Through blogging, Edwin or "Ka Edong" found the perfect tool for his needs, setting up Technobiography (http://technobiography.blogspot.com/) in April of this year and later becoming part of Migs Paraz’s Pinoy Tech Scene site (http://pinoytechscene.mparaz.com/), which aggregates feeds from Pinoy tech bloggers.

We’ll now let this certified information technology enthusiast share his thoughts on the tech blogging scene.

Why did you decide to come up with a tech blog?

I found blogging to be the medium that catered to my needs for expression. It’s instant and I’m in full control.

I was inspired by Ordinary Gweilo, a Brit in Hong Kong. I had his blog on my smartphone,

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Brosia. I’d download Ordinary Gweilo to my phone and read the latest blogs while on the road. Then I thought, hey, I could do this too!

But I wanted my blog to have a theme. I didn’t want to write about just anything. So, I needed to find a theme that I’d be able to write about regularly. I chose to write about my tech life. This came at a time when I was engrossed with my smartphone.

What first got you interested in IT?



Back in college in ‘97, we had a couple of Internet-connected Sun Solaris computers. My classmate asked me to wait for him while he fetched something for our project. He opened a Netscape browser, gave me the mouse and said "When the mouse pointer turns into a hand, click it." And I did. And I did and did and did it again. I made my very first e-mail address which I still use up to this day. Then I came up with my own amateur webpage a few days later. It later evolved into my first meaningful website, Guro Sa Cuyo (http://www.geocities.com/ka_edong/gurosacuyo).

My interest in the Internet and in anything IT never stopped. Now my personal and career goal is to harness IT to serve our fellow Filipinos.

When did you join Pinoy Tech Scene?

Pinoy Tech Scene is an aggregator of various Pinoy tech blogs. Migs [Paraz] invited me to join the list back in August.

How has blogging helped you and other tech bloggers get more people interested in technology and Philippine IT issues?

Personally, it has been my platform for "thinking out loud." It’s there where I dream about technology for Filipinos. Not necessarily high technology, but, more important, appropriate-technology or approtech -- low-cost technology and technology that is truly useful to the common Filipino.

Do you think that blogging has become a new form of online journalism?

Wait while I consult my dictionary (www.dictionary.com --http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=journalism)...

Well, yes! Blogging does fall under "Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal."

Blogging is a new tool for instant expression. When I have ideas, I just start typing an article on my cell phone and I could publish in just a few minutes.

But you know, at the same time that blogging helps individuals express themselves, it also contributes to creating online junk. There’s so much junk on the Web that people need to learn how to wade through all this junk and zoom in on what matters, what is true, what is relevant to one’s self.

What can be done to encourage more Filipino techies to put up a tech blog and share their knowledge with more people?

Hmmm... encourage more Filipino techies to put up a tech blog? I don’t necessarily think this needs to be done. They’ll eventually do it without any encouragement.

Share their knowledge with more people, that’s the more important agenda. I think there should be more venues for Pinoy techies and tech newbies to discuss, exchange ideas about technology, seek help and learn. There are a couple of e-mail lists that discuss IT in the Philippines. I subscribe to PH-Cyberview and PH-Mobiletech on Yahoo! Groups.

I think we should have venues for people to talk about how technology can be a tool of development for the Filipino people. A year ago, there was a call for innovative development ideas -- the "Development Innovation Marketplace Philippines." I went to Mega Trade Hall to check out the finalists. I saw many brilliant ideas that make use

of technology for development. We should have more contests that encourage technology innovation for development.

On the other hand, I think we already have an informal culture of people helping out others with technology. Ask any lola who taught her how to use the cell phone -- the answer could very well be her apo.

Technology is everywhere and the engineers of the world don’t own technology anymore. I think techies have become more excited to share the knowledge that they have. This is in contrast to an outdated culture of engineers or computer techies trying to keep technology away from the common man on the street.

I was inside an Internet café the other night. A grunge guy, around 20 years old, stepped in and asked for a particular game. Then he started playing. It was a noisy, gun-blasting game. Behind him was a young school boy, around 11, playing a cutesy online network game.

Grunge guy’s game was so noisy, school boy paused to take a look at the grunge boy’s game. School boy got curious and started to ask questions about the game. What do you think happened? Did grunge boy ignore school boy? Did grunge boy tell school boy to bug off?

None of the above. Grunge boy started showing school boy how to play the game. These two boys, formerly strangers, were now exchanging notes on how to play a game. They had a connection, a friendship that any grunge boy would have denied if his grunge friends were there. But, through technology, through gaming, these two boys from different worlds were friends.

What message would you like to share?

I’m blogging and I’m having fun. I’m not blogging to change the way my visitors think. I blog because I want to express myself. It’s fun when I see how people react to my articles. It’s fun to hear about their own ideas. Some people visit my site everyday. Sometimes I get a bit pressured to come up with an article so that my regulars have something to read. But, it’s all fun. And if other people benefit from this hobby I’m into, well and good.

I would encourage people to blog. But blog, don’t clog. Go forth and blog meaningfully.

Visit Edwin Soriano’s blog at http://technobiography.blogspot.com/.