Mozilla Firefox 4 launched in the Philippines with Alab as Mascot
Mozilla Firefox launched its latest Version 4 together with the introduction of a mascot for the Philippines, Alab for Filipino flare, attired as a revolutionary Katipunero. The image above shows community leader, Regnard Raquedan, introducing Alab, as the Mozilla Firefox mascot for the Philippines that was created by Martin Jimenez. I am happy to be [...]
Rice Commodity Price Increases from Quantitative Easing 285.0
There may be a way to take off from Ben Bernanke and get a better price for imported rice this year in the Philippines if we go proactive. Ben Bernanke at the National Press Club. Speaking more about fiscal policy and deficit, Chairman Ben Bernanke absolves the Federal Reserve from the emerging commodity price bubble [...]
The New York Times Truly Takes up Social Media 267.0
I was pleasantly surprised to see my good facebook friends, Atty. Luie Guia and Denis Du, on the front page, onscreen of my online New York Times in the box, Latest in My Network. It turns out that they have used the links button on New York Times online to recommend articles on Facebook. As [...]
Being an Automated Elections Observer is Hard Work 185.0
Observing elections is a vocation and profession. Vignettes. IFES and NDI. Vignette 1. I first met Butch Abad, now of the Liberal Party, when he saw a group of us of the Cebu NAMFREL off to Danao City, then dangerous Ramon Durano country, for the snap elections in 1985. Then, we were all observers with [...]
Implementing Automated Elections in a Context of Cheating and Mistrust 181.0
Difficult hurdles for tech-enabled social innovation in the Philippines Still, the benefits in making wholesale cheating difficult – the main purpose for automating counting and canvassing in this election – and getting the results quicker for the national officials may be well worth the hard work. For me, the most emblematic story on the management [...]
SYNTHESiST gets Google Buzz Button 176.0
To enhance shareability and improve searchability As you can see, I just installed a Google Buzz This button at the top of each SYNTHESiST post. The button installs such “-abilities” on the blog that is so necessary to compete robustly for attention in the blogosphere. Again, I thank my internet marketing guru and friend, Raque [...]
Google Gmail gets Social 173.0
Today Gmail gets the Buzz. The roll out is ongoing. Social media overtook email by volume of use within the past two years. Similarly, more and more people are asking their friends than searching on Google to learn about things that people ought know better. Two days ago, five out of the top twenty hottest [...]
First Inquirer Presidential Debate 172.0
Sets the bar in testing the candidates. I’m down to 4 choices. Crisply run and with clear-cut time constraints, it forced the debaters to speak to the point. The microphone was gently shut-off on the long-winded. Still, it captured enough meaningful sound bites. Held at the University of the Philippines National Theater before a full [...]
2010 Automated Elections Managing the Change 171.0
Filipinos are engaged but Tech usability issues can disenfranchise. We have always been enthusiastic about elections with past participation around the 80% range. And Juan voter was well engaged at the Maharlika Elementary School in Taguig as voter, as BEI member, as monitor, as media and, as typical, kibitzer in mock elections to further test [...]
Igniting and Deepening Conversations at SYNTHESiST 166.0
Pages and Potpourri. IntenseDebate for a community. Our first year anniversary is on February 25, 2010. I am furiously preparing the ground for a better new year, with two more improvements – adding pages to deepen content by indenting and threading and comment collaboration. I may have found my domain of choice after almost a [...]
Innovation – Closer-to-Market or Closer-to-Science? 160.0
Close-to-market innovations work best for the Philippines Reading yesterday’s issue (January 19, 2010) of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States of America affirms the correctness of my proposal for innovations in an emerging market like the Philippines to be in applications closer to the market than to science. [...]
New Product Development Wraps at AIM 140.0
Awesome prototypes from a two-month course Three teams showed off their final prototype projects in a contest of technical, commercial and presentation skills yesterday. They had worked through an intense two-month new product development course that Prof Matt Escobido and I team-teach at the Asian Institute of Management. The winning team had an Apple iApp [...]
