New information tools such as digital cameras, internet-ready phones and fast internet connections, as well as new methods and approaches to tell one's experience, are now at the hands of more people than before. The recent events in Mumbai was heard first around the world via new internet tools such as Twitter and blogs before they were even reported by traditional media outfits. Chances are you are reading this column through the internet even before your neighborhood vendor has his the print copy out for sale.
 
Last Saturday, AGHAM Youth, the Computer Professionals Union, UP Geological Majors Society , the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and Pinoy Weekly held a citizen journalism seminar entitled “May kuwenta ba kamo? E-kuwento mo!: A Citizen Journalism Seminar” at the National Institute of Geological Sciences Auditorium at the UP Diliman. It was a standing room event attended by students and ordinary citizens from different sectors. The seminar had different lectures from experts and proponents of citizen journalism, trainings on basic news and features writing, photography, videography and a special session on science blogging.
 
The activity highlighted how the reportage of ordinary citizens are slowly becoming important in documenting momentous events and exposing the situation they are in with the tools provided by internet technology. In the past few decades, the cue to smile when photographs of people are being taken was “Cheese!”, today it is “Pa-picture tayo, pang-Friendster.” The seminar was a venture into developing both the awareness for citizen journalism and the citizens' skills needed to more efficiently report their own stories.
 
Professor Danny Arao of the UP College of Mass Communication talked about Citizen Journalism in general, its roots and current practices and why ordinary citizens should understand media work to be effective citizen journalists. Award-winning blogger and writer Tonyo Cruz, shared his experience in using technology to effectively reach out to a wide sector of society. His different advocacies have found different technological conduits through websites, blogs, the cellphone and other new internet enabled tools. The skills training in the afternoon was a sharing by experts in news writing, features writing, video and photography.
 
The session on science blogging focused on popularizing scientific content and promoting local research and development in the country. It is hard to imagine writing about local and international science news within the context of a country that is lagging behind in science and mathematics, as reflected in various international surveys and studies. Although the youth comprise a large part of the country's internet users, it seems that they hardly use the net to browse about science and technology.
 
Science blogging has been an untapped potential for learning. Even though Filipinos are the world's leading cellphone users, we also rank as top readers of blogs and users of social networking sites such as Friendster and Facebook. Filipinos have found ways to connect to each other, especially since many of our family and friends are in other countries as migrant workers.
 
One can go about different ways in making a science blog. Since science appears to be mysterious and obscure for most people, a blog that aims to take current scientific research and rewrite it in a more popular manner would be of great help to many. Other science blogs are there to make available correct information to counter “bad science” sites, although this can be done both ways.
 
 
During the session, a new initiative aiming to create avenues for organizations and individuals to share their understanding of science, mathematics and engineering to secondary and elementary schools in different parts of the country was introduced. Called the SciPop project, it will maximize the use of information and communications technology in generating interest and appreciation of scientific, mathematical and engineering concepts. Much like a collaborative blog, or a Wiki, the site aims to create local content for online sharing and collaboration, with the ultimate aim of making these accessible to public school teachers, students and other educators.
 
Hosted at http://www.scipop-ph.org, the project bridges together Filipino science bloggers, researchers and science organizations that are willing to share their understanding of science concepts to others. It also aims to have SciPop Days in public elementary and high schools, where discussions of recent discoveries, popularization of basic science concepts and effective teaching methods will be organized. Career orientation programs for graduating high school students will also be held to encourage them to choose science and engineering-related courses. Although the project is still in its very early stages of implementation, everyone is welcome to give their share in making science accessible for everyone.