Philippine Internet Review

Welcome to the Philippine Internet Review. This is where we record our continuing coverage of Philippine Internet and website developments. If you don’t have one, buy a copy of the Philippine Internet Review: 10 Years of Internet History (1994-2004).

 

Community participation is key to game loyalty and success
For Myla P. Rumbaoa, Rising Force Online (RF) community manager, a passionate and loyal gaming community is consist of players who stay and care for the game. “They help the community and the game master (GM) team – to improve and make the game a better place for the players. What makes a game successful is through its community.”

 

Frequency of access and hours doesn’t really measure gamers loyalty
As Internet online gaming continues to grow in the Philippines, the battle is on among gaming companies to attract more members, play often, and build a loyal base of users. For Jessa Jamilla, assistant product manager and community manager of RAN Online, frequency of access and hours doesn’t really measure loyalty. “We have gamers who play 24 hours a day and also gamers who turned out to be forum moderators but seldom play their characters. I think, loyal is being attached to the community no matter how often or seldom you play the game.”

 

Local payment gateway providers still strong despite Paypal availability in the Philippines
With the availability of Paypal in the Philippines, that allows receiving money or “cash-out” to a member’s bank account, there were speculations that local payment gateway providers will close shop. However, YesPayments claim not to be affected. This according to company CEO Simon Paice.

 

More Filipinos Trading Stocks Online
It is estimated that around 60% of Filipino stock players now trade online while 40% do it live. “Those who are on the go rely on their live brokers, as well as those who really have loads of money to transact,” this according to Gwen Nava, vice president for marketing and development in Absolute Traders & Consulting Services Inc.

 

Philippine Commons Empowers Content Creators
Last January 14, 2008, Philippine Commons was launched. This is a movement developed to create a common avenue for those who wish to collaborate in open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities within the Philippines.

 

Filipino Companies Recognize Potential of Blog Advertising
Mad Crowd Media offers a service to potential advertisers who would like to reach out to various bloggers. This is ideal for companies who do not have time to research and negotiate with bloggers one by one.

 

Filipino Internet Users Still Lack Appreciation of Virtual Worlds
In the Philippines, virtual world programs and their popularity has not much picked up. I asked Rodion what he thinks is the reason that is stopping Filipinos from participating and how can they be encouraged.

 

iNTouch partners with Fring for social networks on-the-go
I just got a heads-up from Edward Lim, iNTouch chief executive officer and managing director, about his company’s partnership with Fring – a mobile internet service and community that enables users to access & interact with their social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all one’s fring, Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM friends using the handset’s internet connection rather than costly cellular airtime minutes.

 

Philippines A-List Bloglebrity
With 500 or more blogs linking to these sites in the past 6 months, the Philippines A-List Bloglebrity are:

 

TitikPilipino: More content in 2008
the year 2007 served another milestone for Jay when the site was relaunched with more content and product offerings.

 

Chikka: more OFW programs for 2008
In 2007, Chikka expanded its service offerings to the United Kingdom and Spain. It also won in the services category of the DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards.

 

Cheaper and faster bandwidth makes Internet video e-learning possible
The other day, I found out that I’m one of the speakers in the recent Y4iT event to talk about E-Learning. As I’m taking a break in Adelaide, I had to develop a video tutorial within the day that can be played in the said event.

 

IMMAP recognize winners of 1st Boomerang Awards
The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines organized the Boomerang Awards early this year in time for the 1st Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit. This award is the first in the country to showcase and give recognition to outstanding marketing campaigns that have utilized the internet and mobile devices as tools to meet business objectives in the most creative and breakthrough manner.

 

IMMAP makes history in 1st summit
Despite the heavy typhoon a day before, more than 400 participants joined the 1st Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit (August 9 and 10). For an association on its first year, this event is indeed record-breaking that sets a positive signal on the demand of Internet and mobile marketing.

 

Website Feature: FwendZ
Another local community website on the rise is Davao-made FwendZ. It is an online social community website that allows its members to properly organize their relationships with each other.

 

From broadcasting to podcasting
Back in 1999, I started online broad-casting with Infotech Radio and Video in DigitalFilipino.com. What happens was that our articles were complimented by an audio or video interview posted in our website.

 

Website Feature: UniVOICEsal Productions – PODWORX!
Our website feature of the day is Univoicesal Productions. This company is one of the youngest audio productions and sound designing company in the country today.

 

Empowering Citizens Through Technology
In celebration of Sun.Star Superbalita’s 11th anniversary, there will be a week-long celebration at the Atrium of SM City Cebu. I’m glad that we got the opportunity to hold a small ‘One Internet Day Cebu,’ during the celebration, on Oct. 25 from 1 to 5 p.m. It is a free event and I hope many would be able to participate.

 

Website Feature: Swambi Incorporated
Our website feature for today is Swambi Incorporated. This site bagged the recent Katha Best Website Award at the Manila F.A.M.E. International.

 

Website Feature: Resources for the Blind
The website of the Resources for the Blind is one true demonstration as to how the Internet can help NGO groups in promoting their advocacy. With blindness as the leading disability in the Philippines, every Filipino must be concerned. As we get older, one way or another, we will have disabilities that we have to cope up with, whether we like it or not.

 

Website Feature: PinoyTopBlogs
Our first website feature is PinoyTopBlogs.com. This website of Abe Olandres gives bloggers an opportunity to have their blogs posted in the PinoyTopBlogs.com listing. Just logon to the site and create an account.

 

Building a database-driven site with PHP, MySQL
Are you planning to put up a website in 2005? How much content do you intend to produce? If you aspire for a high content development, then the more you have to be concerned about your website design, programming, and structure.

 

Tools for Taming Your Text
I got quite anxious upon hearing the news that O’Reilly just released the book “Word Hacks” written by author Andrew Savikas. I’ve been using Microsoft Word a lot and can be considered as one of those users who hardly explore how I could further customize it.

 

Love hurts
December 9, 2004

 

Yesterday, I found out that a friend had broken up with her boyfriend of over two years. What made this relationship special was that she had met this guy online through Yahoo Messenger. They were quite an interesting pair.

 

2nd Development Gateway Award launched
With the help of the Internet, various competitions have emerged online through the years. Non-government organizations all over the world join these contests. A popular one is the Development Gateway Award, which is being initiated by the Development Gateway Foundation. It is on its second search.

 

High-tech resort
More and more hotels today are offering Internet connectivity as part of their amenities. The same as well with resorts. One of them is Subic Bay’s Grande Island Resort. This is the first hotel and island resort in the country using Cisco Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications system that enables the resort to provide its guests with enhanced voice and data communication service.

 

Copyright and plagiarism
I got invited this week to talk in an IT educators’ conference about copyright and plagiarism. It is an interesting topic as most Filipinos today are one way or another guilty about copyright violation.

 

Human factor in Internet scam proliferation
THE increase of computing devices means convenience to every end-user. However, the security concern is real, with virus and spam making up almost a hundred percent of threats coming from e-mail.

 

Selling Online Made Easy this Holiday Season
With the coming Christmas, one can’t help but feel the need to do business this time of year. If you are an Internet user and savvy in e-commerce, selling online is one way of earning this holiday season. At the minimum, one must have a website showcasing the products the seller is promoting. The most common predicament of online entrepreneurs is how to accept payment. Like any traditional business, an online seller can accept payment in cash or check given in person or through bank deposit. However, if your buyers are from overseas, this is where credit card online payments or money remittance service comes to play. Here are some of the practical solutions that one can utilize today:

 

Meralco launches new website, brings company closer to consumers
The Manila Electronic Company (Meralco) has launched a new website that provides customers new features like easy access to billing information, consumption history, maintenance schedules and other electric service concerns.

 

Buying a Camera Phone
I was fortunate to get the chance to exchange emails with Peter Aitken, author of the book Camera Phone Obsessions (Paraglyph Press), and asked what makes a camera phone worth buying today. Peter noticed that when buying a stand-alone digital camera, people tend to want more of everything–more megapixels, more settings, more features, and so on.

 

Making ‘E’ Work for SMEs
The International Trade Centre (ITC) just launched its e-trade website, which aims to help small exporters in developing countries and transition economies use information and communication technologies (ICT) as a driver of competitiveness. Under the banner of e@ITC, the website offers a single window access to ITC’s e-facilitated trade development activities, strategies and expertise that aim to put ‘e’ to work to benefit traditional businesses.

 

Digital Media Rage
Digital media is definitely one of best things that information technology has brought to our lives. Today, we can see that people, regardless of technology sophistication, began appreciating digital media tools especially in the area of photography and music. Sales of digital cameras rival their film counterparts, and downloading music has become as almost as simple as turning on the radio. Fine artists and graphic designers are also benefiting from the growing array of new gear and software now available.

 

3rd MICT Congress Bolsters e-Mindanao bid
On its 3rd year, the Mindanao Summit on Information Society-3rd Mindanao ICT Congress will take place on October 8-9, 2004 at the Garden Orchid Hotel to showcase the Mindanao’s ICT developments and potential as an IT destination. Over 300 participants from government institutions, academe, non-government organizations, civil society and media in Mindanao are expected to attend. The event is also expected to generate delegates from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, among others.

 

Jovel Cipriano, an inspiring entrepreneur
In the course of my cyber life, I meet a lot of interesting individuals online and some became good business peers and friends eventually. One of them is Jovel Cipriano of PinoyDelikasi.com. During One Internet Day March 1999, Jovel walked-in the said event and introduced himself.He talked about his website, PinoyDelikasi.com, and his plans of leaving his full-time job then to focus in the business. Five months later, Jovel eventually launched himself as a full-time entrepreneur and things were never the same again.