IT rantings from the Philippines.
Melvin G. Calimag is currently the executive editor of an IT news website in the Philippines. Melvin has been covering the local IT beat for the last 13 years. He is currently a board member at the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress), and also serves as a charter member with the Philippine Science Journalists Association.
Despite the depressing economic outlook around the world, most Filipinos that I've talked to still view the Philippines as a safe harbor from the "perfect storm of crises" currently engulfing the financial sector. A common comment here is that the Philippines didn't crash or isn't suffering as much as the developed economies because it didn't fly as high.
Blogging is supposed to be a medium which ordinary folks can use to publish anything they want, be it a personal rambling or something that concerns the world. But lately, particularly here in the Philippines, blogging has somewhat been mistaken as some sort of journalism with bloggers bizarrely landing in the headlines.
It's just the beginning of the new year, but the tech world is already buzzing with interesting stories, albeit negative ones.The gloomy forecast for 2009, it seems, is off to an ominous start, although I'd like to believe that the Philippines is somehow not that vulnerable to this financial mess (as a friend of mine said, we can't lose what we don't have).
It has been proclaimed many times that the Internet is a great leveler that has the power to eliminate barriers and inequities in this world. While this ideal notion has yet to be fully realized, we've seen a few instances where it has ably demonstrated its enormous potential.
Although I'm a fierce Catholic, I don't consider myself a religious person. The financial crisis, however, has led me to reflect on my inner values and spiritual beliefs.
The recent year-end list released by search behemoth Google seems to validate a trend that has been proven over time--that people look for heroes or ways to entertain themselves in times of despair. Thus, it's no longer surprising to see that "economic downturn" and "Manny Pacquiao", the Filipino boxing superstar, were the top searches in Google.
A few weeks ago, I attended a press briefing where a local fast-food company revealed it had signed a contract to use the SMB (small and midsize business) version of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) software made by a foreign-based IT firm. There was nothing unusual in that announcement except for one thing: the fast-food owner said his company experimented with a mobile-based ordering system before he ditched it and decided to just get the software set.
Right from the start, something was already amiss with U Mobile and so I was not surprised when the company, now renamed Red Mobile, changed its name and eventually discarded its ad-supported business model that was supposed to be the first in Asia.The sudden change of name and business model were announced not through a press conference or a formal launch, but with advertisements and calls from telephone agents who informed subscribers that they will be given new SIM cards.
It's easy to make this claim, but I have no doubt in my mind that the Philippines is the most savvy country in the world in using Web-based social networks. Way before Facebook and MySpace even became popular in the U.
I've written in this blog before about my great admiration for Barack Obama, whose sweeping message of change has catapulted him to the presidency of the United States. I was fortunate enough to witness his historic election during my recent trip to the United States, which coincided with the Nov.