I write this post with reference to the case of a politician in the Philippines mauling a man and his son over a game of golf. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, try going to Google’s Blog Search or Technorati and look for “pangandaman golf” or something similar. What you will find is thousands of blog posts on this matter, and a majority of them are very critical of Nasser Pangandaman, the politician at the center of the storm.

With the big blogosphere tempest the incident has stirred up, how do you handle it if you were Mr. Pangandaman?

Let’s look what Mr. Pangandaman has done so far: first, he worked the press by stating in interviews that they did not start the fight (denial), then he issued an apology over a radio interview to the aggrieved party, but maintained innocence (still denial), launched a charm offensive by stating that prior to the incident, he had maintained a “sober image” (put himself ins a good light), and recently he made an appeal to the blogging community for “fairness” (go for bloggers’ higher sense of purpose). His appeal goes: 

I appeal to the bloggers to stop this. They also have their families, they have parents and siblings. Our family is already hurting. I hope this doesn’t happen to you (bloggers).

Mr. Pangandaman has spent the last week diffusing this issue and there are little indications that he is making progress. So how does he contain it?

The short answer: he can’t.

I read somewhere before that trying to get back something put online is like trying to get the pee out of a swimming pool– it’s practically impossible with the means readily available. In the case of Mr. Pangandaman, he’s practically in a pool full of piss (pardon the analogy).

Let’s look at what he’s dealing with: The blogging community (at least the people I’ve interacted with) is really just normal people who rarely have an agenda. But the incident struck a chord that most people, not just bloggers, are against and that idea of people who are supposed to help us being the tormentors.

If you think about it, a golfing incident is really something most people don’t care about much, but once you put a 56-year old man and his 14-year old son being brutally clubbed by a notable politician and his henchmen, it puts things on a different light. In my opinion, when the daughter of the victim blogged about it in a very honest and earnest way, bloggers were able to empathize with her because that victim could be them– people who don’t stan a chance against a wealthy and influential person. I think that’s when the storm started, and perhaps Mr. Pangandaman’s political career may have ended.

So how does one deal with this? What Mr. Pangandaman has done so far is pretty much useless (denial, charm offensive, etc.) to reverse the tide in his favor. What he could pray for is a group of bloggers share his side and get critical mass to whip up his own blog storm. With this approach, he can dillute the blogosphere with posts in his favor and put bloggers at odds with one another. 

Antother thing he can do is get a notable blogger or blogging personality to openly vouch for him. This will put the heat on the blogger and not on him and practically discredit the whole blogging community. This is more of a “sheild strategy” than to stop the whole issue.

Finally, he can cut his losses and admit his wrongdoing. Most of the bloggers will be off his back, and try to rebuild his image from the rubble.

Mr. Pangandaman is working inneffectively on different fronts to maintain his reputation and has relied on traditional media to fight this battle, which is being fought on the blogging battlefield. No wonder he is losing.

Take the Standard Web Standards Reader Survey!

I just realized that I’ve been blogging at Standard Web Standards for more than three years now and I’ve never asked for feedback from the readers of this blog directly. 

I had a thought a few days ago that blogging is still a communications vehicle (albeit a very personal one), and I realized that I could still a do a better job of “completing the communication loop,”  so to speak. So, I thought a nice, short survey was in order.  I also have been looking at my blog portfolio and I thought some realignment could be done.

I do hope you can help me come up with a more enjoyable and informative blog.

I recently read an article form Slashdot about Canada’s move to tighten their internet regulations and implement additional rules on taxation, and even user-generated content.

I then thought what if something similar happened to the Philippines. A valid question that comes to my mind is: Should there be a “Blogging Tax” levied on Bloggers?

My short answer to that is “No, not now”

The way I see it, Blogging, at least in the Philippines, is considered an “informal economy.” What that means is that Bloggers’ earnings are not currently regulated and monitored by social and legal institutions. That means institutions like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) opt not to touch your Adsense payments because it’s a wide open field and it’s a fied that the government doesn’t fully understand. (Why am I not surprised?)

To better illustrate the informal economy, Imagine you asked your neighbor to water your plants or sort your collection of DVD’s with the agreement that you will pay him/her later. After he/she finishes the task, you pay him/her with the agreed amount. Technically, your neighbor earned some income, thus may be subject to tax. However, since there’s really now strict regulations on “plant watering” or “DVD sorting,” your neighbor can avoid declaring his/her revenues and go home scott-free. You could say the same about the bribes and grease money.

Another thing is the transaction cost of implementing the sanctions on “tax avoidance” bloggers. There are thousands (and that number is growing) of bloggers in the Philippines and I’m assuming a good portion puts advertising in the blogs and a few have paid reviews or posts. If the BIR wants to monitor everyone’s actions and avoidance of the taxes from blogging revenue, it has to invest a lot in infrastructure and labor.

So if not now, when should the Blogging Tax be implemented? I say, once the blogging industry has matured and become institutionalized. (Like issuances of “Blogging Licenses” or requirement to register blogs and blog earnings by law).

Will those things happen? Not anytime soon.