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Kredibilitas Anonim

2010-01-04T04:38:00.006+07:00

Evey Hammond: Who--who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what... and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking on the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
~V for Vendetta

Di Twitter tadi rame sedikit soal kredibilitas suara anonim. Tadinya saya tidak terlalu tertarik mengomentari, tapi karena sedang mati angin dan kekurangan tema lain jadi ya diulas lagi.

Sesudah berkehidupan sosial di internet selama sekian tahun, mungkin tema anonimitas itu adalah tema yang paling sering muncul. Kupasannya sudah kering kerontang dan ceritanya selalu itu itu saja.

Ada orang yang suka namanya dikenal orang, ada orang yang lebih suka anonim.

Di sebelah makam Rasulullah di Madinah ada petak makam kota tua, tempat para sahabat dan kerabat Nabi dimakamkan. Semua anonim karena orang Wahabi tidak percaya pengkultusan nama – sebegitu pentingnya simbol bagi modal kepercayaan mereka sehingga batu nisan pun tidak perlu lagi.

Di Vietnam, tidak jauh dari sebuah jembatan yang katanya dibawa dari Solo, ada makam orang orang yang mati waktu perang. Dari gerbang, semuanya terlihat sama, penanda sejarah orang orang mati yang berdiri lurus dalam barisannya yang terakhir. Cuma keluarganya yang tau mereka dikubur dimana. Itu juga banyak yang sudah lupa.

Bedanya sama mereka yang mati di Aceh di Padang dan dimana mana lain tidak banyak – sama sama mati. Satu saat nanti semua orang sama lupa sama namanya.

Kebanyakan orang tidak punya kesempatan memilih – karena memang tidak kenal, dan kalaupun diperkenalkan – orang toh tidak akan terlalu perduli. Seperti batu nisan – mati, kaku, gagu – batu.

Mungkin asumsinya Karaniya (ANTeve, @karaniya) adalah kalau namanya lebih wajar, gagasannya lebih mudah diterima. Mungkin dia juga hanya mau basa basi, yang ini saya tidak terlalu tertarik karena memang tidak terlalu biasa basa basi.

Kalau saya tidak pernah menjawab juga bukan karena tidak punya nama tapi lebih karena saya tidak mengerti kenapa pertanyaannya harus dijawab. Karena toh saya tidak kenal dia, nama mana saja yang dipakai tidak mungkin memberi nilai lebih – baik atau buruk – untuk gagasannya.

Kalau memang ngetwit asal 140 karakter itu kemudian mau dianggap sebagai ‘gagasan.’

Andri Djarot (TVOne, @andjrot) mungkin tersinggung waktu saya bilang dia lebih baik buat acara memasak – respon pertamanya juga nanya nama. Kalau ditanya dikesempatan berbeda mungkin bisa saja saya jawab – tapi konteksnya saya menyapa itu karena dia lagi ngablak di tivi mengangguk angguk membawakan berita penting yang dia sendiri kelihatannya dia tidak ngerti. Waktu kredibilitasnya dipertanyakan – yang digugat malah nama saya. Relevansinya pada substansi nol.

Sekarang Fadjroel Rachman, (@fadjroel), Calon Presiden Independen yang nyablak dan menyebut saya pengecut, entah karena alasan apa. Mungkin dia punya masalah tempramen sama seperti saya tapi baiknya Bung Fajdroel cari terapi yang lebih baik karena kalau di internet, risiko anda terdengar bodoh dan tidak konsisten jadi tinggi.

Saya tidak pernah mengomentari karakter dan biasanya menghindar dari mengumpat – kecuali kadang kadang kalau lagi masuk angin. Fadjroel buat statement di Twitter meminta agar Boediono dan Sri Mulyani dihukum dan saya tanya alasan dia mau menghukum Wakil Presiden.

Fadjroel kemudian menguji saya (semacam tes kredibilitas mungkin) untuk baca summary kasus Century terbitan BPK. Saya baca dan saya jawab.

Ada 200 komentar bersambung di surat terbuka jawaban saya dan jawaban terbaik Calon Presiden Jalanan ini adalah, “PENGECUT.”

Garing.

Saya gagal paham kalau kredibilitas gagasannya kemudian diasosiasikan sama nama pena yang digunakan.

Bambang Soesatyo – Wakil Rakyat dari FP Golkar – kemarinan muncul di tivi dengan seperangkat bukti palsu. Semua stasiun tivi mengulang ulang gambarnya – Pak Bambang pegang pegang kertas transkrip dua paragraf – dan kemudian oleh DepKeu ditunjukkan gambar dan videonya.

Saat kredibilitasnya digugat, Bambang Soesatyo punya klaim imunitas anggota parlemen.

Secara takzim berjamaah, jurnalis televisi masih tetap terus menerus mengulang berita bohong ini – tidak ada yang bertanya misalnya, tentang kredibilitas dia sebagai wakil rakyat. Teman teman di televisi tetap saja sibuk mengejar Pak Bambang untuk rilis omong kosongnya yang paling baru.

Zelda Savitri (@zeldasavitri) di MetroTV Highlight minggu ini masih mengulang ulang soal “Dusta” – gak jelas siapa yang dimaksud berdusta – isi beritanya ternyata Pak Bambang Soesatyo punya transkrip baru satu lagi. Yang ini mungkin benar mungkin tidak. Belum ada yang liat bendanya.

Wakil Presiden Boediono waktu di DPR kemarin menyebut soal “beli krupuk” – kutipannya dari segmen program Mata Najwa (@najwashihab) – yang bertanya di pasar, berapa banyak krupuk yang terbeli dengan 6,7 trilyun.

Tidak pernah ada uang 6,7 trilyun hilang di Bank Century. Di zaman Robert Tantular pun total yang hilang itu kisarannya cuma 3-5 trilyun – dicuri selama tiga tahun antara 2005-2008. Dari 6,7 trilyun yang dikucurkan LPS, sekitar setengahnya masih berupa aset hampir tunai di Bank Mutiara sekarang. Menurut laporan PPATK yang sudah disuruh berkali kali menyelidiki, cuma ketemu sekitar 140 milyar yang hilang setelah Century diambil alih LPS.

Kalaupun mau dituker krupuk – jumlahnya juga jauh dari akurat. Gak terlalu susah juga untuk cari tau karena Tempo (dan sekian majalah lain) sudah menulis berkali kali. Situ teriak maling tapi tak tau apa yang dicuri?

Tapi toh tidak ada yang perduli dengan akurasi zaman sekarang. Sirkus di DPR sekarang punya pengeras suara baru – sama gaduhnya dan tidak lebih ketat standar moralnya – tapi mereka terima iklan dan dibayar dengan uang. Bedanya sama infotainment tidak banyak – kalau kata Endy Bayuni (@endybayuni, Jakarta Post), semua sama sama pelacur.

Alfito Deannova (TVOne) membuat pengunguman publik agar penonton memberikan masukan dan kritik untuk program tivinya - saat kritiknya terlalu pedas, dia marah dan sekarang lari dari Twitter.

Integritas itu datangnya tidak dari nama. Walaupun judulnya Menteri Kesejahteraan Sosial, ternyata bisa ribuan orang dilumpuri dan dibuat tidak sejahtera. Walaupun katanya kaya, ternyata pajaknya bermasalah. Kalau situ punya tivi sendiri, integritas bisa datang seperti sulap.

Kalau hatinya mati toh sama seperti batu nisan – mati, kaku, gagu – batu.

Nanti juga orang lupa.

Interview #3: Wimar Witoelar

2008-11-21T10:50:00.004+07:00

Wimar Witoelar is a known media figure, a pundit, a media practitioner, a blogger and a social commentator. WW was a presidential spokesperson for President Abdurrahman Wahid and currently holds various roles at different media outlets - perspektifbaru.com is syndicated across radio and newspapers (and was a TV program at some point). He's an author of several books and also apparently a swimmer.His website (among the most popular Indonesian blogs according to Indonesiamatters.com ranking) declares "sharing extraordinary viewpoints of ordinary people."

Now i get to ask Pak Wimar questions on blogging, censorships, ties, pseudo-pundits and getting arrested. And yes, he does come to visit from time to time and even mentioned treespotter at least once. Ha!

You write on papers, do radio interviews and do television, do you really need a blog? Has it been useful?
Yes, in terms of expressing views and dialogue. The impact is for others to measure

Do you maintain your own blog or do you have staff to do it?
I have a webmaster who takes care of the technical aspects but I do 90% of the contents

Do you read any blogs?
Many, no set patterns except US blogs like salon.com

You know things other people don't. What do you read? What magazines do you read and subscribe monthly?
My knowledge comes mainly from browsing and people who come to me with ideas and information, just like treespotter. I subscribe to magazines only occasionally when they offer nifty prizes like bags, and read many magazines online.

You run what is probably the only political blog of any influence in the country and you're pretty vocal. Do you ever get in trouble? Should bloggers be scared of blogging politics?
I have been in much more dangerous situations in the Suharto, although I do exercise care nowadays. Trouble should always be measured in the payoff, no pain no gain. being scared is a very subjective, there is no set rule. I am scared of rollercoasters and most people are not

Do you foresee any bloggers being prosecuted like in Malaysia or Singapore?
There might be cases

You were involved in Pesta Blogger 2007, are you involved this year?
I have been asked but I will not be able to help this year

What do you think of ministers and gov't officials blogging?
Nice to have anybody blog, it is up to them

What was it like to be a presidential spokesperson? I once wrote that Andi Malarangeng needs better tie, but you never wore any ties. What's the protocol for ties?
My story is told in the book 'No Regrets'. I did wear ties but they make me uncomfortable, so I avoid them when I can.

Your blog doesn't have anything on your daily live, what do you do all day?
Swim, hang out in the office, do work. Everything is told on flickr, my site as well as those of family and friends.

What scares you?
Premonitions of ill health and loneliness

If you have one advice for aspiring writers and other pseudo-pundits out there, what would you tell them?
I usually do not give out advice, as everybody's case is unique.

NOTE: Wimar's prediction seems too unfortunately true, a recent outburst over an offensive cartoon on blogs might just started one blog arrest. He also sends his angels to this weekend's Pesta Blogger 2008 where Martin Manurung will 'facilitate' a session on Social Politics & Current Issues.

on Indonesiamatters Blog Rank and Measuring Traffic for Marketers

2008-11-13T16:23:00.004+07:00

Some people think their blogstats are important and others couldn’t care less if anybody reads their page. As a blog owner, I belong to the latter category and my blogs aren’t actually properly logged (I use analytics, more on that later).

Professionally, however, I work in the internet industry and I do have some professional curiosity of traffics and pageviews and whatnot. Working with marketers and advertisers for example, everyone is curious if blogs are at all an effective marketing medium (that will be a different post, but we’ll cover it a little here). Pageviews and traffic numbers are real indicators of audience and whether you’re running a commercial site, or a private site like mine, it’s always good to understand what the numbers are saying.

I had recently asked a few questions to Patung about the Indonesiamatters blog ranking system and Unspun had just very recently mentioned the ranking. I’m going to try to explain a little bit of what I can (Patung will certainly be much more able to explain how the ranking works so I’ll invite him along to comment.

NOTE: To the most clueless of visitors: Indonesiamatter ranks Indonesian blogs using their own model of calculating blog relevance. I find their model very interesting both as traffic generator as well as their positioning. Patung is the person running the site. Their list is available here.

How they work?

All search and indexing system on the internet works on the basic principle that it finds the site that you will be looking for first. Google has competitive advantage not only in their impressively relevant algorithm, but more that they managed to build such a large index of the internet in their databases.

Most other sites on the internet however, technorati, Statbrain, siteranks, even Yahoo, are run on surprisingly much smaller index size, particularly since blogs are crawled differently by robots. Google have lots of robots and it finds your site anyway (it also owns blogspot, so that helps).

All of these companies rely on a good part for users participation to recognize your site and include your blogs in their index. If you actively submit your sites on Technorati/siteranks – search based rankings and indexes – then chances are you will rank higher.

This should explains the large discrepancy between Patung’s model to Statbrain’s mentioned in Unspun’s post. Patung relies on a set list of locally monitored blogsites to index (hand picked for better focus and quality), whereas Statbrain probably have not yet indexed the other sites mentioned on the list.

It explains why Indonesiamatters.com (along with other blogs) has less than 10 visits a day, according to Statbrain. I’m very certain Indonesiamatters.com gets a LOT more visitors than that. (it is safe to assume that their readerships expands beyond the 1o people on the list).

The conclusion here for marketers is to learn the index size before using any random internet metrics.

Technorati probably has the largest internet blog index, second only to Google’s own search/page rank. If you’re targeting a regional market, you would want to ask the geographic distribution of the index since internet indexes tend to be VERY US heavy. Most indexes (and companies) don’t allow you to have regional breakdown, so you have to make an educated guess (most probably by cross checking it with the more reliable, fine tuned index like Indonesiamatters’).

Specific for the Indonesian market, I don’t see anyone doing a better job than what Patung is doing in creating an accountable measure for marketing purposes.

What do the numbers mean?

Technorati measure inbound and outbound links and weighed with a ‘freshness’ formula (links older than 60 days are purged from the system, ensuring that only fresh contents are linked).

Statbrain works more less similarly, but it somehow claims to calculate ‘visits’ which implies users. I’m not entirely sure how they get their numbers, but I suspect it involves some sort of guesstimate algorithm using Alexa traffic measures and normalized with other parameters.

Alexa rates sites popularity using a toolbar installed on a client computer so it probably has the most accurate readings, but the toolbar isn’t installed on a sufficiently large international index, so again, list isn’t exactly the most accurate measures for visits (Alexa give relative performance chart based on their own algorithm and doesn’t suggest actual base numbers).

Generally you would want to measure site’s performance based on pageviews – the total pages viewed – but blogs aren’t good with page views since most readers generally read only the first one or two pages (PV/Visit smaller than 2), I much prefer to use visits from the server logs.

Visits however, registers individual users landing on the page and the pattern will reveal content specific keywords just as Patung suggested. People with sensational keywords - eg. Porn – will get traffic spikes simply because random google searches picked them up – it’s pointless to look at the visit numbers for any single given day on a blog, you would want to see an aggregate monthly unique visitations instead.

The only way to get this publicly is probably using the Google Web Trends/Ad Planner tools, but that is not open for public at the moment (as it is, it has most regional market but very little of Indonesia, and it tracks everything else other than blogs, so not very useful for bloggers, but more for marketers. Try to get access if you can, it's very, very useful).

I'm also watching the recently launched Yahoo Analytics since Yahoo has stronger regional presence and the site allows real time traffic measures (Google does 24 hrs cycle refresh). Both tools however, are accessible by invitations only and you have to be really nice to them to get access to it.

The Statbrain numbers that Unspun quoted says just shy of 6k visits on Fatih Syuhud’s blog – which is one of the most popular local blog. Assuming that the number accounts only for Fatih’s English audience, it’s probably a close approximate guess (Indonesian largest bloggers with Indonesian audience registers 19k + unique visits per blogs, roughly 30% current inet audience read in English, more or less 6k and growing of English Indonesian blog audience).

The top Indonesian English blogs on Indonesiamatters probably has some 20-25k total audience in size and the top ten probably have a good 80-90% of them. Indonesian bloggers (those blogging in Indonesian), however, do register MUCH bigger user base, probably about 300k or so active readers (at least weekly blogging/commenting, etc.), spread across the top 10 largest blogs.

There are a few local blog platforms being introduced in the scene right now – blog.detik.com and dagdigdug.com are worthy mentions – but interestingly enough, none of their bloggers made the list yet. On an educated guess, I’d hazard that this is more due to their currently closed logging/traffic loops so they areyet to be picked up by the major indexes and not really a sign of them being less popular (both platforms combined already registered some 30k plus users in the last few months with relatively no marketing campaign, so safe to assume that their traffic is still accelerating at the moment).

It’s interesting to note that none of the market industry standards take notice of local blogs yet – ComScore regional index calculates 8,600 plus sites in ASEAN and neglected completely many of the largest local destinations (the bottom listers of ComScore/MediaMetrix numbers for Sept 08 registered less than 19k unique monthly visits, so they should really be included).

Hitwise doesn’t measures Indonesia at all – I dropped an email to one of their representative and they didn’t even seem to realize that Indonesia is a country with 25 million internet users. Nielsen NetRating does only narrow index based on very selective samples so their numbers are also skewed wildly.

The only way to get a real good reading of the scale and numbers in this country is by digging a little deeper and find the raw data.

I’m pretty sure my numbers are good, I just can’t tell you where I got them *wink*

PS: If you missed the last broadcast, for bloggers, here's a good post on what and how to measure your blog traffic.

on Blog and Industry Measures

2008-11-08T08:48:00.000+07:00

This is a good post for anyone with a blog. It explains the different metrics and how to measure growth. It's less useful if you do only personal blogs and it's still applicable even if you're actually running a commercial site.

For anyone else in the internet industry here's Mary Meeker slides from the Web 2.0 summit in San Fransisco. If you're in Indonesia, skip to the last slides and check out the growth. This country's huge.

What You Can and Can Not Say on Blogs

2008-10-27T23:00:00.000+07:00

This is a recurring theme in blogosphere and it’s time to talk about it again: trolls and death threats.

Anyone who’s been blogging for a while bound to run into unpleasant characters here and there. It’s been around from the earliest days of the internet - the flipside of the coin: you let everyone speak, and not everyone is nice. Some will take offense with your opinions and make a fuss about it, often times in cowardly ways that may or may not have serious consequences.

That said, speaking specifically of Indonesia, for most intents and purposes, Indonesia is a free country.

Legally, there’s a myriad of laws regulating the internet sphere – Criminal Law (KUHP), ITE Law, Press Law – but generally, in regards to expressing public opinion, restrictions apply in four major areas: Porn (obscenity law, child pornography etc.), hate speech (race, religion, etc.), slander and defamation and intellectual property laws. We’ll do this one by one.

Anti porn laws.: in the antiquated structure of Indonesian laws, porn and obscenity is covered by a few laws, some of them remnants from ancient days and others more recently – like the ITE Law.
While many of us here are making a big fuss about the currently proposed anti pornography law (including me), it is in fact, very much overrated: even if the Bill is passed (unlikely), it is even less likely that it could be effectively enforced.
For obscenity, a bigger cause of concern is the existing penal code (KUHP from the old Dutch colonial days), almost all the other laws and proposed laws use very similar language. Indonesian traditional media scene is already very vibrant and daring as it is: if you’re not running an industrial scale internet porn operation, it is doubtful that you will face any trouble from the authority. If you take into account the unfiltered access to the internet – Indonesia doesn’t have any internet access monitoring/firewalling for content – then authorities should really be concerned with the proliferation of serious internet porn operation before they could effectively go after individual bloggers.

hate speech: hate speech is regulated by almost exact same set of laws that regulates obscenity and the same thing applies. A few notable exceptions are specific religious offences, but these are very much symbolic (even the video for Fitna from the last brouhaha is widely available on the internet, accessible from everywhere in Indonesia these days).

slander and defamation: with the exception of those concerning national symbols (flags, etc.), slander and defamation is a civil matter – which means anyone taking offence will need to file charges with the authority to express their concerns. I am not aware of any precedents in lawsuit filed against individual bloggers, but if the media climate is any indication then the situation is much, much improved compared to ten years ago. Slander and defamation is very difficult to prove and under most circumstances, it is highly unlikely that anyone will succeed through the trouble and the expenses of the court system to file charges. Indonesian court also almost never award punitive damages.

Of course, there are other laws like intellectual properties and state secret laws that could potentially cause bloggers some trouble, but then again, these are complicated matters and highly unlikely to happen against individual bloggers – unless you’re running a serious long term operation involving repeated, large scale offense.

So far, I am not aware of any court precedents for lawsuits (civil or criminal) against any bloggers running individual blogs. There are harassments and abuses from law enforcement officials in random spots, but these are most often simply unlawful intimidation tactics with no legal basis. You should know your rights and stand for it.

All things said, probably the most serious offence anyone can do, is probably to make explicit physical threats (particularly popular among trolls and other internet low life species). While all the other points above deal with mostly with offences against the public space (obscenities, hate speech, etc.), physical threats are covered by the penal code and authorities generally take it seriously in most jurisdictions.

Indonesian laws don’t really have restraining order or any other effective instruments of the sort, but in most circumstances, law officers tend to be helpful when dealing with threats or perceived threats.

There is almost no law in Indonesia that could apply specifically to stop you from expressing your political opinions, for or against any branch of the government. Indonesian governments are still a bit touchy about communism but even those laws are mostly struck down already. You should be safe so long as you are not advocating an overthrowing of any lawful governments.

In this context, most countries have similar laws as above. Since no countries really bother themselves with domestic politics of others. Internationally, you really should only be careful with obscenity laws or criminal laws (in regards to physical threats or abuse involving more serious felonies).

My advice here is straightforward: while you may or may not choose to take threats seriously, you should always take what you say online seriously. If you’re thinking about making online statements that you wouldn’t otherwise make offline then you should probably think twice about what you want to say.

While other achievements in other areas during the last ten years are probably subject to more debates, within the areas of freedom of expression in Indonesia, the country had moved a long way from the days of Soehartoism scare tactics.

Freedom is a state of mind. You’re free to say what you will. Pathetically enough, after 30 years of oppressions, most Indonesians are still too too scared to have any political opinions. Expatriates and foreign observers are often too easily intimidated and simply reinforced this mythical beast of the past – sadly keeping the nightmares well alive even ten years after we put Soeharto away.

It’s time to wake up from your sleepover and say what you will. It’s a free country, might as well make the most of it. The internet allows for exchange of ideas and you owe it to yourself to make your ideas known and learn of others.

In the end, you can’t help others for having stupid opinions – or indeed to make poignant threats. You can only make sure that you say what you say and you mean what you say.

PS: If you have any questions for the details, drop a comment English or Indonesian, I’ll try to answer to the best of my ability. Rob Baiton and Ajo are also two law practitioners familiar with the matter and could probably help with questions. Hukumonline, for which I occasionally write for, has a wealth of legal materials if you need to research further.

on Dagdigdug and Blogdetik

2008-04-24T02:35:00.001+07:00

Things are getting exciting. First all the players got busy fixing up their things, now they're launching new stuff. Most recent newcomers in the Indonesian internet scene are two blogging platforms. Indonesian Internet doesn't see new online services coming up daily (particularly not those with proper funding and large market scale), so two competing platforms in one market is really, rather interesting.

Dagdigdug.com is cute and by far have the better apperance. I've yet to test the actual blogging application so i can't really say, but they're also only a few weeks old. Glitches are normal at this stage.

The people behind it are some of the better Indonesian bloggers out there, Enda, Paman Tyo and Didi Nugrahadi - as well as a few other detik.com veterans. Again, the elegant interface illustrates well why detik is sometimes in danger of being stuck in old age: they can't seem to get away from the tired boxy look. The attitude is much more laid back and seemingly almost founded on goodwill: because people love blogging. I'm assuming their business model will be some sort of advertising revenue but then it's still very early to be certain at this point.

Blogdetik is a few weeks older and seemed to be gaining ground in terms of traffic - obviously it's leveraged well from the exposure of its parent brand (detik.com leads Indonesian market in all numbers, including traffic - some 65%+ of the entire local content traffic goes to detik or its properties). The interface is tired - i'm surprised that they don't use some of the better wordpress designs out there since there's absolutely no shortage of better design on wordpress.
Detik also still having their usual branding problem as the name leads to confusion (it's usually detikSomething). I'm not sure if they actually own detikblog.com but the current landing page doesn't have any information.

Naturally enough, the people behind the two teams include some avid bloggers and you could actually follow with their recent progress with the newborn babies. Andry Huzain is one of the lead engineer from detik and his blog provides an interesting insight in addressing the capacity issues. Paman Tyo and Enda don't really say much, but seem to be getting excited in anticipation.

The problem is, of course, i can't see the commercial model to work. Blog traffic makes sense if you could aggregate the audience for an ad base (thus Google with Blogspot). I'm not sure if dagdigdug has a suitable platform or even detik will manage to monetize the traffic. Detik seems to always have problems in maintaining traffic after an initial surge - both in their product launches as well as in advertiser response in their campaign (i'm guessing the saturation in 'crowding' effects, but that's only a guess).

It's great that people are now getting into the market with some optimism and enthusiasm, but really, i'm worried about the money part.

I don't have their numbers on users but here is the traffic chart on blogdetik.com - dagdigdug - detikforum (from Alexa).