Blogie & Rodney

I’m very pleased to announce that one of Davao City’s IT industry luminaries is now co-author of the IT talks! blog. Rodney Jao, CEO of Lane Systems Inc., comes on board with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of software development, information technology business development, and as well as in education.

Rodney’s software solutions company is the longest-running and one of the most respected in Davao City. They specialize in Microsoft development platforms and deliver worldclass products to a wide range of clients, from SMEs to multinational corporations here and abroad. Rodney and I first met when the hotel I helped establish back in 1995 engaged his services for a hotel information management system. Together we designed, developed and deployed the software program, which is in use until today.

Rodney has contributed much to the development of Davao’s IT industry, although this is a little-known fact because my friend is not in the habit of honking his own horn. In terms of community-building — from the days when we organized the first IT association in the city — and education, he has had plenty of input over the years. He was a lecturer at the Ateneo de Davao University, and he has conducted numerous training workshops and seminars, which formed part of his commitment as a Microsoft MVP.

I feel inspired that Rodney has found his way to IT talks!. He will certainly bring fresh perspectives as well as valuable input into the blog.

The TechnoKapihan was launched last January 2007, and serves as a venue for the growth of technopreneurship, and as a forum where technology entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and all the people in the ICT environment of Davao City to meet and discuss various issues and potentialities.

New media practitioners, SEO professionals, tech bloggers and freelance developers — you’re encouraged to participate in this event. It’s where you can show to the IT community that there is indeed new blood in the city.

Just to refresh your minds, the TechnoKapihan sa Davao is an informal get-together of IT industry players, supporters and guests. It’s where we can sit down and discuss issues and plans that affect our industry, but in a relaxed setting. For each time, the organizers — ICT Davao and the Davao Chamber — aim to create an atmosphere of openness so that people will be more inclined to share their thoughts.

So far, only hardcore IT industry types have attended the TechnoKapihan, plus those from the IT-Enabled Services sector (who are actually more active). I hope that people from other sectors will participate as well — Internet services, Web developers, SEO practitioners….

Well then, I look forward to seeing everybody at the next session. I will announce the venue and confirm the date/time here as soon as I receive the information. Meantime, here’s something to brighten up your day –

For those of you who’ve linked to my blog posts, don’t worry — they will still automatically resolve to the correct posts under the new domain.

For example (try the link!):
http://ittalks.robilloblog.com/2008/03/19/pdf-anyone
http://www.ittalks.net/2008/03/19/pdf-anyone

In case you’d like to know how this was accomplished, here’s what I did. You’ll need to have access to your website account’s filesystem (via cPanel or shell access). In your document root, locate the “.htaccess” file. Inside it, insert the code below:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yournewsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

As for WordPress, it was very straightforward. I simply copied over all my files from the old account to the new one, and transferred the database over as well. Ah! the wonders of phpMyAdmin and cPanel! Here’s a reliable resource that can guide you when you have to transfer your WordPress intallation to another server: [Click!]

I hope that you’ll take the time to update your blogrolls to reflect my new URL — that is, if you’ve linked to me. If not, I hope you’ll do me the favor !

The Summit’s generous sponsors:

• Councilor Peter T. Laviña
• Join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!
• Dimsum Diner
• Swiss Deli
• Globe Broadband
• ACT for Peace Programme
• NoKiAHOST.COM P5/day webhosting
• Bitstop Networks
• Paradise Philippines
• BisayaBloggers.com
• Davao’s Food Huntress
• Web Design Philippines
• Orange County Real Estate
• Web Developer Philippines
• Fwendz Diner
• Motorcycle Davao
• Artcom Printing Services
• Cubepixels Design Studio
• Eric Clark Su
• Lane Systems
• Casa Leticia – a boutique business hotel
• Mam Bebs Bakeshop
• Snap Graphic & Sign
• Ecotrans Car Rentals

Do you have a bankable I.T. business idea? Do you have an e-commerce vision that could potentially become a sustainable business? Do you want to acquire the necessary skills to formulate a sound business plan?

The P.E.S.O. Davao Challenge, launched last 20 June 2007 at the Ateneo de Davao University, is the perfect venue for enterprising young Dabawenyos who’d like the chance to see their ideas transformed into real businesses. The Philippine Emerging Startups Open is a nationwide business plan competition that was initiated by Filipino graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This “brain gain” initiative was inspired by the MIT US$100,000 Entrepreneurship Competition, which is 17 years running. This prestigious contest has facilitated the creation of more than 60 I.T. companies to date, with an aggregate value of US$10.5+ billion.

The PESO Challenge is a unique undertaking in that it offers participants a mentoring program, as well as progress monitoring, so that they will be equipped with the proper tools for creating a world-class feasibility study. Furthermore, victors of the competition are provided access to funding windows in order to convert their winning ideas into established companies.

In Davao, the Challenge is a project of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCCII), and supported by PESO, PAHRDF, PSITE, and CDITE. It is an offshoot of the DCCCII-PAHRDF teachers training in technopreneurship late last year. Essentially, the professors who underwent this training program will be the mentors for this business plan competition.

The Challenge aims to connect academe, industry and the investment sector, thereby encouraging technology-based entrepreneurship. With this holistic synergy in place, it is envisioned that a viable atmosphere of business-mindedness among college graduates will be espoused here in the Philippine South.

The following are the qualifications for business plan entries:

• Technology application in product design or innovation in value proposition; business concept meets criteria of tech/business innovation matrix
• Addresses concerns in:
  • IT/Telecom
  • Agriculture and Aquaculture
  • Life and Biosciences
  • Energy and Environment
  • Services
  • Process technology and Engineering
• Technology idea owner must be identified and be a member of the team; nature of intellectual property rights must be clearly stated

According to PESO, teams must be comprised of 3 to 5 members, with at least one member in undergraduate (or higher) level. The others may be faculty or professionals. As mentioned above, teams will be guided by mentors.

Team members may also be part of one other team at entry level. However, at the finals (after eliminations), participants must exclusively belong to only one team.

Currently, the Challenge is being promoted to the various colleges and universities. Submission deadline for application (in other words, the concept paper) is set on 20 August, which will be followed by the “participant enrichment series” (the mentoring phase). Submission of the business plans is on 23 October. Other inclusive dates will be announced later.

Aside from receiving awards and recognition for the PESO Davao Challenge, winners here will also be automatically entered in the nationwide PESO Challenge in 2008.

For more information, please contact the Davao Chamber, or send an e-mail to pesodavao[at]gmail.com.

From the 29th of June 2007, Google Philippines Country Consultant, Aileen Apolo, will be in Davao City for a series of seminars. The Google Davao Roadshow will be for the benefit of owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as college students and faculty members. Aileen will also meet up with Davao-based bloggers and SEO practitioners.

Here is the schedule of the Google Davao Roadshow:

29 June 2007 (Friday)

2:00 PM to 5:30 PM

Marketing Your Business Online

Presentation by Google & by Yehey.com

@ Department of Trade & Industry-11 Conference Room

30 June 2007 (Saturday)

9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Google University — meet-up with School I.T. admins

@ Blugré Café, Landco Corporate Centre

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Get-together with Davao Bloggers/SEOs

@ 51 Coffee Shop, Victoria Plaza Compound, Bajada

2 July 2007 (Monday)

8:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Google University — meet-up with college students

@ Audio-Visual Room, Matina Campus, University of Mindanao

The seminar for SMEs on the 29th will cover search marketing, Google Adwords, Google Apps for your Domain, and Blogger. Basically, the seminar will aim to equip businessmen with new-age tools for the effective promotion of their products and services to Internet-savvy consumers.

These seminars are free-of-charge. For more information, please drop me a line: blogie [at] davaoblogs.net.

First off, Janette Toral will be holding a DigitalFilipino Club eyeball. Essentially, this affair is for club members only. However, as there are only 6 members in Davao, Janette usually invites other people as well. Hopefully they will join the 6 of us here in Davao and become part of DigitalFilipino. Ok, I’m going to sound like a brochure here, but I just want to say that it’s a great club! It’s a business networking group, where you get to interact among like-minded people. And there are results as well. Personally, I’ve gotten two huge clients, thanks to DigitalFilipino.

And then we have Google Philippines’ Aileen Apolo, who will come to town not only as a special guest of the Davao bloggers (together with Janette), but also as a resource speaker in no less than 3 seminars. On the 17th, she will participate in the DigitalFilipino eyeball and discuss Google’s services; AdSense, AdWords, among others. On the 19th (Monday), she will do school visits in the morning and afternoon; and in the evening, Aileen will talk to Davao’s SEOs. And on the 20th, she is scheduled to meet with Davao’s SME sector for a seminar on Web Marketing.

A third special guest who will grace the 1st-ever Davao blog party is Abe Olandres of Yugatech. Abe is practically a veteran in the Philippine blogosphere, so we invited him to impart his knowledge on Blogging Best Practices during the bloggers’ get-together.

For more information on the Davao Bloggers Party #1, please click here.

Back then, the only sector of the industry that had a solid footing was that of the hardware vendors, represented by a strong organization called the Association of Computer Businesses in Mindanao (ACBM). Davao software programmers then were mostly freelancers, although there have been a handful of well-established programming outfits already operating. Today, there are at least a dozen software development companies in the city, plus a number of other specialized IT solutions providers. And, more sectors are already formalized, such as the Association of Solution Integrators in Davao (ASID) and the Internet Cafes Association of Davao (ICAD). In the interim, an umbrella organization called the Davao City ICT Council came into existence in the hopes of addressing the industry’s need for direction-setting.

What’s more, the existence of special-interest groups–such as the Davao City Linux Study Group and the PDA Users Group @ Davao (PUG@D)–point to a maturing community of technology users and providers. Whereas in the late ’90s the local IT industry was "thin" and underdeveloped, in this first decade of the new millennium, Davao finds herself not at all far behind Metro Manila or Cebu City. This is in terms of skills level, capabilities and aptitude. The question is, what can the industry as a whole show for itself in terms of overall impact on the economy?

This is probably the question that the city government is also mulling over, hence its reluctance to accept IT as a priority area of focus. This is perfectly understandable as the city must naturally concentrate its efforts on the development of its strongest industries. On the other hand, City Hall and the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) have been showing signs of recognizing this fresh and uncompromising industry as a contributor to the city’s economy.

In 2004, the SP created the Committee on Information Technology, currently chaired by Hon. Rene Lopez, MD. Within IT circles, this is considered a landmark event, marking the start of mutually beneficial relations between the government and the private sector. The executive branch, as well, is to be commended for twice assisting the ASID financially in the latter’s participation in the annual e-Services Philippines exposition.

In that event, the ASID had the opportunity to present Davao City to the global business community as a viable destination for investment and outsourcing. In concrete terms, the ASID’s member-companies were able to connect with IT buyers who were looking for local providers of business systems and other IT-enabled services. Especially significant was the outcome of business-matching sessions with Japanese companies. The ASID, an organization of Davao-based companies that deliver IT services, is now poised to penetrate the Japanese market as a result of its aggressive promotions and professional marketing activities.

Another achievement was the Association’s huge media exposure, which was the most that any entity (or any city) received for participating in the e-Services Expo. The big networks, such as INQ7 and BusinessWorld, carried news articles that depicted our city in a wholly positive light. This is clearly one indicator that Davao is now making quite a splash in the national IT scene.

The city’s IT movers and shakers are positive in their outlook, however they do recognize that Davao still has a few miles to go to keep apace of acclaimed places such as Bangalore in India and CyberJaya in Malaysia. Still and all, once the private sector and the local government realize a synchronization of goals, Davao can indeed become a recognized supplier of IT talent and resources.

In this column, I shall strive to present to you, my readers, the developments, setbacks, issues, personalities and news that concern the Information Technology industry of Davao City. And as long as it affects our city, IT-related events in other parts might be covered as well. While this is an IT column, still I will avoid technical discussions. Rather, I will focus on how technology can be relevant to everyday life.

Comments are most welcome!