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Book Published =)

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So here's the book that was based on my thesis =D Title: Blogging and Democratization in Malaysia - A New Civil Society in the Making Authors: Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim Publisher: SIRD, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia Back cover commentaries: Before the 12th Malaysian General Election, bloggers were called numerous, often unflattering, names by Malaysian government officials and other unsavoury charaters. Virtually immediately after the election results, they were hailed by many, including the same unsavoury characters, as "key players" and "prime movers". Some have even gone so far as to blame the dismal election performance of the Barisan Nasional on bloggers and blogging. Amidst all this, and the post-March 8 hype, this original, well-researched and very readable volume by upcoming Malaysian scholar, Jun-E Tan and renowned and committed social anthropologist, Zawawi Ibrahim, provides a necessary resource for those who wish to understand Malaysian blogging more com...
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Recommendations for the National Alliance of Bloggers

I may include this in the conclusion of my thesis, so please bear with the apparent dryness of the passage! I'd be super grateful if you would care to leave any comments of assent or dissent. ---------- Introduction The National Alliance of Bloggers (NAB) was set up on April 5, 2007, towards the completion of this thesis. Some 50 bloggers gathered at the National Press Club to discuss the necessity of forming the Alliance, and proceeded to elect a pro-tem committee to register a formal association, with physical premises, office bearers and subscription for members. Based on the findings of this thesis, the author would like to suggest some recommendations to the NAB, which is essentially the crystallization of the virtual community into a physical entity which has the potential of leading the Malaysian blogosphere towards higher ideals of blog ethics and constructive dialogue with the authorities. On the other hand, improper management or marketing may shape the Alliance into an ...
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80% of unemployed bloggers are women?

In response to Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan's allegations of " out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women ", below is my comment based on the data collection I did back in November - December 2006. Out of my sample size of 852 Malaysian bloggers/bloggers in Malaysia, only 22 (2.58%) are unemployed. Out of these 22 people, 13 (59%) are females. Therefore, I would like to ask the Minister where he got his data of 10,000 unemployed bloggers from, and if I could get my hands on the research he had done. It would be most helpful if he could also elaborate on the part of bloggers being liars and a threat to national unity. Check the original news report (in Chinese) from Sin Chew Jit Poh here . p/s. On research matters: I have given up putting up datelines 'coz I'll end up busting them anyway. Will update when I do finish.
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Research Updates

Sorry for keeping you waiting guys! Literature review and quantitative analysis are completed, the rest are still in the progress of writing. Just received news that I have to restructure the layout, so that may take some extra time. I promised my supervisor that the first draft will be out before Chinese New Year. I'll post some findings on this blog after I finish the thesis, so stay tuned!
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Bloggers sued: A chronology of events

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*Update* For up to date developments of the case, do check out the Bloggers United Official Page , or the Walk With Us blog. 11 Jan 2007: A thread was opened at MyKMU.net with the following post: Blogger politikus terkenal Ahiruddin Attan @ Rocky Bru dan Jeff Ooi telah dihantar notis oleh Kalimullah Hassan, Brendan Perreira dan Hishamuddin Aun untuk menarik balik beberapa artikel artikel dalam blog mereka. Kegagalan akan menyebabkan mereka disaman. Dalam masa yang sama juga, blogger "poster wayang" terkenal, Sheih @ kickdefella juga akan diambil tindakan tetapi belum diketahui lagi tindakan yang jenis bagaimana. Translated: Socio-political bloggers Ahiruddin Attan @ Rocky Bru and Jeff Ooi have been sent warnings by Kalimullah Hassan, Brendan Perreira dan Hishamuddin Aun to retract a few articles from their blogs. The failure to do so will get them sued. At the same time, "film poster" blogger Sheih @ kickdefella will also be taken action upon. It is not known wh...
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Radio Interview from Blogwatch, RSI

About two weeks ago I was contacted by Joel Chua from Radio Singapore International who was interested about my research. The interview happened last week and was aired officially on 5th January 2006 (Friday). Listen to the interview here: Blogwatch: Malaysian Government . It features me and Rocky . The interview transcript can be found here .
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Completion of Data Collection

Data collection of the research has come to an end. I have 1540 respondents (English version - 1364; Malay - 176) for my online survey. There were 3 sets of faulty data which I deleted, so right now I have in my hands the end result of 1537 blog readers, of whom 852 are bloggers. Qualitative data collection also came to an end about 2 weeks ago, with 11 people interviewed. 10 were bloggers, and I also managed to talk to Steven Gan of Malaysiakini. Currently I am busy analyzing information from the survey database. I'm also working on the actual manuscript, but hardly at a breakneck speed considering my tight deadline. *grimace* I will post a summary of the findings here after I submit the thesis. First draft will hopefully be ready by mid January.
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