Welcome to the Movable Type Open Source Project

Movable Type, another blogging platform that is popular with enterprise and business is now open source. This open source version (or MTOS for short) will be free for anyone to modify, redistribute and use for any purpose that they choose. Apart from this, their developer, Six Apart also makes other blogging platform such as Vox and TypePad.

How profitable is blogging? According to some, Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable!

A great article from San Francisco Chronicle.

Today, TechCrunch has a full-time staff of eight. This year, it hired a CEO. In August, 1.25 million people visited TechCrunch or its affiliated blogs at least once, according to comScore Inc. It brings in $240,000 per month in advertising, according to Arrington, and pulls in additional revenue from conferences and parties. Most important of all, TechCrunch is in the black.

How to make money as a blogger in Malaysia.

As some of you have already know, there are few really successful local bloggers out there that have made blogging not only a great way to socialize and sharing info but also as a source of income. There are differences between blogger that blogs for fun and pretty darn serious blogger that know the art of SEO and make money through blogging.

One such example is Lilian, the blogger behind popular blog 5xmom. Click here and you can see her September income that is very impressive I might add. She also list-out some tips on how to make money by blogging;

1) Good contents which give me good page rankings - High organic traffic

2) Hard work and discipline - Setting targets and pushing self even when feel sick of the work

3) High standard - I need to maintain good quality posts or else I can risk getting banned by advertisers

Another blog, My Organic Income is another success story and managed to accumulate $3969(I assume it's USD) in the month of September.

It is very encouraging to see that a local blogger, such as Lilina can earns as much as USD5,010 a month. Now, who says blogging is a waste of time?

Blogger Gathering

During the weekend, there were 2 gatherings organized by different group of bloggers. One was organized by Happy People Media and another by Harris Ibrahim. Both gathering were a stark contrast in term of objective but really happy to see that blogging is very much alive and happening in Malaysia.

All-Blog, short for The official National Alliance of Bloggers, now have their own logo and a cool HQ.

Blog Action Day!

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Participate now!

Top 30 blogging cities.

In a recent BusinessWeek's article, dated July 2nd, Jakarta and the tiny island nation Singapore are in the top 30 cities for blog posting and comments. KL?

The article explore how the 2nd generation internet is changing our culture and web 2.0 have help small startup to succeed and venture into new territories.

Chicago startup skinnyCorp goes even further. One of its businesses, Threadless, a clothing and accessories company, runs online contests soliciting designs for T-shirts from people around the world. It selects finalists and then invites people to vote online for the best designs. The ones with the most votes get produced. To deepen the engagement of consumers in the process, skinnyCorp set up blogs on its Web site, where people can try out design ideas and get feedback from others. Designs come in from all over, and 35% of sales are international. "We have pioneered a completely different way of doing business," says Jeffrey Kalmikoff, skinnyCorp's chief creative officer. "It's a community-based business. You completely erase the R&D and a lot of the risk, because we just make what people want."

Bloggers United Gathering 2007

Update : 21/5

It a success. Read Rocky, Jeff, Nuraina & KL IS Home for details.

to the Bloggers United Malaysia Gathering 2007 page where you will find all the information that you need on this event! The theme we’ve chosen is Embrace & Engage. Well, that’s the whole objective of the gathering - to embrace the blogging phenomenon in Malaysia and to engage it by blogging (for those who haven’t yet). - Bloggers United Gathering 2007

Date
19th May 2007

Time: 6.00pm – 11.00 pm.
Forum: 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Drinks: 8.00pm - 8.30pm
Buffet: 8.30pm - 11.00pm

Venue:
The Lake View Club
Lot 3606, SS12/1, Subang Jaya
47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Malaysia
Tel: +603 3733-8342

Speakers:
Jeff Ooi, Marina Mahathir, Tony Pua, Tian Chua and R. Nadeswaran (of Citizen Nades fame) and Sonia Randhawa (executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia). Ahirudin Attan (Rocky) will be a special speaker.

Internet advertising programs for web publisher & advertiser - from Malaysia.

After the success of Adsense by Google, there have been no shortage of Internet advertising programs offered on the Internet. Advertising and Internet marketing are still growing and have huge potential as Internet users are increasing by the minutes. All these advertising programs offers different packages to their user but still, only a handful of these program really work.

So it is just a matter of time before we can see our own, homegrown internet advertising program for web-publisher. Meet advertlets.com and Nuffnang . I have not tested any of these programs though. Anyone?

Koleksi 'Tuesdays With Bapak'

Setiap hari Selasa, perkara pertama yang harus saya lakukan ialah ke blog Nuraina A Samad untuk membaca siri 'Tuesdays With Bapak'. Cerita berkisar rentetan kehidupan Pak Samad Ismail dan keluarga dari semasa ditahan dibawah ISA untuk kali ke-3. Diceritakan dari kacamata si anak yang kadang-kalanya lucu, ada kalanya pahit dan sedih. Wira negara yang dilupakan. Selamat hari lahir Pak Samad (18/4). Semoga dirahmati Allah. Kini telah dikumpulkan dalam satu koleksi . Harus dibukukan!

National Alliance of Bloggers

Finally. A historical event. At a meeting that was held at National Press Club (NPC) on 5th April, pro-team was elected . Commitee members: President - Ahirudin Attan, Vice President - Jeff Ooi, Secretary - Nuraina A. Samad, Treasurer - Tony Yew , Council Members: Patrick Teoh, Bernard Khoo, Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz , Syed Jamal al-Idrus, Rajahram Ramalingam, Annuratha K, Ami Husni, and Soon Li Tsin, Elizabeth Wong.

Other prominent bloggers that attended the meeting were Raja Petra kamarudin, Dato Ruhanie and Datuk Rejal Arbee. About 50 bloggers were there.

Jeff Ooi said, they make it our objectives to protect bloggers and promote blogging.

Read the report in mStar, plus here and here.

The misquoted minister and Malaysia Blogger Club

Rocky and Tengku Adnan were sitting side by side today at a press conference after the National Press Club-Celcom VMY Treasure Hunt 2007. The minister denied making comments about Malaysian bloggers. Read all about it here.

What interest me was Rocky's answer about a blogging club, which he responded,

We are working on it. I need to speak to more bloggers. We might be able to make an announcement in April

Well, looking forward to it

Tengku Adnan, Tourism Malaysia & Women Blogger

Tengku Adnan, Malaysia's Tourism Minister have been making headlines in the blogsphere recently regarding his comments about Malaysian blogger, especially women blogger. Read Nuraina's blog to understand the chronicle event. For the complete newspaper report, go here. If you don't read Mandarin, like me, you can instead read the translated version. Read here and here to read what some of our heavyweight bloggers have to say.

Posts that contain Tengku Adnan per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Saharil Hasrin Sanin

Saharil Hasrin Sanin ialah seorang oenulis berbakat yang telah banyak menulis untuk pelbagai jenis penerbitan. Saya tertarik dengan ilustrasi beliau yang comel-comel.

Bloggers United is a month old. Today

Happy one month anniversary. I was reminded about this while surfing Screenshots. The case between Ahiruduin Attan and NSTP will be heard this coming Thursday, the 22nd.

Tuesdays With Bapak

Nuraina A Samad will dedicate her's Tuesday to bapak, the legendary Pak Samad Ismail. Touching and honest. A must read for all.

I decided to post something on bapak because I wanted to see if I really could. Also because I felt that I should before, well... before it is too late. Each time I visit him, he seems to, sometimes, be losing a little bit of himself. Of course, sometimes, he remembers the past like a ribbon of film. I will dedicate every Tuesday to anecdotes of our past.

Tun M nominated for Nobel Peace Prize?

Read here, taken from The Star & International Herald Tribune. So, what is a Nobel actually? Read here. At a pre PGPO news conference, when asked by Ahirudin Atan about the nomination, Tun cheekily Said;

I don't know about these things. I don't know if I will be asked to accept it or not ... can we have some other more interesting questions?

The PGPO's conference EXPOSE WAR CRIMES: CRIMINALISE WAR is a grand gathering for serious Malaysian bloggers and ex-journalists. All the big names will be there.

Blogger United Button

One way to support our fellow Malaysian blogger is through merchandising & good PR. Here is one, a 1" button. Not for profit but every cents will be for the yet to be named malaysia blogger fund. Here, for more.

Blogger United & Being a blogger in Malaysia

Update: 31.1.07 - Bloggers in court

Here some pics from Jeff Ooi's blog, as he and other bloggers accompany Rocky to court




I have never seen bloggers in Malaysia more united since two of our power-bloggers, Jeff and Rocky being sued for sharing their two cents. Rocky will continue to march on to court and Jeff will continue to lash his 'fingers' like there are no tomorrow. More journalists with high calibre blog and some with Datoship stature. That does tell us something, isn't it? Here a logo I've made as a sign of support and solidarity. To all Malaysian bloggers, big and small, like me. and hope sheih dont mind (I will upload in eps format later)

Extra cautious while blogging.

So, after the story about blogger being sued and all, some of us can't help it but feel paranoid about our blogging habbit. Some do take precaution, especially those who blog at work but is it enough? Do spyware and antivirus can really prevent malicious virus from taking away your privacy? As I was blog-surfing, I come accross this useful comment;

hasilox said...

security tips for all bloggers. Please pass it on and feel free to share other ideas.

Email
1. Standard application like Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, etc (without addons) - Emails are transferred in plain text. Easily intercepted. Not safe.
2. Company's email system - Copy of your inbound/outbound email can easily be made at the servers. Not safe.
3. Web-based email (e.g. Yahoo Mail, Google Mail) - After you open a mail, check the URL. If the URL starts only with "http:" (without 's'), not safe. If the URL starts with "https:", the data is encrypted and safe.

Email safety
1. web-based encryption (http://www.hushmail.com/). Free edition has limitations.
2. Or, Use encryption application/addon. Requires technical expertise to integrate into email software.

Email (my recommendation)
- Use the free service, http://www.hushmail.com/

Spying
1. There were cases of companies install spy software in their employees computers. In such cases, encrypted page is not useful.
2. Watch out for non-computer spying, such as; surveillance cameras.

Spying (my recommendation)
- For whistle blowers, avoid using your company's computer and network to transmit confidential information.

Web and Email hosting
- All data such as logs and files, both encrypted or unencrypted, can be obtained or intercepted at the servers.

Web and Email hosting (my recommendation)
- Important to host only in companies that you trust.
- Consider overseas hosting if local jurisdictions are issues of concern.

Other security tips for computer.

1. Install a firewall
http://www.zonelabs.com/

2. Encrypt your documents especially, if you are using laptop
http://www.truecrypt.org/

3. Anonymous
(such software does not work if you're using a router or behind a local network)
http://tor.eff.org/

4. Anonymous (without software)
(such sites also enable you to access sites that your company blocks)
http://www.shysurfer.com/

5. Check your computer's IP address seen by servers you're accessing
http://www.ip-adress.com/

6. Delete cached data
http://www.ccleaner.com/

7. Wipe your hardisc to prevent deleted document reconstruction
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Weekly roundup

Update on blogging situation in Malaysia

Jeff Ooi dan Rocky berterima kasih dengan sokongan yang mereka terima dari para blogger tempatan & luar negara. Marina Mahathir have pointed out some points to fight back the power-that-be and inportantly, Malaysian blogger should all be united on this. mengikut A Kadir Jasin, satu tabung untuk melindungi blogger sedang diusahakan. Sepucuk surat Nuraina A Samad menunjukkan betapa risaunya beliau tentang NST dan politiking yang akan akhirnya memusnahkan mereka sendiri.

Harian Metro, Jumaat 19 Januari 2007

Berita muka hadapan mengenai gig (pertunjukkan musik) pencemar Ma'al Hijrah. Laporan itu turut menyiarkan perbualan antara wartawan dan penganjur gig tersebut. Tetapi, setelah menghubungi Jimbo, sah, perbualan itu adalah fabrikasi/rekaan semata-mata. Mungkinkah Metro ketandusan berita? Dimana etika seorang pemberita? Mungkin 'timing' gig itu tidak betul atau 'flyer' agak menyingungkan ( ia direka dengan konotasi - lawak), tetapi bukankah wartawan sepatutnya melapurkan kebenaran?

Demam.

Kami sekeluarga demam. Cirit-birit, sakit tekak & demam panas. Kesiah Haziq, makin kurus. On a brighter note, Liverpool thrashed Chelsea 2 -0, over the weekend! Yahoo

The New Version of Blogger

I've decided to upgrade to the new Blogger and make some cosmetic changes.

The new version of Blogger in beta is dead!Long live the new version of Blogger!(P.S. The old version of Blogger is not dead, but it would like to retire for a little while... maybe go to Hawaii or play World of Warcraft all day? It begs you to let it play World of Warcraft all day.) - Blogger team