Enda Nasution: IVLP 2010

October 14, 2010

Enda Nasution: IVLP 2010

Enda Nasution is  Alumni of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) in the United States, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State  in 2010.

Enda Nasution earned a title of the “Father of Indonesian Blogger" due to his frequent appearance in the mainstream media promoting the use of Blogs. Enda’s contribution in the blogosphere stems from a long article that explains "What is a blog" which he wrote in 2001.  Enda also had the initiative to make the first blog devoted to the 2004 elections and then created the Indonesia Help blog, which provides updates and information about helping victims of natural disasters in English.

Enda is a former activist who served as Chairman of the Civil Student Association (HMS-ITB).  Upon graduating from the Faculty of Civil Engineering ITB in 1999, Enda worked for Ogilvy & Mather Jakarta from 2000 until 2002 as a copywriter.  In 2001 and 2002, Enda accepted the Indonesian Award for advertising; he became a Clio Advertising Award finalist in 2002.  He was also selected as the Hottest Creative Person in Asia by Campaign Brief Asia for 2002 and 2003.

Enda is also a contributor to Global Voices (GV) Online, a project of the Harvard Law School; he attended the second GV Summit in London in 2005.  In recognition of his leadership in the world of blogs, Enda received an invitation from the Asia Society to attend the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit in Seoul, South Korea in 2006.  In 2007, Enda became Chairman of Pesta Blogger 2007, the first blogger national annual event in Indonesia.  Enda has remained a member of the Steering Committee for Pesta Blogger in the following years.  Along with friends from Community Langsat in 2009, Enda launched a Web 2.0 site with Indonesia's first political theme named Politikana.


Tell us about your recent activity

Lately, I have been organizing discussion group on blogging and social media utilizing various forms of media, along with participating in seminars and forums.  I am also busy correcting and refocusing on web startup that I developed with friends, as well as planning for 2011 of course.

You are known as the father of Blog in Indonesia and accredited for developing a blogging community in this country.  How extensive is the impact of media blogs on peoples’ lives, especially young people?

The impact is significant especially on young generations.  They are the future of Indonesia, so the impact on the broader Indonesian community will also be significant.

Young people have a participatory nature and…[are] more aware of what’s happening in their country. Bloggers become more conscious of their community, because getting involved in blogging means you need write what you think.  In this process, the passion and interest from the bloggers is also sharpened. They are also trained to be more confident in exchanging ideas and expressing what he or she thinks and forming opinions and communicating them effectively.  Other than that, I think blogging also builds habits of using digital technology and the Internet.

Besides dabbling in the world of blogging, you also built a website with content that is closely associated with political themes, called "Politikana".  Please tell us a little about Politikana

Politikana was born in 2004 with the idea of making politics cool.  Politics is something that should be discussed together, especially among the younger generations.  This idea came out to fight the perception that politics is dirty, corrupt, and messy, which in turn made younger generations lose interest in discussing something that is so important in our own lives.

Politikana.com was created to serve democratic values, where all readers can write their opinions and thoughts; these thoughts may be commented and rated by readers as well.  Writing, that gets a lot of attention and ratings (votes), rises to the top of the page and becomes a headline, without any interference from the web master.
   
You participated in the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) in the United States, an exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department.  What is your impression of the trip?

It was an amazing experience, because I had learned, heard, read, and watched many things about the United States since I was little and the chance to experience it directly was a priceless opportunity. The program was well planned. I could see some differences in cities in the United States in their respective characteristics.

What can be learned from your travels, especially relating to the world of blogging?

Besides gaining more knowledge in blogging, I also learned about the world of Internet and social media extensively.  I learned that with respect to internet, social networking, and information, Indonesia does not lag too much behind the United States.  In terms of journalism, both countries (Indonesia and the U.S.) have similarities in the terms of its impact on society.  However, I don’t know what will happen in the future.  I also learned that the role of community participation, in providing information in the digital world in the form of blogs, etc., is strongly influenced by paradigms and human characteristics as well. It is not merely a matter of [having the] courage to have your own opinion.  Doing something about it is something that is still rare in Indonesia, although younger generations have started to move in that direction.  One other thing that I noticed is the role of New Media, which in my opinion will change the media landscape that has been around all this time.  This is already happening in the United States and will happen also in Indonesia within the next 3-5 years.

Join your Global Alumni Community at alumni.state.gov. For more information, please contact Alumni Coordinator (Mr. Dudi I. Sukendar) at (62-21) 3435-9536 or email SukendarDI@state.gov.