INFOSOC received feature coverage in InTech today - generally, its a good write-up about the event and deserving of a read. Some of things discussed at INFOSOC will be part of the local IT environment for several years to come.
Bloggers and blogging received a full-page mention as well (page 28, Features) - Dinesh, Jeff, Najah, Sharizal, Jikon and myself presented ideas during a session at INFOSOC. Our full presentation slides can be found here (1.23MB .zip file).
Of the report on blogging appearing in InTech, there are positives and some not-so-positives. The positives first:
# Project Petaling Street received a first mention in the press - timing is pretty good since v1.5 will be launched at the end of the week.
# Dinesh finally got someone to call him a "prophet" in print. :)
# The article highlighted the potential blogging communities have in shaping public opinion and policy
# The article highlighted how blogs are normally "knowledge" repositories and not "information" ones - the difference between the two is clearly spelled out.
And, now, the not so yummy:
# Najah played a very prominent role in the conference, and the subsequent private interview from which many of the ideas in the article was drawn. But no mention was made about a key point she had been trying to make in both: that women have a very active and prominent role to play in the local blogging community.
# A miscredit:
"According to Aizuddin...information in a blog is considered "digested" information. "What you see in blogs is an increasing amount of information that has been churned into knowledge," said Aizuddin."
While i may have said this during the private interview following our presentations, it was more a clarification of Najah's original idea about blogs and knowledge (she spoke about in great length during her presentation).
# Jeff Ooi does NOT run the "popular Transitions" blog - his blog is called "Screenshots". Transitions used to be run by Oon Yeoh ("used to" because Transitions no longer exists).
UPDATE: Najah speaks her mind about the article.
UPDATE 2: IreneQ (a professional journalist) explains the newpaper publishing process. Its not as easy as it sounds - a lot can get lost very quickly.
UPDATE 3: InTech published a note today (10/07/2003), apologizing for the factual error concerning Jeff's blog (its "Screenshots" not "Transitions"). Its worth noting that the cause of the initial error is not the reporter who wrote the series on INFOSOC, L.C. Wong.
UPDATE 4: The last word (hopefully) about this issue by our resident KL-dweller, Najah Nasseri.
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