Fili’s world

Earlier this month, I wrote about “Taiwan Best Blog Awards 2008”, and the voting opened today on Taiwanderful. I urge you to go tour the Taiwan blog directory, visit the registered blogs and cast your vote. Everything you want to know is on the Taiwanderful voting post “Taiwan’s Best Blog Awards 2008 - Vote for you favorite Taiwan blogs”.

It was nice to see that the blog awards was picked up by Global Voices with “First English blog awards begins”:

Taiwanderful has announced the 2008 Taiwan Best Blog Awards. The awards are for English-language blogs related to Taiwan in eight categories. According to Taiwanderful: “There are hundreds of bloggers writing about Taiwan in English. The English language bloggers in Taiwan contribute some of the most comprehensive up-to-date information about the real Taiwan on a wide range of topics, from travel through politics to culture….. The blog awards are intended as a tribute to these devoted bloggers. Their blogs are a unique form of promotion for Taiwan.”

Which was then followed by an article from the Taiwanese Chinese language based China Times with “台灣外籍部落客 發起英文部落格大獎" (also in the Tech section):

此一「2008 Taiwan Blog Award」，是由一個名為「Taiwanderful」的英文社群網站所發起，該網站並致力串連在台灣的英文部落格圈。 […]

「Taiwanderful」指出，台灣英文部落格大獎共分為八類獎項，包括「最佳教育部落格」、「最佳通用部落格」、「最佳（其他類）部落格」、「最佳個人部落格」、「最佳政治部落格」、「最佳宗教部落格」、「最佳旅遊部落格」、「最佳影音部落格」。 

The China Times blog then had a feature on Taiwanderful with David with the title “老外愛台灣”:

在台灣工作、旅行、唸書前後已有四五年時間，David除了被台灣豐富且多元的文化風情所吸引，對於台灣的寺廟也相當的感興趣。由於熱愛台灣這塊土地，因此David不僅在自己的部落格中分享在台灣生活的所見所聞，還另外經營了一個名為「Taiwanderful」的英文社群網站，希望可以讓世界各地的人認識台灣，或者最起碼可以知道台灣在哪裡。

David有個中文名字叫「魏明智」，之所以會取這個名字的原因，David解釋說，「因為很敬佩欣賞一位在六四天安門事件的民運人士魏京生，所以取其姓氏；而明智則是我的法號。」信仰佛教已有十餘年時間的David，在台灣還曾將兩部佛經翻譯成英文，即便這工作聽起來有些難度，但只要是David 認為有意義的事情，他總是願意不辭辛勞、熱心分享，就如同他經營部落格以及社群網站所抱持的態度一樣。

Hope it goes well and encourages some cross-linking and Taiwan blogosphere promotion. Link to your favorite blogs and recommend them to your readers, I’ll do that in about a week. Good luck to everyone.