Silicon Gulf is a nickname for Davao City and extends to the Davao Region, at Southern Mindanao, Philippines. The nickname refers to the growing number of Information Technology and IT Enabled Services (or ITES) companies sprouting in the area. The name was adapted from Silicon Valley, referring to the high tech cluster located in the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
The Silicon Gulf concept was officially launched in October 2006. Its originator, Jason Banico, unfortunately has had to leave Davao for a spell…. But he will hopefully be back in the foreseeable future. He has since turned over the cudgels to Christopher Cubos, who will certainly have my whole-hearted support in this.
Recently, Cubos organized an I.T. party — a social get-together for the city’s I.T. professionals and college students who are taking up Computer Science and related courses. There was a t-shirt design contest, and the design was to speak of “Silicon Gulf” as a realizable goal for Davao. This and upcoming activities will surely encourage more and more interest in, and further initiatives towards, Davao as a true ICT Hub. Small steps, but ones that will have a sustaining effect.
I have taken it upon myself to acquire the domain silicongulf.org, the purpose of which is to augment whatever endeavors there will be to broadcast the Silicon Gulf concept. Currently, however, SiliconGulf.org is being used as an aggregator site of Davao I.T. blogs.
More on Silicon Gulf in future posts!
