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	Sunday, July 24, 2005

During the Cisco Conference, the names of leading Cisco partners and those that grew the most were flashed into the screen. It is with great pride to see that Ng Khai was included in the list! 7:49:48 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Wired Desktop  (mycebu)   My article for sunstar daily on July 14, 2005.  This article is based on previous post also here. ------------   There used to be a time, and I am sure that a lot of people have also done this, when I mused that i would have been much more successful if I was not born in the Philippines, but maybe in Europe or in the United States.  People there seemed to be much more successful, and earning better.   This lament, about not being born in the right place or in the right time, might start to become irrelevant, thanks to information technology.  Everywhere in the world, we see now news of Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, South American, or African entrepreneur who made it big.  In now almost every country, there are lists of people who made it into billions.   One of the things that the internet and technology have been able to do is to alter the whole relationship between geography and talent.  As Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft once said, thirty years ago, if you were given a choice between being born a genius on the outskirts of Bombay or Shanghai, or being born as an average person in Poughkeepsie ( a small town in the US), you would choose the US, because your chances of thriving and living a decent life there, even with average talent, were much greater.  But today, Gates said, people can now plug and play from anywhere, and succeed anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography.   It seems that it is better to be a genius born in China ( or in Cebu for that matter) than an average guy born in Poughkeepsie.  The talk about Internet being a great leveler also then translate that it is now becoming more important what you can do, rather than to whom or where you were born.  This should be something encouraging that we should all take to our advantage as technology frees us from the limits of geography.  One of the great phenomena in recent months have been the growth of blogs or weblogs.  These are online diaries where people share their thoughts, their feelings, their opinions and the like.  From less than 10 million blogs end of 2004, it is estimated now that there are probably 20 or 30 million blogs in cyberoworld.  Surveys in the US found that nearly a fifth of teens there who have access to the Web have their own blogs Blogs are where people vent their feelings, share their innermost thoughts, and also their secrets, and unfortunately, as many forget, it is open to anybody in the world. It creates an issue that what you confide in your blog now may come back to haunt you in the future.  There has been cases where a daughter who confessed allegedly of lesbian practices soon was easily traced to a father who wanted to run for public office.  There was an applicant who shared his night out with friends, and getting drunk, and it was easily found by his potential employer in the internet.  I know a couple of friends who keep blogs, and I know one who share her depressions, and also her fights with friends in the internet.  The unfortunate thing is that the internet is an open record for all to see.  I had a friend who recently send us a link which showed exactly how our website looked 8 years ago. I did not know somebody was archiving all these! As our president GMA have found out, a small conversation that was tapped is now a source of her possible impeachment.  Next time, before you post the pictures you took at a party, or post your innermost secrets, always remember that anybody who has access to a search engine might potentially find it -- even years after.  Always be careful about what you confide in the web which will be available for all the world to see.   10:43:18 AM     comment []   trackback []

Inspiring Blog    (mycebu) One of the people I got to know through my blog is Jun Asis, who keeps the Magandang Balita ( the good news in English) blog.  From his blog, you will know Jun is a deeply religious person who spends a good amount of time in becoming a better person.  His blog is full of inspirational messages. He also contributes to Mabuting Balita ( also means the good news, normally associated with the Good News from the Lord).   Drop by him sometime!   10:38:13 AM     comment []   trackback []

	Monday, July 11, 2005

Plantation Bay Cebu    ( myCebu) One of most unique resorts I have been is right in Cebu.  Called Plantation Bay, it is a colonial style setting where you have a lagoon right in the middle. The Lagoon. You are just a few meters away from your room for a swim! An artificial waterfall where you can also take a dip. Another eyeview of a great and relaxing resort. Don't you just wish you were here! Wow, Cebu, Philippines.   8:58:51 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Friday, July 08, 2005

Education is Big Business in the Philippines   (mycebu) There are 1,380 colleges and universities in the country, 1,214 of which are privately owned and 166 runed by government.  Some 2.5 million students are enrolled there. Educational standards are varied. According to an Asiaweek magazine survey done back in 2002 which ranked Asia's Best Universities, the acknowledged best schools in the country did not ranked well compared to the other Asian schools.  They are the University of the Philippines  ( ranked 48th),  De la Salle University ( 71st), and Ateneo University ( 72nd). Lately big businesses have been buying up colleges and universities.  Maybe with the tuition deregulation, it is becoming a very good business.  Just of late, Bacnotan Consolidated Industries and Philippine Investment Management Inc., bought Cagayan de Oro College.  Bacnotan also bought 80 percent of Araullo University.  Al Yuchengco, a noted Taipan and head of the RCBC and Malayan group recently also bought Mapua Institute of Technology. Emilio Yap bought up Centro Escolar University while Taipan Lucio Tan ( Tanduay, Philippine Airlines, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery) recently bought University of the East. I guess we don't mind if they make money, and rather hope that big businesses can also provide badly needed capital to upgrade the quality of education here. 6:22:23 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Wednesday, July 06, 2005

12 years for Basic Education in the Philippines  (mycebu) Philippine Education Secretary Florencio Abad has been reported to be 'seriously considering' extending the country’s 10-year elementary and high school "basic education cycle" to 12 or more years despite "stiff resistance" from parents. At a press conference over the weekend, Abad said that "at 10 years - six years in elementary and four years in high school,  we have the shortest education cycle in the Asia-Pacific." He said the average basic education cycle in the Asia-Pacific region is 12 years, adding that the cycle in Japan and South Korea is 13 years. "Some (other countries) are even contemplating 14 years," he added. "We have to realize that the competition out there is very intense - so if our children are not equipped with the necessary competency then we will lose out," Abad said. "We are seriously looking at - and this has to be an act of Congress - extending, for example, our high school so we can have junior high school," he said. I totally agree.  We used to follow the American system of education, and I think sometime back, some smart politician came up with a great idea that why don't we just cut the education requirements from 12 years to 10 years so that we can 'unburden' the parents earlier.  Then we can have the children come out of school earlier, and they can start earning for their family earlier.  The problem is that they will earn earlier, but they will not have a chance of ever earning good. It is almost like the restaurant who after looking at the huge gas bill, decided that it would be better if instead of totally cooking the food, they would save a lot of money if they serve it all medium well, that is 80% cooked only.  We are unfortunately getting a bad reputation of serving 'uncooked' food, and the Philippines is largely known as a site for semi-skilled manpower, or trainable manpower ( meaning the company might still have to invest in training programs before the person can be productive) , instead of skilled and ready-to-use manpower. Abad said such plans will be put through consultation with local officials and parents. "We are encountering resistance, especially from parents, because they want their children to finish studying fast, regardless of the quality of education that they get," he said. I think herein lies the problem - the culture that prizes the diploma irregardless of the quality of education. We need to work harder to convince parents that merely getting a diploma is not enough - the quality of the education, and what actually the child learns in school is also important. "We understand that, because many of our parents who are poor see the graduation of their children as their liberation from poverty," Abad said. However, "we have to realize that if we do not produce quality graduates, we can not have the quality employment and we will end up with a kind of employment to which many of our people can qualify, such as the OFW (overseas Filipino workers) kind of employment," he added. Many OFW’s are employed as domestic helpers. He warned that unless changes in the education cycle are made, the Philippines "will not be able to produce enough graduates to take on the high-paying jobs." In today's high tech economy, the quality of education is key, and that has been, for me, the sole factor that India is now earning over $15 billion dollars in outsourcing services.  There is a lot of complaints you can say about India - the weather is hot, there is corruption, there is no water or electricity, the  infrastructure is bad, the internet is expensive, the bureacracy is crippling, and many others, but one thing that cannot be denied is they are turning out quality graduates that can cut the needs of the information and communications technology economy, and every company is beating a path to its door and allowing them to use that opportunity to turn itself out of poverty. Abad said the Philippine education system is in a serious crisis, citing that the national achievement test showed an average score of 46.80 percent for fourth year high school students and 58.73 percent for grade six pupils. "We are facing problems in poor quality of education especially in math, science and English," he added. Adding to the years in schooling is undoubtedly an unpopular move, and while it has been debated for over 15 years now, nobody has had the willpower to push it through.  I think we need to seriously look at this more carefully, and popular or not, we have to do what is right for our future generations in order for them to be competitive, and stand shoulder to shoulder in competence with the people in all parts of the world. Source: Ding Cervantes article in Philippine Star, July 5, 2005.   3:47:06 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Comments on recent wave of reports on GloriaGate  (mycebu)   There has been a recent spate of articles in almost all newspapers critical of Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whom everybody thinks committed impropriety in talking to the Commission of Election Officials during the elections, and would therefore be probably guilty of election fraud during last years may 2004 elections.   I think everybody is joining the bandwagon without too much thinking, and i wrote this comment in one of the journal sites in order to remind everybody to analyze the situation, and always make decisions carefully.   I am not a political expert, and I don't plan to be one.  I don't usually watch the TV news, nor read the front page news.  However, maybe because of that, I can keep my objectivity longer rather than be swayed with what is the flavor of the media for the day....     -----   Hi,   As a manager, when my people bring me  a problem, I ask them what we should do to make things better.  when they don't have, I told them that their job is to find solutions, not to highlight and join the others in chorus in just telling me there is a problem, or what is the problem.   Of course, there is a problem, and there will always be problems.  maybe the brainpower of the media for that matter should  be concentrated not to keep harping on the problem, but maybe can give us what exactly is the road that we should do in order for us to make things better.  I am concerned because we are hurling ourselves into a pit with nothing but righteous indignation ( or maybe just indignation) , and we might just end up doing more harm than good.   I have written a business and technology column for 11 years ( as well as this blog for the last 1 year), and I have never  touch or wrote on politics -- because I know I am not an expert of it.  The problem with the people of the Philippines is everybody is an political expert ( politics is the national pastime, is it?) , and they use their feelings, rather than their objective mind.  Everything is about how we feel, instead of what we carefully thought about or researched about  ( does it make sense that in order for us to make an informed judgment, we study the situation very carefully?) .   best regards,   2:47:38 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Monday, July 04, 2005

Filipinos World no. 2 in TV, no. 4 in reading  (mycebu) According to reports from Inq7 , a leading Philippine online news source, based on reports from NOP world culture score index, Filipinos spend the second most number of ours in front of the TV next to the Thais. Thais spent 22.4 hours per week in front of the TV, with the Filipinos logging on 21 hours. The NOP world culture score index surveyed over 30,000 consumers over 13 years of age in 30 countries from dec 2004 to feb 2005. Indians, Thais and Chinese were the world's most avid readers, averaging 10.7, 9.4, and 8 hours respectively.  The Filipinos came fourth at 7.6 hours. Indians read twice as many hours as americans who came in 23rd with 5.7 hours. Britons ranked 26th with 5.3 hours.  Japanese read 4.1 hours, and Koreans 3.1 hours.   It was a revelation. I'd always thought Japanese people read a lot -- if you are on a train, you could see easily dozens of people reading mangga, the Japanese comics, and newspapers.       11:50:33 AM     comment []   trackback []

Alegre Resort   (mycebu) This is a great resort about 70 kilometers north of Cebu city, Philippines. It has about 50 local nipa huts and all the amenities you would want -- swimming pool, a great cove and seafront, with aqua sports, and lush trees / greens, and great food. There is also a tennis court, billiard rooms, a small library, a great trail for jogging, and also dolphin watching.     7:25:04 AM     comment []   trackback []

	Sunday, July 03, 2005

Happy Fourth of July  (mycebu)   It is the fourth of July, and Americans are celebrating their independence day. The Philippines gained independence from the United States ( it was an American controlled territory from around 1900 to 1946) on July 4, 1946.  For a while, it was also our independence day. Just to give a backgrounder, the President of the Philippines have declared independence on June 12, 1898.  That was during the Philippine's war for independence from Spain.  Of course, during that time the United States was battling Spain also over Cuba, and in the Treaty of Paris, when Spain was defeated, Spain ceded to the United States its territories, among them, the Philippines. So instead of having independence, the Filipinos later had to fight the Americans.  They lost, and for almost 50 years, except for the Second World War when Philippines was briefly under Japanese control, it was under American rule. Immediately after World War II, the Philippines was among the first countries to be granted independence  ( though I thought it was stupid to have asked for independence right after when Manila, its capital city was purportedly the second most destroyed city in the world after Warsaw). At any rate, it was also our independence day for a time, before some Philippine politician decided that our true independence day was really on June 12, 1898, which made the Philippines Asia' first republic. So July 4 is now Filipino - American Friendship Day....  But nevertheless it is something that we all celebrate, though no longer a holiday.  Last July 2, the American Chamber of the Philippines, Cebu had a great party.  Everybody was in red, white and blue, and over 500 people partied and danced the night. Long live friendship.... After all, why be enemies when you can be friends? And why not party?   7:03:41 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Friday, July 01, 2005

The Philanthropy of Microsoft Philippines  (mycebu)   My Wired desktop article on Sunstar Daily, Cebu  June 30, 2005   This year is the 10th year of Microsoft doing business in the Philippines.  I have been fortunate that I was a partner with them ever since they set up the office here to launch what was then Windows 95, which was a revolutionary advance at that time compared to then Windows 3.1.  At that time, the launch was greeted with great welcome, and people actually lined up at midnight to be one of the first to buy copies, much akin the anticipation that awaits a new Star Wars movie or the next Harry Potter book.  Now, Windows has matured, and while the new versions have better features, most customers now prefer to wait and see before they buy.   Over the last 10 years of working with Microsoft, I have also learned a lot.  Many of the principles I use to manage my own business were also insights that I gleaned with my observations on how they manage their company.  I also learned a lot from their community work.  Bill Gates, the founder and chairman is not only the world's richest man 10 years running, but is also now on world record as the man who have given the most wealth to philanthropy works, over $30 billion dollars.   Microsoft Philippines has continued on this tradition of giving.  Since about 7 years ago, Microsoft regularly donates computers to the elementary public schools, normally on a place that is remote and of the school that would normally never have had computers if not for the donation.  They called it the Connected Learning Community Project, and over the last few years, have donated well over hundreds of computers to schools nationwide.  Of late, they have embarked in a series more events, one of them the Partners in Learning Project which is headed by their Academic Director, Sam Jacoba, together with Fr. Jomar Legaspi of the Learn .ph which also focuses on teacher empowerment.   This comes from the notion that merely donating computers, even with great software is not enough.  The main impetus to make people become better is still really the teacher, and the appropriate training and motivation has been found to have the most profound effect on the success of computerization.  This was attested to also by Ms. Lulli Arroyo, director of the FIT-ED project, which is also embarking on similar projects of donating computers, and of late also focusing on teacher training.   I am sure that these events are well covered and documented in the press, so I will focus my comments on two main issues which I feel are not appreciated by many people, as I did not appreciate it at first:   a.) Lately they have been embarking on  a new project which is called Tulay.  This aims to establish centers where Filipino overseas workers can get training.  These centers are located in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and also in the Overseas Workers Administration office in manila and Cebu.  These are computer laboratories equipped with broadband and software where overseas workers can aggregate on holidays and weekends or at off work hours to learn skills, or simply to chat with their relatives back home, or do video conferencing if it is available.  I was honestly skeptical at first.  Why the overseas workers?  Aren't these people well off?  They are earning dollars, and certainly much more than what local people are earning.  Can't they afford to pay for a decent computer education?   However, I was able to see the wisdom later.  The truth is that most overseas workers are not that well off.  Many endure loneliness, and also discriminiation, and perform lowly work just to earn some amount to bring back home.   Many of them do earn some, but most of them send the money back home and ask their family and relatives to invest the money hoping that it will earn enough to allow them to come home, and have their own small business, but many times, we also hear that these money was lost due to improper management, or lost to scams.  By  giving them an opportunity to upgrade their computer skills, there is effectively a mechanism that allows these people to not only allow them to do better work, but also gain the respect of their employers and co-workers, and hopefully increase their employability value.   b.) I also heard Fr. Jomar Legaspi spoke as one of the panelist in the Cebu International ICT Conference, and one of the things struck me which I think we should take a second look.  According to Fr. Jomar, 70% of public high school students never get the chance to go to college.  However, they are handicapped by a school system whose main purpose is to train people and prepare them for college.  Which means the majority of the subjects is actually on reading, science, history and the like.  This means that if they drop out, they effectively don’t have any skills that will get them gainfully employed!    Why not make sure that we teach them the proper skills.  We have a system to train people skills if they cannot go to college, called the out of school training program.  But, as Fr. Jomar aptly asked, why wait until they are out of school before we teach them practical skills?  Why not do curriculum reform so that we can teach them real world skills while they are still inside the school?  I feel his observations are very relevant, and I am glad that Microsoft is providing the support and forum to allow these issues to be considered when we evaluate the proper curricula.     5:38:46 PM     comment []   trackback []

Cebu ICT 2005    (mycebu)   My Wired desktop article on Sunstar Daily, Cebu  June 23, 2005     By the time you have read this, it will be the second day of the 1st International ICT  Exhibit and Conference which is currently ongoing at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug. It has been several months in planning, and it was great to see it very successful – and this accolade did not come from local people, but rather from the top guns from Manila.  The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, informally is already planning to make this a yearly event.  Kudos to the chairman of the Cebu Business Month, Francis Monera, and the chairman of the Cebu ICT, Bonifacio Belen.   All the big brands in ICT were not only here, but actually the names behind the brand as well.  Seen participating in the convention was not only President Gloria Arroyo, Senator Mar Roxas,  DTI Secretary Juan Santos, all commissioners of the CICT which is headed by Virgilio Pena, but also the chief executives of almost all major IT companies.  Seen participating were IBM’s Jajo Quintos, HP’s Nilo Cruz, Cisco’s Luichi Robles, Sun’s Cynthia Mammon, Avaya’s Ed Doctolero, Oracle’s Yashi Kant, People Support’s Bong Borja, SPI’s Ernest Cu, and Innove’s Gil Genio, among others.  All major CIOs of major government agencies were also here, and the city mayor, Tommy Osmena and governor Gwen Garcia will also be speaking in the event. Although the convention was a paid event, and there was some amount of hesitation because the conference fee was set at a relatively high price which was a source of a lot of debate, but nevertheless, there were over 500 delegates, including well over 100 from Manila.  And the exhibit is open to the public, so if you still haven’t done so, drop by to the computer exhibits.   I would like to summarize some of the statistics that DTI Secretary Juan Santos has been able to enumerate.  Currently , the Philippines now count over 45,000 people employed in call centers, 3,000 doing medical transcriptions, as well as over 10,000 employed in software development export services.  These IT and IT enabled services are said to be generating almost a billion dollars in exports, although there is still a long way to go.  India is said to be approaching 15 billion dollars in software and services export.   But what I would like to put some time on was the excellent  speech of Senator Mar Roxas which he delivered extemporaneously.   Mr. Roxas has been the champion of the positioning of the Philippines in the IT enabled services sector, and the other monicker he has other than Mr. Palengke, is also the father of the E-service sector.   One of the points the senator put forward, which I have actually thought about, which is that while we concentrate on ICT as a business, we should concentrate also to focus on ICT as a business enabler for those that are not in the IT business.   One of the statistics that he gave was that there was a total of at least 870,000 businesses registered, but the fact is that 99 % of this are micro-enterprises.  Thus, you are looking at this over 850,000 businesses that are very local, and most of them are still not using IT.  One of the fastest way for the economy to grow is if there is a conscious program to increase the competitiveness of these businesses.  They cannot grow their market or participate in the global market unless they can increase their competitiveness and effectiveness by using the proper technology, or they are able to have access to finance, operational processes, or markets that are available through the use of technology.   There were also other excellent presentations, and I will report more on it next week.     4:54:49 PM     comment []   trackback []