Blogger Indonesia of the Week (46): Budi Rahardjo

 

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (46): Budi RahardjoAs far as Indonesia IT goes, it’s long overdue for a person of his stature and for his blog(s) to be reviewed. But I implicitly suggested somewhere that the number is irrelevant and nothing to do with my preference. Every now and then, I deliberately pick the to-be-reviewed blog randomly. That should satisfy some readers who might feel at odd on why Budi Rahardjo’s blog review comes so late.

Actually talking about popular IT personalities like him is much more easier because you need only searching and you’d find many testimonials from his admirers. Have a look at what others had to say about him. Dirgayuza Setiawan, a self-proclaimed Apple Mac Evangelist said:

Bapak Budi Raharjo, atau juga sering dikenal dengan nama Mr. GBT adalah seorang blogger yang sangat aktif. Beliau juga membagikan ilmunya, khususnya mengenai keamanan web di berbagai mailing list Indonesia. Beliau juga terlibat dalam berbagai proyek IT yang digerakkan baik oleh para aktivis atau oleh pemerintah daerah.

In 43people this is what his admirers had to say

At a network-security seminar in Sabuga-Bandung. He’s so funny :).
Oh, and there is one unique thing about him. His presentation slide (always?) consists only one word/sentence for every page.
Well, he definitely defined ‘less is more’ perfectly:) (Ultramare)

Karena dia GANTENG dan orangnya punya BANYAK Blogs :D (Jauhari)

Beliau adalah pendiri PT.INDOCISC Network Security. Saya kagum dengan Intelektual dan pengalaman beliau di bidang IT. Dan saya pernah magang di PT.INDOCISC. Beliau sangat baik dan sederhana. Thxs very much….(denoxcyber)

Salah Satu tokoh dalam dunia IT di Indonesia… pelopor domain ID… (Rendy Maulana)

See his profile and CV here and here if you want to know more about him.

I’ve personally never met him but from my occasional involvement in mailing list Teknologia (googlegroups) where he’s very much active, along with some other Indonesia IT guys, in discussing every bit of IT related issues and also from occasional visit to his blog I found something I like the most about him: his good sense of humor.

He comes from Yogyakarta, the just-recently quake-affected province. And as far as I am aware, Indonesian big guys with the best sense of humor mostly belong to East Java like Gus Dur, former Indonesian president, and Emha Ainun Najid a prominent columnist and poet.

Human likes any personality with a good sense of humor because it symbolizes humility of the person concerned. A character that slowly disappears when you feel you are an important person that needs to be served, instead of serving people.

Having said that, not many people can succeed to be a humble person specially if you are a high achiever and that’s why the one who is known for his/her humility deserves everybody’s admiration. Budi Rahardjo is on of those persons.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (47): Juwono Sudarsono

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (47): Juwono SudarsonoIndonesian Blogger and Defense Minister

I don’t want to talk here about a man named Juwono Sudarsono (pronounced: Yuwono Soodarsono) as a national and world figure with highly respected personality not only in terms of his personal integrity and humility, but also in terms of his achievement among Indonesian and international intelligentsia. Besides, this writing will never be enough to talk about him in that regard, you yourself can find loads of information on that by googling his name. The mighty Google will guide you towards more accurate and complete info.

Having said that, I have personal fondness on him because from some of my seniors in India, I heard that he’d been doing his high-school in Delhi Public School (DPS)during his father, Mr. Sudarsono, tenure as the first Ambassador of Indonesia in the 1950s. I dont know whether this info is correct, either way that make us, Indonesian student in India, pay more attention on him.I, myself, admire him long before I came to India. As far as I can recall, he’s the first youngest professor in Indonesia. More than that, I also like his prolific writing in Tempo weekly magazine on socio-political phenomenon and his easy-going style (wearing jeans and golf t-shirt) as young professor gains admiration among his students.

Now, he starts blogging. So, he’s the first Indonesia Minister to have a blog. An extraordinary step forward as far as Indonesia’s VIPs are concerned. Extraordinary for more than one: (1) It symbolizes his willingness to reach out to the people, to talk directly to them, to us, a kind of willingness that’s uncommon among Indonesian establishment; (b) By opening the comment box in his blog, it suggests that he’s not afraid of any criticism, if any, which means he doesn’t have anything to hide, to afraid of. That might explain the meaning of his blog title: “Integrity in its strict sense.” A man of integrity, of principle should not worry anything; (c) As I wrote here and a comment by Ong Hock Chuan told us that even some journalists just dont have a clue about blog, not to say a minister. His departure from such ignorance should give a good example to his counterparts.

Mind you, in other parts of the world, a professor and MPs who’re actively blogging are a common phenomenon.

He just starts blogging last month with four only postings, but as you could see, his move are enthusiastically welcomed by Indonesian bloggers and it should motivate him to keep blogging and motivate other ministers and other VIPs to follow suit.

Many Indonesians who comment in his blog wish him luck and hope him to continue. One thing I disagree a bit with many commenters are their criticism as to why he’s blogging in English instead of in Bahasa Indonesia. I hope he keeps blogging in English because he truly represent our voices to the world and his capacity as Defence Minister and international relation professor suit him well to that task.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (48): Maverick Indonesia

When I lamented in a bit disappointment about the passive attitude of traditional media towards blogs and bloggers or you can call both as blogosphere, R.M., founder of Blog Indonesia aggregator advised me to be patient because he’s rest assured the time will come when Indonesian mainstream media will look into the blogosphere more seriously as far as the blogs trend and growth in the West keeps up. He actually wanted to remind me of this: our traditional media will follow whatever trend happening outthere sooner or later.

But he also warns Indonesian bloggers to keep quality, beside quantity, intact to attract many others to blog.I reproduce here his good comment:

I believe it is just a matter of time.
Indonesian blogs still have some growing up to do. Honesty, credibility and consistency are qualities that can only be established over a long period of time.

Blogs with such quality no doubt will shine and it would be foolish for the mainstream media not to pay attention to them.

He further said that, even New York Times learns from bloggers:

…
Today, the New York Times launched its site redesign, announced by a prominent editor’s note on the homepage. There’s a few lessons for bloggers to learn from the redesign, as well as some evidence that the Times itself has been learning from bloggers.

In other words, the more media people (and academia) go blogging, the more it will be followed by others and that’s the time when blogging become inseparable part of tools to communicate thought, news and ideas; beside the already existing tools like print media (newspapers and magazines), books and academic publication which are only accessible to certain circle of people.

It’s in this context that Maverick Indonesia’s presence in Indonesian blogosphere deserve duly attention. Maverick, as mentioned in the blog header, is “A Jakarta-Based PR Consultancy on the media, journalists PR, communications and life in Indonesia.” An institution which is very closely related to the media.

Wonderfully, this blog is a collaborative works, similar to Agoravox or Global Voices Online, although all the 15 contributors seem to be from the same office.

You can read a lot of interesting and quality stuff in the blog that covers various topics, mostly on news, journalism and current-affairs commentaries that you might not read in the print media.

Just to take a few example, see Maverick’s meet-up with Ulin Niam Yusron, a journalist from the weekly publication KONTAN. And see also its critical and unpriveleged-leaning commentary on Jakarta Governor, Sutiyoso’s speech which is one of my favorite piece. Maverick said:

Reading about his speech, I couldn’t help thinking that his “Acting Metropolitan” plea is geared more towards those who are less privileged in the city, while we know that some citizens who drive around in fancy new cars or big chopper bikes are also “kampungan”. Well, those who are less privileged tend to imitate or look up to the behaviors of those who are perceived to be at the higher social strata. So, perhaps in his final year of his second term, Bang Yos should be tougher in enforcing his rules and values to those who are supposed to know the rules already – those who have experienced the “better” cities in the world, and those who know how other citizens work together in making their city a better place to live.

So, as far as Indonesia goes, blog appears to be a converging point of two different world: a chatting and friendster culture on one hand and the journalism, traditional media and academia on the other. A meeting point that needs to be preserved and if it continues will surely create a bigger and unprecedented positive forces in the future.

While the former, with more edges in IT technology related stuff, can give some help to the latter on blog nitty-gritty, the latter can “teach” the former on how to make a good and quality content. I hope the former should learn to communicate with the latter and vice-versa, to make the “converging process” going smoother.