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Highfiber Zero

When Philweavers interviewed Luis Buenaventura last year, he stated:

Suffice to say that highfiber is a hodgepodge of everything I've learned over the past 4 years: it's a group-blog, link-dump, forum, flash arcade, file-sharing hub and all-around time-waster. Highfiber is, btw, the only one of my community sites which I consider a "success," because it actually brought people together.

And indeed, I was impressed by highfiber's sense of community and by its avatar (with the patended pat/poke system) that I named it the best group blog last year. I've removed highfiber from the list since, because I felt that highfiber in the technical sense is not a "pure blog."

I pondered that the line of "pure blog," and "web 2.0" sites are so thin, that a casual web surfer might not be able to distinguish the difference. After all, Youtube & Flickr has comments as much as blogs do, and Peyups has reverse listings akin to group blogs. (Speaking of web 2.0, whatever happened to pinoyweb2?)

This week, Luis unveils the 7th version of highfiber:

i’ve learned a lot since 2001, and in many ways, the months after i left highfiber have easily been the most educational period of my life. version one took me two weeks to build, version six took 12, and our all-new edition took about 35 total working hours. as you can probably imagine, it’s a small project, but it has a lot of room to grow. that’s actually the reason why i decided to call it “version zero” instead of simply following the current numbering.

There's still some known issues here and there, but by the looks of it, Highfiber has shed its web 1.0 roots (old style forum), as Luis explore his Fine Arts background on the flickr-deviantart road.

Pinoy Digg Clones

I've been observing digg for quite sometimes now, and I think I now know why it's so popular: community. Without the comments following a frontpage, it would be just another link farm. As Abe Olandres observed last year on Luis Buenaventura's oks.ph:

When Luis launched Oks.ph a few months back, I thought it was just another one of the dozen of Digg clones out there. The line that would have separated it from Digg would have to be the focus - Filipino related and relevant news.

Every now and then, I stop by oks.ph, and I have to agree with Mon Solo of Pinoytechblog - oks.ph is stagnant. Browsing through it, I can now without wincing, say that oks.ph is unlike Highfiber, unsuccessful - asides from too much spam and non-filipino content, there is also no sense of community.

Even Luis agrees:

The other two have a long way to go before reaching Highfiber's status, but that's also partially due to the fact that they're so focused. Highfiber has a very SM kind of appeal, in that it has something for everyone, as long as you're not too prudish and keep an open mind.

Many Pinoy bloggers want a pinoy version of digg, the potential is there, but by the looks of it I don't see anyone pouring substantial effort to distinguish themselves. Balitabalita has ditch the concept and reverted to blog, pinoyblogosphere.net couldn't take the bandwith, no one is foolish enough to buy digg.com.ph and the three newcomers (kablogs, astigg, noypi) are as vanilla as it gets (can you spell no-design?):

CSS Pinoy

And since I recommend unique design for those who wants to put a pinoy flavor to digg, let me point you out to the pinoy version of best of css gallery - csspinoy.

If you're already familiar with most of the featured sites and blogs (Highfiber, Stellify, Cureless, Rebelpixel, Aaron Roselo), and you think you know a beautifully designed website, by all means submit it to csspinoy. Kudos to stylemo for aiming to promote the Filipino talent. (Fatfigur, if you're reading this, visit philweavers showcase and pixelbureau directory for sites to add).

Reviewme-Reviewyou

Another Luis Buenaventura's project (Luis is on a roll - see Syndeo Media), but this time focusing on reviewing games, films.

The only problem? Unlike highfiber, the usability of these review projects seems to harken back to oks.ph - crowded. Let's just hope that the usablity issues don't drag both sites down. I hate to see it suffer oks.ph fate. The OPM Social Networking Odysseylive though, has great potential.

Abe/Sassy on Blog Networks

When I've learned that Bayanihan Blog Network is founded by four pinoy probloggers (Abraham Olandres, Sasha Manuel, Rico Mossesgeld and Melissa Atienza-Petri), my mind immediately reeled of advertising potential.

The question is, in the long run, will it take the contribution route of Blogkadahan (33 members: Sassy Lawyer, Ajay, Apol, Ate Sienna, BatJay, Bong, Cathy, g, Jade-N-Mom, Jardine Davies, Jet David, Jop, Joyce, Karla, Kiwi Pinay, Lolo Jose, Mari, MayaMaya, Mec, Polo , Tito Rolly, Tatang Rome, Ruth, Sachiko, Stannum, Svelte Rogue, Tanya, Tingaling, Tintin, Toni, Xenia Maria, Zennor, Watson)?





Or afer a few years, will it take the pinoyblogosphere.com route - blogs agregate concept originated by Pinoyblog (founded by Abraham Olandres, and Sassy Lawyer) - or will it be like the b5media of the philippines - mutually beneficial reciprocal links? Or will it be a membership club like the now inactive dashmedia network? Time always tells us.





Speaking of Sassy Lawyer, she together with fellow problogger Noemi, spearheaded Pinoy Moms Network (59 members: Aggie, Aileen, Ajay, Analyse, Andrea, Angel, Ann, Annamanila, AnP, Auee, Belle, Bonggamom, Carol, Cathy, Chateau, Chicmomma, Christianne, Connie, delisyus, Ena, Febeth, Feisty Momma, Feng, Geri, Greymom, Happypajimna, Inna, Jane, JMom, Jovhelle, Julie, Kat, Leah, Leira, Linnor, Lisa, Luiza, Lynn, Manilenya, Mari, Maying, Mhalou, MM Del Rosario, Niceheart, Noemi, Princess, Purplegirl, Rachel, Rhodora, Ria, Ruth, Salamin, Salen, Sexy Mom, Sheila Marie, Soloops, Tina, Vicky, Worldwords).

Lastly, Sassy Lawyer, together with Gail dela Cruz-Villanueva, just recently opened Pinoy Pets Network.

New Pinoy Probloggers Gigs

On the probloggers side, Kiven Codamon is now writing for b5media, and creative weblogging. Mike Abundo is on b5media as well, blogging at Emerging Earth and Inside Online Video. Also Phillip Kimpo Jr., is now writing for performancing (Thanks Corsarius for the link!).

After a few months, Blog Herald seems to be doing well with Abe Olandres and J. Angelo Racoma on board, (asides though: Abe stepped down as Editor, and Markku Seguerra is not longer part of the team).

Pinoy Twitter

There has been much talk about Twitter lately (see Noemi, J. Angelo, Yuga, and Miguel Paraz). For those who wants to know who twits, Christian DeVera created Pinoytwits for Pinoy twitters.

The Philippines Top 100 Blogs

If you've read this far, you have no doubt come to a conclusion that popular bloggers (a) spend a substantial portion of their time online, and has (b) created original pieces. And indeed time and time again, on all the pinoy blog ranking I come across (Pinoy Top Blogs, pinoyblogosphere, blog juice, alexa), the double-prong behind of time and originality always rear their heads.

Andrew dela Serna's uber-cool new project Ratified is still in its in early stage, but damn does it look good. Andrew if you're reading this, my suggestions: move the categories menu to the sidebar, make the footer menu more readable, move the tags to the footer menu and put a link to the ratified most popular to the sidebar. Also, I read that you are planning on an international version, I suggest using an automated submission form - scalability issues.

A glance at Ratified tells us much of the same 5 groups that seems to be universal to all the rankings: Web Designers, Probloggers, Fashion & TV-Watchers, Celebrity Bloggers, and Journalists are widely represented. One word: Media.

By my estimate there are around 6000-7000 pinoy blogs out there. Out of this only around 20 percent are active. And out of the active blogs, around 20 percent receive substantial traffic. So going by this trend I would say that the pinoy blogosphere will continue to grow, but only a few dozens of active blog will receive enough traffic. It takes time to write and read an original blog posts, so as much as we would like to explore all, time for all of us is a finite resource.

See Also:
The Top Pinoy Probloggers
Best Designed Filipino Blogs for 2006
The Most Popular Pinoy Blog Posts for 2006
Alexa: Philippines Top Blogs
Pinoy Blog Ranking: Blog Juice & Page Rank