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If there’s one good thing coming out of the whole Tammy porn video fiasco, it is the fact that web users all around the world has discovered how web-savvy and voyeuristic Singaporeans are. Web savvy because as of this time, Tammy-related keywords dominate the Top 6 searches on Technorati, “Tammy NYP” was No. 9 on Yahoo Buzz Log yesterday, proving that Singaporeans had turned to the Internet in overwhelming droves for alternative information.

I also like to think we made the rest of the world interested in us, further driving up the search numbers, because I cannot imagine how a country of 4 million in Singapore, even with 80-90% internet penetration numbers, can form such a formidable force and influence on the global search engines. But I could be wrong, apparently, this new blog of mine is on Page 3-5 of Google search results and I still manged to get 300+++ hits yesterday. Maybe, Tammy-searchers are really information junkies and they do anything to get that extra morsel of info, even scouring that long tail of web searches.

With the high visibility of blogs and the establishment of this medium as an alternative information source, how can Singapore, or the world, leverage on this consumer trend? Web-based service innovation is thoroughly lacking in Singapore, with a few exceptions. Many Singapore-based website interfaces are antiquated, highly un-navigable, slow to load, reflecting an abject lack of user-orientedness. On the business side, internet advertising growth is crawling with slow adoption rates. I wonder if this is due to the hesitancy and fear of media buyers or lack of advertiser awareness. We are still stuck in the doldrums of the dotcom bust as evident in the droves of graduating computing students diving into the investment banking and consulting whirlpools while idiotic business students like me dream of conquering the internet industry. While programmers in Silicon Valley and other Web 2.0 hubs around the world are caught up in cloning what I call the “Digg-MySpace” phenom, a lack of non-public sector nurturing factors is forcing the Singapore web industry to “Digg-OurGrave”.

We might need to start churning out copycats, even if that isn’t being seen as being innovative, because we are so far behind the curve comparatively that mimickry might just be the shortcut to success. There is so much public sector support in the form of hardware infrastructure and money and political support Granted that the latter might not be a critical variable of the entrepreneurship equation, I believe that the impetus to move beyond our current inertia in web-based entrepreneurship has to come from the private sector. The public sector has done all it can and has reached saturation point, thank you though, but lets get our act in the private sector together and start bringing in experts, VCs, mentors into Singapore or send them overseas to kickstart web (and web-based media) innovation.

Blogs are one of many good ways to start off. While Mr Brown, Tomorrow, Miyagi, Rockson leads the vanguard, we should be looking towards the next wave who understands the value of blogging and its disruptive potential as a publishing medium. Bloggers have to think big and understand that a part-time hobby, if strategically planned, could develop into a source of passive income with the right content and right target audience (global!). Singlish might be cute for local readers, but its a laughing stock or “xiaxue”/ (hokkien translation for the word “shameful”) when it hits the mainstream web audience.

For those interested in what I had to ramble about, and want to commit to some entrepreneurial action, check out this site.

Dave, co-founder of Technorati, gives a “State of the Union”-esque address comparing incumbent mainstream media against the upstart punks of blogs. I think what he means to say can be summarized rather well, at the end of the post.

Just to rehash a few points, Dave used the Wayback machine to compare the blog rankings for several timelines from 2002 till today and arrives at the conclusion that the dynamic change in rankings of certain blogs proves top blogers have low network effects over time and that it is still possible for new blogs today to rise to the top of the curve and become an A-list blog, given good content and the right links. A-list bloggers , as with Z-list bloggers, were covered by Robert Scoble recently as part of a fellow blogger’s queries on how difficult it was to scale to the top of this blog hierarchy.A lot of bloggers, including myself, harbor dreams of scaling this ladder as we all hear the same spiel on how advertising dollars are shifting from old to new media on the web and how the Next COming will enrich us all when the shift is complete. As we scramble to post new articles and hope for the right link, frantically emailing everyone we can to read our blogs, cajol them to cross-link from their blogs to you, it is important to note that some of these blogs will never scale the top of this mountain.

I thought this blogger summed it up pretty good, and reasonated, to some extent, with what Dave had to say about how not all bloggers will be rich but rather , they enrich the web with a diverse range of content that cater to the topical niches and micro-communities of web users.

Why do i blog now? I guess besides the distant dream of riches, it was also the fact that I know i reach out to some friends, share insights with some stranger halfway across the globe, on my views and opinions on issues of mutual interest to us. For those few minutes, there is interaction of ideas. And on a blog, essentially a virtual canvas of our thoughts, comments help to enable conversation and perform the role of a trading exchange of ideas. I derive satisfaction from knowing my traffic goes up, more when i get a comment because that feedback loop tells me i manage to strike the right chord with someone who will bother to type back on this canvas. In some way, its actually quite fun. Little nuggets of real human thoughts, wants, desires explicity laid bare hoping for recognition and acknowledgement. THis makes me think of a parallel, how NASA places platinum plaques inside their Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft that are now crusing through the outer reaches of our solar system, hoping that one day, someone out there will reach back to us.

I think blogging is another extension of the innate human need to socialize. And PostSecret cannot express this need more succinctly than its current web traffic.

Following in the “illustrious” footsteps paved by Dawn Yeo, Daphne Teo et al, another Singaporean makes waves on the blogosphere and another web celebrity is born. Tammy (Technorati alias: tammy nyp), a local student, is allegedly a victim of a revenge act by a jealous bitch who seems to take delirious delight in posting videos of her nemesis in various compromising sex acts and circulating them widely on the web.

On a personal level as a Singaporean, i am bemused by the elevation of Singaporeans to top billing on the blogosphere. Seriously, we have never had it so good and gained such prominence on the web in spite our dearth of web innovations. Perhaps its time to start marketing my nation’s notoriety and start milking this fame for myself.. lol Singaporeans will have a hard time digesting another snippet of such sexual promiscuity publicly displayed on the WWW.

I have a hunch that the news-starved local newspapers and tabloids will be debating this issue for weeks to come amidst outcries from some social circles and prompt some government action that might end up as a backlash against the nascent blogging community here. Its just not too long ago that racial insensitivities of certain ignorant bloggers came to light and resulted in criminal and legal recourse. “Tammygate” will throw the Singaporean blogosphere back into the limelight and public scrutiny again. I look forward to that, it will be a test of the government’s appetite for free speech (on the web) and a test of our democracy. Hell, it might be better than the upcoming elections!

Technorati tag(s): tammy nyp

This is damn addictive! (only for those Web 2.0 trackers) Alexadex is an online stock exchange for listing the stocks of all web companies. The “stock” price fluctuates up and down based on their latest Alexa traffic rankings. You are given $10,000 to begin trading and forming your own Web-stock portfolio. I just started using the app and already found it immensely fun and wanted to blog about it, ahha… Its a great app for those who are into both investing and tracking internet news. I am curious as to what revenue model Alexadex might have, which appears to be none so far except for Adsense, and i am reckoning its just another of those hype-based, fad-reliant cool web service. Was recommended to this site by Techcrunch.

Click on the screenshot below if you want to try it out as well. I get an additional $1,000 for every referral!