Blog . Jiboneus

I’m back after my long hiatus from blogging and the Internet in general. This blog however wont be updated anymore. I can be found elsewhere. A good place to start wound be Jiboneus.com.

So update your feed reader, bookmark, or web browser to point to this new url www.jiboneus.com.

Thanks,..
J Shamsul

Popularity: 28% [?]

Our local blogosphere (blog community) has been getting all of attention lately, with the lawsuit taking place, a couple of negative remarks by politicians alike. There is also an alliance of bloggers formed, all up in arms adding fuel to the fire.

Over on the more international blogosphere, it is not much different either. A series of targeted violent and disturbing anonymous death threat comments against a blogger Kathy Sierra had raise a firestorm throughout the blogging community.

Tim O’reilly on the O’reilly Radar, yes the Tim O’Reilly, the guy who did coin the term ‘Web2.0‘ has posted a call for a Blogger’s Code of Conduct. There couldn’t be a more perfect time for this. Here is the early initial draft: -

We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. We present this Blogger Code of Conduct in hopes that it helps create a culture that encourages both personal expression and constructive conversation.

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

We are committed to the “Civility Enforced” standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we’ll delete comments that contain it.
We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that:

• - is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
• - is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
• - infringes upon a copyright or trademark
• - violates an obligation of confidentiality
• - violates the privacy of others

We define and determine what is “unacceptable content” on a case-by-case basis, and our definitions are not limited to this list. If we delete a comment or link, we will say so and explain why. [We reserve the right to change these standards at any time with no notice.]

I’m glad that I am not the only one who thinks that bloggers are also responsible for the comments made by their readers on their blogs. They themselves must be their own censorship board to enforce civility on their commenting system.

2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.

This is a difficult one as I’ve meet several bloggers with totally different personality online and offline.

The purpose of this particular code of conduct is to practice the same restrain online just as what you do offline. If there is something you wanted to write on your blog regarding a certain, person, party or organization, make sure it is something that you are willing say in person if you were to be in the same room.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

When we encounter conflicts and misrepresentation in the blogosphere, we make every effort to talk privately and directly to the person(s) involved–or find an intermediary who can do so–before we publish any posts or comments about the issue.

It is always good to settle conflicts privately first before you go gung-ho, all out in fighting it publicly.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings those are offensive, we’ll tell them so (privately, if possible–see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn’t withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.

It is always the case that a blogger will delete comments that are use to abuse, harass, or threaten themselves but not comments of that nature that are targeted to others.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

We require commenters to supply a valid email address before they can post, though we allow commenters to identify themselves with an alias, rather than their real name.

While I understand that to moderate comments on your blog might be difficult if you run a very popular blog, so making it a requirement for commenter to register before commenting might be an option to look into.

I have always had allow anonymous comments and will always allow anonymous comments for a long time on this blog. Anonymity isn’t an issue for me. However I do actively delete comments that are not (related) or what I think is not appropriate.

6. We ignore the trolls.

We prefer not to respond to nasty comments about us or our blog, as long as they don’t veer into abuse or libel. We believe that feeding the trolls only encourages them–”Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.” Ignoring public attacks is often the best way to contain them.

This is a universal rule that everybody who had been actively participating on the Internet for a long time would know.

However there are great blogs that I love to read that could not even last a 0.01 second under such code of conduct. To this, Tim O’Reilly proposed an “anything goes” badge. Yes, what he did was actually creating badges.

These rules or Code of Conduct is by no means to be or will be enforce in anytime soon or ever. Just take this as self-regulations imposed to oneself in writing a blog.

No blogger has to go by these rules but, as much as I love the anarchy world known as the Internet, it is good if you do have some code of conduct when online.

As for myself, the code of conduct that I go by as a blogger is simple, don’t write crap, and don’t link to crap.

Popularity: 42% [?]

We all have known or heard by now of the Great Firewall of China. The Chinese Government is known for actively censoring contents coming into the country through the ‘tubes’.

So are your websites blocked by China? This little website claims to be able to test the connection to your site from China.

Test your website and see if people from the Republic of China could access it.

Popularity: 46% [?]

This is not another Web2.0 website. Not another web app. Not another web technology related post. It is not a website with some fancy advance user interface. It is not even a blog. So why am I mentioning it here? Because I think it is clever. Makes me smile.

No one belongs here more then you is a website made for a book by the same name written by Miranda July. Check out the site.

Popularity: 45% [?]

It is no secret that whenever you buy something in bulk you get a discount in price. Savvy shoppers who want to take advantage of this will find other savvy shoppers who are looking for the same thing to band together and purchase the item in bulk price.

The recently launched Tumpang.com tries to take the concept online. Tumpang.com is Malaysia’s first online bulk discount store, creating a community where buyers band together to get an item in a discounted bulk pricing.

The metaphor used in Tumpang is a little bit different, which makes it more interesting. The word ‘tumpang’ is actually a Malay word for ‘pooling’ as in ‘car-pooling’. The website helps its users to pool their resources to qualify for a bulk discount.

Initially, there will be one ‘driver’ to post an item up and set the discounted price with the number of item needed in order to get the bulk price. Other interested users could then ‘ride’ on this bulk buy. Once there is enough number of buyers for that item the deal is made. Buyers are called ‘passengers’.

This type of web based online services has been done before during the early dot com bubble, not locally but I’ve read several website offering such services at time when ‘e-commerce’ was all the hype. They try to get revenue from sells and transactions made through the website.

Tumpang.com on the other hand is making their revenue from retailer or a distributor (or just an interested buyer looking for others to share the bulk buy). As a seller to post an item you will need ‘Toints’, which are points in Tumpang land. Toints will act as a virtual currency for transactions conducted on Tumpang.

There are two ways to get Toints. You could buy them with actual money, credit card online payment or you could accumulate Toints for free as a buyer. Whenever you make a purchase at Tumpang, the savings you receive will be converted to Toints. So if you are an active ‘passanger’ you could accumulate enough ‘Toints’ to post an item every now and then.

For a retailer or a distributor who will be using the site to sell their items in bulk as often, will then need to buy ‘Toints’ from Tumpang.

Upon signing up and filling my personal details I already have 10,000 Toints. You could start posting item right away.

Apart from just selling and buying things in bulk, Tumpang.com could also be a tool to organize group outing. If you wanted to organize a futsal game and are looking for extra players, you could post it on Tumpang and split the cost up between you and other interested users who want to join the game.

Overall it is an interesting concept and I hope it will get popular. It needs to get popular. The site design looks very friendly and fun, unlike some e-commerce sites out there. It also looks like it has some good tools in place for organizing bulk buys, not just another glorified webshop.

It is good to see some interesting web projects taking of here in Malaysian. If you do know of a web project, or are developing one drop me a line, I would like to write about it.

Popularity: 53% [?]

As reported via TheStar, a local news agency, and currently is spreading throughout the blogosphere (blogging community).

The report goes:

AT THE DEWAN RAKYAT

BLOGGERS using locally hosted websites may be asked to register with the authorities, Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor said.

He said registration was one of the measures the Government was considering to prevent the spread of negative or malicious content on the Internet.

Had the Government ever considered educating blog readers instead to what is consider negative or malicious in the first place?

If there is an official site, a website that is frequently updated and chronologically ordered, which points out such negative and malicious content on the blogosphere then blog readers will know which content to be taken seriously and which content to avoid.

Shaziman said this while winding up the debate on the motion of thanks on the Royal Address for his ministry.

He added that the ministry did not have any problem with bloggers who identified themselves, and he welcomed blogging activities.

However, he said there were about 50,000 websites registered under the .my suffix and there were a lot of avenues for anyone to host websites with malicious content which could harm the country’s security.

Currently those who wish to register a .com.my suffix are already required to provide Trade License or some certificates. Currently there are already mechanisms in place, which required those who wish to register a domain name to provide some form of identification.

Requiring them (the bloggers) to register makes it redundant.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, who interjected when Shaziman was speaking, said the negative comments of several ministers about bloggers reflected their lack of understanding about information flow in cyberspace.

“They should be educated on the vast benefits of blogging, which will help them to interact more with the people. Many politicians overseas already have their own blogs,� he added.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang who is somewhat a blogger himself, does understands the vast benefits of blogging. He has been using the medium to spread his words for quite some time.

Asked to comment on the matter, Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said bloggers were very aware of their own ethics and responsibility for content on their sites.

While agreeing that there were bloggers who had inflammatory content, he said unidentified bloggers could still be traced through their website addresses.

He added that the problem was also about inflammatory comments by unidentified visitors to the blogs.

If that is the real issue here then the title should be ‘blog readers should register to comments on blogs’. Some blogs already require you to register as a user in order to post a comment.

So are you responsible for comments made on your blog? I already address this question before. Yes you are responsible for comments made on your blog by your readers. If there are inflammatory comments made by unidentified visitors to your blog, and you as the blog owner, having the access to edit and remove such comments, then as a responsible blogger that is what you should do. Read my previous for more.

Ahirudin Attan of Rocky’s Bru said the move to compel local bloggers to register was effectively the Government trying to control what Malaysians were writing online.

“This violates the Government’s no-censorship policy with regards to the Internet,â€? he said.

Clearly Ahirudin Attan of Rocky’s Bru does not understand the Government’s no-censorship policy. True that the Malaysian Government does not censored the Internet now and it will not in the future. You are free to post anything you want, the Government wont stop you at that, but however if what you are posting is inflammatory, slanderous, illegal or are violation copyright laws or any laws, then you are taken into action.

You are free to write anything online but at the same time you are responsible for whatever you writes online.

He added that the move would just create fear among the bloggers and would encourage them to host their blogs overseas.

Most bloggers already have their blogs hosted somewhere else, Blogger.com or Wordpress.com doesn’t have their servers over here right?

Marina Mahathir, a blogger and activist, said the Government really should “get real.�

She said the move “is just going to make Malaysia look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.�

Actually the Malaysian Government is already looking pretty ridiculous thanks to irresponsible bloggers.

Blogger Jeff Ooi wondered why the Government was pursuing this course of action.

He said the Government had already set up the Content Forum to deliberate on complaints by any party.

The Government should set up a blog instead.

This move by the Government to require bloggers to register, if were to be implemented, will be a huge waste of resource. There is no easy way to govern the blogosphere.

There is no way to make a blogger who decide to set up a blogspot blog on Blogger.com to register with the Government. Unlike registering cell phone prepaid, there is no way for the Government to restrict the access to Blogger.com.

If such a move were to be implemented I wonder how would website that offers blogging service will operate? Will websites like LifeLogger need to register all it’s Malaysian users?

Technically it would be difficult to implement. It is one thing to suggest such an ideal but it is totally different when it comes to implementing or even enforcing it. There are other ways the Government could venture into in trying to keep its citizens save from negative or malicious content on the Internet.

Popularity: 55% [?]

BegForPost is a new service to ‘compete’ against PayPerPost advertising network, which is favored by pro-bloggers everywhere. PayPerPost connects advertisers, bloggers and publishers. In short, advertisers use this service to find bloggers to blog about them and their products. They then pay the bloggers for their post.

To some, the service is ethically questionable, to others it is not much different then how an artist is being used to endorse certain products. In this case, the bloggers are the artists of some sort. What do you think?

BegForPost on the other hand takes a different approach. Instead of paying bloggers for mentioning their website or products, you beg for it. This service however promises none of the ethical hassles of PayPerPost. There is no payment, just begging for some coverage, which is common in the blogosphere.

BegForPost is better because: -

• Completely free
• No chicken hats
• No conflicts of interest
• No annoying reality show
• No direct deployments to production
• No premature acquisition announcements

This is just a parody playing on PayPerPost, at least I think it is. Check them out and start begging for posts now as I don’t think they will be around much longer when the cease & desist letter comes from PayPerPost.

Popularity: 37% [?]