Marine Barrage, Singapore (Olympus E-P1)

I’m finally back in Manila. I was in Singapore for almost 11 days. And funny when I was there, I usually explore the famed country in the afternoon welcoming the evening. Witnessing the day break and greeted by Singapore’s majestic lights by night. I like the city, a bit expensive but surprisingly unique as it says. But beyond that there are seldom seen sights in the island I was able to explore which I will soon be chronicling on Ironwulf.net.

Nuffnang Awards Best Travel Blog Nominees from Ferdz Decena on Vimeo.

And I think one of the highlights of my stay there is attending Nuffnang’s First Asia-Pacific Blog Awards held in Pan Pacific October 23 2009. It was a night where more than 200 bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Philippines converged. It was grand and exciting and fun. And what made it more special when I got Best Travel Blog Awards that night for Ironwulf.net. My heartfelt thanks to all.

Nuffnang Trophy

I have to give credit to Nuffnang’s Ming and Tim. Coming from a leaking office at the start and being this big is an inspiring feat. And initiating a blogging event at this scale is also an achievement. Closing this dispatch with this year’s twelve winners on Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards.

• Best Blogshop: bonitochico.livejournal.com
• Best Food Blog: ieatishootipost.sg
• Best Fashion Blog: ladymelbourne.blogspot.com
• Best Parenting Blog: childhood101.blogspot.com
• Best Travel Blog: ironwulf.net
• Best Celebrity Blog: joannepeh.com
• Best Entertainment Blog: kennysia.com
• Best Geek Blog: mrgadget.com.au
• Best Hidden Gem: dedoodleblog.blogspot.com
• Best Original Blog Design: xiaxue.blogspot.com
• Most Influential Blog: xiaxue.blogspot.com
• Region’s Best Blog: xiaxue.blogspot.com

Art Valdez at the front of the Balangay

I have always wondered what it’s like for our ancestors to travel through open waters. The ancient Filipinos are originally seafaring people and proof of this is the discovery of an age old Balangay sea vessel excavated in Butuan dating as far back as 320 AD. And when I heard that someone rebuilt a Balangay in Manila, crafted by the Bajaus of Sibutu and Sitangkay of Tawt-tawi using methods originally done during the 14th century, I just had to see this.

So even with the weather going haywire with burst of squalls and a couple of tornadoes (since when did we have tornado alerts here?) I went to the Harbor Side Parking lot besides Folk Arts Theater on an invitation sent yesterday from the movement of Kaya ng Pinoy to bloggers. Aside from seeing the Balangay I was also excited to talk to Mr Art Alvarez, the person behind building the boat and also the main man who organized the climb of the Philippine Everest Team. After reading John Krauker’s Everest Account in his book “Into Thin Air” I have high respect to people who have climbed or almost climbed the mountain.

A National Museum Sketch of the Balangay

Detail construction of the Balangay

It was an informal night of questions and answers with Mr Valdez regarding his new project Voyage of the Balangay. We were on the balangay, and can even claim to be the first ones to eat there. Measuring 15 meters long and 3 meters wide, the balangay is finally done after 40 days work by the Bajau Shipbuilders who came from Sibutu and Sitangkay Tawi-tawi. Their craftsmanship is amazing using native wood that also came from Tawi-tawi. On the 12th of June independence day, the Balangay would be released to the waters of Manila Bay and by June 24th 27th it will start its voyage from Manila to Tawi-tawi and soon across open waters of South East Asia, Micronesia, Madagascar, Atlantic and Back.

Here is the Domestic Sailing Route:

First Leg: Manila to Boracay – 248 Nautical Miles, 460 Kilometers
Second Leg: Boracay to Cebu City/ Mactan – 369 NM = 684 KM
Third Leg: Mactan to Cagayan de Oro – 374 NM = 693 KM
Fourth Leg: Cagayan de Oro to Zamboanga City – 299 NM = 554 KM
Fifth Leg: Zamboanga City to General Santos City – 380 NM = 705KM
Sixth Leg: General Santos City to Davao City – 158 NM = 293 KM
Seventh Leg: Davao City to Siluag, Tawi-Tawi – 280 NM = 519 KM

And the planned International Sailing Route:

2009    The Philippines
2010    Southeast Asia
2011    Micronesia and Madagascar
2012    Sail across the Pacific onward to the Atlantic, all the way around the world
2013    Back home to the Philippines

An informal evening of Q&A on board the Balangay at the Harbor Side

Art Valdez (2nd to the right beside me at rightmost front) with bloggers

The Balangay boat will be manned by around a team of 20, consisting of Bajau Boatmen and the members of Philippines Team Everest (Leo Oracion, Erwin “Pastour” Emata, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Sardena, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamili, Dr. Voltaire Velasco). They also plan to navigate using methods of early mariners like readings through the stars, sun, clouds, bird migration patterns and cloud formations. With this they have to contend with changing weather patterns at sea due to climate change which would prove to be a big challenge for them.

Asked why Mr Valdez is doing this? He said it’s to bring back the rich maritime culture of the Filipinos and also to show the world that the Filipino Can, in tagalog “Kaya ng Pinoy“. In these times where Filipinos are occupied with talks on politics and scandals, I’m glad to hear there is some news out there that can lift the Filipino spirit and values. We must remember that the word and social group model of our Barangay came from the Balangay. The Voyage of the Balangay is a history in the making, and I will be closely watching this.

The rebuilt Balangay may be viewed at the CCP Harbor side.

Ironwulf.net: GO! now on mobile

Go now and point your mobile browsers to http://go.ironwulf.net and you’ll find yourself on the mobile version of Ironwulf.net which I call Ironwulf.net: GO!. It’s basically a Mobsite (Mobile Site) which you can publish feeds from your blog sites whether it’s wordpress or blogger generated, show your more recent uploads on flickr, add a form so people can send you emails through their mobiles and other stuffs. I know most mobile devices now can browse web sites but the benefit I see on this one is that it’s a simple summary of your content, a quick contact page and compatibility to most mobile browsers out there. This is basically one of the things I like on the new Smart Sandbox.

So what basically is a Sandbox? To make it easier, let me quote Jayvee:

Sandbox is an online platform that allows anyone to connect with friends and share blog posts, photos and videos. Apart from this, Sandbox is also an online content store where you can buy music and games. So what sets it apart from other social networks? Sandbox is also locally developed and thus there is a continuous stream of offline fulfillment through giveaways, raffles and prizes.

In other words, Sandbox is in the business of building communities because not only is there interaction between your friends, there is also conversation between the developers and the users. In marketing terms, it isn’t just horizontal exchanges between consumers, but also vertically, where the product talks back and gives value to insights and suggestions from the community — alongside promotions and giveaways!

Mysandbox Web Interface

Sandbox Mobile Interface

I’ve been playing around with the Sandbox for a few months before its launch being one of the hundreds of beta testers for the platform. From what I understand, Sandbox is really intended to be a social network on a mobile platform. Aside from its Site Publishing features to create Ironwulf.net GO!, it’s also a mobile blogging platform, a mobile forum, a video and photo gallery and a mobile download site. So it kinda made me scratch my head when Smart launched this half-baked. Currently the mobile version is not up and offered the online version first which I found clunky.

While I like the promise of Sandbox there are still some things to improve on.

1. Make the online site simple and  intuitive. Honestly it’s hard to go around and find what you’re looking for. One thing to turn off new users and close their browsers is to confuse and infuriate them.
2. On the context of Mobile Blogging, it should be a lot easier to mo-blog. Maybe look at the mobile versions of Plurk, Facebook and Twitter. I found their implementation easy and functional but with Sandbox I have to dig-in to write a blog entry.
   

   Sandbox Mobile Screens (Profile on left and Photo Viewer on right)

3. I like it that there are clubs, groups and sites but it’s also confusing which is which. Sites are produced via the site publisher which creates your Mob Site, I found that clubs are like sites but doesn’t do much of anything, while groups are like forums with specialized topic. I like the idea of the groups, but a feature I would like added is that we can also attach pictures on topic conversations like the blogs. I created a Mobile Photography Group there too but found out we can only add photos on the group section. I can’t initiate a sub topic there so we can share photos on certain themes.
4. Integration with other social networks would also be a great addition if possible but I think I’m pushing it too far with this one. But hey, anything is possible.
   

   Sandbox Mobile Screens (Groups Home, Left and Topic Conversation, Right)

For now, Sandbox has a lot of promise and also a lot to improve on as well. I think they should focus  more on mobile usability since  this is the main platform but also not neglect their online version as well. Rest assured the people behind them are listening and are bent on doing improvements on the platform. A sandbox has many possibilities, but like a castle made of sand, if you’re not careful it could easily crumble.

If you’re interested, sign up at www.mysandbox.com and add me ferdzdecena