ONE of the supreme ironies of the last election was how vigorously some IT professionals opposed the government’s efforts to automate the process.
One of these was Gus Lagman, a former IBM executive and one of the founders of STI College, who urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct a parallel, manual count. Another was Manuel Alcuaz Jr., a member of the Management Association of the Philippines, and who, like Lagman, was an IT consultant for the National Movement of Free Elections. Both were pioneers in the Philippine computer industry.
THE recent exchange of harsh words between Washington and Beijing highlights a major concern for Internet users all over the world. How this debate plays out in their own countries will determine how free individuals are to express themselves online.
WHEN Barack Obama used Twitter as a potent campaign tool last year, Filipino politicians took notice. Now, with national elections just a few months away, a number of them, too, have their own accounts with the popular micro-blogging service. “What’s a 52 yr old guy to do the night before his wedding?” posts Senator Mar Roxas, one of the first politicians in the country to sign on to Twitter, on the eve of his marriage to broadcaster Korina Sanchez. “Tying the knot in the age of Twitter is certainly something, haha.”
I downloaded a pre-release version of Bayanihan 5, the upcoming version of the state-sponsored Linux distribution, hoping to put it through its paces. Unfortunately, a few technical snags prevented me from making all but the most cursory review of what is by nature a complex product. After all, to get a fair reading of an operating system, you ought to have installed it and used it for at least a week. I only had two days, if that.
The UP Law Internet & Society Program (UP Law-ISP) will be holding a Roundtable Discussion on the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act of 2007 (otherwise known as “House Bill 1716") on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Sta. Ana Room, 3rd Floor, Malcolm Hall, UP College of Law, Diliman, Quezon City. The author of House Bill 1716, Rep. Teodoro Casiño, will give the keynote. Representatives from the FOSS community, the software industry and other stakeholders will also be part of the panel. If you’d like to read the bill, you can find it here.
Rep. Teddy Casiño chats with the Venezuelan charge d’affiares Manuel Perez Iturbe at the Software Freedom Day celebrations at the Advanced Science and Technology Institute.
FREE software needs to be sold before it catches on. Rep. Teddy Casiño is well aware of this, after his bill requiring the use of free and open source software in government offices didn’t make it to the first reading in last year’s Congress. “The last time, Congress was ending,” Casiño says, noting that his bill had been filed toward the tail end of the 1egislative session. “Now there’s no excuse. We filed early so we have the whole three years to get it done.” Speaking at a break during the Software Freedom Day conference at the University of the Philippines, Casiño acknowledges it will be a diffcult road ahead, and that more needs to be done to promote open source software.
THE President last week appointed a new chairman of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology or CICT. That might have meant something in the past, but right now the announcement doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed up world we call the government. The best proof of this was that the post had gone vacant for more than three months—and nobody noticed. While one might be tempted to write that off to the uninspiring leadership of the previous chairman, the problem--unfortunately--is more serious than that.
EVERY schoolyard has a bully who uses his size to intimidate the other kids, or a rich brat who threatens to take his ball home if he doesn’t get his way. This month, Microsoft played both roles by claiming in a Fortune magazine article that open source programs violated 235 of its patents. Microsoft claimed there were 42 such violations in the free Linux operating system, 65 in the way windows and menus look, 45 in OpenOffice, 15 in various e-mail programs and 68 more in other open source applications. To address these alleged breaches, Microsoft wants to start collecting royalties from open source developers and users, a move that would jack up the cost of free software. Now why does that evoke images of a schoolyard bully shaking down smaller kids for lunch money?
IN the sitcom 30 Rock, the abrasive network boss Jack Donaghy buys a pager because he wants to make a point to his subordinate, Liz Lemon, who is dating the only beeper salesman left in Manhattan. “Okay, very funny. You bought a pager from Dennis. Will you take it off now please?” she says. “Oh I can’t,” he replies smugly. “I’m expecting a call from 1983.” When the latest results of 2007 E-Readiness Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit came out recently, it certainly felt like we were waiting for a call from 1983.
WHO stops schools and other institutions from using Ubuntu and other open source software? The naivete of the question from one of my readers surprised me. A group calling itself the Initiative for Software Choice has been lobbying against open source since May 2002. Its biggest backer, CNet reports, is Microsoft. Software Choice is one of those misnomers like the Patriot Act in the United States, which cloaks the blatant violation of civil liberties behind a fancy name, or the Clear Skies Initiative, which actually weakens existing air pollution standards.
LEAVE it to Bill Gates. There’s a reason he’s the richest man in the world. On a visit to China last week, he announced a program that would sell a $3 bundle of Windows XP and MS Office to governments in poor countries that subsidize computer purchases by students. “All human beings deserve a chance to achieve their full potential,” Gates said in announcing Microsoft’s latest program to bridge the digital divide. It was a public relations coup and a shrewd business move besides. The $3 offer comes at a time when the open source Linux operating system is becoming increasingly popular as a free alternative to Windows on desktop and notebook computers. By aiming its program at developing countries, Microsoft seems determined to head off Linux in markets where the free alternative is most likely to thrive at Windows’ expense.
IF there is one aspect of our national life that stubbornly resists digital technology, it’s our politics. Earlier this month, the Commission on Elections concluded there just wasn’t enough time to computerize the casting and counting of votes in 12 pilot areas in the May polls, despite a law requiring it. This should be of little surprise to people who have followed our half-hearted efforts to modernize our electoral system. The inconvenient truth is, all our efforts in the last decade to automate elections have been one failure after another to carry out the law.
Digital Life is a blog that features a technology column by the same name that appears every Tuesday in Manila Standard Today, a national daily from the Philippines. This blog gives readers easy access to the column, which started in November 2002. Copyright 2009 Chin Wong.
Rep. Teddy Casiño chats with the Venezuelan charge d’affiares Manuel Perez Iturbe at the Software Freedom Day celebrations at the Advanced Science and Technology Institute.
THE President last week appointed a new chairman of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology or CICT. That might have meant something in the past, but right now the announcement doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed up world we call the government. The best proof of this was that the post had gone vacant for more than three months—and nobody noticed. While one might be tempted to write that off to the uninspiring leadership of the previous chairman, the problem--unfortunately--is more serious than that.
EVERY schoolyard has a bully who uses his size to intimidate the other kids, or a rich brat who threatens to take his ball home if he doesn’t get his way. This month, Microsoft played both roles by claiming in a Fortune magazine article that open source programs violated 235 of its patents. Microsoft claimed there were 42 such violations in the free Linux operating system, 65 in the way windows and menus look, 45 in OpenOffice, 15 in various e-mail programs and 68 more in other open source applications. To address these alleged breaches, Microsoft wants to start collecting royalties from open source developers and users, a move that would jack up the cost of free software. Now why does that evoke images of a schoolyard bully shaking down smaller kids for lunch money?
IN the sitcom 30 Rock, the abrasive network boss Jack Donaghy buys a pager because he wants to make a point to his subordinate, Liz Lemon, who is dating the only beeper salesman left in Manhattan. “Okay, very funny. You bought a pager from Dennis. Will you take it off now please?” she says. “Oh I can’t,” he replies smugly. “I’m expecting a call from 1983.” When the latest results of 2007 E-Readiness Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit came out recently, it certainly felt like we were waiting for a call from 1983.
WHO stops schools and other institutions from using Ubuntu and other open source software? The naivete of the question from one of my readers surprised me. A group calling itself the Initiative for Software Choice has been lobbying against open source since May 2002. Its biggest backer, CNet reports, is Microsoft. Software Choice is one of those misnomers like the Patriot Act in the United States, which cloaks the blatant violation of civil liberties behind a fancy name, or the Clear Skies Initiative, which actually weakens existing air pollution standards.
IF there is one aspect of our national life that stubbornly resists digital technology, it’s our politics. Earlier this month, the Commission on Elections concluded there just wasn’t enough time to computerize the casting and counting of votes in 12 pilot areas in the May polls, despite a law requiring it. This should be of little surprise to people who have followed our half-hearted efforts to modernize our electoral system. The inconvenient truth is, all our efforts in the last decade to automate elections have been one failure after another to carry out the law.
