[From: Off to IFLA 2006: Thoughts and stuff (Part 1)]
Ah, I've not blogged for more than a week and I'm happy to report I'm NOT suffering from any blog-withdrawal symptoms. :)
Between conference proceedings, meetings, library visits and then of course exploring the city of Seoul (which was truly an additional learning experience), there wasn't time to blog. I happened to catch Siva online and chatted over gmail, and he joked it was a good thing I didn't blog 'cos it would've meant I was being idle! LOL.
The closing ceremony of the IFLA conference ended a few hours ago. I'll blog more about this recent working trip when I'm back in Singapore. For one, I'm not able to resize and upload photos now (oh, how I miss my Mac);Two, I'll have to decide what and how much to post -- there's just so much to blog about.
I've kept abreast of news from home, thanks to RSS feeds and Singapore-based mailing lists. The most significant news was a series of Straits Times articles about Singapore government agencies going into blogging. Specifically, there was an article about the gahmenbloggers group that Vantan and I setup last year -- "We are public servants -- and we blog too", by Lynn Lee (The Straits Times, Aug 23, 2006). Read the article from AsiaMedia.
In fact, on the second day of my conference I received an email from ST reporter, Ms. Lynn Lee. She requested for an interview (together with Vanessa and some other people) relating to when and why we set up the group. As per my self-imposed usual practice, I advised Lynn to speak to my Corporate Communications colleagues before I granted the interview. The go-ahead was given and Lynn tried to interview me via email. However I wasn't able to respond to her in time since the article deadline was very very close. Anyway, Vanessa was interviewed.
Oh, Vanessa, now the Whole Wide World knows how old you are, 'cos your age was cited! I thought all women wanted to keep their exact age a secret? LOL!
I've also made a note to read these articles from the archived copy of The Straits Times when I'm back at the library (ah, thank goodness for libraries, right?):
- Aug 23, 2006: "Blogging: Govt agencies getting into the act", by Goh Chin Lian
- Aug 23, 2006: "Experts, MPs back Govt moves on new media", by Sue-ann Chia
- Aug 20, 2006: "PM Lee maps vision for Singapore to thrive in changing world", by Bernice Bong (this piece cited our Prime Minister saying that the Singapore Government "must adapt to new media to get its message across to Singaporeans who have embraced the online world in the digital age").
My working trip isn't officially over until after tomorrow morning, after my Standing Committee final meeting.
Oh, I should mention that our Section's newsletter -- the Dec '05 and Jun' 06 issues (PDF files) -- was a contender for IFLA's Best Newsletter 2006. We didn't win this year (we got 2nd place) but I got a kick from hearing our nomination at the closing ceremony. Both issues were my first attempts at editing and producing the newsletter. The nomination made up for the frustrations of producing it. I'm contented that I was able to uphold the high standards set by the previous Information (see previous entry).
Technorati Tag: IFLA
congrats on the nom and 2nd-place win! does this mean that you're now going to continue as editor? that's how my "career" in book publishing started =)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Von. I attribute the "win" to my SC members too. Yup, I hold the editor post for 2 terms. And unless someone wants to take over, or Chair nominates another person, I'll probably continue till my end of term in the committee. Well, I don't know about a book publishing career. I'm learning lots of interesting stuff as editor of the newsletter.
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