So, I just got back from Open Web Asia '08. In few words, it was just fantastic, amazing, unbelievable, exciting, and purely awesome. There was lots of excitement everywhere. People were just happy to talk about the Web in Asia and what they think they should do next and stuff. It was just full of hope, possibilities, and forward-looking perspectives.

Again, I just got back and it's like 2:30 in the morning right now and I'm pretty much dying to go to sleep now. So I'll probably have to the real blogging stuff tomorrow when I'm less exhausted and more awake. But as a gift, I'm posting up some pictures I took today. The first picture was taken while I was on the way to the conference and crossing the Han river. The second was taken during the panel. The last 3 are from the networking dinner party afterwards. Pictures were taken with my cellphone camera, so the quality is so so at best.

Thank you very much for you all you interests and efforts to put a conference like this together. To my knowledge, this is the first truly "pan-Asian" Web conference in years and it seemed like everyone's been waiting for this for a LONG time.

But, till the next post, good night :)

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So, after months of preparation, we finally got together, to prepare even more for tomorrow. Most of the speakers and organizers were present at the meeting. Like many other conferences, it just feels really good to see those whom you only see online in real person!

For example, Gang Lu and I have been talking for over 2 years and we met for the first time today. Jason Calacanis, whom I sadly didn't get to meet in my last visit to SF in April, was such a great guy, as expected. I was able to hear many great stories from him and I was lucky enough to be able to offer him some insight as well. Andreas turned out to be one of the coolest and the most entertaining guys I've ever met. Loic was just as energizing as I envisioned him to be. What's cool is that guys knew about Korea a lot more than I thought. Tyler, in particular, enjoyed the "Stuff Korean Moms Like" blog, which is very rare to see unless you have that kind of Korean mom. :)

Honestly, one of the concerns I had for this group was that we wouldn't be too friendly and the conference would be too "corporate" and not-as-fun. But today, meeting with everyone simply blew away all of my worries. The group bonding was amazing and people were just friendly to one another and quick to greet each other.

We have a good number of registrants and are expecting a great day tomorrow. I'll do my best to live-blog from the conference tomorrow. Oh, don't forget that I'm one of the speakers as well. Should I go nuts and try to live-blog while on the panel? :)

If you want to follow the conference on twitter, http://twitter.com/openwebasia is it.

See you all tomorrow!

(more pictures)

(This post is cross-posted on Springnotes and also a re-writing of my previous post on Springnote and the Asian wiki market.)

I understand there are many of you guys that are located in the Asia/Pan-Pacific region and that are aiming for global markets. I'd assume your primary language for the service offering is probably English.

So I'd love to hear from you guys: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being physically located in Asia and going global (or Western for that matter?)

I guess another question would be if a service like Springnote is offered in Chinese, what's the chance of that doubling the market?

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from freelanceswtich.com

I pulled both of my hamstrings last week and my legs aren't feeling that great; so I stayed home all day today; and I worked all day. I had my Springnote stuff going on one side, Open Web Asia prep on the other, on top of all my blogs.

Here's the thing. I was home all day and I probably talked to something like 100 people, either through Skype, MSN messenger, Google Talk, email, blog comments, Springnote, Facebook, phone, SMS, and the list goes on. And I think I'm actually more tired than physically working in office with 10 teammates. Oh, and the people I talked to today are in L.A., New York, Boston, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, London, and Seoul.

This is what the Internet means to me. It's got some ontological and existential meaning in it. The Internet gives my existence a meaning. It proves that I'm alive to those that are in different time zones.

Like in the cartoon above, sometimes it puzzles me. I just wanna ask the person on the other side, whether on messenger or blog comments, "how can you be so sure that the person you're talking to is the person you think you're talking to?" Of course, it's possible to deceive someone even if you physically meet him or her; but the Internet makes it even more difficult to detect.

I believe that the online and offline realities must come together some time soon. This should be applied to collaboration as well. Communicating in non-physical space never can be as effective or rich in meaning as face-to-face communications, but we've just gotta find a better way for this.

The latest report in Korea says 99.9% of teens use the Intenret and something like 98.7% of those in their 30's. The way we communicate with and find meaning in each other is completely changing. We actually might be getting dumber. But, it's just the way it is.

How will this new technology be mixed with the Asian spirit and values, which have always valued harmony and co-existence over individualism and independence. Surely, you'll get a better picture at this at Open Web Asia next week.

This post isn't necesesarily about the digital generation in Korea, but the ever changing landscape in humanity in general, I guess. Or, I'm just very tired and don't really know what I'm talking about. ;)

So, with that, good night, folks!

(click on the picture for a larger view)

Design matters. And hopefully this new one is better than the old!

I just wanted to better present the content to you guys and make some additional space for more info (like for hosting Open Web Asia banners). I tweaked around one of the Tistory themes/skins and eve added a profile picture! Haha. This is far from being complete , but it's still getting there.

What do you guys think? While the newly designed TechnoKimchi still has a long way to go, it's still better than the old brownish monotonous one, right? Any suggestions are welcome as well :)

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Morever, we were lucky enough to catch up with two of our awesome speakers: Jason Calacanis, the fonder of Weblogs Inc. and Mahalo, and Loic LeMeur, the founder of Seesmic. Of course, they're not "Asian", but they give such great insight into the Web in Asia and what this conference can offer you. :)

I know it's kind of late, but if you're genuinely interested in Asia, don't miss out. The conference isn't the only goodie. Think about whom you can meet in person there. The speakers, me, Chang Kim, and many other Open Web Asia Workgroup members!

Oh, by the way, I becamse a speaker at the conference again. I don't think I'm quite at the same level as other speakers, so I'm just grateful and honored to be up there. I'll be talking about collaboration in Asia through the Web.

So, watch the videos below and click on the register button right away. (You can also register onsite on the conference day as well) Hope to see you all there soon :)