Next-gen IT professionals to converge at UP

Thousands of IT professionals, educators, enthusiasts and students nationwide are expected to converge for the 7th Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology (Y4iT) on September 8 to 11 in UP Diliman.

Held every September, Y4iT conference provides a venue for discussion and learning of latest trends in technology and innovations, current opportunities and challenges in information and communication technology or ICT.

This year’s Y4iT will be featuring keynote speeches and side events that focus on “ecological issues,” such as CICT Commissioner Mon Ibrahim’s talk on “Smarter Planet” and exhibits by the World Wide Fund for Nature and Biomodd, said Dr. Jaime Caro, director of UP Information Technology Training Center (UP ITTC).

Caro said some of the perceived presidential candidates in the 2010 elections, such as Senators Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr., Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero and Richard “Dick” Gordon, are among those confirmed speakers during the four-day event.

Besides them, other personalities like CICT Chairman Sec. Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua 3rd, CICT Commissioners Angelo Timoteo Diaz De Rivera and Consuelo Perez, Imee Marcos and Winston Damarillo are also expected to speak at the conference.

New interesting topics that will be discussed during the event include Cloud Computing, “Emphatic” Computing, iPhone development, Kinesthetic Learning Activity and Assessment, Making IT Work for NGOs, IT Journalism, among others.

Caro said more than 16,000 delegates have already pre-registered and around 2,000 more are expected to join this year’s conference with an environment-friendly theme titled “Y4iT Goes Green.”

The participants of the said event are expected to be coming from far-flung provinces like Tuguegarao, Apari, Cagayan, Capiz and Zamboanga. At least 168 schools nationwide have registered to be part of this year’s four-day conference.

The event, to be hosted by UP Diliman, in Quezon City, will be held simultaneously at three locations: the UP Ang Bahay ng Alumni, the University Theater and the UP Film Institute.

Y4iT is an annual conference organized by UP ITTC, UP System IT Foundation (UPSITF) and Student Volunteer Corps (SVC) in cooperation with the Philippine Society of IT Educators (PSITE), Computing Science of the Philippines (CSP), Philippine Computer Society (PCS), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) and the IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress).

IBM to relaunch, augment global delivery center in RP

IBM’s global delivery center (GDC) in the Philippines is getting an upgrade and will be relaunched soon after performing well and rising to become the company’s fourth highest-earning site globally since being unveiled in October 2005.

This was announced by Richard Patterson, who recently visited the country as part of his functions as vice president for global delivery at IBM global business services.

The global delivery organization, which provides HR services such as consulting and IT application management, is one of the two divisions of IBM’s outsourcing business. The other component, called the global technology services, is comprised mainly of call center services.

The GDC in the Philippines, based in Eastwood City in Quezon City, is one of the eight centers around the world. Other sites are located in Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Romania, and Vietnam.

Patterson said the GDC plays a major role in IBM’s globally integrated enterprise (GIE) business model. This model, he said, employs a “follow the sun” approach in which services are continuously delivered in several parts of the globe.

The Manila center, which was inaugurated in 2005 by President Gloria Arroyo, provides in eleven languages to more than 178,000 employees of Procter & Gamble and IBM located in 65 countries.

According to Patterson, the global financial services did not dampen the growth of the Philippine GDC. “There was no slowdown of the backlog of the work we’ve been doing,” he said.

As the fourth highest-performing site among the IBM’s global GDC network, Patterson said the Manila center would be augmented with additional personnel. At the time of its launch, the facility housed some 370 employees.

“We continue to see a demand for services from our center here in the Philippines,” the executive said, adding that the local population has the right skills set to perform the services required of them.

IBM has also revealed that it will open in the fourth quarter its first Innovation Center in the country at the UP-Ayala Techno Park in Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.

The Innovation Center will be IBM’s second facility in Southeast Asia after Malaysia. The laboratory will focus on developing open-source and Web 2.0 solutions geared towards helping the Philippines move up the BPO chain.

RP hosts 10th SCA conference

The Science Council of Asia (SCA) in its recently concluded 9th conference held at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore voted a Filipino medical doctor as its next president.

Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, president of the National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP) and concurrent executive director of the Philippine Council for Health R&D (DOST-PCHRD) was elected for the 2009-2010 term. He succeeded Prof. Hong Wanjin of the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) who assumed the position of the immediate Past-President in the SCA Management Board.

Other elected officers include Prof. B. Chadraa of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and Prof. Yoichi Muraoka of the Science Council of Japan as secretary general and treasurer, respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Montoya expressed confidence in the Philippine's hosting capability which equals that of ASTAR's. He also led the SCA group in conduct of the 10th SCA Conference in Manila, Philippines held on July 25-28, 2010 at the SOFITEL Philippine Plaza.

The 10th SCA Conference focused its discussion around the theme, "Meeting the Health Challenges in the Asia Pacific Region: Responding through an Integrated and Multidisciplinary Approach in Science and Technology." This was the first time that the SCA Conference focused on multi-disciplinary health issues and concerns such as tuberculosis, avian flu, swine flu, dengue, SARS, and the Ebola-Reston virus. These were discussed in light of climate change, globalization and its social and economic impacts.

The Science Council of Asia was founded in 2000 with the Philippines as one of its founding members. It is an international scientific organization in the Asia Pacific Region that brings together scientists and scientific organizations from all academic fields. Their annual scientific discussion serves as a forum for information exchange, collaboration and cooperation, as well as integrating emerging advances in science and technology for the improvement of the quality of human life.

Eleven countries compose SCA, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Vietnam, India, Japan, China, Singapore, the Philippines and Mongolia.

Harvard's "Scientist of the Year" keynotes 2009 S&T week celebration in Manila

Harvard University's pick as "Scientist of the Year" in 2007 was a Filipino scientist who recently keynoted the National Science and Technology Week opening program at the Manila Hotel.

Dr. Baldomero Olivera is an award-winning Filipino scientist renowned for his major research on con snails-a carnivorous, predatory, marine snail common in the Philippines. Found to have significant applications in neuropharmacology, Olivera was able to support development of painkillers from snails.

While serving as professor of biology and neuroscientist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he visited several Philippine institutions last year to present his research findings to local researchers, students, and the public under DOST's Balik Scientist Program.

This year Olivera kept the science communities in the country in step with current world developments through the exposition of his work. Focusing around the celebration's theme "Responding to Global Challenges through Science and Technology," he truly provided global perspective which he hoped were shared and spread in DOST's various science communities and in its regional offices.

The science communities in Bicutan, Quezon City, Manila and Los Banos recently held various admission-free activities such as technology fairs, seminars, quiz shows, open house, and techno bazaar. The annual NSTW celebrations showcased the recent domestic S&T developments along with various technology-based opportunities to researchers, science workers, investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, students, and the public.

ATM cards may soon be used to pay for MRT fares

Philippine banks may soon issue cash cards that can be used to pay for Metro Rail Transit (MRT) fares.

That is if talks between the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and BancNet, an electronic banking consortium, push through, an executive said on Monday.

Under the proposed partnership, BancNet members will be allowed to issue cards that can also be used to pay for MRT fares.

In turn, RCBC is expected to earn from settlement fees to be collected from BancNet lenders since it has an exclusive five-year agreement with the MRT’s ticket provider, Omniprime Marketing Inc.

“Bancnet would like to tie-up with us since we have the franchise," RCBC executive vice president Ismael R. Sandig said during the launch of its MyWallet-MRT Card.

Besides being a regular card for automated teller machines (ATMs), MyWallet-MRT Card can also be used to pay for MRT fares, the first such card in the industry.

“All banks are trying to find ways to duplicate us," he added. “If they will invest on system, it is a huge amount. The market is so huge. There is no way you should stop other banks from issuing. They just have to share some fees with us."

Settlement fees for the proposed arrangement are expected to contribute more than 20 percent to RCBC’s fee-based income for the next two to three years, Sandig said.

The RCBC MRT MyWallet is a prepaid stored value card that allows cardholders draw cash over the counter or ATM, pay bills via RCBC, make balance inquiries, among others.

It is a new variant of the RCBC MyWallet cash card that can be bought through any RCBC branch for disbursement requirements. Unlike a regular ATM account, there is no maintaining balance required.

By December, the RCBC MRT MyWallet will be used in the 13 stations from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, RCBC first vice president Remo M. Garrovillo Jr. said

When it was launched last month, the card was only available in North Ave. and Taft stations.

By 2010, the MRT is looking at a unified cashless and cardless ticketing system and the bank is “positioning for that," he said.

RCBC will be also be tapping universities as reloading stations.

Sandig said the bank would share earnings with them. This is better than entertaining a lot of people in the branches just to reload.

Light Rail Transit Authority wants to see the success of the MyWallet-MRT Card before RCBC can come in.

The tie-up is expected to increase RCBC customers by two million, said Sandig, who is responsible for creating 10 retail banking products in Philippine National Bank.

“This is more of a breakthrough. Most Filipinos cannot afford to maintain P2,000 or P5,000. The only way you can tell them to use the bank is lower the price of doing business with them. There is a big business for my wallet card with our affiliates," he said.

Apple store opens at Ateneo

iCampus, a store selling Apple products, was formally opened at the Ateneo de Manila University recently, aiming to provide access to students, faculty and alumni of the university on the latest gadgets and technologies from Apple.

The iCampus, a partnership between Senco Link Technologies Inc., an authorized reseller of Apple products, and Ateneo, is located at the LS Bookstore of the Manny V. Pangilinan Leadership Center at the ADMU’s Loyola Heights campus in Quezon City.

The store, a partnership between Senco Link Technologies Inc., an authorized reseller of Apple products, and Ateneo, is located at the LS Bookstore of the Manny V. Pangilinan Leadership Center at the Loyola Heights campus in Quezon City.

Patrick Yeung, managing director of Senco Link Technologies Inc., said the store aims to deliver the latest Apple technologies that are ideal for teaching and learning.

“The partnership will benefit the growing number of students and faculty who have long appreciated Apple technologies in the field of education. With the opening of this store, Ateneans will have more access to these technologies,” Yeung said.

iCampus-Ateneo is Senco Link Technologies’ first campus store in the country.

The store, which occupies but a small corner of the bookstore, sells the latest Macintosh laptops, iPods and iPod Touch and, Apple-related accessories and also has on-site technical staff to provide support to students and faculty.

William Mallari, director of the Loyola School Bookstore and coordinator for student entrepreneurial initiative of Ateneo, said what makes the mini store different from other Apple stores outside is that students, faculty and alumni can purchase the products at discounted prices.

A lot of students, he said, supported the initiative as evidenced by strong sales in the last three months since it started operations.

To qualify for a discount, one has to present a student or faculty ID or an alumni card. Discounts vary for different products but are generally in the range of 10 to 20 percent.

“Our products are now more available to the Ateneo community, especially to the budget-conscious,” said Yeung in a statement. “The savings they will get from buying at iCampus can now be reallocated to other needs.”

The Apple on Campus program has been successfully implement worldwide and select universities in many countries have joined forces with the company to provide the academic community a chance to purchase Apple products at the best prices. All campus stores also offer the entire range of software, hardware and even third-party peripherals and accessories.

Jean Yew, solutions sales manager for Indonesia and the Philippines of Apple Inc., graced the opening of iCampus-Ateneo. Rodolfo Ang, dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management of Ateneo de Manila, officially welcomed the Apple store to the university.

Ang shared the story of an Ateneo alumnus who used an old Macintosh he owned as a student to make and distribute maps at the Subic Bay Freeport in the early 90s, a business venture that eventually became one of the direct marketing companies in the country.

“What can computers do for us nowadays?” asked Jeric Soriano, another Ateneo alumnus and a certified Mac enthusiast. “They are actually digital storytelling machines. They help tell a story. I’m sure everyone has a story to tell. In fact the computer allows you to tell that story. Adding the multimedia elements such as sound, pictures and moving videos allows you to tell that story even better.”

Soriano, a producer and director of television commercials and corporate videos, added that the computer is not just a tool; it is his portable studio.

“Digital storytelling help students develop creativity and innovation skills needed to solve important problems in imaginative ways. The digital revolution in a sentence is this: Finally we can all tell our old stories in our own way... Here is the tool for you to be able to tell that story,” he said, adding that learning communities are storytelling communities but technology doesn’t make teachers obsolete.

“Now more than ever students need the guidance and wisdom of teachers to guide them on how to choose technology with care and how to use it to tell stories with clarity and humanity,” he said.