Intelligent Singaporean Closed Down InSpir3D has ended Intelligent Singaporean, the manual aggregator for social political blogs.Contributed by BL. Legal threat against Tomorrow.sg Grand Seasons International, through its legal representative, Gurdip &amp Gill, issued Tomorrow.sg with a demand to remove an entry entitled "Grand Season International-TimeShare Scam Company". It also demanded to know the identity of a comment author, "GECKO".Contributed by Yuhui. Self-regulation Dharmendra Yadav opines in a TODAY column that bloggers should self-regulate. Subsequent discussion divides bloggers between those who support self-regulation through a Code of Ethics and those who don't.Contributed by Yuhui. MDA survey on Internet usage The Media Development Authority released results of a survey about Internet use in Singapore. It found that about a third of Singaporean Internet users aged 15 to 49 years old are creating their own online content.More results:About 50% of 15-19-year-olds and 46% of 20-24-year-olds create content. (The numbers are greater if occasional bloggers/podcasters are taken into account.)65% of 15-49-year-olds use the Internet in their daily lives.55% rated themselves as at least moderately able to analyse and discern information on the Internet (four or above on a scale of seven). Teenagers rated themselves more highly.36% of 39-49-year-olds are at least moderate users, compared to 70% among teens.MDA surveyed about 1,000 people face-to-face between July and August.MDA will use the results to get more people to be savvy and comfortable users of new media.Contributed by Yuhui. Wee Shu Min Netizens criticised Wee Shu Min for her arrogant reply to an entry by Derek Wee, ending her entry by telling him to "get out of my elite uncaring face." The two blog entries are reproduced on Sam's Alfresco Coffee Shop.Derek, who works in a multinational company, had written a response to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's call on the young to be more involved in Singapore's development. He lamented that he did not feel secure about Singapore's future and was worried about various issues, including the influx of foreign talent.Shu Min is a former Gifted Elective Program student and now studying in Raffles Junior College. Her father is Member of Parliament Wee Siew Kim of the People's Action Party. She responded to Derek's post by saying that he was complaining about nothing and had benefited from Singapore's system.Shu Min has since removed her blog.Contributed by Yuhui. Reach Reach, formerly the Feedback Unit, launches a blog, "Blog Us", in conjunction with the unit's relaunch.Any member of the People's Forum is allowed to post in the blog.Contributed by Yuhui. P65 The group of post-1965 Members of Parliament begin writing on their blog, P65.Contributed by Yuhui. BlogTV.sg Channel NewsAsia produces a documentary, BlogTV.sg, about blogging. It features discussions with local media personalities, including radio DJ The Flying Dutchman.The companion website provides more in-depth discussion and an area for members of the public to post their opinions.Contributed by Yuhui. Minister George Yeo George Yeo Yong Boon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, becomes the first government minister to blog. He guest blogs for Ephraim Loy, a Young PAP member.Contributed by Yuhui. Blog registration unneeded The National Internet Advisory Committee (NIAC) concluded that there is no need for local blogs to be registered with the Media Development Authority under the Class Licence Scheme.In its report, the NIAC compared blogs to web-based discussion forums for the public to read and write comments.Contributed by Yuhui. Ping.sg New aggregator Ping.sg launches. It aims to create a database of local bloggers and blog entries of local interest. Its wider aim is to create a community of Singapore bloggers to promote their writings.Contributed by Yuhui. Stomp The Straits Times launches Stomp (Straits Times * Online * Mobile * Print), a news portal aimed at youths. It features a blog co-written by Xiaxue, Dawn Yang, MTV Asia VJ's May and Choy, journalists Nick Fang and Ju-Len, and "Kway Teow Man".Part of its content comes from consumer-generated media. These include photos, videos and news tips from the public.Contributed by Yuhui. Char Police announce that they are investigating a blogger, Char. He had been accused under the Sedition Act of posting cartoons that depict Jesus Christ offensively.Char reported that police had contacted him in March, following complaints by a member of the public. He removed the complaints one week before the investigation was announced. He also reported his experience in the matter in an online mailing list for youths.More information from The Straits Times. (by way of AsiaMedia)Update: 21 July 2006Char was let off with a "stern warning" by the police on 6 July 2006. More information from Today.Contributed by Yuhui. Blogging during elections reviewed Dr. Lee Boon Yang, Minister of Information, Communication and the Arts, said that Government will work towards a "lighter touch" at Internet content, blogs and podcasts in the next general election.He was speaking at the annual PR Academy Conference.Contributed by Yuhui. PAP and "negative Internet" Ms Denise Phua of the People's Action Party mentioned the need for the party to manage the "negative Internet". She was concerned about the potentially negative image that blogs portrayed about the General Elections.She was speaking at an election post-mortem organised by the National University of Singapore Society.More information from Today.Contributed by Yuhui. CNA accused of falsification Channel NewsAsia is accused of falsifying its screen grabs of Singapore Election Watch. Titles of two entries had supposedly been removed in the news broadcast.Contributed by Yuhui. Blogging activity up on elections Blogging activity about the elections increased significantly, with a huge jump during the nine-day election period.On average, there were about 40 elections-related blog entries a day, up from the average 20 entries. During the election period, this number went over 190.This analysis was reported by NexLabs.More information from Channel NewsAsia.Contributed by Yuhui. SDP podcast removed The Returning Officer for the General Election ordered the Singapore Democratic Party to remove its podcast. This is because of a ban on podcasts during the elections period under the Parliamentary Elections (Election Advertising) Regulations.In his podcast, "Chee Podcast: Show Singaporeans You're Really First World, Debate SDP", Dr Chee Soon Juan, Secretary General of the SDP, had accused the People's Action Party of "going all out to crush the SDP".More information from Channel NewsAsia.Contributed by Yuhui. Blogging and elections Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan clarified in Parliament the guidelines for blogging and podcasting during elections.Podcasting is not part of a "positive list" of activities allowed by the Election Advertising Regulations. Therefore, it will not be allowed during the elections by any entity.Individual bloggers who "persistently propagate, promote or circulate political issues relating to Singapore" are required to register with the Media Development Authority under the Class Licence Scheme.More information from Channel NewsAsia.Update: 6 July 2006Blogs will not need to be registered for now. More information.Contributed by Yuhui. Singapore GaGa Tan Pin Pin organises a special screening of her documentary, Singapore GaGa, for bloggers only.Attending bloggers were encouraged to blog about it before mainstream media reviews were published.Contributed by Yuhui. Tammy NYP A stolen handphone video of a young couple having sex is circulated through blogs, forums, and word-of-mouth.For a few days, the phrase "Tammy NYP" and its variations take over Technorati's top searches, causing foreign bloggers to write about this phenomenon.BackgroundContributed by Yuhui. Youth.SG Mystery Blogger contest Youth.SG, a blog targeted at young Singaporeans, runs a Mystery Blogger contest.Those who guess the correct answer are entered into a draw for a 4-day/3-night travel package to Melbourne for two. The first five persons to submit correct entries also stand to win a $100 Heeren shopping voucher each.The closing date is 23 February 2006.Update: 1 March 2006The mystery blogger is revealed to be Ronald Susilo, national badminton player and Youth.SG ambassador 2006.Contributed by Yuhui. SG Rally SG Rally: The Singapore Elections Rally Archive launches to aggregate amateur reports of elections and party rallies.Contributors are encouraged to upload their recordings to Google Video. The links to these recordings should then be sent to SG Rally for posting.Contributed by Yuhui. NUS Blogfest 2006 The NUS Students' Arts and Social Sciences Club organises Blogfest 2006. It is supported by the Communications and New Media Department. There are three categories: Best NUS Blog, Most Creative Blog, and Funniest Blog.The judging guidelines state that there will be little to no censorship in terms of language and topics (except for sensitive topics like race and religion).Update: 12 April 2006The competition ended on 30 March 2006. The winners are:Best NUS Blog: Nuraishah Hamza, No RecessMost Creative Blog: Hong Wanting, Lord, can you tell me… How far is Heaven?Funniest Blog: Al, Alcoholic InspirationsContributed by Yuhui. Overheard in Singapore Overheard in Singapore begins collecting overheard conversation snippets in Singapore.Contributed by Yuhui. Xialanxue versus Xiaxue Xialanxue accuses Xiaxue of impersonating him/her in a hate site against Blinkmummy.Update: 22 February 2006:Xialanxue (xialanxue.blogspot.com) has since been shut down.Contributed by Yuhui. SG Entrepreneurs SG Entrepreneurs is founded by Bernard Leong, Gwendolyn Tan and Lai Weichang. A public and moderated blog, it invites fellow entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and business plan competition organisers to blog about their experiences on entrepreneurship and enterprise in Singapore. It also talks about intrapreneurship and social entrepreneurship.Contributed by Bernard Leong. Hacked blogs Xiaxue's blog is hacked into, the first-known case of such a crime. Wonkytong's blog is also later found to be hacked into. This site is now kept hidden from public view.Contributed by Yuhui. Today's blog column Today, a free newspaper, starts a weekly column on blogging, written by Mr Miyagi.Update: 10 July 2006Mr Miyagi announces that he has resigned from Today.Contributed by Mr Miyagi. Penny Low Penny Low, a People's Action Party member, becomes the first Member of Parliament to blog.Update: 18 April 2006She announces that she has stopped moblogging.Contributed by Mr Wang.