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The world is flat

During the Cebu ICT event last month (June), Senator Mar Roxas delivered his keynote address and quoted a perspective from the book written by Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat." Upon return to Manila, I bought a copy of the book, along with his other book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." 

I am reading both books in parallel and impressed by the perspective of the author. It redefined my advocacy slogan "ICT for all." ICT is no longer information and communications technology. It is information, capital or credit, and technology for all. These 3 are all important components of Globalization 3.0 where it is the age of the super-individual. Not only super-nations and super-markets can shape our world, but super-individuals as well.

In the International Herald Tribune today, there's an interesting article written by Nick Cumming-Bruce titled "A Thai remedy for high health cost." The story expanded a CBS 60 Minutes TV report about Bumrungrad Hospital that has benefited from America's health care crisis. The hospital treated more than 350,000 international patients last year, according to the report. As the most powerful nations make it harder for migrant workers to go to their countries, this contributed to the increasing cost of health care services in their country. This forced patients in need to look for alternatives in getting the health care they need, overseas. This story is an interesting demonstration as to how the world is getting flatter everyday.

Interesting enough as well is the forthcoming conference of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society whose plug I got yesterday via email. Its theme 'Who says the World is Round? Flattening the World Through Technology.' This will be on October 25-26, 2005 at the Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City.

iBlog Mini: Blogging Gloriagate forum

On August 4, 2005, from 9 am to 12 noon at the UP College of Law, UP-ISP will be holding an iBlog Mini entitled: “Blogging Gloriagate” as part of iBlog’s discussion series that intends to document the impact of blogging in Philippine society.

About the forum

The Philippine blogging scene was taken by storm as the Gloriagate scandal erupted. Freedom of expression to vent issues and share perspectives paved the way for alternative sources of information.

Even as government issued a ban on media outfits from playing the Gloriagate tape, PCIJ fearlessly posted it online and gave access to thousands of Internet users. Media blogs like Sun.Star offered consolidated articles through blog that allowed its worldwide Filipino readers to give a reaction to the issue at hand. News Reporter Jove Francisco tags readers along, through his blog, in his coverage of the issue. Columnists such as Manuel L. Quezon III and Connie Veneracion offered insightful analysis as well. These organizations and personalities have become truly influential in the blogosphere today.

Agenda:

8:30 - 9:00 Registration / Morning Snacks
9:00 - 9:30 Opening remarks; Bloggers introduction
9:30 - 10:00 Introduction to Blogging Gloriagate (Atty. JJ Disini)
10:00 - 10:30 Blogging Gloriagate: The PCIJ Experience
10:30 - 11:00 Blogging Gloriagate: A Personal Journey (Manuel L. Quezon III)
11:00 - 11:30 Open Forum
12:00 Closing

Snacks and unlimited coffee will be served. As seats are very limited, you are requested to register ahead.

Recharge in Seoul

I am currently preparing for my trip to Seoul next week. The APEC E-Business Training for Women SMEs is one of my fondest advocacy every year. It is organized by APWINC.

One weird experience though in this process of preparation is getting the airline ticket. I wonder what is so special about July 31. All trips returning to Manila are fully booked either from Seoul or via Hong Kong. Still on waitlist but hope to get my ticket soon.

Last Tuesday, the 1st dialogue on Data Privacy took place, organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Here are some documents presented during the event.

PRIVACY.ppt - this is the presentation made by Atty. Lindeza Gavino of UP-ISP during the dialogue.

draft_bill.doc - this is data privacy draft bill prepared by Atty. Lindeza Gavino of UP-ISP. Note however that the path to be taken is the creation of data privacy guidelines for now. In the future, an effort shall be made as well to push for a Data Privacy Law.

The data privacy draft guideline is expected to be available on August 9 for the public to comment on.

Preparation is now being made as well to prepare for the "Blogging Gloriagate" forum, organized by UP-ISP. This is scheduled on August 4. Famous bloggers actively blogging this topic are being invited as resource persons. Will announce the full details on or before Wednesday once the resource persons and reactor are confirmed.

I just got an invite to attend the opening of the 14th Congress in Philippine Senate on July 25. This is my first time to attend such and quite excited about it.

The Trading Power of US and China

Thomas Friendman in his column at the New York Times tackled the predicament of United States of America and China, with the latter's attempt to purchase Unocal. It is a little scary to know how the economic movements of these two superpower can have a crippling effect to the global economy in case China re-aligns its currency. What is interesting as well is knowing that much of the free perks that US consumers are getting lately were a result of trading with China.

Overcoming oneself

Finally, I was able to overcome my writer's block yesterday and finish the deliverables I'm committed to deliver.

I'm glad that my Reflective Thinking blog (http://digitalfilipino.blogspot.com) is getting a fair amount of traffic according to the traffic registered by Pinoy Top Bloggers (http://www.yugatech.com/blogs). As I started sharing what I learned from Jim Collin's book, "Good to Great," DigitalFilipino.com Club member Lawrence Hughes gave a great sharing about how the book, "High Tech Start Up," helped him in his business. As a result, the next club meeting is on August 11 (http://digitalfilipino.21publish.com) with this experience sharing as our main topic.

After a long while, I was able to update my Software Process Improvement E-Book (http://www.cmmiphilippines.com) yesterday. Depending on feedback, I am considering of publishing this as a book this year.

This August 4, DigitalFilipino.com Club Member JJ Disini will be organizing a Political Blogging forum at UP Diliman College of Law. Once the details are in, will let you know.

My quest in looking for a free FTP software brought me to FreshWebmaster (http://www.freshwebmaster.com). I find their software fairly easy to use and best of all, it is free!

Last week, I stopped by at the 1st Philippine Summit on Women and Technology. Based on the whole day affair, there were only two topics that has a touch of technology in it, the rest were more inspirational, facts, and insights. However, it is a great one and the organizers deserve all the kudos for this event. Especially to Mel Dominguez who worked so hard for this event.

Writer's block

The mid-month June was full of excitement and tension. Here are some developments that happened that month to present.

1. Finished attending the Microsoft Government Security Program training. It is relief to finish all the courses and look forward to our graduation.

2. I just joined the CIO Forum while attending a conference of the group in Cebu organized by the organization.

3. I just signed a contract with TechFactors.ph to write a book about IT Projects for 4th year high school students. This will be used this coming 2nd semester.

4. Last Friday, I delivered a 2-hour lecture about E-learning to the Association of Service Professionals in Life Insurance. It was definitely worth the while and glad that more and more folks are interested to learn as to how ICT can empower them.

However, the current political crisis has been giving me a writer's block since last month. I've never been such a news addict. Everytime I go online now, I monitor Inq7.net, PCIJ, ABS-CBN News, Manuel Quezon's blog just to be updated in what is happening to our country's political stability. I hope things will turn for the better soon.