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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.

APC appoints 1st gold partner in the Philippines

Yesterday, American Power Conversion (APC), an infrastructure availability solutions company, appointed American Technologies Inc. (ATI) as its 1st gold partner in the Philippines. The company is now an APC Gold Certified Reliable Provider Partner (CGRPP).

CGRPP focuses on power protection on for medium to large data centers, plant maintenance, and facilities. They also provide value added services such as electrical site audits, project management, and supply other power related equipment.

19-year old company ATI is known for being one of the biggest in I.T. products distribution. As CGRPP, ATI committed to investing in demo lab equipment, pre-sales support employee training, and pass the certification exam. The company has a separate business unit for APC with almost 40 personnel.

ATI's president Faustico Co believes that with the increasing global risk awareness, the need to manage and protect data is of utmost importance. He sees great opportunities in this area and taking the CGRPP is the right step towards this direction.

eBay is celebrating!

According to the New York Times, eBay posted a 53% increased revenue in the 2nd quarter driven by growth in international business. This is despite the fact eBay has increased its merchant fees.

Its PayPal users grew to 79 million from 50 million. I hope one day, the Philippines will be able to use PayPal as well and such numbers will grow further.

 

HP to lay off 14,500 employees

According to the New York Times, Hewlett Packard is expected to lay off 14,500 personnel worldwide as part of its new CEO Mark Hurd initiative. I wonder how many will be laid off in its Philippine office.

New services based on location technologies

Google Maps, Virtual Earth, MyWeb 2.0--the world is being introduced to (and enthusiastically embracing) a steady stream of new services based on location technologies. Where 2.0, a new O'Reilly conference that took place June 29-30 in San Francisco, honed in on the new tech sector coalescing around these location-related technologies that promise to transform and personalize the way we all engage the Web and the world around us.

Location-enhanced products and services are generating excitement among developers, technologists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and bean counters alike. "Mash-up" was a phrase heard frequently throughout the conference, referring to the revving up of one-dimensional information--such as apartment listings, traffic patterns, and crime stats--by overlaying it with mapping information. Location technologies are already having an impact on a wide variety of industries, and their effect on privacy, gaming, advertising, social applications, and search were also discussed.

Two other (distinctly non-technical) mash-ups in evidence at the conference were between generations and communities: "tribal elders" from cartography, engineering, and geography came together with the emerging
generation of hackers, web developers, and search gurus in sessions, on panel discussions, and over lunch.

Several announcements were made at Where 2.0, including:

-Google publicly released Google Earth, which uses high-resolution satellite and aerial images to let users travel to any address on the globe.

-Microsoft and ORBIMAGE, a satellite imagine company, announced plans to deliver expanded international satellite coverage for MSN Virtual Earth.

-Yahoo released a set of programming tools allowing outside programmers to build their own web mapping applications that tap into the data in Yahoo! Maps.

-Zoto, an online photo site, announced it will sponsor and host Geo Project USA, the first initiative to index and photograph each of the more than 4,554,000 "minute confluence points" in the United States.

PBS Launches NerdTV