In the intervening months since I last posted, Davao’s IT scene hasn’t changed much when you look at it from a developmental point of view. Wait. That’s unfair to those who’ve been active and involved in trying to see the industry finally get jumpstarted. There have been positive changes, but not nearly enough. I don’t mean to undermine anyone’s efforts, but it has to be said, ‘What’s new? What has come out of all those planning sessions in the past?‘
The embattled ICT Council of Davao is now but a bitter after-taste. Which only went to show that an overcompensating over-arching umbrella group of IT organizations was way too early for its time. Consider the erstwhile IT Society of Davao: While it started out quite admirably (if I do say so myself), but just when it was already doing well as an association of IT professionals, it aspired rather early to become an umbrella organization. Consequently, it failed. Why? I would like to repeat an oft-repeated protest: Davao’s IT industry was still too thin. But that wasn’t the reason why — it was just the setting. It was because another entity, the ICT Council of Davao, was put up for the purpose of being the representative organization of Davao’s IT industry. But even that was never really ultimately accomplished.
And now there’s another umbrella organization in the works: ICT Davao, Inc. But unlike before, there are much more industry players now. And, this new group seems to recognize the mistakes of the past. I guess we’re still in a wait-and-see situation as of press time — does this new aggrupation prove worth the effort, or will it fall into the same quagmire?
