Philippine 2007 Senatorial Candidates Invade Wikipedia
Philippine Election, Web 2.0 February 16th, 2007
Looks like Friendster is not the only web 2.0 application that is being utilized by Philippine 2007 Senatorial elections candidate. Inquirer.net reports:
The battle for attention is getting out of the streets and into the Internet with some senatorial candidates for the upcoming elections taking advantage of Wikipedia.org, the online free encyclopedia service.
Among those senatorial candidates who  have updated Wikipedia entries listed by inquirer.net report, are Mike Defensor, Cong. Chiz Escudero, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, Sen. Manny Villar among others. Their entries were recently updated a few days after filing their certificates of candidacy.
I checked some of the wikipedia entries of the said senatorial candidates and noticed that a few of them have links to their own personal websites. Pangilinan, Escudero and Villar have their own websites  with information such as career highlights, personal bios, advocacies among other relevant information about them. Unfortunately, none of these senatorial candidates sites’ utilized blogging platform or any dynamic content management systems. It would have been great to see a dynamic website or campaign blog with round-the-clock updates on the candidates’ campaign sorties.
On another note, like Yuga, I couldn’t help but ask whether these websites or the senatorial candidates’ web presence could really win them the elections. Considering that majority of the Philippine electoral group belong  to the “technologically under privileged” group, or simply the poor people who don’t have access to the internet. If these candidates are targeting the minority group of online Filipinos, that could not win them the 2007 elections. And besides, most of these online Filipinos belong to the “intelligent votes”, meaning they could not be easily persuaded by any propaganda or political gimmicks.
But then, the 2007 Philippine senatorial election campaign is already a circus, there’s no harm in putting the circus on the websphere.
Technorati Tags: Philippines, elections, senatorial candidates, Philippine senators
February 19th, 2007 at 3:57 am
The campaign teams are getting more creative with new technology!
February 19th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Could be because their campaign teams consist of younger individuals. And the candidates themselves are fairly young as well.
February 20th, 2007 at 8:32 am
[...] post about the 2007 Philippine Senatorial Elections, specifically on how senatorial candidates are launching their election campaign on the web. I don’t know why I’m doing this considering that I have never believed in Philippine [...]
March 5th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
[...] because of the 2007 Philippines Senatorial Election. It all started when I posted about the senatorial candidates invading Wikipedia and taking their campaign online via other online medium. After that post, my slimstat numbers [...]
March 19th, 2007 at 11:10 am
[...] “none of [the] senatorial candidates sites’ utilized blogging platform or any dynamic content management systems. It would have been great to see a dynamic website or campaign blog with round-the-clock updates on the candidates’ campaign sorties. aczafra.com: Philippine 2007 Senatorial Candidates Invade Wikipedia [...]
April 20th, 2007 at 11:36 am
The campaign might be going online and utilizing new technologies but the election itself is lagging behind the times. When are we going to experience an “automated” elections in the Philippines?
April 20th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Online campaign can be effective to a limited degree because Internet access in the Philippines is still not so prevalent. But those who have Internet access are usually in some position where they have the capacity to influence others.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
i agree
alex
leonardmiravite@yahoo.com