PROFILE SERIES:

Starting this week, we’ll be bringing you a step closer to the Yahoos who make stuff happen behind the scenes  as well as guests from outside of the company to share their views on various hot topics.

Joey Alarilla, a prominent (some say famous) Filipino blogger and journalist who recently joined Yahoo! as our social media editor for Southeast Asia is our first guest. Read on to find out more about his new role and how social media is playing a critical part in the Yahoo! Southeast Asia newsroom as well as the upcoming Philippine Presidential election campaigns.

Welcome to Yahoo! Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself, for example, what were you doing before joining the company?

Prior to joining Yahoo!, I was the head of the Multimedia Department of the leading online game publisher in the Philippines, Level Up! My projects there included launching our live blogging and live video streaming services and producing/hosting a weekly online show for our community.

I was a tech journalist for over a decade. In 2000, I was one of the pioneer editors who spun off the leading Philippine online news site INQUIRER.net (then called INQ7.net) from the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper. As the multimedia editor, I launched the site’s blog network and online video service, while also hosting and producing several podcasts and editing the hackenslash gaming news site. I was also the founding president of the Asian Gaming Journalists Association and a tech blogger for CNET Asia.

Could you tell us what a social media editor at Yahoo! in the Philippines does?

As the social media editor, I listen and interact with the community, not just on Yahoo! properties, but also on other social networks. My job includes understanding and monitoring what’s trending on different social networks; engaging the communities on these networks to exchange ideas and get feedback; and sharing these insights with the editorial team and our content partners.

We are also looking for more user generated content and offering platforms for our users to have their stories covered by Yahoo! and their views heard and read by more audience.

Sounds exciting! Tell us more about the social media scene in the Philippines / Southeast Asia

The social media scene is quite vibrant not just in the Philippines but across the region. It’s becoming more and more mainstream, with celebrities, journalists, politicians, and other personalities becoming more active on social networks.

One of the factors contributing to the growth of social media is the increasing popularity of the mobile Internet. You could say that social media is starting to become the new SMS. When you see people typing on their phones here, they might not be texting, but actually posting status updates on their social networks, or chatting with other online users.

While Twitter and Facebook are gaining popularity in this region, Meme from Yahoo! has a huge fan base and growing very quickly. We have introduced themed Memes for comic book lovers and cosplay and anime fans – two popular topics in the Philippines.

Can you elaborate more on why you think social media has started to become a vital part for news gathering?

News organizations have to evolve to keep pace with the changing habits of their audience. Many Internet users, especially the younger ones, have embraced social media.

Their primary source of news is no longer newspapers, television or even online news. It’s trusted users on their social networks. That explains why you have a personal newspaper service like The Twitter Tim.es, which displays news and blog links from the people you trust on Twitter – you can even check out my personal newspaper.

Increasingly, social media users are “out-scooping” the breaking news teams from mainstream media. Social media is one of the key channels for delivering news and other information. In the Philippines, in the wake of the massive flooding caused by tropical storm Ondoy (international codename: Ketsana), Filipinos relied on social networks to keep themselves informed and coordinate relief and rescue operations. Through social media, different rescue groups were able to harness the spirit of volunteerism and encourage more people to help out the flood victims.

The fact is that news organizations that fail to adapt are in danger of becoming irrelevant. They can no longer assume that users will come to them, but must instead make sure their content is available wherever their users may be.

Due to different factors, some news organizations have been slow to integrate social media into the newsroom. I’m happy to say, however, that the situation is changing. Many news organizations in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia are embracing social media. This is a new and exciting frontier for many journalists, and Yahoo! will be here to help our media partners with our own insights based on our experiences and best practices.

During the recent social media forum in the Philippines, you discussed how social media is shaping the political landscape in the Philippines; do you think the candidates really understand the benefits/ use of social media?

Social media is generating a lot of hype in the upcoming Philippine presidential elections this May. Pundits are saying this will be the first Philippine elections in which social media will potentially be a game changer.

It’s good to see that many candidates recognize the importance of social media in their campaigns – no doubt inspired by the example of US President Barack Obama. What they have to keep in mind, however, is that social media is just one aspect of the campaign, and that their success will depend on how well they integrate it with their overall strategy.

The Obama team was able to reach out via social media but the crucial step was in translating this into actual grassroots support i.e, volunteers going door to door, and voters trooping out on Election Day. Social media is not a silver bullet. It’s not the be-all and end-all of a campaign, and if candidates become shortsighted, they might end up fighting an online popularity contest instead of inspiring action among their constituents.

Moreover, I would like to see candidates focus less on bombarding followers with their messages, and instead concentrate on interacting with voters online and listening to what they have to say. Social media is a conversation, and it’s a chance for voters to truly make their voices heard.

Empowering the voters through social media is the main goal of Yahoo!’s Purple Thumb site for the Philippine elections. We also held a social media forum, to examine the impact of social media on the upcoming elections. It’s all about the community – about putting the spotlight on what ordinary people have to say about the election issues that concern them most.

Social media is your chance to be heard. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

November 1 was an uneventful day for most people. But at Yahoo! News, editors had gathered in the newsroom on a sleepy Saturday morning to rehearse Election Night for a third and final time. Everyone was geared up for a prescribed role – following election calls by the Associated Press, mapping results as states rolled in, coordinating headlines with the homepage team, cranking out posts for our elections blog. A mock network commentator addressed the group, quickly shouting out poll results for 16 states coming in all at once. Everyone flew into action, processing swing and big-prize states and anticipating the top headlines.

In contrast to breaking news, it’s a luxury to prepare for a massive news event that falls on the calendar. And like a Guitar Hero tournament, we notched up the intensity the further we went along in the rehearsal. The goal? To create a setting as dramatic as Wolf Blitzer’s call of states on CNN to ensure that everyone was as prepared as possible to program what proved to be an historic night.

After covering the 2000 and 2004 elections at the New York Times, and watching news organizations all over the country make premature (and wrong) calls, I had just one rule for our team: “Get it right.” When you are the de facto news source for over 40 million a month, you feel a tremendous responsibility when it comes to accuracy.

To strike the right balance of keeping up with network calls without distributing misinformation, we spent time with editors from the AP before the election to understand their approach toward calling results, which is part science, part art, part gut call. You might remember the AP was the only news outlet that sent Americans to bed without a new president in 2000, saying the race was too close to call.

At Yahoo! News, our editors’ roles are to program headlines from dozens of national and international newspapers, wires, and broadcast networks. But on Election Night, we took on a more pronounced mandate as news filter. For example, if a network called a critical swing state, we would wait until at least another network called the state before announcing the news in our breaking news blog and breaking news bar. After all, we were serving what turned out to a record-breaking audience — today, comScore confirmed that we attracted 7.5 million people, the largest single day of traffic in online news history, surpassing CNN.com, MSNBC.com, AOL.com and FoxNews.com. We couldn’t afford to be wrong.

Journalists are known cynics. But when Barack Obama surpassed 270 electoral votes, we all knew it was a huge moment. The newsroom suddenly got very quiet. The sense of history was palpable. I think we all felt honored to be standing there, passing that word along to our readers.

And in my eight years at the Times — where I covered 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — I was never more proud of a newsroom operation.

Richard Vega
Senior Editor, Yahoo! News

Photo from jrejtman

In five days, our country (and no doubt many others) will be transfixed by — nay, obsessed with — Election Day.

Will we have our first African American president or our first female vice president? Who will be tasked with leading us out of these economic doldrums? Who will decide the fate of the war on terror? Who will solve the health care crisis and stop our addiction to oil?

If you’re an undecided voter or just want to make sure you’re watching this race to the finish, you might want to go live on Yahoo! Elections until November 4th. Even I was surprised by how jam-packed it is with helpful information. In addition to the latest news, you’ll find poll results, opinions and editorials, videos, the most blogged-about stories, great interactive modules like the Political Dashboard and Electoral College predictors, a candidate truth-o-meter, and a tally of newspaper endorsements.

And then there’s the fun stuff, like the campaign button you can put on your blog, candidate photos on Flickr, and a political quiz to see how much you’ve kept up with what the campaigns have said about each other. And don’t miss the “Create Your Scenario” feature in the Dashboard, which lets you try your hand at punditry and predict the election night outcome. Save it and compare it to calls by the likes of Arianna Huffington, Joe Trippi, and Newt Gingrich or even past elections. Sounds like a ballot party activity!

And if you’re like me, living in a state with its usual crushing number of propositions and referendums to decipher, you’ll appreciate the site’s “state” tab, which leads you to the latest wire headlines, local news and broadcast news for your locale.

Speaking of which, if you live in California, here’s a brief parenthetical. As you probably know, Proposition 8 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the state supreme court’s May decision to legalize same-sex marriage. More than 50 of Silicon Valley’s top leaders have given their personal support to No on Prop 8. Our own Jerry Yang, David Filo, Sue Decker, and Hilary Schneider are joining executives from organizations like Google, Intuit, Facebook, eBay, Cisco, Federated Media, Adobe, Reunion.com, Shopping.com, Sequoia Capital, and Twitter. They believe taking away rights from one group of people would set our state – and our country – back in the fight for fundamental fairness and equal rights. To learn more, head to pride.yahoo.com.

What seems like the longest campaign marathon in history will soon come to an end – along with the vitriol about socialism, terrorists, Caribou Barbies, mavericks, and sneaky tax policies. Hope, change. Reform, victory. Are you ready? Get out and vote!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Bless the pocket protector — it’s National Techies Day! A time to thank your favorite geeks for everything they do for you — whether it’s ridding your laptop of foul vectors, building super cool products you couldn’t live without, or helping you find the “any” key. You’d be staring at the blue screen of death without them. Here’s what our beloved nerds contributed to the world this week:

• Searching for a president: With just 32 days to go until the next POTUS is decided, there’s no time to mess around. That’s why Yahoo! Search has launched a series of elections shortcuts. Want the latest on a particular candidate? Type in “Obama” or “McCain” and you’ll find links to the latest news, videos, photos, discussions, and poll results. Or type in “presidential election” for general updates as well as a link to register to vote. Curious about the contest from a state’s perspective? Type in “Iowa presidential election” and get the latest headlines and polling info for that state. More here.
• Mad dash to the finish line: Speaking of election polls and whatnot, Yahoo! News just updated its political dashboard. Just in time for the election’s home stretch, you can now see how the average poll numbers have trended over time, on a national and state-by-state basis. How has Obama fared in Ohio to date? Is McCain tracking up or down in Florida? Check it out and see if this race will be a photo finish.
• Cut to the chase: If there’s one thing we can thank the Internet for, it’s a short attention span. That’s why the new Yahoo! News beta, launched as an opt-in today, gives you just the first five paragraphs of a news story. Want more? It’s just a click away, although most people seem to drive on — proving the value of the news pyramid. (NB: If you’re a newshound getting your fix via news.yahoo.com, you’ll always get the full article.) You’ll also find relevant links to other stories and videos much higher on the page. And Yahoo! News is getting more and more open, providing links to outside sources like local newspapers, other news providers and bloggers through the Buzztracker tool. Was that short enough for you?
• Flickr’s mobile makeover: Attention iPhone-toting photographers: The new and improved mobile Flickr site (http://m.flickr.com) is now especially gorgeous for you too-cool-for-skool types. The site’s been refreshed with clearer navigation controls and puts your recent activity front and center. You can also browse sets more efficiently, thanks to arrow-topped thumbnails that help you move back and forth between photos. Trust me — it’s worth making room to your home screen.

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Ever wanted to be a political pundit and call the shots on how the presidential election will play out? Ever wanted to “get behind the numbers” and understand why certain states are leaning this way or that? With the launch of our new and improved General Election Political Dashboard, you too can be the next James Carville. We’re excited about the launch and why not? More than 50% of voters now get their election news and information online — and more of them from Yahoo! News than anywhere else!

For the General Election, we’ve kept all of the cool features from the Primary Political Dashboard –- plus some new bells and whistles sure to enthrall the political junkie in all of us. At a glance, users still can see national and state poll averages and market predictions on the presidential prospects for Barack Obama and John McCain. Also, users can check out a new form of polling… candidate search results and popular search terms for each candidate. (It’s no surprise the most commonly search words for Barack Obama in recent days has been Joe Biden, but Jill Biden also has seen a big spike.) Users then can quickly scroll over each state to get a snapshot on how candidates are doing, or they can click on specific state to get key local headlines, state-wide searches, and voter demographic breakdowns. They also can click on the candidate images to pull up bios and campaign fund-raising totals. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

The new dashboard also includes a bevy of “Most Blogged About” election topics –- the first time BuzzTracker has been integrated into a Yahoo! News tool (stay tuned for more) — and gives users the chance to check out not only high-level blogs from a national standpoint, but also blogs from individual states. Who knew New Hampshire had so many bloggers writing about the election?

The “Create Your Scenario” tool allows anyone to make a call on every state based on the dashboard content and publish that content using a permalink in an email or blog. Essentially, we’ve put the power of the political pundits in your hands. Will Ohio go to Obama or McCain? Will Florida go blue or stay red? Take a stab at the electoral college and see how the numbers add up (remember: 270 electoral votes are needed to win the White House.) For inspiration, you can view celebrity scenarios (check out Arianna Huffington’s picks) and current and past election results. You can also compare your results to others to see where differences reside!

This Presidential Election truly marks a turning point — where distribution of information and content is no longer controlled by a few networks but rather can be created, consumed, and mashed up by the voters themselves. The Political Dashboard has been developed with you, the voter, in mind.

Have fun and enjoy the new features as we head into final few months of this historic election.

Alan Warms
Vice President and General Manager, Yahoo! News, Tech and Education