Asia Blogging Network

JAKARTA – Collaborating with Asia Blogging Network (ABN), Nokia has carried out a blogging roadshow to five cities. Designated as “Nokia N-Series Blogging Workshop,” this program is now running in some High Schools located in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya.

The activities were hosted in SMA 82 Jakarta (26 August), SMA 1 Bandung (3 September), SMA 1 Semarang (8 September), and SMA 3 Yogyakarta (17 September). The last mile of the roadshow will be held in SMAK St. Louis 1, Surabaya, next Saturday, 22.

Eka Anwar, Multimedia Marketing Manager of Nokia Indonesia, stated that the workshops aim to socialize blogging activities among students and young people. “They could start blogging with various free services, such as Blogspot, WordPress, or Cooldesak; as one of the new features of N-Series community site in Indonesia,” said Eka, who is also one of the speaker of the roadshow.

Eka also figures that the progress in telecommunications and information technology infrastructure will shore up blogging activities. “More sophisticated mobile terminals also make it easier to blog on cellphones,” he uttered.

The CEO of ABN, Budi Putra, who is another speaker of the roadshow, said that the students had shown great interest to the workshop. “The main question being asked were about how to start blogging, how to manage the contents, and how blogging could make money,” he told.

Some prominent Indonesian bloggers, such as Enda Nasution, Ikhlasul Amal, Fany Ariasari, and Thomas Arie Setiawan were also involved to tell their vision and experience in blogging.

The global blog network, Asia Blogging Network [asiablogging.com] has introduced its micro-blogging service: Kronologger [kronologger.com]. “The service allows you to post shortly what you are doing and where you are,” said Budi Putra, the CEO of ABN.

This service is another kind of mobile-blogging. It lets the users to keep in touch, knowing the activities and location of each other. “So it is a simple and practical social network activity model,” continued Budi.

Both computer and mobile phone users could now use its web and mobile version. “When you access it with your cell phone, Kronologger would detect it and displays its mobile-optimised page, which would save the bandwidth required.”

The next development would be the integration of the service with SMS. Kronologger users will be able to read, post, and even to sign up by using SMS. “It makes the service so real-time. That’s the elegance of micro-blogging activity.”

Meanwhile, Kukuh T Wicaksono, the creator of Kronologis, mentioned that “the posting from similar services such as Twitter and Jaiku could be easily integrated to Kronologger. Even the excerpt of blog postings in Multiply and Wordpress could be grabbed to Kronologger.” Kronologis, is the embrio of the Kronologger service, which is now merged as a service of ABN.

Kukuh explained that Kronologger was designed to match the necessity of Internet users in Indonesia. “Hosted in Indonesia, Kronologger would make it easier for Indonesian users to access it, even by handphones,” he said.

So, sign up now, and start “kronning” at Kronologger: kronologger.com.

Jakarta – PT Asia Blog Network (ABN), a blog-based worldwide media presenting various topics, has released a new service that transforms the company into a mobile content provider, offering its contents to the reader anywhere even without Internet access.The new feature is a cooperation of ABN and PT Arunti Indonesia, carried out since July 2007. The collaboration allows the ABN readers to access information through SMS.

“The new feature enables our readers and bloggers to be updated with recent information wherever they are,” stated Budi Putra, the CEO of ABN.

“This facility needs no registration, because of its nature as pull-SMS. The information is only sent upon direct request,” continued Janto Djojo, as the Managing Director of PT Arunti Indonesia.

PT Asia Blog Network is a blogging and Web 2.0 company centered in Indonesia. Its network consists of more than 70 blogs, spreading in various topics, including technology, business, sport, lifestyle, health, film, and music.

PT Arunti Indonesia is a company that provides mobile information services through pull-SMS system. Centered in Singapore, PT Arunti Indonesia now operates in Indonesia and gets ready to be business partner with its prominent product: Info in the Go SMS-9456.

In the first phase of the collaboration, Indonesian SMS users can access news from My Sport and My Film channels. The request is simple. User needs only to send a keyword by SMS to short-digit number: 9456. The keywords provided at present are: LigaIndonesia@ABN, LigaSpanyol@ABN, LigaItalia@ABN, FilmKorea@ABN, and FilmMandarin@ABN.

“For example, when we’re curious about anything regarding the Indonesian team in Asia Cup, we can just send the keyword LigaIndonesia@ABN to 9456,” said Budi. In almost no time, the recent news would be sent to the hand terminal.

However, in this first phase, only Telkomsel’s and Indosat’s GSM customers could use the service (Kartu Halo, Simpati, Kartu As, Matrix, Mentari, IM3). The service needs no registration or other kind of membership. User will be charged with normal SMS tariff only. No premium SMS charge!

JAKARTA, June 6 — PT Asia Blog Network, a new company specialised in blogging and Web 2.0, today unwraps its blog network to be accessed by public: AsiaBlogging.com. For the first phase, about 70 weblogs have been opened to public. Several domains have been arranged, but they are put under a single umbrella: AsiaBlogging.com.

The major part of the blogs is in English, and rest is in Indonesian language. The topic spreads from technology, business, sport, and science, to lifestyle, health, film, and music.

“AsiaBlogging.com is a blog network from Indonesian for Asia,” said Budi Putra, CEO of AsiaBlogging.com. “For the first stage, AsiaBlogging.com embrace only Indonesian writers. But we will open the doors for Asian writers to be our permanent bloggers soon.” Budi Putra himself is a journalist turned to be blogger.

Some renowned Asian writers, such as Wimar Witoelar, Jenny S. Bev, Ong Hok Chuan, and Andreas Harsono will also contribute to the blog network as guest bloggers.

According to Budi, the idea behind the network results from the observation that blogs created and managed by Indonesians have been growing vividly. “Still, the bloggers solely managed each blog separately. Our blog network was originally designed to organise them so they could have better bargain position.”

Actively updated Indonesian blogs are predicted to reach 30000.

At least, according to Budi, the launching of AsiaBlogging.com would mark a new era in Indonesian blogosphere: paid blogging era. “It has been common in America and Europe, but it is still fresh in Asia and here in Indonesia.”

However, the main point is not about the payment. “We give opportunites for anyone to blog about their own interests, so they will blog with love and enthusiasm. No need to care about the domain or hosting. They just need to write.”

He’s pretty sure that blog will soon be alternative reading for the society. “AsiaBlogging.com seeks to solve the alternative readings necessity by presenting specific niche topics for each blog within this network.”

Budi has founded AsiaBlogging.com with his fellow bloggers: Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Harry Sufehmi, Ikhlasul Amal, Firman Firdaus, Rendy Maulana, and Thomas Arie Setiawan. “Now AsiaBlogging lengthens the record of prominent blog networks, such as Gawker, B5Media, and Weblogs Inc,” concluded Budi.

JAKARTA, 6 Juni — PT Asia Blog Network, perusahaan yang bergerak di bidang blogging dan Web 2.0, hari ini resmi membuka jarngan blognya untuk publik, AsiaBlogging.com. Untuk tahap awal, lebih dari 70 blog sudah bisa diakses oleh pembaca blog. Setiap blog memiliki domain sendiri-sendiri, namun berada di bawah “payung” AsiaBlogging.com.

Sebagian menggunakan bahasa Inggris dan sebagiannya menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia, topik jaringan blog ini mulai dari teknologi, bisnis, olahraga hingga gaya hidup, kesehatan, film dan musik.

“AsiaBlogging.com adalah jaringan blog dari Indonesia untuk Asia,” ujar Budi Putra, CEO AsiaBlogging.com. “Untuk tahap awal ini, AsiaBlogging.com memang baru merangkul penulis-penulis Indonesia, namun untuk tahap berikutnya, kami akan membukakan pintu bagi penulis lain, khususnya dari Asia untuk jadi permanent blogger,” ujar mantan wartawan yang beralih profesi jadi blogger.

Sejumlah penulis seperti Wimar Witoelar, Jenny S. Bev, Ong Hok Chuan dan Andreas Harsono juga akan menulis di jaringan blog ini sebagai blogger tamu (guest blogger).

Menurut Budi, ide awal dari pembentukan jaringan blog ini karena blog-blog yang dibuat dan dikelola orang Indonesia sudah mulai bertumbuh. “Namun, para blogger masih jalan sendiri-sendiri. Nah, ide pembentukan jaringan blog ini merupakan salah satu cara untuk mengorganisir mereka sehingga punya posisi tawar yang lebih besar.”

Diperkirakan blog Indonesia saat ini sudah mencapai angka 30.000 blog yang aktif.

Paling tidak, menurut dia, dengan diluncurkannya AsiaBlogging.com, blogosfer Indonesia telah memasuki era baru, yaitu era blog berbayar. “Di Amerika dan Eropa, paid blogging sudah sangat maju, tetapi di Asia, apalagi di Indonesia, ini masih merupakan hal yang baru.”

Tetapi, kata Budi, poinnya bukan soal ada honor atau tidak. “Kami memberikan kesempatan kepada siapa saja untuk ngeblog sesuai minat sehingga mereka ngeblog dengan antusias dan penuh cinta. Jadi, mereka tidak perlu pusing soal domain atau hosting blog, mereka cukup menulis atau bikin posting saja.”

Ia yakin, blog akan menjadi bacaan alternatif bagi masyarakat. “AsiaBlogging.com mencoba mewadahi kebutuhan masyarakat terhadap bacaan alternatif dengan cara menghadirkan topik-topik yang niche (spesifik) untuk setiap blog dalam jaringan ini.”

AsiaBlogging.com didirikan Budi bersama sejumlah rekannya yang juga blogger: Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Harry Sufehmi, Ikhlasul Amal, Firman Firdaus, Rendy Maulana dan Thomas Arie Setiawan.

“AsiaBlogging.com kini memperpanjang daftar jaringan blog yang sudah ada sebelumnya seperti Gawker Media, B5media dan Weblogs, Inc.,” ulas Budi.