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WikiPilipinas at the Manila International Book Fair

2 September, 2007 (13:38) | Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | By: Arpee

The World Trade Center served as the venue for this year’s Manila International Book Fair. Thanks again to Khursten and the wonderful people of Read or Die, I was given the opportunity to be among the people of WikiPilipinas for a day and got to learn more about their new website which is, apparently, a new resource for the Filipino student and researcher.

Indeed, there is nothing more aptly Pinoy than this new online encyclopedia. The WikiPilipinas launch was one of the highlights of the Book Fair. Visitors to their booth were treated to freebies like shirts, mouse pads, a limited edition compilation of Kenkoy komiks book (which I won) and a slew of awesome presentations on how to navigate through their website, where to find what and how much more can be added to the database, etc.

One feature which I found interesting is the Skool Tools (beta). This is found in FILIPINIANA.NET, the parent organization of WikiPilipinas. It is another online resource that is dedicated to all things Filipiniana that is Philippine culture, literature, history and related studies. Why is the Skool Tools utility so cool? After browsing and collecting snippets and abstracts of books, the utility allows the user to automatically insert these in a text editor and download the document as a .pdf file. It even automatically generates the bibliography which the user can find at the end of the document. I thought it was neat. I mean .pdf without the hassle of installing the distiller software? Who wouldn’t be happy with that?

I capped the day by joining the WikiBingo, where they gave away an IPod Nano, a card reader and a flash drive. The flash drive would have made me a happy camper, but sadly I didn’t get any of the prizes. But, no worries, I had a wonderful time! I met some of the players from the game and made some new friends. (hi Lauren! hope to bump into you again at the next event!)


By the time the doors opened, the line was already extending into the side emergency exits of the building. This was taken after the biggest throng had gotten in. More people came in the afternoon.

That’s Shirley manning the cosplay booth. There were only 19 participants in the cosplay contest. I was supposed to have my picture taken with a group of Storm Troopers (courtesy of the New World Alliance), but they were gone before I got my chance. Next time.

Atty Louie Calvario of the Intellectual Properties Office under the DTI kicked off the day’s events by a talk on copyright infringement. Very enlightening, I think.

The Vibal Publishing house banner towering over the WikiPilipinas booth. This was the only visible marker I saw from around the exhibit hall. Without it, I wouldn’t have made it to the WikiBingo in time. I didn’t win the IPod, but I had fun!

How the Kenkoy komiks book was won. They asked a question about a character from the story “Hati Tayo sa Magdamag” and my answer was Gerry. Noreen is loving the Kenkoy book.


My smile courtesy of one of the many iMac computers that WikiPilipinas made available to their guests. I know the iMac rocks but I’m a slave to Windows.

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