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.

What do you do if the world’s tallest building stands in your city? Try to run up its stairs as fast as you can!

A group of Yahoos from Taiwan recently banded together to run up the Taipei 101, which weighs in as the world’s tallest skyscraper at 101 stories with 2,046 steps. That’s 508 meters or one third of a mile… straight up. It was part of a masochistic race called the “Taipei 101 Run Up,” which pits teams against each other to see who can reach the top first. The 20 participating teams included major brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Bayer.

Sporting purple Yahoo! T-shirts, our team included a few senior Yahoo! executives, including Ari Balogh, our executive vice president of Products and chief technology officer (visiting from California); Rose Tsou, senior vice president of our Asia region; and Charlene Hung, general manager of Yahoo! Taiwan.

So, how’d they do in this ultimate Stairmaster challenge? They placed fifth, just a few spots behind last year’s second place finish (when they lost out to the fire department — the only team you really want passing you). And the fastest Yahoo? That would be Ari, whose addiction to energy bars clearly paid off. He scaled the building’s 101 stories in just 18:26.

Here are some photos from the race and sweet victory:

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Usually what happens at a company all-hands, stays at a company all-hands. But sometimes there’s great stuff that seems too good to keep under wraps.

Take Mitch Spolan, for example. We have a phrase around here that describes someone who’s loyal to the core — they “bleed purple.” That’s Mitch in a nutshell. He’s a 10-year Yahoo! veteran who’s seen it all — the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awesome. And he’s embodied the definition of pride throughout. And in this presentation, Mitch gave abut 13,000 people a bevy of reasons to share that pride.

You have to forget for a moment that he’s a sales guy (he was just promoted to head of our North American field sales organization) because what you’re about to watch isn’t some guy just trying to cut a deal. This video helps you understand what it means to bleed purple.

And you’ll also learn a thing or two about measuring social impact by a factor of Obamas.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

A month and a half in the saddle and today I have the perfect excuse to get blogging.

I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for the last six weeks, talking with everybody from executive leaders to the guys who configured my laptop. I’ve been in student mode, slowly getting smarter about what makes this place tick. And most recently, I’ve been gathering information on what it’s going to take to get Yahoo! to a great place as an organization –- and one that brings you killer products.

People here have impressed the hell out of me. They’re smart, dedicated, passionate, driven, and really nice. There’s so much great energy and frankly lots of optimism. But there’s also plenty that has bogged this company down. For starters, you’d be amazed at how complicated some things are here.

So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”

I’ve noticed that a lot of us on the inside don’t spend enough time looking to the outside. That’s why I’m creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we’re investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best.

We’re also leaning on this team to make sure we’re all hearing the voice of our customers (consumers and advertisers). I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period. The kind that get you so excited, you have to tell someone about them. Whether on your desktop, your mobile device, or even your TV.

And that takes a real understanding of what you want/need/love/hate, how you’re using our products, and what you find simple, intuitive, easy and fun. Who wants innovation for innovation’s sake if it doesn’t make your life easier, more efficient, more productive? So expect us to hear you better and take better care of you.

Finally, a note about our brand. It’s one of our biggest assets. Mention Yahoo! practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we haven’t been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo! brand stands for. We’re going to change that. Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.

Big thanks to the many of you who’ve reached out with positive comments. It’s clear people want Yahoo! to succeed. I’ll try to pop by here again soon, though probably not too soon. I have a pretty long to-do list.

Carol Bartz
CEO

One of the best kept Yahoo! secrets is our office at the North Pole — or at least really, really close to it. In the city of Trondheim, Norway, a group of 40 dedicated search engineers work day and night to develop one of our core technology platforms.

A huge advantage of having an office in such a cold and deserted corner of the world is, of course, that there is little else to do than go to work. The hazardous environment is, however, a big drawback — blizzards, temperatures well below even the lowest of comfort zones and, worst of all, the hungry polar bears (isbjørn) that sneak around town looking for food or a warm place to hide.

So while your biggest commuting worry is how heavy the traffic will be, these guys — wishing they had Kevlar coats and rifles on their scooters — have to ask themselves: “Will I even make it to work today?”

Could this be for real? Do these daredevils from Norway deserve high-risk pay and additional insurance packages, or are they just pulling our legs? See their photo evidence at Flickr and let us know what you think.

Eirik Refsdal
Engineer, Yahoo! Search

The Big Game is on Sunday. It’s the culmination of a season of well-researched drafts, strategic trades, painful injuries, trash talking, stats galore, victories and defeats… in your fantasy football league.

Every year, more than 12 million people reach for computer mice along with their remotes as they play fantasy football. Yahoo! Sports alone has more than four million players. That’s a lot of people demanding perfection when it comes to their league drafting process, how fast they can get their hands on data and stats, and how easily they can manage their rosters in that critical hour before the coin toss.

Though the leagues ended with the playoffs, we thought we’d give you a video look at the team of engineers that kept you on top of your game -– the people who toiled on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights to ensure that servers didn’t crash under the weight of all those stats. The team that brought you all the best new tools to help you make smarter calls. The guys (and gals) who, like you, live and breathe sports — nary a day goes by without at least one football jersey in the cube bullpen. In fact, quite a few of them have been working on Yahoo! Sports for more than ten years.

Whether you’re a Cardinals or a Steelers fan, may your guacamole be fresh, your beer plentiful, and your pizza hot. For once, Yahoo! Sports engineers will be watching the game right along with you.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Filmed and edited by Bart Bishoff, Yahoo! Broadcast Bureau

One hundred million people. It’s the population of America’s 60 largest cities combined (from NYC to Toledo). It’s about three million more than the size of this year’s record-breaking Super Bowl audience. And it’s the number of people who visit the Yahoo! Homepage every month.

I’ve always wondered what it’s like to program news content for that kind of a massive audience. (Let’s just say Yodel Anecdotal’s readership has a ways to go.) After all, you’re basically responsible for informing roughly one in every two American Internet users about what’s happening in our world…and influencing what they talk about over cube walls. What does that responsibility feel like? How do they stay on top of the fire hose of news and then decide what gets one of those precious links? Who is “they” and what prepares them for this big job? How do they know what will click? What was it like to cover this year’s Election?

I took a camera backstage to answer these questions and more. Enjoy this up-close-and-personal look inside the Yahoo! Homepage newsroom.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Filmed and edited by Bart Bishoff, Yahoo! Broadcast Bureau

There’s a good friend of mine –- a suit with a fat expense account who works for one of the biggest studios in L.A. –- who likes to brag to our mutual friends that I have the best job in the world. And while my parents raised me with a good amount of humility, I’m not necessarily going to tell him otherwise.

At least on the good days, I do recognize that being the executive producer for Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music is a pretty good gig. Somehow I parlayed years of pathetic low-five-figure annual incomes as a music journalist — free CDs, cool! – into a key role in what I believe to be the best video concert series on internet or television. I’m not curing cancer, nor am I paving blacktops or strapping on a tie and selling insurance; instead I’m getting away with a “grown up” vocation that somehow includes playing host to some of the biggest names in music.

But before I further this self-congratulatory drivel and come off looking like a total jerk, some perspective, please. If engaging with artists and managers and record labels requires a singular kind of finesse, working with the top-tier talent is an art unto itself. Nearly every single artist of that level is the benevolent dictator surrounded by a country full of handlers. And with them come demands and restrictions that inevitably cause a tug-of-war between what Nissan Live Sets is and how they want their artist represented within it. Some resist our quirky format (not doing a Q&A in the middle of the set, not stopping in between songs), some require audio post that perks up a flat vocal note or 30, many are nervous about how their artists, battling to mitigate the unstoppable cruelties of age, will be represented in this new HD world. To that end, camera angles and lighting are restricted and/or required to make butts smaller, wrinkles diminished, chins fewer. (And I’m not just talking about the ladies.)

And that’s but a minuscule portion of the craziness that ensues from the moment we book. But nothing is more of an adrenaline rush and reoccurring test of sanity than occurs during the typical 13-hour shoot day. When it’s crunch time, it’s a flurry of activity with a gaggle of parties demanding attention:

• VIP: “Why do those VIPs get to sit on that couch but I don’t?”
• Fan: “I want to meet Joan Jett. Here is my sob story why.”
• Mother of teen Avril Lavigne fan: “My daughter’s very upset that she can’t get an autograph.”
• Stooges manager to me: “Iggy will probably jump off the stage during ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog.’” Me to Fire/Safety officers: “Iggy will probably jump off the stage during ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog.’” Fire/Safety officers to me: “No, he can’t.” Me to Fire/Safety officers: “I’m not telling Iggy that he can’t. He’ll probably leave.”
• Macy Gray handler one hour before taping time: “We need 12 pair of black socks.”
• Velvet Revolver handler 30 min before taping time: “Scott wants makeup” (and yes we know we told you we didn’t need it).
• Snoop Dogg handler one hour before taping time: “Snoop wants McDonald’s” (and won’t eat it in his performance clothes so keep pushing that start time back).
• Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, five hours before performance, and after weeks of discussions on how to re-jigger the room so that the band could perform a hootenanny on the general audience floor: “We’d like four individual performance risers around the room in a diamond shape instead of this one here.” Okay…

But the rewards –- yes, back to the bragging –- are tremendous. For one, there are the performances. Man, oh, man. And on a regular basis I get to interact in a respectful and professional level with some fantastic artists. Sure, some couldn’t care less, and some are complete freaks, but many, many others are genuinely appreciative of what we are doing. And then, suddenly, you find, typically after the taping when the wars are won and guards are down, where conversations turn to the silly and mundane. These are the moments to cherish, such as:

• Keeping Joni Mitchell company at her request as she smoked and shared an old memory of Bob Dylan;
• Hearing Ryan Adams share how much he hates the kind of music that he’s most known for;
• PJ Harvey confiding in me how the Q&A was the weirdest thing she’s ever done in her life;
• The shaman Carlos Santana putting his hand on my cheek and saying, “Be good, brother;”
• Buddy Guy sharing stories about his early days in Chicago and genuinely inviting me to let him show me around the Windy City;
• Talking parenthood with Trisha Yearwood;
• Hoisting a beer with many;
• Saying no to blunts from several others; and
• Watching the Pretenders get stupid drunk.

And then there was Kelly Clarkson, an artist whose music for which I must confess to have had great ambivalence before working with her. She was the friendliest, coolest, kindest of the lot, not to mention a stunningly good vocalist. After the show, several Yahoo! types were getting a photo with her. “Come join in, Neal,” one of my co-workers yelled to me. “I already got my photo with Kelly,” I countered. “Yeah, and we made out,” Kelly enthused. Yeah… so there!

From that moment on, Kelly Clarkson has always been known as “my girlfriend.”

Neal Weiss
Executive Producer, Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music

Today, the Human Rights Campaign — the country’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality — released its seventh annual Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates businesses on a scale from 0 to 100 percent on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.

For the second year in a row, Yahoo! received a perfect 100% rating.

We are thrilled about receiving another 100% rating from HRC. It is proof, once again, that Yahoo! is committed to maintaining a diverse workforce. To see the full report, click here.

And as all Yahoos know, our commitment doesn’t stop at the edge of our campuses. Our tens of millions of LGBT consumers around the world are extraordinarily important to us and we are constantly seeking ways to enhance their experiences on pride.yahoo.com and across our entire network.

This year, 259 major U.S. companies earned a 100%, up from 195 last year –- an increase of one third. We are pleased to be a part of this large –- and growing –- group of companies, and would like to congratulate all the other companies who scored the top ranking from HRC.

Laurie Briggs
Co-chair of Yahoo! Pride

When Matt Harding sets up his video camera and asks strangers to dance with him, there’s no music. No tempo, no beat. Just his signature jig, a few faint finger snaps, and the sounds in your own head. It makes for a hysterical experience and a wonderfully infectious scene on video.

I know this first hand because Matt came by to dance here at Yahoo!. If you’ve never heard of Matt, go check out wherethehellismatt.com. He traveled to 42 countries in 14 months to make his most recent video, “Dancing 2008,” which has been viewed more than 8.5 million times since he posted it in June. His scenery included a tulip field in the Netherlands, the DMZ in Korea, the “Painted Ladies” in San Francisco, children in Yemen, Bollywood-style dancers in India, bushmen in New Guinea, and free spirits in Paris.

I emailed Matt on a lark, with an invitation to come do a video with Yahoos in Sunnyvale. What you see here is the effect of one incredibly willing Internet phenomenon, as I dragged him hither and yon across our campus to shoot 33 scenes in less than seven hours. This video closed a recent company all-hands meeting — webcast to 14,000 employees worldwide — as a reminder that, in spite of the extraordinary events of last seven months, this is still one helluva great company.

You can download the song “Praan” (Bengali for “life”) at Amazon. It was composed by Garry Schyman and that incredible voice belongs to 17-year-old Palbasha Siddique of Minneapolis.

Thanks for the dance, Matt.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor