The Purple Thumb

Once again, Yahoo! proved to it's user how powerful online media is. And now with the launching of Purple Thumb, Yahoo! Philippines microsite for the upcoming May 2010 Elelction, they'll be taking the country' first automated election in to a higher level.

Held last February 16 at the Main Ballroom of InterContinental Hotel in Makati City, with guest speakers such as Howie Severino of GMANews.tv, they informed us about this new project that will give Filipino voters the opportunity to share user generated content, post images, videos and express their views on the 2010 Philippine election. The microsite leverages top Yahoo! properties Yahoo! Answers and Meme.

Other attendees and panelists were students and professors from different universities in Manila, bloggers, new media personalities such as Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files, Katrina Sandejas-Mañosa of Philstar.com, Manolo Quezon III of Philippine Ddaily Inquirer, Luz Rimban of Vera Files, Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino.com, Mong Platino, Gang Badoy of RockEd and Noemi Dado of blogwatch.ph.

It had been an eye-opening and knowledge-broader forum. It brought back some of the important stuff that I learned when I was still studying Journalism. The forum also tackled the importance and responsibility of blogging and other online stuff to make this country a better place to live in.

  “We believe that social media serves as an important platform in the coming elections. With the help of our content partners the Purple Thumb microsite will bring Filipino people the most comprehensive election news as it happens,” explained Jack Madrid, Yahoo! Philippines Country General Manager. “Not only do they receive the most updated news, the microsite also provides a platform to freely discuss opinions, share images, content and up to the minute news,” added Madrid.
 
Here's some of the important stuff that I remember during the forum:

The Core Values if Journalism:
•    Truthfulness
•    Independence
•    Fairness
•    Humanness
•    Accountability

 May this values guide journalists and blogger alike in giving new and information to teh world. As the saying goes: "With great power comes great responsibility."  - Ben Parker

That line was really perfect for theme of this whole gathering and I am really glad that I was able to spend to sometime listening to these people.

Thank you to all who have shared incite and knowledge.
God bless and vote wisely!