Have been too busy during the last weeks of 2008 that I missed joining the weekly PhotoHunt event.

Well, it’s a new year and I’ll make it a point to join PhotoHunt with as much diligence as I can.

This week’s theme is Hope. And there’s the photo I’ve selected to depict such virtue.

It’s a child of one of the many needy families in our Parish of Nstra Sra. de Candelaria, Silang, Cavite, who were chosen to receive gifts in order to celebrate the coming Christmas and New Year. Such gifts were of rice, canned goods, sugar, coffee, milk and other basic foodstuff a typical Filipino family needs.

Best of all, each of the families received a healthy and heavy live chicken for them to cook come Christmas eve. It may only last this Christmas but the least we could do for now is to share the blessing of Christmas with them.

Most important at all, this little act of charity will give them hope, and to be hopeful this new year, is a already a blessing in itself.

Happy New Year everyone! Happy PhotoHunting!

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The year 2008 has been awesome for myself, my fellow volunteers and friends. I hope you’ll join me in this long post that looks back at the past events that I joined, witnessed and become part of this past year:

February

We held our breaths as we delegates to the Students’ Constitutional Convention and officers of the University Student Council 2007-2008 waited for the results of the plebiscite on the newly revised University Student Council Constitution of DLSU-D. Thankfully, it was ratified!

With the new USC Constitution ratified and in effect, we then focused on our advocacies such as taking a stand on the NBN-ZTE corruption scandal. On this day, the University released a statement regarding its position on the said issue.

The move was followed up by a University-wide forum on the NBN-ZTE scandal to better inform the academic community about the issue and to remind everyone of the stand the University has taken.

A day to reckon with, the DLSU-D contingent of students, faculty and several adminstrators in a convoy of two school buses were harassed and blocked by Bacoor Police first at Daang Hari then at Emilio Aguinaldo Hi-way in our peaceful attempt to join the Inter-faith rally at Makati.

At the end of the month, I visited the Cavite State University in Indang as a guest speaker on the basics of blogging in a seminar that tackled new trends in media. I thank Neil Bernardo of Es2pido.com for the honor and opportunity. And of course for the kapeng barako they gave me.

March

The third month of 2008 was less intense than February. On the first week, we the brave 85 Lasallians who were blocked and harassed and prevented from joining the Makati rally finally met with Jun Lozada at a forum at La Salle Greenhills. Lozada and the other delegates were appalled when they heard us re-tell the story of that infamous day.

Inspired from that encounter and having learned from that experience, we returned to DLSU-D and organized the Cavite Inter-faith Gathering so as to make known to the country that Cavite is not “GMA Republic” as some of her supporters claim.

With the closing of the school year, a good friend and fellow volunteer of mine capped it off by joining the Youth Action Day at Liwasang Bonifacio. It was a fun and encouraging experience to join ranks with other youth and students in standing for what is right and just for our country.

April

Come April we held a small party for scholars, committee members and avid supporters of the University Student Council 2007-2008. It was the least we could do to reward all of them who have helped us in the USC in carrying out our duties, projects, programs and activities. They were with us through the toughest times and the lightest ones.

Quickly after that, we were back on the streets, marching towards the Supreme Court which decided in favor of Romulo Neri on the issue of using executive privilege during the Senate hearings on the NBN-ZTE scandal, to appeal that ruling. Sadly, the Supreme Court upheld its decision.

Moving, it was time for some serious break from all the hard work at the University. I went away to Puerto Galera with my barkada to celebrate the birthday of my best friend’s younger brother. Three days and two nights of beach, fun, parties and babes. It was awesome!

May

The last month of summer break was quite memorable contrary to what I believed the month before. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the press launch of the Asus Eee PC 900. We all know how it went on from there right? The face of mobile computing has never been the same.

After that, I was back at DLSU-D for another exciting and joyous event. The blessing of our last project in the USC 07-08; the DLSU-D Jeep aka “Ikot La Salle”. It’s a safari-type passenger jeep that will make rounds in DLSU-D’s large campus, saving students from the pain of walking around campus. Plus, they are able to keep their fellow Lasallians in school because a huge chunk of the earnings will go to the scholarship fund.

On the last week of May, another blessing came my way. My very first laptop, a Compaq Presario c765TU. My blogging has never been the same.

To wrap up my summer break and to prepare for the coming school year, I joined my fellow volunteers and faculty from the LCDC in an exposure trip to Subic. Though I did not enjoy the beach, visiting the Preda Foundation and learn from their experiences in taking care of juvenile delinquents and youth which are in conflict with the law.

June

June opened with a bang for me and my fellow bloggers at Bloggers’ Kapihan when we trouped all the way to Angeles City, Pampanga to help in the launching of Gov. Among Ed Panlilio’s blog. We’re so excited to have Among Ed blogging because it’s another way to make blogging more relevant to the Kapampangans and for the good governor to reach out and spread the virtues of good governance.

It was also at this time that a new mobile network came out. uMobile and they have one fancy idea: give the subscribers free credits every time they view an advertisement. Sounds cool, but eventually the idea never fully took off and its parent company Smart Communications, Inc. re-branded it into Red Mobile which is set to compete with Sun Cellular.

June is also the opening of the new school year and so it was back to my usual work load. Actually I had more this time around as I was elected as the Coordinator of the SERVE volunteers. Our very first activity was the General Assembly for all volunteers, especially the greenhorns because it was aimed at welcoming and orienting them into the world of volunteerism.

Asides from being the “Kuya” of the SERVE volunteers in DLSUD, I was once more donned my director’s cap as I facilitated the yearly Theater Acting Workshop for the theater group of my high school Alma Mater, Infant Jesus Academy’s Teatro Artistico. Didn’t know I was in stage acting didn’t ya?

July, August & September

These months were quite low in terms of the number of activities and events I joined. Mainly because it’s the middle of the 1st semester and so academics were my priorities. The few events that took place though were big ones. Jun Lozada was finally able to visit DLSU-D and shed more light on why we must come together in seeking out the truth.

Come August, our new volunteers had a taste of what it’s like to be one. The annual Self-Awareness and Advanced Leadership Seminar were held with almost 100 volunteers making up the contingency. It was three days of fun, learning, bonding and getting the hang of being a volunteer.

Another big event that closed my August is the grand Truth Festival held at the Raha Sulayman Park in Manila where artists, activists, priests, nuns, students, musicians, performers, street children, and common folk joined together and used art, music, lights and dance to send one message: the people seek the truth.

Come September, I held a swimming party to celebrate the birthday of my significant other.

October, November & December

The last three months of 2008 has been equally momentous to me. The sem-break was spent quite well with a gathering of all student volunteer groups in DLSUD with Bro. Ceci, FSC where we discussed possible closer collaboration between the different volunteer groups.

November saw another awesome gift for me, my very own dSLR camera, a Nikon D40. You’ve probably noticed by now how my photos seemed to have changed compared to the ones from the earlier months.

Also in November, I returned to becoming a playwright and director when together with the senior students of Infant Jesus Academy, we mounted an epilogue of the classic Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice. All this in part of the Book Month Celebrations of IJA.

December opened with us caring for the needy. We volunteers helped the LCDC with the Blood Letting project. The demand for blood has been increasing in Dasmarinas because of the various accidents and illness inflicted upon the residents. However, we remain vigilant in helping them in any way we can.

Another growing tradition here in DLSUD is the annual lantern parade. It may not be as big and famous as the one held by the University of the Philippines, but we Lasallians are sure on our way.

In celebration of the International Human Rights Day, we organized a round-table discussion about the state of human rights cases here in Cavite. It was then followed up by a bigger commemoration gathering at the Imus Cathedral where mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, Ms Edith Burgos was joined by Axel Pinpin, known as one of the ‘Tagaytay 5′ on the panel of speakers.

Lastly, I wrap up 2008 with the Gift-giving/Christmas party organized by the Nuestra Senora de Candelaria Parish here in my home town of Silang, Cavite for the poor and marginalized in our parish. It was a day of sharing and having fun.

I thank you so much for making it this far. Thank you also for going down memory lane with me, 2008 has been colorful, fruitful, and an awesome one for me.

How was your 2008? I’m sure have interesting stories and memories to tell as well. Do share them through the comments below and lets enjoy the closing hours of 2008 while we look forward to a more hopeful and fruitful 2009.

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So it’s official and working. Videos can now be uploaded to Flickr just like on PhotoBucket. But there are a lot of strings attached to this one:

• 90-second cap on video length and 150MB in size
• Only “safe” and “moderate” videos are allowed
• Original content is a must
• Only users with PRO Flickr accounts can upload videos

Of course everyone else could watch the videos. However, I see something else with this new development in Flickr. Why would a photo storage and sharing site would host videos? There are a lot of good websites that already do this and Flickr has been doing good at hosting and sharing photos. It even led to Zooomr’s migration to Japan. So why host videos all of sudden?

From my comment left on Yuga’s post about this new Flickr feature, it is perhaps an attempt to “break the ice”, so to speak, because if I’m correct no significantly new development has happened to Flickr since of late except for this one. They’ve done the photo hosting and sharing gig so well there was almost nothing new to do or to try.

And so, moving pictures was the next logical step. After all, Flickr is still a photo hosting and sharing site remember?

But why just 90 seconds of video fun? Why are there so much strings attached to new feature?

The answer is found in the Flickr FAQ:

Video on Flickr is going to be defined by our incredible, diverse, far-flung and fabulously talented members. Some answers that we’ve come up with:

1. A long photo
2. Personal
3. Simple – not overproduced or slick
4. Possibly the best answer so far: The Great Unknown

Okay. Still, somehow, and you’ve guessed it from the title of this post, I cannot help but think that Flickr Video is their take on what has made Twitter so successful.

• Just 140 characters
• Personal
• Simple – not like a full blown blog post like this one
• Just answer one question: What are you doing?

If 140 characters of personal updates from friends, colleagues, family and fellow bloggers can be so addicting, a 90-second video would be just as tasty and interesting as well. We’re not even talking about the excitement of shooting a 90-second clip. Perhaps this would be my ticket to videoblogging, eh?

So, what would your 90-second Flickr video would be like?

PS: You could follow me on Twitter or see my Flickr photos here.

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Flickr, Photobucket, Slide, Zooomr just to name some of the most popular image hosting sites in the web. Add to this the numerous social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, Facebook etc, these networks too rely on giving their users the ability to post images online for the whole world or even just their family to view and enjoy.

All this thanks to the increasing power and portability of the digital camera and now, the common-place camera phones, ‘camera whores’ and photo enthusiasts have been given a whole new world to create, capture and store in .jpeg glory.

*photo by naughton321

However, this news from eFluxMedia about photos of Californian teen swimmers that were found on gay porn sites have led me to ask the question that is the title of this post. The story goes,

Numerous photos of teen water polo players from several South Californian high schools were posted on number of gay Web sites, a newspaper reported.

Photos of boys in swimming suit, some as young as 14, were displayed next to other photographs of nude young men and graphic sexual content, according to an Orange County Register investigation.

The result of the investigation caused upset amid parents, coaches and school officials. Some of the boys, which found out that some pictures of them were displayed on gay sites, were traumatized and are reportedly seeking counseling.

“These kids don’t look at what they do as shameful,” said Joan Gould, spokeswoman for a group of Orange County water polo parents.

“For someone to come in and take what these kids are doing and take it out of context and exploit these images, these kids and their schools, because you can see the school name on the caps, is just horrible.”

Scary isn’t it? First you were having a great time taking those photos and being in some of them, uploading them to your online photo album or blog for all your friends and contacts to view then the next thing you know, you’ve now become a pornstar!

This is not something new though, based on my web surfing years and joining numerous social networking sites, I’ve seen my share of stories and cases wherein people would use other member’s photos to be used on their own profiles and accounts as if the photos were of themselves! In some rare cases, evil-doers and cyber-stalkers were using fake photos to scam and trick their victims from doing indecent things on the web cam to fooling them into thinking they have just found the love of their lives and even into stealing their money or financial information.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that words are mightier than swords so when cases like this do happen, the toll on its victims can be tremendous and its effects equally tragic and horrifying.

Sure there are measures to protect our photos and ourselves. There are watermarks to be placed in images, disabling the right-click function in our webpages, licensing options and restricting access to our online photos. Still, how certain are we that our photos are just viewed or used legally and fairly with all the techniques to crack and by-pass safety measures both new and old, all readily available via the web?

Or are we to blame too? That we should also limit what photos we upload and share into the public via the web?

This questions dwell on the context of the photos that we take ourselves. But what of the photos of our selves that are taken by others? How sure or certain are we that those images are handled and used fairly, legally and with no consequences that we either disapprove of or be harmful to us?

One question has led to a plethora of more questions. Any one who would like to take a few and give their thoughts? I’ll be sharing mine in the next couple of days as I’ll give all of these more thought and reflection. In the meantime, I hope no one gets paranoid and takes down all of their photos from the web.

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It’s been almost a week now since Zooomr has started the transition to its Mark III version which loaded with over 250 new features. I stuck to Zooomr because it has way lots more to offer than Flickr and it’s all for free. Nothing personal against Flickr though, but Zooomr has done something that is definitely worthy of praise and patronage.

Honestly, I’m beginning to be a bit impatient but this is because of the excitement I felt ever since watching the demo video of the Zooomr Mark III.

Sure there were plenty of dead moments and live bloopers in the clip but it offers a taste of what the new Mark III version has to offer. Deep Jive Interests has a rundown of what’s in store for us in Mark III:

• Logins: You can now login with a proper email / password process that is familiar to everyone — in addition to openID
• Smart Search: you can search with some unusual features like “most awesome” and “near location” (such as “near starbucks”)
• World Through Photos: this is a feature that Kris spent a *lot* of time talking about, in that you’ll be able to use a mashup of GoogleMaps to search for place names, using their proper names. For example, hitting in “Eiffel Tower” will take you to where it is on GoogleMaps (and presumably some photos as well)
• Discover: Best Hundred — you can discover the best one hundred photos over a given time period, whether it be over the past year, past month or what have you at a glance
• Groups: Think Google groups, but centered around photos, allowing you to create messages and what not around specific photos.
• You: There a lot of slick Ajax to create a rich user interface with respect to viewing your own photos and profile
• Widgets Within Photos: Even though Kris demonstrated this, I still had a hard time understanding what he meant — perhaps that you would be able to syndicate information *within* photos through different media as widgets, such as tags, and so on. In fact …
• People Tagging: You can tag people in photos, like what is already offered in Facebook, and then send a message to them about the photo that you took … a viral feature for photos.
• Instantaneous search: Through the magic of Ajax, things look fast without loading times
• Marketplace: Kris didn’t share to many details other than it will be easy, you can charge ridiculous amounts (if the market will bear it), and there’s 90% share for users
• Comments / Messaging / Dialogue: There is a sophisticated messaging system for each photograph allowing you to have a conversation with different people underneath each photograph — it will also let the photographer know so as to include him the conversation:
• Search by color / palette: You can add in hexadecimal colors to search for different photos
• Portals: Creating a photographic link to another photograph on someone else’s photograph (a “portal”)
• Zipline: You’ll be able to see at a glance, and in reverse chronological order what your friends are doing, saying, and their photos

All these features plus unlimited storage and the ability to sell your photos while keeping 90% of the sale. Of course all these, is still for free. Who could resist such an awesome service?

Let’s hope the transition period finishes real soon, I’m sure the other Zooomr users are itching to dive in create new things with their photos.

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