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After weeks of dealing with the stress and challenges of clerkship, a break was definitely in order. The awarding dinner for the Ten Emerging Blogs of 2008 was definitely a welcome addition to my already cramped schedule. Though I initially had my reservations about going due to relatively inaccessible venue and the need to be up early the very next day, I figured a little affirmation wouldn’t hurt. I’ve been passionate about blogging for the past year and I was after all representing two blogs which finished in the top three. After hours of thankless slavery, a little pat on the back seems like a very inviting prospect.

Despite not much whoring and a traffic base that’s comprised mostly of wide-eyed do-it-yourself travelers who just happened to stumble upon our site via search engines, Visit Sagada made it safely to the top ten. This blog was launched January and has since emerged as the definitive resource for Sagada. The line-up is comprised of familiar faces and names – Fritz Tentativa (who also entered the short list with his personal-slash-tech-slash photography blog – Fritzified), Jeff Villafranca (owner of the blog that gets reborn every three months – Teknostik) and up-and-coming travel jock and web designer Angel Juarez. Though I would surmise that the star power of this collaboration is formidable, I’m pretty sure that Visit Sagada lost a considerable number of votes because of my undeniable and prominent association with the project. Those lost votes notwithstanding, we were still able to get to a respectable finish and we’re really grateful and honored for being included.

Right after accepting the plaque for Visit Sagada,  I had to go back up to receive another plaque this time as one of the more than dozen-strong writing staff of Filipino Voices. All things being considered, Filipino Voices  has to be one of the most novel and ground-breaking projects since the blogging boom of the past couple of years. The site has combined bloggers from a varied backgrounds from a spectrum of political views, temperament and levels of insanity to create a very vibrant, action-packed and sometimes adversarial environment for political junkies and those who feel like ranting every once in a while. Well done, Nick.

If you’ve been reading this blog over the contest period, you would probably notice that I’ve written the most number of posts regarding the analysis of the composition of winners and voter behavior. Here are my insights and my final words on my earlier predictions:

Influential… to bloggers that is. Blogging as we know it is already bigger than our small little community that manifests from time to time in blog events. The measure of  influence of a site outside of the blogging population could is virtually impossible to gauge, its easy to see that the penetration rate of the internet extends past our demographic and despite the boom, bloggers are  but a small blip on the radar.

Group blogs reign supreme. As I have noted in an earlier post, the list was dominated by groups of already established bloggers. Aside from Visit Sagada and FilipinoVoices, two other blogs in the top six were also comprised of all-star blog line-ups.

People will do anything to win. This includes an unbelievable amount of twitter spamming, inbox stuffing, shameless circumvention of logic and  other annoying tactics to get votes. It’s amazing how a site launched just a week before  the start of the writing project could delusion campaign to call the site influential. If you can stomach creating a template to help  people vote, then anything’s possible, I guess.

Advocacy sells. An ideal is easy to package into something that people would respond to. Even as a non-heavyweight, one can easily channel positive vibes and canned support for a seemingly worthwhile cause. Heck, the quality of the blog/s may not even matter anymore.  As we’ve seen during the dinner, all it takes is one bad acceptance speech to mess up the aura of altruism.

Fritz has arrived. He has been blogging for a long time but he has chosen to stay in the backwater of blogspot for one year to many. Similar to the meteoric rise that Coy made last year, Fritz emerges as the cool, multi-talented, someone-to-look-up-to uncle figure that everyone could relate to. I had serious doubts about his chances of making it when I made my initial list (hence the appeal)but his legion of fans and groupies proved me wrong during the final weeks of voting.

Regional vote blocs! Call it the blogging community’s version of affirmative action or  Imperial Manila taking notice, but 2008 shows an increased provincial presence in the short list. Fortunately, efforts to massively skew the results through the introduction of regionalistically-flavored clunkers was blocked by the sheer number of votes. Those who made the cut seem to be worthy so congrats to them.

New bloggers? Hardly. Save for shameless cases of circumvention and delusional campaign, the list was dominated by the usual suspects. Most of these people could be considered as veterans already! This is almost a repeat of 2007 wherein bloggers from prominent blog pedigrees, industry-related positions and professional cred clinched spots almost via default. It’s interesting to note that most personal blogs who were named to the list last year have either been dropped by their authors or have not lived up to its billing since being feted.

That’s all.

Thanks to Markku for the pictures. Thank you Janette.

Special thanks also go to the project/event sponsors:
Slycesoft Games Development is a small but agile creative and technology company specializing in design-to-deployment game development, 3d virtual walk through, and online virtual worlds. Prototypes include Away Agila, a 3D fighting game; Dyipoy, a Virtual Jeepney experience; and SunIsland, an Online Virtual World.
Legend Hotels International Corporation, a 100% Filipino-owned and Filipino-managed chain of hotels that provides accommodation beyond 600 rooms to a wide range of clientele – company executives, families, OFW’s, balikbayans, provincial business travelers, local and foreign tourists.
The writing project would not have been possible without the support of YesPinoy, a major sponsor. Also to minor sponsors such as PRC Board Exam Results, RegaloService.com, and Fil-Am Yellow Pages.)

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