I have a couple of good news to share.

First is about what is touted as a gathering of Asian bloggers, Blogfest.Asia ’09 set to be held on Nov. 5-8 in Hong Kong.

Among the speakers are fellow bloggers Blogie Robillo and Juned Sonido. They will share insights on “Peace Initiatives through Blogging” based on the experience of Mindanao bloggers as well as introduce the Philippine blogosphere to the participants.

I will also be a Blogfest.asia speaker on the topic “Bloggers and social media users in the aftermath of typhoons Ketsana and Parma”.

Several bloggers from Global Voices Online are slated to attend Blogfest.asia, led by co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon. They’re a great bunch and it would really be great to meet them.

I am actually looking forward to sharing our experiences in using blogs, Twitter, Plurk, Facebook and other social media to provide typhoon relief aid. Such efforts continue as we brace for typhoon Lupit and may even be institutionalized, thanks to initiatives of the likes of Gang Badoy and Carlos Celdran. As I’ve written over in my new blog at AsianCorrespondents.com, that online Filipinos stepped up to help typhoon victims is a shining moment we bloggers should be proud of.

The rest of the Blogfest.asia program is promising and can provide participants with ample opportunity to network and to learn from each other.

Having mentioned it, I also wish to share that I recently joined the team of bloggers-cum-columnists at AsianCorrespondent.com which seeks to amplify Asian voices online. Several other Filipinos have started blogging there as well: Danny Arao, Paul Farol and Edwin Espejo.

With breaking news from Associated Press and posts from Asian bloggers, AsianCorrespondent.com hopes to provide a new news and opinion portal in the continent.