My 2009

After compiling and cleaning up: myBlogS 2009 - First Malaysian blog survey results released. I also attended the BUM 2008 meeting, whose star guest was the never-quiet ex-PM, and I blogged about Dr Mahathir on blogs and the media in Malaysia.

June
Ahem, four posts... but my excuse is that I was having a wonderful trip in France that finished with A room with a view - in Provence


We went via London for my mother's wedding party, and taking in some Beers!! Delicious! Enticing! Belgian!, and visit to Saint Veran - the highest commune in Europe.

I also did some first analysis of the myBlogS 2009 results - The 'ideal type' blog?.

July
July (eight posts), saw some more travelling when I went to Brisbane for the inspiring Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Progamme - the Air Asia eXperience was less inspiring, though acceptably cheap.

A PR firm, Text 100, released an interesting survey - Blogging and business cultures - comparative survey on blogs. And I continued fieldwork by participating in Nuffnang events and competitions, such as District 9 - sci-fi film coming soon.

August
Six posts. I had some thoughts about social networks, comments and social network analysis in Social networks and commenting, learnt something about the use of Twitter for demonstrations in the Anti-ISA demonstration in Business as usual...


And attended my only Advertlets Malaysian Bloggers Evening.

September
Five posts for this month that started with my fortieth birthday - which I didn't blog about for some reason. I think it was because I forgot to take photos that night (being somewhat intoxicated), and I guess other things, such as the Twestivalkl - first tweetup!, attending the launch of Alpha Project bloggers, and musing about The virtue of practice.

Of course, during this time I was also doing my tutoring duties at Monash University Sunway campus, and planning for the Monash University Postgraduate Association (MUPA) events, in my capacity as President of MUPA. These were things that took up time throughout the year; but I always enjoy having contact with students, and the MUPA experience - though frustrating at times, was very educative.

October
Seven posts for October - for which the big blogging event was the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards, held in Singapore and for which I won an invite for me and WW and blogged about it in Nuffnang Awards - Whistle stop tour. I chose this as the cut-off point for my fieldwork, and am now writing up my thesis.


Following the American FTC decision on disclosure for bloggers, I used my survey to answer the question Do Malaysian bloggers think that blog advertorials need to be disclosed?. I also tried to win a Blackberry (Xpax, Blackberry, Party, Future), and used NodeXL to track a paid Twitter campaign in Visualising a monetised Twitter network


November
Five posts. After three months, I could finally blog about the secret I'd been holding back since September - WW is Expecting!, and we're due to have a baby boy next April/May


On another note, I blogged about a Chez Vincent - Brussels restaurant, and tried to philosophise about potato chips in No Compromise for Mister Potato Fiesta 2009

December
Five posts again, I continued with my 'autobiographical' series with a post about Auschwitz - The Death Camps, and uncovered some evidence of Appalling standards in Malaysian newspapers.

Throughout the year I was also interviewing bloggers, writing notes, and planning for the thesis. But the best news of all was the pregnancy. For 2010, the goals are to finish my PhD (and therefore, not procrastinate by blogging too much!), and learn how to be a good father.