Big Picture Thinking

Last Wednesday, I decided to take a break out of my normal work-at-home schedule to visit museums and check out their offerings as part of the Zero-In Art Festival.

One stop I made on this day was the Ayala Museum to check out Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics.

My appreciation of the exhibit is a bit limited as the art work shown, most of it, I am not aware of. Although I have my dose of manga and anime, mostly captured on film.

I think I may have been visiting the Lopez Museum too much as the Ayala Museum exhibit made me wanting - of seeing a nationalist side to it. In the last Zero-In: Periphery where they featured ceramic sculptures from all over Asia, even though I was not able to visit it, I got the impression that there was also a local participation to it based on photos gathered.

As I reflect on all the Japanese Comics materials in the exhibit, I was at awe on the quality of work. Was even excited when I uploaded the photos for was certain that friends will check it out.

But as I write this blog post now and reflect on the exhibit, I can't help but feel sad and ask why Filipino Comics was not put in paralled on that exhibit to provide an enriching cultural perspective. I think there are enough materials from events like Komikon that can be featured. It can be from the perspective of Japanese-Filipino collaboration or how Japanese comics have influenced modern day Filipino comics by showing samples of work in this area. 

Or is that the intent of the curator? To make us think that amidst all the ooh aahh on Japanese Comics, you will ask where is Filipino Comics? Is it lost? Is it gone? Is it forgotten?

A lot of the young people I encounter today who are interested in drawing comics - usually draw Manga or Japanese Comics style. Now it makes me ponder - where is Filipino Comics going? Will the likes of Darna Lives be just a pigment of my imagination?

Will we just use comics for our personal intentions - to satisfy an agenda? Once done, we hardly care where it will go. I hope not.

Updating a blog using an iPhone can be tedious especially if you are so used with a keyboard.

However, with the Posterous iPhone app, there is an opportunity for a user to make a full blog post with every update therefore owning your content.

I think its iPhone app also has the potential of making current Posterous site owners be active again.

Imagine, if more folks will be active in updating, it will be enjoyable to read updates once again - blog post style.

Therefore making us own our content once more rather than making it limited to social networks.

It seems Posterous is a good mobile blogging platform as I was able to attach 10 photos at a time as I published my first mobile-living blog post covering the Zero-In launch. Most blogging platforms only allow from 1 to 4.

I just got word about Posterous announcing its Spaces section where you can add folks to follow and update your Space using its iPhone application.

When connecting my Twitter account to find folks to follow, I got caught in a dilemma. Most of the folks I checked out hardly have updated their Space. Not sure if I want to follow them. Well, I am also guilty of the same.

But then, I hope, that as more folks use its iPhone application counterpart, hopefully more folks will be active here again.

Let's see how it will go.

When embracing an opportunity, especially with partners, it is important to discern possibilities as well as problems. It allows you to define reality, size up the situation, and take into account many variables. Some might say that such is too much to think about as it may hamper you from proceeding and even cause doubt.

However, when forming agreements, if parties involved fully trust, care, and respect each other, then it can be anchored with the assumption that this is for their own good. It is best to think about the end, if it will ever happen, while things are still doing ok rather than face it when things have gone sour already.

Doing risk mitigation also puts your commitment to the test for your peers and to the project involved.

Whether it is offline or online, targeted social networking I believe can give you big picture glimpse. It allows you to observe how other people think, especially when tracking a particular issue, and even broaden your perspective as a result.

As a community owner of DigitalFilipino Club, I often faced with the situation where club members approach me for advise. Tried to organize this more regularly, while fostering social networking among members, through the informal consultation series happening this past 4 weeks.

As much as I was able to help, the knowledge gained in learning and understanding the need of my members was immeasurable. It also challenges me as I try to find a way how to be of help to those who joined the sessions in order to have a valuable take-away right after it.

With a growing number of friends having a Posterous site, I guess it is time for me to try it out and see how this thing works.