I Am Blogie

Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Foursquare, not to mention Flickr, Picasa… You’d think there were too many social networking services on the Web already. And yet, you’ll find yourself curiously drawn to the straightforward and refreshingly attractive interface of the newest one on the block: Piclyf. Today, in fact, I was surfing that single site for more than two hours — which is not a usual activity for me when I’m online.

Piclyf is a welcome addition to the Internet’s burgeoning social media space, and it is admirably focused on its main raison d’être: pictures. You can use it as a photo diary, a “blog in picture form.” If you’re not the type who can write long entries, you’ll enjoy this online service because it lets your pictures speak for you. And like a blog, when a picture inspires it, a conversation can ensue via a rich commenting interface.

What I find unique about Piclyf is the way it organizes your online “friends”. On other social networking sites, you have friends or you have followers. With Piclyf you have both. You can follow people without having to make them your friends, and vice-versa. Your Piclyf friends, on the other hand, are those whom you follow and who, in turn, follow you. Neat huh?

As with most other photo-hosting service out there, you can upload your pictures to your Piclyf account and attach various kinds of meta data onto them. You can even specify some EXIF information, as well as geotag your photo via a visual map interface. Speaking of which, I have an item on my wish-list for Piclyf: automatic detection of geotag EXIF values.

Actually, there are several more in my wish-list. The site is still fairly new and some of the features are still in their infancy, so we should expect improvements very soon. In the meantime, go on and create your own account now! Here’s why:

[What is PicLyf? from Eric PicLyf on Vimeo.]

Piclyf is the product of Twidl Inc., a Davao-based technology & design company headed up by Eric Clark Su.

It was great to hang out with Matt again after about two years. The first time we met in person was in 2008 for the first WordCamp in the Philippines. When I went to the Automattic offices in San Francisco, he was in Ireland, unfortunately, so it was only this month that I got the chance to see my true American idol. Matt was in Manila for WordCamp Philippines 2010.

I’d just arrived from Europe and, in spite of the rather bad jet lag, went out for drinks with my good friends Christian & Bhambee, Chattee, and Matt.

Thanks, Christian, for the photos!

From Vilnius, I flew to Budapest (via Vienna) on 19 September 2010, together with the Southeast Asian colleagues who attended the U.N. conference with me. After almost two weeks in Lithuania — although I really did enjoy my stay there — I was already looking forward to seeing more of Europe. But, as in Lithuania, [...]

The ten days I spent in Vilnius should’ve been enough to see the best sights of Lithuania’s capital city, but I wasn’t there as a tourist, so there was time only for the areas surrounding my hotel. Good thing the hotel I was billeted in was just outside Vilnius’ Old Town, so at least I [...]