The Geekette Speaketh

As I write this post, I'm also listening to the midi for the song "I Am But A Small Voice". The song was composed in 1980 by 13-year-old Odina Batnag from Manila Philippines for a major international song writing competition called "Children Helping Children". Her outstanding entry was chosen and performed at Radio City Music Hall with music penned by none other than Roger Whittaker.

I'd like to look at blogs and comments as small voices that make a big impact on people's lives. This impact may either be negative or positive. Take for example the case of Kathy Sierra. She's a programming instructor, a game developer and an absolutely wonderful author of the Head First book series. At around March 2007, this wonderfully talented woman feared for her life after she received threatening and sexually graphic comments on her blog and from the defunct site, MeanKids.org. The result: She stopped writing on her blog, Creating Passionate Users. It was an absolute shock which also resulted in several bloggers, like Robert Scoble, to temporarily suspend their blogs in a show of support for her. More than a year has passed, and it seems she's thinking on what to do next. Kathy still wants to continuing helping and teaching and learning from readers. But opening up the blog again isn't one of her options. She writes her thoughts about future plans and what other people think of it on her blog.

Another example of a small voice making a big impact is that of Brian Gorrell from Australia. His blog, The Talented Mr. Montano, talks about his attempts to recover about US$70,000 that was apparently swindled from him by ex-lover DJ Montano from the Philippines. The blog has since garnered over 80,000 hits in just a few weeks since its release. It has also caused so much hullabaloo that one of our local news programs saw it fit to feature the scandal. Already this has made an impact on several other people connected with Mr. Montano as well as a restaurant/bar where alleged swindler and pals are said to spend their time snorting cocaine. I've yet to hear or read about anything from the side of the accused though. On a positive note, this made people fully aware that while us Filipinos are mostly a hospitable sort, there are still unscrupulous being in our country who really give us a bad name. So to paraphrase Elmer Fudd, be vewy vewy cawefull!

Even our local news organization, Inquirer, said something about how blogging can ruin your life. Although gleaming from the examples they gave in the article, it all boils down to practicing common sense when blogging about something. Plus, always be ready for the consequences. Even if you delete your blog, there are sites out there that cache your content, allowing people to see what you wrote before long after you tried to kill your site.

With that note, I'd like to think small voices on the world wide web can also bring about a positive effect. So here's me and my little voice helping to make an positive impact on a child's life. History of Blogging editor Dan Rua recently told us about Tyler's Hope. The site tells about an ongoing struggle of a family whose boy is suffering from Dystonia. Recently, the parents found out that their daughter is also afflicted with the same disease. Tyler's Hope is also a foundation dedicated to raising money for research on a cure for Dystonia. Do give the site a visit. If you are unable to donate money for the cause, you can always tell others about it through your blog or by word of mouth.