Philippines
Why Filipinos Want to Take Over the Blogosphere
People are asking Abe Olandres why the Filipino takeover of the blogosphere is such a big frickin’ deal here in the Philippines.
I explained that our generation (i.e. Filipinos) have become known around the globe as any of of these types of people — domestic helper, nurses, sea men, care-giver, or call center agents. In short, we’re looked down by most as cheap 3rd-world laborers. I have aunts that are working as nurses in the US for decades, uncles & cousins on a cargo ship at sea, relatives who are domestic helpers (OFW is the proper term) in Singapore & HK, older cousins who graduated as nurses but ended up as care-givers in UK and even more younger cousins who are now waiting for their Nursing Boars exam results. So, a fellow Filipino taking over a top position in a pre-dominantly western niche is real news.
Having worked with the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Council during the Estrada administration, I can see where Abe’s coming from here. Too much of the IT trade promotion work done at the dawn of the 21st century focused on turning Filipinos into anonymous low-level BPO drones powered by Starbucks and shallowness. The big hoopla over Filipinos’ success in the blogosphere is fueled in part by our own rebellion against that Faustian bargain.
Level Up Drops Splash Page and Autoplay Annoyance, Still No RSS
Two weeks ago, I pointed out that the homepage of top Philippine online game publisher Level Up featured an infantile splash page and annoying autoplaying video. I’m glad to see they’ve removed both.
Now, all they need are RSS feeds, and they’ll actually have a decent site. Who knows, if I see enough good stuff from them in my RSS reader, I might even plunk a few Xfire hours into RF Online (gasp!).
When they’ve put up those RSS feeds, they should try getting their own YouTube account. Their Christmas promo vid had to go through Hackenslash’s YouTube account — on New Year’s Day. Talk about being late to the party, and by proxy at that.
Level Up is a game publisher, not a Web publisher. Their Web content exists to promote their games, and promotional content works best when made viral. You don’t make content viral by portalizing it for stickiness. You make content viral by widgetizing it for syndication.
Here’s my challenge to Level Up: if you come up with at least one decent RSS feed for your site, I will post a nice little widget for it on this blog. My readers can take that widget and repost it on their blogs. That’s free viral marketing for you guys.
