Asia Blogging Network

I'm back to Singapore after a very short (less than 2 weeks) holiday with my family in Jakarta. My Internet connection was very limited while I'm in Jakarta, since my family's house there does not have a dedicated Internet connection. I can use a dial-up connection to some Indonesian ISPs using my company's iPass Global Roaming account, however the network connectivity was terrible. Downloading e-mails from my server in Singapore can take forever.

The only thing I did quite regularly while I was in Indonesia is to blog at Kronologis, using my Dopod 818 Pro with a GPRS connection provided by XL, which has GRPS roaming agreement with my Singapore mobile provider, M1, at quite competitive prices. Therefore, I seldom update my blogs or check my e-mails during my trip to Jakarta. The only post I wrote while I was in Jakarta is a post on Rumah Indra to congratulate Kukuh for his wedding, and to congratulate Tyty and eRBe for the birth of their first daughter, Auriel.

I also would like to congratulate Budi Putra for the launch of Asia Blogging Network (ABN), the first Asian blogging network founded by Budi together with some of his fellow bloggers: Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Harry Sufehmi, Ikhlasul Amal, Firman Firdaus, Rendy Maulana and Thomas Arie Setiawan. Some of big names in Indonesian blogosphere has also joined the network, such as Jennie S. Bev and Budi Rahardjo. They have many blogs, some use different domains, to cater for different specific topics, under the same one ABN umbrella.



Although the blog network is founded in Indonesia, it's quite obvious that ABN wants to reach out to bloggers in Asia, and based on its press release, Budi describes ABN as a "blog network from Indonesia for Asia". At the moment, they are currently inviting Indonesian bloggers to become their permanent writers, however, in the near future, it might be open for other Asian (non-Indonesian) writers as well.

I, myself, am actually interested in writing on and for ABN, however it seems that I'm not (yet?) really that passionate enough to write there. One of the requirements to become a permanent writer for ABN is to write regularly, minimum (typically) three times a week, a requirement which I think is quite difficult for me to fulfill. Well, consider this, I'm already feeling lucky enough if I can post on my blogs at least once a week. :)

Nevertheless, I really think the Asia Blogging Network is a great initiative from our fellow Indonesian bloggers, and I am looking forward to see the network to grow and reach out to not only Indonesian bloggers, but also to our fellow bloggers from other countries in Asia. Again, congratulations to Budi and friends for the launch of Asia Blogging Network. Keep up the good work.