Deisha Tamar

October 23, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

 

In an effort to give something back to society, six alumni of the Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) of New Media 2010 organized a one-day seminar called Indonesia Young Netizen Day (IYND), on Oct. 1 at @america in the Pacific Place mall, Jakarta.

The event, themed “The Use of Social Media Tools to Promote Social Change”, aimed to raise awareness for young people in using social media responsibly.

The entire event itself was prepared by Internet services. Participants hoping to join the seminar and get certificates first had to register themselves using an online form. Those who had not registered online could still attend the seminar, but were not given certificates. 

The initiators, each from a different city (Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Medan, Padang and Makassar), relied on social media and the Internet to make preparations for the event for a whole year, through a conference using Yahoo Messenger, while Twitter and Facebook were also used to contact each other and to exchange information. Then, on the day of the event, the six committee members finally met each other face-to-face in Jakarta.

The six, who were part of the SUSI short scholarship program organized by the US State Department, created the event after winning a grant from a non-profit US-based organization, AED, which soon would be integrated into FHI360. The US Embassy in Jakarta and @america were their partners in organizing the event.

More than 150 people attended the seminar, ranging from high school and university students to members of the general public and youth organizations. 

During the first session, blogger and managing director of salingsilang.com, Enda Nasution, talked about trends in social media use in Indonesia and how to be a responsible social media user. Wisnu Martha, a new media analyst from Gadjah Mada University, gave a short yet enjoyable lecture about new media and how it affects young people’s lives.

In the second session, with a more relaxed and youthful vibe, Indonesian Future Leaders president Iman Usman and Febry Fakhurrizal from Bantu Indonesia shared their experiences in utilizing social media to promote social change.

Both youth organizations successfully gained followers on Twitter and Facebook — especially with Bantu Indonesia, which enables people to donate money through social media. 

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a social media event if there weren’t live tweets of the seminar content from IYND twitter account @YoungNetizenID and live streaming from the @america website. At the end of the seminar, the committee asked participants and everyone attending the event to simultaneously tweet “I am a responsible netizen” using the hashtag #IYND2011, to show their commitment to start being responsible netizens.

But, IYND didn’t end there. To give the event a bigger impact, there is also a writing competition open to high school and university students aged 16 to 25, with three topics to choose from: responsible netizen, social media and youth, or new media for social action. 

This competition is organized in the hope that the participants can implement what they have learned through the seminars in a written essay. Enda Nasution and Wisnu Martha will pick three winners, to be announced on Oct. 25.

Deisha Tamar

October 23, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

 

The London School of Public Relations (LSPR) in Jakarta and its Climate Change Champions Community (LSPR 4C) held the Asia Pacific Youth Assembly from Sept. 6-10, focusing on global environmental issues.

Delegations from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal and Indonesia got together to share updates on environmental issues, and were encouraged to act and inspire others to build a better environment.

Indonesian youth motivators such as Alanda Kariza, Goris Mutaqim and David Sihombing were some of the speakers of the seminar themed “Utilizing Young People to Act on the Environmental Issues Solution”. They shared their experiences about youth initiatives.

Representatives from WWF Indonesia, the Environment Ministry and the US Embassy in Jakarta were also present to share their knowledge and experiences on environment-related topics.

The delegations were taken to Taman Mini Indonesian Indah for an opportunity to learn more about the country’s culture and heritage. In addition, they planted 10 trees beside the Keong Mas Theater in TMII, and also taught others how to plant and fertilize them.

On the last day of the event, the Youth Assembly held Green Carnival, a free event open to the public, which featured various performances and entertainment.

What makes the Asia Pacific Youth Assembly different from other environmental seminars is that each delegation must create an idea to solve an environmental issue at home and implement it once they return.

Deisha Tamar

October 23, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

 

IPMI Business School held a two-day Student Entrepreneurship Challenge Program (SECP) for freshmen on September 21-22.

Although the name of the program might sound like another business competition, it was actually an orientation program aimed at introducing start-up initiatives to the students as soon as possible. 

“Education is an important part of the social setting that prepares students to be professional, ethical and genuine — separate from hazing, violence and bullying that occur in many modern education institutions,” IPMI Business School dean Budi W. Soetjipto said.

Established in 1984, IPMI Business School has a vision of being one of the best business schools within Asia. That is why IPMI Business School conducted the SECP, which could manifest those values and also create a fun education atmosphere and bring out the students’ potential through their own initiatives. The orientation consisted of seminars from IPMI Business School alumni, lecturers and team-building games.

Freshman Evy Nafisah said she found the orientation program highly interesting. “I really enjoyed the outdoor team-building games. We were taught to learn through games and fun activities, not the usual boring learning process.” 

Deisha Tamar

October 21, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

Art should be free. 

In the modern world where money is everything it is a rare occasion when really good art is free. But, the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy and the Department of State’s Performing Arts Initiative brought a great dance group all the way from America, and the performance was free. 

Founded in 1976, the Battery Dance Company has performed in over 40 countries worldwide and is currently based in New York. With its mission to teach, present and advocate in the field of dance and with the motto “dancing to connect New York and the world”, it has supported over 200,000 public school students through its Dancing to Connect program. 
Believers: The Battery Dance Company has a mission to teach, present and advocate in the field of dance. Courtesy of US Embassy

The company believes in bringing free classes, lecturers and performances across geographic and linguistic borders to relate with people through dance.

The company has also produced 100 original pieces of choreography, created by its founder and artistic director Jonathan Hollander. With five outstanding dancers, the Battery Dance Company has choreographed many fresh contemporary dances and one of them was showcased on Oct. 10 at Teater Jakarta, Taman Ismail Marzuki.

For one night, Teater Jakarta was packed with over 1,000 people who were keen to watch one of America’s best dance companies. The show was introduced with a speech from US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel. 

The dance itself was separated into two parts; the first part, Autobiographica, consisting of 10 different acts mixing ballet with hip hop and other contemporary dance forms.

Autobiographica started with ballet, the dancers in black costumes, lulling the audience into theidea that this was going to be just another ballet performance. 

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Deisha Tamar

October 16, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

It’s a widely known fact that technology changes within the blink of an eye. Fashion also changes so quickly that it often turns fashionistas into fashion monsters while trying to keep up with all of the latest trends.

It was not until a few years ago that fashion bloggers appeared on the scene. Now all the people running fashion-themed blogs are proclaiming themselves fashion bloggers. 

Yes, even those who use fashion in all the wrong ways and make it look like a terrible disease are proudly announcing that they are “fashion bloggers”.

However, we can finally get answers to this mind-boggling question: “Will the real fashion bloggers please stand up?” At www.nowmanifest.com, we can distinguish between the true professionals and the self-proclaimed fashion bloggers.

NOWMANIFEST started up this year under the wing of Fashion Networks, a global platform for user-generated fashion media and e-commerce that’s been around since 2009. Based in Sweden, Fashion Networks produce three other fashion and beauty-related websites — Minoufit, Seconds and Freshnet — all in Swedish. NOWMANIFEST is its first English language site.

I found the website through Fashiontoast — a famous fashion blog by Rumi Neely — and noticed that her website domain had changed to run off of www.nowmanifest.com. In one click, I was swept away to NOWMANIFEST. With a simple yet chic and lustrous design, it is visually appealing.

What is NOWMANIFEST exactly? It is a premium fashion publishing platform uniting leading bloggers and collecting their creative power. The website gathers renowned worldwide fashion bloggers under the NOWMANIFEST umbrella, as their goals are to inspire and guide readers around the world through fashion and beauty. One of their other missions is to act as a diving-board for people aspiring to enter the world of modern fashion.

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Deisha Tamar

October 14, 2011

The Jakarta Post

(as published here)

 

What do you get when you mix fashion with blogs? The popular fashion blogs, created by novices and professionals alike, of course.

Meet Tavi Gevinson, a 15-year-old who has become an international sensation after starting her fashion blog back in March 2008, during her pre-teen years. The owner of www.thestylerookie.com who lives in Chicago, Illinois, US – has taken the world of fashion by storm with her quirky and out of the box style. 

Although she described her blog as just an online diary mixed with scrapbooks, she receives 35,000 visitors per day, according to www.glamour.com. She has also caught the eyes of international fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Rodarte. 

She was also invited to Fashion Weeks in New York and Paris and sat next to Anna Wintour, the infamous Vogue US editor, and has been featured in various media.

Tavi became interested in fashion after reading other fashion blogs in 2008 and decided to create one afterward. Her style might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and some people consider her not stylish at all – but that is what she is all about. 

As she wrote on her blog, “The general voice of my blog has been very much against the idea of those [or, in a way, any] standards for a long time, maybe not in so many words, but definitely in spirit.” 

Through those words she was describing her ideas of breaking standard beauty or sexy definitions, especially for a 15-year-old American girl, who would usually opt for sexier clothes trying to look mature.

Her blog takes us to view outside mainstream fashion, and more into Tavi’s personal eclectic style and likings. You will also be surprised by how well and mature her writings are for a 15-year-old – as she is able to express her thoughts deeply through her engaging and poetic words.

The next young fashion blogger prodigy is Evita Nuh, owner of the blog www.jellyjellybeans.blogspot.com. She is an Indonesian who is just three years younger than Tavi, but has an exceptional talent and passion for fashion. 

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