TMNET into webhosting now?

I don't know if desperate times call for desperate measures. I just received this from an apparent TMNet sales person:

12GIG of web hosting space
unlimited email accounts
free Content Management System (CMS) website, a DIY web-solution
free E-Commerce Shopping cart with check-out counter & order page
free Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) & ticketing solutions
free blogs software for your website to improve search engine ranking
free Discussion Boards & Forums
free Guestbooks
free site counter
free ticketing support counters for your website visitors
free mailing list management software
free FAQ management software for your website
free templates for you to setup your website within minutes
free polls and surveys
free project management softwares

RM199 per year
(normal cost: RM299 per year)
can be activated within 24 hours
Offer ends: 07.07.08

From the offer, it looks like TMNET is hard up for business. Whether it is a good deal or not, it depends on your needs. But if you are hosting a blog, on Blogger, and knows that the domain can be made to point to Google and Blogger servers, I don't think you will need it.

Still, I think TMNET should not have sent unsolicited mail offer to me. This is known as SPAM - in case they do not know what web ethics means.

Chance for e-commerce developers to win some big prizes

Check this out:

eBay today launched its Developer Programme in Southeast Asia with inaugural competition with a contest offering up to SGD25,000 up for grabs.

According to a circular to eBay members, the Developer Programme, which started in 2000, now has approximately 70,000 members and offers developers.

This contest is geared towards local developers in Malaysia to build e-commerce applications for eBay and PayPal.

The following prizes are up for grabs:

1st prize: SGD $10,000
2nd prize: SGD $8,000
3rd prize: SGD $5,000
Special Merit Prizes
Best Community / Viral Application: $1,000
Best Interactive / Visual Design: $500
Most Fun Application: $500

For details, check out eBay Malaysia

Media Strikes Back - Boycotts Press Conferences

At a time when the media should be given access to information so that they can write the truth to keep the public informed, the Malaysian Parliament decided to restrict their access to one section of the House. The Parliament lobby, from which many great news pieces have been filed, was yesterday cordoned off and journalists were given a small area.

On Friday,a new ruling limiting only five reporters from each media organisations to cover Parliament proceedings was imposed due to security reasons.

As a result, the media struck back with a boycott of press conferences - two press conferences by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and one by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were only covered by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), Radio Televisyen Malaysia, TV3, Berita Harian and foreign wires personnel.

Considering the live transmission of Parliamentary proceedings made earlier this year via national television, the current ruling is indeed perplexing. The Parliamentary administration shuld perhaps explain its recent action, especially at a time when greater transparency is demanded of the government.

The latest piece on the boycott is that Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has urged media personnel to cease boycotting parliamentarians following their being denied entry into Parliament's lobby. He added that the media should be given ample opportunities to cover parliamentary going-ons.

And one hopes that the going-ons include those at the lobby.

Bugged By Press Releases? Use an Online Depository

One of the many irritating items in a news office is the Press Release. You receive tonnes of them monthly and almost 75 percent gets spikes or thrown down the trash chute the moment they arrive on the table INBOX. While some of these are welcomed, even anticipated, many, for the sheer marketing slant taken by the sender, have little use except as scrap paper.

In the online age, why not consider an electronic depository for Press Releases? Paper is becoming more expensive - doesn't it make sense to have your PR agencies send electronic releases rather than cost your news organisation in Fax paper?

So far, I have not come across any visible depository for press releases in any of the big newspapers I surf online. Why this is so is up for speculation. I think many organisations only rely on specific emails, ie to the editors, the letters section or even comments column.

Online news agencies would benefit tremendously, and save their inboxes from email spam, by having a form set up for press release depositing. A simple form will do, with drop down menus for the section or person it is intended for, subject matter (weather it is an announcement, press conference or a product launch), photo upload submissions, and content text fields for other informations.
If there is additional need to prevent spamming, a Captcha tool to verify a manual submission can help curb spam.

With the fuel price hikes, setting up an online Press release depository can help in cutting costs for your news organisation. All it needs is a little bit of educating the public relations officers dealing with your organisation...

Blogging Minister Calls For Probe Into Blogspot Blogs

Saw this piece of news on the Malaysian News Agency.

It concerns a certain minister in Malaysia whom anonymous bloggers decided to take a potshot at - in this case, two potshots. According to the story, reproduced here:

Ali Rustam Wants Police To Investigate False Blog

June 15, 2008 17:22 PM

MELAKA, June 15 (Bernama) -- Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam wants the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to take appropriate action against those who had created false blogs in his name.

He said the false blogs are http://mohamadalirustam.blogspot.com and http://mohdalirustam2.blogspot.com.

"My actual blog is www.mohdalirustam.com," he told reporters here Sunday.

More here

This is certainly an interesting development for blogging. Eversince the March 8 elections, practically everyone who can pronounce and spell B-L-O-G-G-I-N-G wants to blog.

And anyone who blogs, do so at Blogger or Blogspot, probably thinking that doing so qualifies them the title 'blogger', little knowing that the common noun has also now become a proper noun and possibly a trademarked brand name.

How the police will be able to track down the owners of the 'fake' blogs will be interesting to watch although it will not be very difficult given the cooperative nature of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). However, trying to get Blogspot to reveal the identities of the bloggers might be a tad tough.


The real blog.

Yahoo joins Google in Internet Advertising

Just came across this at the NPR website


Yahoo, Google Team Up in Online Advertising - by Wendy Kaufman
Morning Edition, April 10, 2008·
Yahoo and Google are launching a small experiment in which ads selected and delivered by Google would appear on Yahoo searches. That would probably give Yahoo more cash, because Google generates more revenue per search query than Yahoo.


How this will benefit the biliions of Google Adsense users will soon be known.

Right now, according to Xinhua, the partnership could mean a boost of up to US$800 million dollars.

Will it mean a consolidation into one entity to tap the huge online advertising revenue?

Will Anti-Trust laws of the US be used against this merger?

Already there is news that Herb Kohl, chairman of the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, plans to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of the merger.

And how about Microsoft, which US$44.6-billion unsolicited offer to take over Yahoo was spurned by the latter, react to this?

Citizen Media Workshop @ IFRA

Last year, I was fortunate to attend a workshop on Citizen Media organised by the IFRA. I went there for one reason - someone from OhMyNews was there to share his views. However, to my chagrin and surprise, the person did not come. And we were only told an hour before the workshop - because I asked.

This time around, I was again notified of yet another Citizen Media workshop. This time, again, Jean K. Min's name appeared and he is "confirmed" (sic) to facilitate, together with Paul Bradshaw. Kevin Sites has also been "invited".

The tentative venue is either Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.

However, I have yet to decide. At Euro 1,300, it would be a second slap on the cheek should the OhMyNews guy cancel at the last minute - just like the last chap did in 2007.

You may be wondering why I was focussed on OhMyNews. Well, it is one of the more successful citizen papers around then, although there are more to date.

Blogger Can't Upload Images to FTP servers

Latest!: Uploading to FTP issues resolved. To commentors Taniel and Scott Johnson, I hope your sites are okay by now. Blogger has yet to reply to my query, so I guess this is one of those glitches that happen from time to time, perhaps, some maintenance work which dragged on a little bit longer than expected. In any case, I will continue to monitor the situation and the minute the system fails, I will alert them.

Since June 8, Blogger has not been able to publish/upload images to FTP servers. This issue occurred last year and was somehow resolved.

At the moment, the status of the problem is unknown and so far, at Blogger support forum, there have been several complaints. Blogger support has been informed by this blogger. Check back for details and share your experiences if you have encountered any with FTP publishing.

Emails - What Should You List On Your Contact Page

Recently, I was asked why not all emails of my company's staff are listed on the website's contact list.

I replied: No, not everone is interested to have his/her email listed.

Why?

Because most of those whose contacts were given on the site did not want their emails listed because their mailboxes will eventually be cluttered by spams ranging from electronic press releases from over-exuberant PR officers who doesn't understand emailing ethics to Viagra peddlers selling tiny blue pills online.

If you are manning your company's website, chances are that you will be faced with this decision of whether to list which email address, how many and where.

So, here are some tips:

• First rule of thumb is to list the departmental email address which can be accessed by the person/s on duty. For instance, support@my.company.com or techassistance@mycompany.com or ceo@mycompany.com


• Second rule of thumb is to check with the person/s whose email would be displayed on your website whether they want it listed. Why? Well, there is no point listing an email address if there is no commitment from the owner or person who has access to it to at least go through it once every day, if not every 48 hours.


• Third rule of thumb, if you need to list emails of all staff, use Captcha-assisted forms to direct emails to appropriate persons/departments. This will cut spam and is good public relations practice.


• And don't forget to inform the sender when genuine emails would be replied and make every effort to do so at the promised duration.

These are among things you should consider when listing emails on your website's contact page.