Thumbs Up For The Committee...

...of Indonesian Pesta Blogger 2007 (literally, pesta = party). When one faces the responsibilities to organize hundreds of bloggers--who, by nature, aren't exactly easy to be organized--one's first reaction might be to arm oneself with an arsenal of antiterrorist weaponry. But all of you managed to do so while still keeping the atmosphere fun. And real.

And that's what's blogging all about. Keeping it real. But also keeping it fun. The latter is one of the most important trait that may be another Indonesia's advantage over other countries.^[1] A lot of us blog for fun. Which is why communities form easily, based on similar interests: because we're having much more fun from sharing it with others.

But that may also be our disadvantages. This is why most of our blogs are just arrays of dull, random personal thoughts. Or day-to-day events. Things that are only fun and interesting for the writers. But not the readers. Only few of us have been able to combine our interests with others, in fields such as online marketing, current issues, technology, comedy, to enlighting voices regarding--in the words of Douglas Adams--life, the universe, and everything.

And I'm hoping in the next few years, the percentage will increase. Not just the quantity of the blogs, but also the quality of the content. I myself would like to see more Indonesian humor blogs (and written in English), popping up on the Net.

Let's drink to that!

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[1]: Another great advantage is the support from our own government. Muhammad Nuh, The Minister of Information and Communication, attended the event and declared 27 October as the National Blogger Day. Cahyana, The ICT Application General Director, also stated their vision of increasing the number of Indonesian bloggers to one million. One of their programs is endorsing teachers (about 2 millions of people) to blog.