I’ve been blogging since 2003. I really think that it’s one of my ‘lucky’ moment when I decided to ‘move forward’ with blog writing. It’s been a long way from 2003, my blogging style has evolved. From a diary type of writing to journal of reactions and now to expertise blogging, where I focus on blogging about things I know the most like writing, business, etc. For me, even though blogging is an online activity but the impact could affect our offline side of life.

For couple of years, social media or social networking sites been widely used among Indonesian youth. The number of young people under 30 is more than 50% of the population. Some of them are on Facebook. More than 30 million to be exact. We’re also one of the most twitting nations. With that impressive number and perfect combination for harnessing creativity, we do really have a big hope for the future of our nation.

Where do we start? Combining blogging and social media activities is one of the ways. We all love updating status because it’s easy and it’s short. As short as 140 characters sometimes. But what’s happened when we need to speak more about our insights and ideas? We go to blog. Blog will always be the home point of our online presence and social media open the doors for blog content to find its way to relevant audiences like never before. That way, blogging and social media always come hand in hand. I was so excited with my new share button in the top of my post, now it has counter, Google+ and Tumblr share too 😀 That’s make me easier to broadcast my blog content to all over my networks.

I want to highlight some of my activities related to blogging and social media in these couple of weeks.

ASEAN Blogger community gathering. Before going further, I’d like to say Happy Belated Birthday ASEAN 😀 Thank you for no VISA policy around most South-East Asia countries :p ASEAN Blogger community aim to create understanding between ASEAN bloggers all over the region and also promote friendship among ASEAN countries. I’m totally supporting this initiative (kudos to initiators Mbak @ajengkol , Mas @imanbr , Mas Amril , and friends), because I felt the positive experience with fellow ASEAN bloggers I’ve met at ASEAN Blogger Conference in Kuala Lumpur several months ago.

Bincang Edukasi. It’s started as a concern for education in Indonesia and how we think technology (internet and social media) can help education issues in our country. That’s why we created a bimonthly meetup especially for grass root movements in education. The first event was in Jakarta and the second was at @atamerica Jakarta. We invited some of people who have been using the power of social media to spread the light. Read the review about Bincang Edukasi event here

Pink Mosques. After hosting Girls in Tech Indonesia event, Lisa came up to me with an idea of traveling to 30 mosques in Jakarta during Ramadan (inspired by 30mosques in USA). The idea grow and we invited Emie on our team. We decided that this won’t be only on Ramadan project and the mosques also can be from all over the world. So excited to visit the mosques and get a closer look to a place that we sometimes take for granted (just because there are a lot of mosques surround us). Check out interesting stories we found on each mosques.

Last but not least, ON | OFF 2011. I’m selected as ChairWoman of ON | OFF 2011. For you who’s not familiar with the name of the event, ON | OFF 2011 actually the equivalent of Pesta Blogger, only for wider audience and expect a bigger impact. This year theme is “Ideas Meet Opportunities“. It’s going to be a 2 days event, the first day will be all about collaboration. There will be seminars, breakout sessions and matchmaking session where you can meet with a lot of people who can help you execute your ideas. They could be an investor, a publisher, people from government, people from organizations, fellow blogger that can be your potential partner to do business or social movements, etc. Second day will be all the fun, the Pesta Blogger, with community festivals, entertainment, winner announcement of competitions, and more.

ON | OFF 2011 will also go to 10 cities this year with the support of US Embassy with the name of ON | OFF CHAT 2011. The first city will be Solo and the first topic is about education. Let’s learn from our friends Agus Sampurno @gurukreatif   and Ainun Chomsun @pasarsapi   on how they use the internet to change mindset, give new knowledge and opportunities for fellow onliner. The event is supported by @akbersolo >> click here for more info about the event also follow @onoffID  on twitter

I am happy to be part of such a powerful event, it’s a big responsibility that I’m willing to take because I believe in how individual power can make a difference to our society.  Thanks to excellent team at ON | OFF 2011 and support from sponsors, we’re going to start our journey and we’re appreciating your support for a better Indonesia!

When you believe in what you’re doing and use your imagination and initiative, you can make a difference.
-Samuel Dash