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Pesta Blogger and Muktamar Blogger
In fad conscious Indonesia, blogging has somewhat lost its glister among the online community. It was very big about 8 years ago when a whole group of us including Ndorokakung, Enda Nasution, Shinta Bubu, Priyadi, fatih Syuhud, Budi Putra got together and created the first Pesta Blogger in 2007.
It attracted about 500 bloggers from all over Indonesia. Then came Twitter and Facebook and all of a sudden everyone was in social media. It was easier to express thoughts in 140 characters, Facebook was more entertaining, fast and easy to use and blogging’s popularity waned.
By 2011, the last year of Pesta Blogger, we had changed the concept to ON|OFF but the nature of the online community, once a close-knit and supportive group, had changed. It was now more diffused, and everyone was doing their thing. All sorts of organizations were also trying to organize their blogging/social media event. The space became a red ocean and it looked like a good time to move on for my company maverick, that had been organizing the Pesta Blogger series of events for seven years.
So it was with a pleasant surprise that Unspun received an email last week from the Langsat Community inviting him and other for a Muktamar Blogger, an event traditionally held for bloggers to get together on the eve of Pesta Blogger. With Pesta Blogger gone they are still holding this event to celebrate blogging.
Brings back many memories and Unspun for one plans to go there to catch up with some old friends, shoot the breeze with others and bring Unspun Jr there so that he can have an idea of that species of humans known as blogers. Who knows, he and his generation might be organizing Pesta Blogger 2030 when the fad cycle comes round again?
This was the invite letter and if you’re free betweek 11am and 5pm today drop by Taman Langsat to check the event out.
Dengan hormat,
Kami atas nama komunitas Blogger Bunderan HI ingin mengundang kehadiran sampeyan di acara “Muktamar Blogger 2013″ yang akan diadakan di:
Lokasi: Taman Langsat, Jalan Langsat 1, Kebayoran Baru, Jaksel (peta terlampir)
Waktu: Sabtu, 1 Juni 2013; jam 11-17 WIB
Acara: Ramah tamah tanpa sekat dan predikat
Muktamar Blogger adalah kegiatan rutin kami untuk menyambut acara Pesta Blogger (PB). Biasanya digelar semalam sebelum PB diadakan keesokan harinya. PB kini sudah tiada, tapi kami tetap merasa perlu mengadakan muktamar sebagai ajang kumpul dan reuni. Tahun ini, kami punya tema; “Blogger ga blogger, yang penting ngeblog!”
Besar harapan kami, sampeyan bisa hadir dan ikut meramaikan acara.
Atas perhatiannya, kami ucapkan terima kasih.
Those behind all the stupid advice Najib gets?
Unspun’s often wondered where Malaysian Premier Najib Abdul Razak gets all the awful PR advice here and here. Now we know. The article below was in the March 9th edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Should Malaysian citizens file a class action suit for wholesale incompetence while spending the taxpayers’ money?
Malaysia’s U.S. Propaganda – WSJ.com
A general election is expected next month in the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia, and that usually means political shenanigans—abuse of national security laws, media manipulation and character assassination. After the last election in 2008, when the ruling coalition barely held on to power, public anger at such practices prompted Prime Minister Najib Razak to redraft laws and reform the electoral system. However, new revelations that his government paid American journalists to attack opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim raise questions whether those changes went far enough.
In January, conservative American blogger Joshua Treviño belatedly registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, revealing that from 2008-2011 he was paid $389,724.70, as well as a free trip to Malaysia, to provide “public relations and media consultancy” services to the Malaysian government.
These consisted of writing for a website called Malaysia Matters, now defunct, as well as channeling $130,950 to other conservative writers who wrote pro-government pieces for other newspapers and websites. When questioned in 2011 by the Politico website about whether Malaysian interests funded his activities, Mr. Treviño flatly denied it: “I was never on any ‘Malaysian entity’s payroll,’ and I resent your assumption that I was.”
Enlarge Image
Associated Press
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
The campaign was more targeted than the Malaysian ruling coalition’s domestic attacks on Mr. Anwar. Mr. Treviño’s site mainly went after the opposition leader for anti-Semitic remarks and his alliance with the Islamist party PAS, and even accused him of links to terrorists through the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Mr. Anwar has made anti-Semitic comments—though that’s in part to fend off domestic accusations that he’s too cozy with Zionists. He also has ties to organizations that have taken Saudi money, but the suggestion that he somehow has “ties to terrorism” is preposterous.
The site also defended an outrageous charge of sodomy brought against Mr. Anwar from 2008-2012, and it criticized the U.S. State Department and The Wall Street Journal for taking Mr. Anwar’s side. These postings were clearly aimed at sowing doubt among other would-be Anwar defenders in the U.S., especially on the right of the U.S. political spectrum.
Mr. Treviño paid other writers who know almost nothing about Malaysia but mimicked his propaganda. The New Ledger, edited by Ben Domenech, was even more vociferous, calling Mr. Anwar a “vile anti-Semite and cowardly woman-abuser.” One posting was entitled, “Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist money flowing to Anwar Ibrahim.” According to Mr. Treviño’s filing, he paid Mr. Domenech $36,000 for “opinion writing.” Three contributors of anti-Anwar items to the New Ledger—Rachel Motte, Christopher Badeaux and Brad Jackson—were paid $9,500, $11,000 and $24,700 respectively.
Mr. Treviño was initially paid by public relations multinational APCO Worldwide, which had a longstanding contract with the Malaysian government. APCO’s Kuala Lumpur representative through 2010, Paul Stadlen, now works in Prime Minister Najib’s office. David All, who at the time ran his own PR firm and collaborated on Malaysia Matters, also provided cash.
But from 2009-11, the Malaysian money came through Fact-Based Communications, which under the leadership of journalist John Defterios produced programs on client countries for CNN, CNBC and the BBC. After this was revealed in 2011, the three networks dropped all FBC programs, and Atlantic Media Company President Justin Smith resigned from its board.
Influence-peddling has a long and sordid history in Washington, and governments that use repressive methods at home yet want to remain on friendly terms with the U.S. typically have the biggest bankrolls. It’s not unheard of for PR operators to pay less reputable journalists and think-tankers to write favorable coverage, as the Jack Abramoff case in the mid-2000s showed.
The Malaysian scheme, however, is notable because it drew in respected writers such as Rachel Ehrenfeld, who has contributed to the Journal in the past and took $30,000, Claire Berlinski, who got $6,750, and Seth Mandel, an editor at Commentary magazine, who was paid $5,500. Some of the articles appeared in well-known publications such as National Review and the Washington Times.
Mr. Najib’s falling popularity at home suggests his days as Prime Minister could be numbered. The irony is that he was more democratic and played a more responsible role in the region than his predecessors. Even opposition figures have quietly admitted to us that he has steered Malaysia in the right direction. That should have been more than enough for a legitimate public relations operation to work with. Resorting to underhanded tactics to undermine the opposition has only backfired for Mr. Najib, at home and abroad.
A version of this article appeared March 9, 2013, on page A12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Malaysia’s U.S. Propaganda.
Redirecting focus to photo blog
Time to change focus, and say with pictures some of what Unspun has failed to say in words. So bulk of energy will be redirected to UnspunPics.wordpress.com from now
Salingsilang and the closing of a chapter in Indonesia’s social media scene
And thus closes another chapter in the development of social media in the community.
At its height Salingsilang.com showed lots of promise and had the potential of becoming a nucleus of the online community in Indonesia. It had a stable of big names in the Indonesian online community either directly involved or supporting their activities: Enda Nasution, Paman Tyo, Ndoro Kakung and others.
In a feat of great imagination they also came up with Obsat, Obrolan Langsat (obrolan = conversations; Langsat = the street in Gandaria where they had their offices). The concept was brilliant: create a place where the online community could hang out and invite interesting prominent people to come speak to these bloggers, buzzers and other social media practitioners who had the power to amplify their messages to literally millions of Indonesians.
As a result they attracted many prominent Indonesian figures including Jokowi, Boediono and Anies Baswedan made pilgrimages to Jalan Langsat to propitiate the virtual gods of the new new order. (Obsat still takes place and is organized by the group headed by Pak Didi but the buzz around the event isn’t as vibrant as it used to be).
In the past two years they also branched into event organisation, organizing Social Media Fest in 2011 and 2012. The first event was a huge success and caused Pesta Blogger, until then the main platform for onliners to get together, to postpone its event by a couple of months to avoid over-saturating the online community with a similar event. The second event, however, was much less well organised, perhaps reflecting the waning fortunes of Salingsilang.
They also tried moving into social media monitoring, aggregating blogs, creating portals such as Politikana etc but throughout it all was the nagging question of how their business models would actually make money.
Then over the past few months came rumours of a breakdown in Salingsilang, with some names going to another enterprise backed by their investor while the rest were left to fend for themselves. Today’s official announcement (below) confirms the end of Salingsilang.
Salingsilang’s passage is a little sad because it also coincides with how the Indonesia social media scene had shifted. Once it was a tight-knit community with bloggers knowing and bouncing ideas and conversations off each other. There were rants and flames but it was on the whole a congenial community where people cared about what was said, which then became conversations off and online. There was also a certain respect, probably because there was a greater effort and thinking involved in blogging.
Then things evolved. Facebook and Twitter came into the picture and opened the floodgates to everyman and his dog. In with them came the snake oil salesmen who used the new medium to become overnight social media rockstars by doing what it takes to win as many friends and fans as well as followers on Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter especially allowed those obsessed enough, ambitious enough, or one-minded enough to build up followings, often by the sheer frequency of their Tweets. Then also came mercenaries who made a career of leveraging their insider status in journalism, politics or other professions to tar people; while simultaneously running consultancies aimed at solving the very problems they create via their tweets and blog posts.
Schadenfreude and churlishness also became the new currency for a Twittering population seeking to gratify themselves gorging on twitwars and scandals. In short the Indonesian social mediasphere, at least to Unspun, has become a much less attractive place to hang out in.
So it is sad to see Salingsilang’s demise as it marks the closing of a chapter.
Salingsilang.com resmi ditutup – Beritagar
Situs Salingsilang.com, yang sebelumnya dikenal merangkum peristiwa di media sosial Indonesia, menyatakan secara resmi menutup seluruh layanannya, setelah berjalan sejak 2011. Hal itu ditegaskan dalam rilis media, yang juga dimuat dalam blog.salingsilang.com.
Berikut isi surat resmi dari Salingsilang.com:
Jakarta, 9 Januari 2013
Kepada yang kami hormati,
Pembaca, penikmat, dan pengguna Salingsilang.com, serta jejaring, maupun keluarga Salingsilang.
Dengan sangat menyesal, kami memberitahukan dan menegaskan bahwa Salingsilang.com, serta jejaring, dan keluarganya berhenti beroperasi, setelah berjalan sejak 2011.
Penyebabnya adalah fokus pada bidang yang berbeda satu sama lain, yang sebelumnya dilakukan di bawah bendera Salingsilang secara keseluruhan; mulai dari pengumpulan dan layanan data media sosial, pembuatan dan rangkuman peristiwa media sosial, dukungan dan aktivasi komunitas online, konsultasi kampanye media sosial, hingga penyelenggaraan acara seperti Social Media Fest. (2011, 2012), PictFest, dan Ngerumpi Days Out.
Kini, tim yang sebelumnya tergabung di Salingsilang, sudah berpencar mengerjakan project berbeda: di bidang consulting, media dan content, hingga mobile project.
Kami mohon maaf atas ketidaknyamanan ini. Terutama pada komunitas-komunitas yang sudah bergabung, dan mendukung kami sejauh ini. Kami menyayangkan Salingsilang tidak dapat berjalan lagi. Tapi apa boleh buat, itu yang terjadi.
Kami masih percaya pada kekuatan dunia digital untuk mengubah Indonesia jadi lebih baik, melalui media sosial yang masih akan terus berpengaruh di tahun-tahun ke depan.
Kami bangga atas apa yang sudah kami kerjakan, pada tim yang sudah terbentuk, dan seluruh pihak yang sudah bekerja bersama. We had fun!
Perjuangan belum selesai, dan tidak perlu berhenti sampai di sini. Mari terus berkarya, dan bersama-sama creating something awesome! 
Kami, tim Salingsilang.com pamit undur.
Blog Fest by Angkor Wat
Kounila Keo, who is one of the most active bloggers and digerati in ASEAN, and her mates are organizing a Blog Fest in Siem Reap on November 1-5. Registration for the event is now open and those who are financially challenge may apply for a sponsorship.
Below is her message to Indonesian bloggers:
Dear Indonesian bloggers,
We are very happy to announce the BlogFest Asia 2012. The regional gathering will take place this year in Siem Reap, Cambodia from November 1st to 5th. It is organized by Cambodian bloggers (
http://2012.blogfest.asia/blogfest-organizers
). We also have a team of volunteers who will help us with arranging your travels within Siem Reap.BlogFestAsia has been organized twice in Hong Kong and Malaysia in order for technologists, bloggers, social media enthusiasts and tech lovers in the region to come, share, learn and exchange information related to technology development in the region.
Visit our website (
http://2012.blogfest.asia
) for background information on the purpose of our gathering. More information will be provided very soon.Please register now:
http://2012.blogfest.asia/registration-form
. The organizers here would like to provide accommodation as well as meals to participants, but participants or speakers should be able to cover their own air tickets from their home country to Siem Reap.However, if you need an invitation letter to find sponsorship for your travel, please shoot us an email (blogfestasia12@gmail.com).
Over the next few days and weeks, we will be adding the complete program, adding speakers’ bios and a list of attendees. Please do keep coming back to the site
http://2012.blogfest.asia
for blog posts, commentaries from blogfest partipants as well as updates of travel funds as we’re seeking for sponsorship from different companies and institutes to sponsor you as well. We cannot promise, but we’re trying our best. This can only be informed to you after you register.So far, the BlogFestAsia 2012 has been made possible thanks to the very generous support of the US Embassy, the Asia Foundation and several individuals. We hope to hear from other potential sponsors by mid October.
Thank you!
And the cycle of violence in the schools goes round and round…
School violence has been around in Jakarta for the better part of at least the past 25 years. Each time there is an intensifying of violence, the Government and others make the appropriate concerned voices and vow to put it to an end.
Then the problem ebbs from the headlines and everyone forgets about it…until the next spate of violence. This is a big pity because the ways of combating the violence have been discovered and even applied to at least one school. The solution is there but it’s all forgotten.
Unspun, wrote about it in this posting in 2006, about an article I wrote when I was still a journalist in 1997. But what do you do with a government with no political will to do the right thing and to make things right?
Government takes on brawling students | The Jakarta Post.
Iman Mahditama and Multa Fidrus
Portrait of grief: Endang Puji holds a picture of her slain son, Alawy Yusianto Putra, during his burial procession at the Poncol public cemetery in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday. Alawy was allegedly killed by a student of SMA 70 state high school in South Jakarta while he was having lunch nearby. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The death of 15-year-old Alawy Yusianto Putra, victim of the everlasting enmity between two neighboring schools, not only brought tears to the eyes of many, but also brings hope for an end to fatal student brawls, as the government took matters into its hands.
Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said on Tuesday that Alawy would be the last victim of student brawls throughout the country and that the government would take all necessary measures to prevent further clashes.
“We are sorry that violence is still rampant at schools. We are determined to make this case the very last of these brawls ever, and to transform these two schools into harmonious, top-quality neighborhood schools,” Nuh told a press conference with Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo and the principals and the two school committee heads of SMA 6 and SMA 70 state high schools in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.
read more here
Crisis management enthusiasts: follow the Samsung crisis
Dealing with bloggers is not an easy task as they form a category of influencers. Misdealing with them invites a business crisis.
This story has been going viral among the online category, making Samsung look like an absolute shmuck for mistreating bloggers.
And to add insult to injury, Nokia has leaped into the fray as a white knight to help the blogger stranded by Samsung. See the link here.
Unless Samsung acts decisively and contains the situation soon, more horror stories of Samsung’s behavior like this one will surface and garher momentum, forcing the company into a crisis situation that could see it losing missions of dollars and a huge dent to its reputation.
So get your popcorn, relax and sit back to enjoy the show.
Finally you know who gets infuriated over talk of sex
The world is a strange place. Usually it is the Moslem cleric denouncing some seemingly depraved talk show host for sexually-explicit and immoral trash talk. This time the tables are turned with the Government watchdog the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) is playing moral gatekeeper and a Ustad has the role of poacher.
What a strange and wonderful world we live in.
Indonesian TV Station Cited Over ‘Vulgar’ Episode of Renowned Cleric Ustad Solmed’s Show
Indonesian TV Station Cited Over ‘Vulgar’ Episode of Renowned Cleric Ustad Solmed’s Show
The Jakarta Globe | August 01, 2012Muslim preacher Sholahudin Mahmoed, better known as Ustad Solmed, hosts the late night talk show ‘Akhirnya Aku Tahu’ (‘I Finally Understand’). (Photo courtesy of ustadsolmed.com)
10 years later in a company called Maverick
Been traveling so much lately that this is the first time I’ve had to update this blog.
The posting below is from my company blog Talking Points that I wrote on the fly to commemorate our 10th anniversary. I suppose it is a good sign that all of us in Maverick are so busy that we’ve hardly had time to commemorate our 10th anniversary, but there will be a time for partying soon.
When Maverick first set out on its journey exactly 10 years ago this month, we had an audacious ambition: to be the most respected communications consultancy in Indonesia.
We weren’t content to be a Public Relations agency as Public Relations mostly meant media relations; we also didn’t want to be an agency, doing the bidding of clients who may not necessarily know better on what’s good for their brands.
So we set out to play in the field of communications and to be consultants first and foremost, with agency work as the support for our consultancy services.
A decade has passed. How have we done?
Let’s look at the desire to be “most respected” first. On a scale of 10 I’d say we have hit an 8 or even a 9. The client list we have is nothing to scoff at with the likes of Acer, Airbus, Airbus Military, Brand A, Coca-Cola, Nestle, HM Sampoerna and SMAX.
Then there is the Crisis and Issues Management practice which makes Maverick the go-to firm for many of the nation’s largest and most established law firms needing litigation support, multinationals facing labor unrest or consumer food companies having problems with their products. The client list is equally impressive but the nature of the work precludes us disclosing their names.
Where social media is concerned, we officially set up Raconteur, our digital storytelling division, a year ago and already it is making a name for itself as the digital consultancy that delivers results, not hype. In the beginning of this year it won a huge account in SMAX snacks. It has also handled the launch of a Google Chrome campaign, just introduced Evernote to the Indonesian online community and is working to help the Taiwan Trade Office (TAITRA) promote the island-nation.
There is also Gauge, our media monitoring and analysis division that continues to establish itself as the most comprehensive and high quality service of its kind in Indonesia, in spite of newcomers to the industry. It’s addition of social media monitoring and analysis as a service has also been a hit to our clients.
And last but not least, we have Brio our newest division that leverages Maverick and Raconteur’s experiences and knowledge as practitioners to provide training to corporations in need of communications and crisis management skills. It was set up this year and already it has hit all the financial targets we have set for it.
Together these divisions add up to an offering greater than the sum of themselves. This is good news for clients who may need and want a full spectrum of communications advice and service.
All, this, however has been possible because of two things. The culture and the people in Maverick.
We like to think that we have a culture that is unique and un-replicable by other competitors. It is a culture where individuals are continuously challenged to produce their best, and then go one step further. At the same time it is a nurturing culture where each and every Maverick has the responsibility to support and encourage their co-workers to greater heights and successes.
Getting social in Central Asia
Let me start this blogpost with a confession: when i was first invited to be a trainer at the Tech Forum Central Asia in Almaty, I had to Google the place up.
I had never heard of it before and when I discovered that it was the old capital of Khazakstan, thought that I at least knew something of the country, but for all the wrong reasons, as it was confined only to Borat, him of the repulsive Slingshot costume.
The other facet of the trip was also as monumentally confounding to me – I was to join a group of technologists to help train the youth in Central Asia about social media and its uses. What did I – who grew up with a typewriter in my first job – know about technology to teach the digitally savvy youth of today?
But not being one to pass up a challenge and a hint of adventure (think Mongols, think Silk Road, think of vast plains and the Soviet system) I signed up and that was how I found myself in Almaty last Friday and Saturday (June 15 and 16).
The Tech Forum Central Asia was the first of its kind to gather youth form Central Asia to discuss how they can use social media to benefit their societies. It was organized by the Civil Alliance and sponsored by the US Embassy in Kazakhstan as well as several corporations such as Chevron.
It was apparently a feat to gather the participants from all the “-stan” counties – Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgistan, Pakistan and, of course, Kazakhstan – because the governments in some of these countries are suspicious and fear the combination of youth and the internet. Although some delegates had a hard time of getting a passage out of the country they all managed to come to the forum.
The result is a very eclectic and spirited Tech Forum Central Asia where the curiousity and passion of Central Asian youth came into contact with the more exposed and savvy use of social media of the trainers who came from Britain, the US, Pakistan, India and Indonesia – represented by the very talented Hanny Kusumawati and myself.
The format of the forum was based in the Tech Camps run by the US State Department, where participants were first exposed to a speed geeking session – think speed dating but for geeks. Essentially, the trainers have five minutes to share a story or a case history, where social media has been used to great effect on behalf of an organization, to a small grpup pf participants. St the end pf 5minutes a whistle is blown and the trainers tell the story Again to them. They are allowed to ask questions.
I shared the story of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, a NGO that works to release captured Bornean orangutan into their natural habitats and how its foray into social media allowed it to be more searchable on the Net. It also allowed the BOS to become the primary source of information on the state of orangutan capture, treatment and release after a SCTV documentary put the topic on the national news agenda.
The participants were then given free reign to join groups for discussions ranging from crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to mapping, the use of video on the Net, gender issues and Net strategy. There were several discussions sessions, each one designed to sharpen their focus on their areas of concern, culminating in problem solving sessions.
Some of the problems they raised gave us a glimpse of issues important to the youth of Central Asia, namely women’s rights in male dominated societies, how to raise funds for causes, racism against Asiatic-looking central Asians in Russia and other Caucasian-dominated countries and how to help the disabled more.
What surprised Unspun was the extent of English being used in what was once a Russian-dominated region. What delighted Unspun was the warmth and curiousity of the delegates and the many volunteer helpers and translators that made the TFCA a success, at least as the begining of a discourse among the caring young Central Asians who want to do something for their societies and see the internet as a potential tool for making their missions easier and more effective.
