemblogan, dan penyertaan peribadi dalam pembangunan pengetahuan awam dalam talian (fail PDF) oleh Mark Brady, Kertas Kerja Chimera 2005-02 Colchester: Universiti Essex
• Laporan Undang-undang dan Keselamatan Komputer Jilid 22, Terbitan 2, m.s. 127-136 — blog, bohong dan doocing oleh Sylvia Kierkegaard (2006)
• Panduan undang-undang untuk pengguna blog oleh Yayasan Electronic Frontier

Panjangnya...! ;)

Macammana nak bermula? Anda boleh menggunakan alat yang anda sedang tatapi sekarang ini untuk menyumbangkan karya anda (sebagai latihan atau secara langsung) dengan mengemukakan penulisan tentang berita, acara, pengumuman, pantun, cerpen, sajak, artikel ilmiah atau apa saja...

Untuk tujuan peribadi atau komersil, bolehlah bermula dengan menggunakan khidmat percuma Blogger.com -- Saya berpeluang berjumpa dengan Evan Williams, salah seorang daripada pengasas Blogger.com semasa Web2Expo Tokyo baru-baru ini ;) [blogger.com bagaimanapun telah dipindah milik kepada syarikat gergasi Google, dan beliau kini mempelopori produk terbaru, Twitter.com - alat untuk pemblogan mikro]

Jika anda sudah bersedia untuk memblog secara profesional, bolehlah menggunakan perisian seperti WordPress (sumber terbuka percuma) atau perisian komersil lain sama ada dihoskan sendiri atau dihoskan oleh penyedia komersil (ASP). (psst... 1oasis.net)

Untuk penggemar telefon bimbit, mungkin boleh selia "moblog" seperti yang dipelopori oleh Joi Ito - sempat juga saya jumpa Mr Ito di Tokyo baru-baru ini, dan kami telahpun menjemput beliau ke Malaysia (sedang tunggu pengesahan sama ada dia akan datang ke Kuala Lumpur bulan depan atau tidak).

Selamat berkarya!

Spotlight on GK3: Prime Minister of Malaysia to open GKP Event on the Future

Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi

, Prime Minister of Malaysia, will deliver the opening keynote address at the Third Global Knowledge Conference, GK3. A GKP Event on the Future themed "Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies", GK3 will take place on 11 to 13 December 2007 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Over 200 international champions of development have confirmed their participation as speakers. They will lead interactive debates about the latest trends, innovations and future perspectives around the interplay of emerging people, markets and technologies in over 40 expert panels.

2,000 policy makers, leaders, innovators, visionaries, knowledge management specialists, broadcasters, practitioners and futurists are expected to join the debates and also discussions on latest lessons, effective methods and approaches in over 20 hands-on Emerging Solutions workshops.

Quick Links: Press Release | Conference Navigator | Full Programme | Speakers | Register

GKP Event on the Future - GK3, Third Global Knowledge Conference
"Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies"
11-13 December, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Find out how to participate @ www.GKPEventsOnTheFuture.org

| View | Upload your own

Looking forward to see YOU in KL on 9-13 DEC 2007....

Keynotes 2.0

Bravo to Tim O'Reilly for his unique opening of both days of Web2Expo Tokyo -- after a short introduction speeches on the first day, Tim immediately shifted to interview show with two interesting guests, one per day: Joichi Ito from the famous Joi Ito's lab and Evan Williams from Twitter (also co-founder of Pyra/Blogger.com and a graduate from Google and O'Reilly). After all, Web 2.0 is about multiple ways of sharing (between at least two individuals/entities or among members of a community), not just one-way delivery (broadcasting without feedbacks).

Tim however should have allowed more time for the rather watch-n-think, 'shy' crowd to come up with questions instead of brushing quickly that the audience lack of anything to ask the two guests.

And bravo to John Breslin for his comprehensive coverage on at least three of the six keynotes over the two Web 2.0 days at the Cerulean Tower Hotel, Shibuya.

I'll put up more stuff here off my OneNote records once I finish taking care of some procrastinated chores...

Broadband 2.0 coming soon in Malaysia?

Like most of you Malaysia-based customers of TM Net Streamyx and plethora other broadband providers (really? more like many in Klang Valley only, not elsewhere!), I'm one of the users of the 1-Mbps DSL (but down to 50Kbps for international connection most of the time) and 384-Kbps GPRS-EDGE (but normally around just 200Kbps). Say, if you've heard that half of the world's the billion plus Internet users have access to "Mega Broadband" (3-Mbps or faster), let me confirm to you that, that really is true:

Check out the speed I'm getting from a public Wi-Fi here at Web 2.0 conference room (shared by dozens/a hundred plus of people attending the conference blazing out YouTube etc.): 8-Mbps downstream and over 6-Mbps upstream (at least ten times faster than what we're getting in Malaysia)-- enough for some serious enterprise data center operation:

And unlike the Streamyx "Narrowband", this amazing download speed is not just within Tokyo, but all the way to Cyberjaya:


(notice how slow the connection into Cyberjaya (downstream for Malaysians 10-million plus PCs) and much faster for going out of Cyberjaya because we don't have that many servers yet.)

Heck, the LAN connection in the hotel room here at Cerulean Tower (costs 1050-yen per day -- about the price of a meal in Tokyo) even surpassed 30-Mbps!

[That's faster than connection at many "MSC-status universities", hence don't act so surprise when not a single Malaysian IPTA is in the top-200 global rank this year -- I remember how Dato Seri JJ lashed back to me confidently in front of 100s of technopreneurs at Vistana Penang, two years ago, on how he was betting on WiMAX to villages instead of upgrading Internet to higher learning institutions immediately... (I was commenting on how I suffered greatly being cut off from the entire fast-moving Web 2.0-world when I enrolled at a local IPTA in a remote town up north for my graduate studies - To Dato JJ: Where's your WiMAX all these years?? Our universities are in the dark, including in the only "5-star" Malaysian university!!)]

Drool on guys!!

(But I hope we'll at least get 3.6-Mbps 3G soon from Maxis and Celcom - and perhaps DiGi too, now that it has made a RM700-million move for TDC's 3G license... And I heard that Streamyx 4-Mbps is coming soon to Penang -- yeah rite! I'll dream on for the "mega town" of Balik Pulau...).


[Am blogging this during Zimbra show session in Japanese language with simultaneous English interpretation after Scott Dietzen completed his lengthy part -- the slides for both sessions were in Japanese though..]

Rails are the new Gems!

It's been a while for me to have a long offshore trip, having had only short ones to Singapore, Padang and Bangkok during the past couple years. But last night, a full 14 hours starting at 6am (MYT) in Balik Pulau (Penang, Malaysia) took me to Shibuya-ku ("fashion shopping town" of Tokyo, Japan) for Web 2.0 conference and expo -- as mentioned in my previous post: the first big arrival in Asia by the "Web 2.0-man " himself, Tim O'Reilly. (Psst. the MDEC guys with me are pushing to bring these guys to Malaysia next, soon!)

This morning, we had three sessions so far starting with Tim interviewing Joi, and later IBM and Sun showcasing their commitments for the Web 2.0 community of civilians (business people) and developers (now techies sound like military people!)
...

(to be continued after going to MIDA and shopping ;0)

[CONTINUED: 19nov07]:

When the first morning of Web 2.0 at the Cerulean Tower Hotel Banquet Hall concluded, we International delegates get shun off the entire 2nd half-day of the conference due to the fact that the were no interpretation made available for both verbal and textual versions of the remaining sessions of the day after the first three keynotes. And we paid full price about RM3,000 per person! (not including travel and lodging expenses for another ~RM4500 per person). [Hmm, like my friend Rico put it in our group Web20Japan blog, "Note to self: Learn Japanese!"]

And to make things worse, all three morning keynotes were so boring that the speakers including O'Reilly could not get any excitement from the floors in the form of feedbacks or questions. Or maybe I was right about the "ninja codes" (see previous post) -- Asians especially Japanese people seem very secretive about their stuff, telling only on need-to-know basis, and only when they can show the real things (Unlike Westerners that market like crazy and raise more money than they could use -- like the Twitter guys (whom its co-founder I met when he was catching up with Joi Ito later the first night) before they even come up with any real products). Or maybe these smarties in suits were just shy for not being able to communicate well in English (I bet they were much more active in Japanese-only sessions just like the courteous hotel and event organizing workers who greet us all the time with long phrases -- which I understood nothing...)

And I wasn't alone who felt this -- later that night after we were done with shopping (and window-jakuning) at the Akihabara electric town, all my colleagues expressed their even worse opinions of the first day of Web 2.0 Japan.

Though, I still sensed some treasures from the first day, and by knowing ahead on what the second day would bring us, particularly from Opera and Twitter, I was the most upbeat for the next day's content, brushing aside possibly another off-side trips like the one we had to MIDA Japan on the first afternoon... After all, I felt the trip to Tokyo itself without any of the Web 2.0 sessions was already a huge eyes-opening experience, and let me me tell you my version/story on trains and rails:

Having had great experience with American highways for ten years, I returned to Malaysia in 2002, and I must say how impressed I was immediately with Kuala Lumpur's latest and modern transportation infrastructure in the forms of its Light-Rail-Transit (LRT) trains, KTM commuter train and KLIA-KL Sentral ERL which I thought were more or less comparable to those in Detroit, Chicago and New York (I didn't had much experience with those though since it was much easier to cruise around with US$20/day rented pickup trucks bracing long and straight toll-less highways). And KL Sentral's integrated transit for four train lines look efficient enough. Or so I thought...

Boy, how wrong I was: Tokyo on the other hand seem ten years ahead, in terms of its transportation efficiencies to accommodate its ~13-million highly active inhabitants (including gentlemen in their 50s and 60s who still lurk at video game hangouts!!): Tokyo metropolitan (one of the 47 prefectures in Japan -- comparable to a state/federal territory in Malaysia, e.g. Kuala Lumpur "metro") has at least 12 subway lines (I counted 17 lines on its metro guide map though) connecting most if not all of its 23 wards and 26 cities, and there seem to be at least 20 KL Sentrals of transits (with three or more connecting lines) in Tokyo prefecture alone -- How I wish I had more time to try many more trains than the two JR lines (Yamanote and Hibiya) we took for getting to Shinjuku (for dining), Kamiyacho (for business) and Akihabara (for electronics) during the two very expensive day-stay in Tokyo.

On the Web 2.0 side, Rails seem to be able to gain dominance in development world (just like how trains beat buses and taxis in Tokyo as the preferred mean of transportation) now that Robert Brewin has hinted in his first-day keynote on how Sun Microsystems itself has more confidence in Ruby on Rails (nicked "Rails" instead of "Ruby") than their own "beans"! -- So confident that Sun now supports Rails with grants to developers, hardware to hosts and support in its wide range of development tools.

As a web host, I've constantly heard of Rails, and do offer it in my hosting packages, but it's time to check out Rails from now on for my on-going Web 2.0 projects. Back to business.... (later)


Nasir was lost in Haraju-ku but is now on clear path in Penang (after a 4-hour trip with Vios from KLIA due to missing his AirAsia afternoon flight -- COST: KLIA->LCCT by Avis driver: RM20, wasted AirAsia ticket: RM100, car - RM277, PETROL: RM69, TOLL: RM 53 = close to RM500 from KL to Penang => ARGH, TRAVELLING IN MALAYSIA IS KILLING US MICROPRENEURS!! ) . Wait, there's a Mastercard version: Being able to meet friends at Shah Alam on the way back, and later cruise at 170km/h trailing a speedy Benz (I'm not sure whether it does bear a special "Datuk" tag or not): PRICELESS!


p/s: What else would I get from Akihabara for my little niece back in Sepang: a full set of bullet train (with three cars that moves really fast using just a single AA battery) complete with its rails and an inhabited station (with a couple of little people):


(this blues and a Nemo waterproof swatch were enough to make her all friendly with me again -- she normally runs away from males including from my two elder brothers)

Nanojobs?

Hmm...

Read on what pantipicon team wrote on the evolution of jobs from one to many, from big to tiny...

On the personal side, I am very excited this week:-

1. I'm going to Tokyo for the first time along with a couple of gentlemen from the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) of Malaysia and another Penang-based colleague. I have previously stopped over at Narita airport twice during en-route to USA, but this time, I'm going see more of Japan first-hand, not just through the portrayals in movies or the influx of everything Japan - cars, Sony, electronics, techno etc. and that chic tune from Gwen - Harajuku... Hmm, I didn't know a stay in a modest hotel there is going to cost us RM1,000+ per night! (that's about 1-2 months of car loan payment and the three nights stay can already buy me a new smashing notebook computer!)

2. It's the first time, the O'Reilly's Web 2.0 going to arrive big time in Asia having created the explosive buzzes in the States and just recently last week in Berlin. This Asia version will be shorter and cost less than the US or Germany counterparts, but I'm particularly even more enthusiastic to learn Web 2.0, Asian-style. After all, we've been too bombarded with Western version of Web 2.0 all these while with Friendster (US-originated that somehow find more than 80% of its audience from Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, the Philipines, Indonesia and Singapore), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google etc., I don't think I'd be learning much if I had gone to San Francisco instead. -- I can always look the American versions up in Wikipedia, YouTube and Slideshare, while the Asian ones, they remain secrets like the Ninja codes! (I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about this time ;-))

Well, if iPhone didn't do much wonders in Asia (yet), let's see if Web 2.0 is and will...

Look forward to be blogging from Japan -- I hope the Wi-Fi there won't cost me arms and legs! And if web2expo buzz more hypes than real biz, I'll try to come up with my own Lost in (Shibuya-ku) Translation stories off the three nights there.

Hajimemashite... Konichiwa!

Eid Open House @ Padang Kota (10nov07)

Refer http://calendar.pp.com.my for more details and to add info into your PIM (Outlook etc).

See you there!

November Fall in Malaysia

Salaam & Hi again from Nasir Sobri, the pajama guy behind Pajamanation Malaysia. I've been slacking a bit on blogging during the past few weeks due to other commitments on several projects I'm pajamaworking for clients etc. In fact, am writing this from Kuala Lumpur, some four hours away from my home pajama town, Balik Pulau, Penang... Even our global CEO, Dr De Brouwer in Belgium is having some tech hiccups distracting him off blogging at his blogspot. But hey, you can continue getting "pajama feeds" from many more sources out there including from my friend in the United Kingdom, Andy Roberts and in Venezuela, Ricardo Del Rio (in Spanish)...

It's November again, and as the 90s rock band Guns & Roses (GNR) had it the one of its most successful songs, "November Rain", it rains a lot here throughout Malaysia all these weeks since before Eid in October... Suppose if Malaysia is located further up north from the equator, we'd be having snow already instead, but the temperature here constantly feels like it's Fall season in the all-year-long hot & wet tropical climate of Malaysia.

Unfortunately, it'll be short this time as I have to prepare a business pitch connecting a local university researcher with a close friend of mine in media industry later this morning (it's Subuh time of 6am now and I've been up since 4am after an early bedtime)... If this will work, it'll open up a path for our Malaysia-based academia to collaborate with industry on a tech-centric product, and things will be brighter later on for the thousands other technopreneurs out there throughout the country -- MDEC, the main entity behind the Multimedia Super Corridor project for Malaysia's 2020 Vision is supporting our initiative.

A bit of distraction: did you know that there is a song dedicated to my name "Sobri" popularized by a French singer, Leslie Bourgouin (with French, Vietnamese and Polynesian decent, as the first single of her second album)? Well, partially that is -- my dad's name actually, but it's like, my "last name" you know... Enjoy the music:



and the following version with Amine looks Bollywood enough:



(now I'd love to learn French, sooner or later... - As many of you, I'd be a fan of Alizée as well ;-) - not the alcoholic beverage Alize!)

And it's approximate translation in English:

Like a mirage, a dream
Un combat qui s'achève, A fight that ends,
Ils n'y ont jamais cru en cet amour qui sommeil. They have never believed in that love which sleep.
En nous depuis toujours, As we have always,
Sans que notre les entour, mais Without the area that our, but
Il était temps pour nous de fuir ceux qui nous enchaînent. It was time for us to leave those who we pattern.

On s'est promis d'échapper à l'injustice It has promised to avoid injustice
De ne plus vivre à leurs dépends From no longer live at their expense
On a fait tous ce qu'on Pouvait mais en vaint It was all so-Can but vaint
Tant qu'on en est sur, osons tout While we are on, dare all

J'irai ou tu iras , au bout du monde avec toi Or you go I will go, at the end of the world with you
Quitte à tout perdre avec toi. Exits to lose everything with you.
N'ti n'ti wana ..ki rani netmenna...naichou fel h'na N'ti n'ti wana .. ki rani netmenna ... naichou fel h'na
(Traduction : Juste toi toi toi et moi tous ce que je souhaite c'est qu'on vive (Translation: Just yourself you and me all that I want is that deep
dans la tranquilité) In tranquility)

N'ti houbi lawwel..waalik ma nesbor N'ti houbi lawwel .. waalik my nesbor
We bla bik netdwedder nebghik ya omri hdaya.. We bla bik netdwedder nebghik are omri hdaya ..
N'ti ghaliya andi N'ti ghaliya andi
Nebghik liya wahdi .. Nebghik liya wahdi ..
Omri wine ma toughdi n'rouh maak wine ma kane Omri wine my toughdi n'rouh maak my wine kane
Matkhalliniche ya omri matkhalliniche Matkhalliniche are omri matkhalliniche

Non jamais sans toi Never without you
Nti houbbi naatik galbi Nti houbbi naatik galbi
Tu l'as fais pour moi Hast do for me

Gaa yahadrou nti matensey Gaa yahadrou nti matensey
Adyani mayebgouniche ... Adyani mayebgouniche ...

J'Irai ou tu iras , au bout du monde avec toi J'Irai or you will go, at the end of the world with you
Quitte à tout perdre avec toi. Exits to lose everything with you.
N'ti n'ti wana ..ki rani netmenna...naichou fel h'na N'ti n'ti wana .. ki rani netmenna ... naichou fel h'na

Let's see if I'll be blogging from Japan some two weeks from today... See ya!