Internet Trends and IT Industry News and Development

[coldfire083]

Sh...t! Gusto ng mom ko gumawa ako ng facebook account.

[bulabog jalaur]

Just remember the friendster and myspace they take it easy and did not innovate! facebook learned from this two. Time will tell if people will migrate to google+, innovation is the name of the game, those who can provide better services will win.

[Nabartek]

^Based on how google+ looks like, atm..they won't be able to get facebook users...not unless they do something interesting.

And for facebook to hold on to their market, they must get rid of the viruses....

[william :D]

Too much tech is stressing us out, says new study

Are all your gadgets, devices, and social networking causing anxiety and stress? Turns out, according to new research, one out of three people claim they're overwhelmed by everything from email to Twitter.
In the study announced last week, the University of Cambridge polled 1,300 people in the UK and revealed that feeling stressed about your communication technology can lead to general feelings of dissatisfaction with your life.

Interestingly, even younger tech users reported similar feelings of stress. The study noted that about 38 percent of study participants ages 10 to 18 felt overwhelmed by too much technology, compared to 34 percent of adults between the ages of 25 and 34.

This study follows another announced earlier this year that claimed Facebook and similar social networking sites can leave some feeling depressed. Stanford University in the UK researchers showed that because people tend to publicize only good moments, photos, and events in their lives, while hiding the negative ones, users are left with a skewed view of their friends' lives, feeling sad or dull by comparison.

One way to avoid negative feelings associated with technology is to take steps to control it: for example, avoid distractions by turning off automatic email notifications, according to a recent report in the UK's Guardian.

WebMD interviewed Tim Ferriss, best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, who recommends the following tips:

• Turn off your devices for shorts periods of time. Your life won't implode, Ferriss states, but expect a period of withdrawal or anxiety.

• Leave your mobile phone and PDA at home one day a week. Ferriss recommends Saturdays.

• Devise a "not-to-do list." For instance, don't check email before 10 a.m., he says. Attempt to set some limits.

• Accept the fact you can't respond to 500 emails a day. "A big part is getting over yourself," he said. "You don't have a superhuman email checking ability."

• Learn moderation. Make a note of how many times a day you check your email, or how many times you scan your social networking sites, experts recommend. Realize when you have a problem, and make a practice of not being a slave to your devices.
Read more on the subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...rload-research
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/f...over-your-life
Thinking of going on a digital fast? Here are some tips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCeEmKvQUQ

source: Yahoo! Philippines

[boypad]

Capturing the twittering masses

BusinessWorld Weekender
Posted on July 21, 2011 05:43:35 PM
BY JEFFREY O. VALISNO, Sub-Editor

WITH OVER 1.4 million followers, actress and TV host Anne Curtis is definitely the undisputed queen of Twitter here in the Philippines.
People just cannot seem to get enough of the fashionable showbiz personality, who made history last April by becoming the first Filipino to have more than a million Twitter followers.

Ms. Curtis’s clout in the Twitter universe became more evident earlier this month when she became a global trending topic (or the most popular breaking news in Twitter) when she took the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) to get to the Araneta Coliseum to catch the concert of Australian dance diva Kylie Minogue on July 5.

The rare incident would have gone unnoticed had Ms. Curtis not posted her photo and written about her experience with public transport on the micro-blogging Web site.

While on board the MRT, Ms. Curtis tweeted: “Hulaan nyo kung nasaan ako para makahabol kay #Kylie? :p” (Guess where I am to make it to Kylie?). She then posted her picture on board one of the MRT coaches, exciting Twitter users even more.

A few hours after she posted her picture on her Twitter account @annecurtissmith, the photo was viewed over 38,000 times. The words “MRT” and “Anne Curtis” also became the fourth and fifth trending topics, respectively, on Twitter.

Ms. Curtis is currently ranked the 297th most followed on the entire Twitter site, ahead of international celebrities like Victoria Beckham (299th), Beyonce (304th) and Leonardo DiCaprio (373rd).

How it started

Launched five years ago in San Francisco, California, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages called tweets.

Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters which are displayed on the user’s profile page.

Twitter now has more than 200 million users worldwide who generate as much as 350 billion tweets a day. It handles over 1.6 million search queries per day.

Twitter said that while 224 tweets were sent on Twitter’s first day of operation on July 15, 2006, users now send 224 tweets in less that a tenth of second.

“Delivering 350 billion tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are,” Twitter engineers said in a tweet last July 15.

A research report by Twitter released in May showed that there are more than four million Twitter users in the Philippines, putting the country at the eighth slot when it comes to Twitter use on a global scale.

Marketing through Twitter

Ms. Curtis said she started using Twitter in March 2009 upon the suggestion of a friend’s ex-boyfriend.

She initially followed Hollywood celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and Paris Hilton.

Then before she knew it, she had over a million followers. “It happened so fast. Nakakatuwa (It is funny),” Ms. Curtis told reporters.

Ms. Curtis said she usually tweets about what is happening in her day; this includes writing about the brands that she is endorsing: L’Oreal Shampoo, SM Development Corp., Palmolive Soap, Greenwich Pizza, Whisper Feminine Pads, and Olay.

Marketing consultant Myrna A. Garcia of Prime Edge Professionals, Inc.

said Ms. Curtis’s mention of the products in her tweets helps boost awareness about the brands she endorses.

“Whenever Ms. Curtis mentions something about a product, there is an audience of more than 1.4 million people who will get to know about that brand in an instant,” Ms. Garcia said in an interview.

“That is more powerful than any traditional form of advertising. You have a captive audience who agreed to receive that information, and is willing to read about what Ms. Curtis is saying about the product,” she added.

Ms. Garcia said brand-marketing efforts done through Internet Web sites like Twitter is in its infancy in the Philippine business environment.

“While there are about nine million Internet users in the Philippines, marketing through the web has yet to take off,” she said.

Ms. Garcia said industry estimates show that online ad spending in the Philippines comes up to only P100 million, or a measly 0.2% of total advertising spending last year.

But recent developments, including a Filipino celebrity like Ms. Curtis having more than a million Twitter followers, makes Ms. Garcia confident that marketing on the Internet will soon be used as a complimentary tool to traditional media, “as advertising and marketing professionals understand how these new tools can be used and optimized.”

“Twitter marketing is a new promotion tool for companies. There is absolutely nothing to lose with maintaining a Twitter account,” Ms. Garcia said.

“If people get to see the tweets made, they will react by making ideas, and regardless if the comments are good or dangerous, the mere proven fact that we had been able to elicit a reaction is sufficient to present that utilizing Twitter as a marketing strategy is indeed a really efficient tool,” she added.

Twitter leads to endorsements

Anama Dimapilis, brand PR manager for the local unit of multinational heavyweight Procter & Gamble (P&G) said Ms. Curtis’s strong online following was considered when they selected the young actress to be the endorser of Whisper sanitary napkins and Olay beauty products.

“She has a strong following among the target markets of our brands,” Ms. Dimapilis told BusinessWorld in an interview.

She said P&G recognizes the growing importance of the Internet in getting their brand messages across to consumers.

She said the company has significantly increased its budget for Internet marketing for this year, compared to last year, to boost the online presence of its top brands like Whisper and Olay, as well as shampoo brands like Pantene, Rejoice, and Head and Shoulders. She however declined to provide actual figures.

“Definitely, we [at P&G] recognize the need to communicate to our target market through the Internet,” Ms. Dimapilis said. She cited the case of Pantene, as an example, where they selected models for their latest TV commercial through Facebook.

She added that the company also conducts games and contests online to boost the interaction between its brands and the consumers.

Actress Angel Locsin -- who is the second most followed local celebrity on Twitter with 830,932 followers of her @134redangel account -- said she mentions her endorsements in her tweets to inform her fans about her work.

For example, Ms. Locsin said she tweeted about Head and Shoulders shampoo to thank P&G for making her it’s endorser for the past six years.

“I do not endorse a product I do not believe in, so I am proud to tell my followers about these products through Twitter,” Ms. Locsin told reporters.

Aside from providing updates, Ms. Garcia said companies can use Twitter to announce sales and special offers, promote news, and obtain customer feedback.

“Many corporate executives either dismiss social networking as a time-wasting distraction or regard it as a risk management problem.

Much of their fear has focused on potential risks like security breaches and data privacy,” Ms. Garcia said.

“Proponents of Internet-based marketing, on the other hand, argue that it can facilitate an open-ended corporate culture that values transparency, collaboration and innovation. Most important, it can be an effective way to build a customer-centric organization that not only communicates authentically but also listens to customers and learns from that interaction,” she added.

The 25 Most Followed
Local Celebrities on Twitter
(as of July 20)

1. Anne Curtis @annecurtissmith 1.4 million followers
2. Angel Locsin @134redangel 830,932 followers
3. Kris Aquino @itsmekrisaquino 747,320 followers
4. Sam Milby @samuelmilby 691,003 followers
5. Vice Ganda @vicegandako 674,775 followers
6. Bianca Gonzalez @IAMSUPERbianca 606,001 followers
7. Angelica Panganiban @iamAngelicaP 602,170 followers
8. KC Concepcion @kc_concepcion 601,986 followers
9. Pokwang @pokwang27 594,162 followers
10. Iya Villania @iyavillania 561,740 followers
11. Luis Manzano @luckymanzano 540,581 followers
12. Lea Salonga @MsLeaSalonga 505,823 followers
13. Ruffa Gutierrez @iloveruffag 453,402 followers
14. Kim Atienza @kuyakim_atienza 441,967 followers
15. Sarah Geronimo @SGeronimo25 436,041 followers
16. Nikki Gil @nikkigil 420,535 followers
17. Mariel Rodriguez @itsmemarielt 419,812 followers
18. Maja Salvador @dprincessmaja 404,120 followers
19. Tim Yap @iamtimyap 400,455 followers
20. Mo Twister @djmotwister 398,360 followers
21. Maxene Magalona @maxenemagalona 379,467 followers
22. Karylle @anakarylle 362,321 followers
23. Christian Bautista @xtianbautista 343,197 followers
24. Georgina Wilson @iloveGEORGINA 332,933 followers
25. Raymond Gutierrez @mondgutierrez 295,615 followers

[richard24]

wow. and the top 10 are all from channel 2.

[urban Iegend]

Leyte gets second IT park
Posted on July 28, 2011 10:02:42 PM

TACLOBAN CITY -- The town of Palo is positioning to become an information and communication technology (ICT) hub in Leyte province and the entire Eastern Visayas, with another ICT park to be established in barangays Pawing and Campetic.
The proposed 23-hectare Leyte IT Development Park, a project of businessman Charles Uykim, is located across the provincial government-run Leyte ICT Park, which is a Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-accredited facility.
Palo town Mayor Remedios L. Petilla said in a press conference that the developer is applying for the required permits from her office. Construction is targeted to start within the year.
The new IT park will add to the growing community along Maharlika Highway which includes the Leyte ICT Park, government offices and other businesses that have started to locate within the Government Center as well as residential subdivisions that have sprouted along the corridor.
Ms. Petilla said that the Leyte IT Development Park will host facilities for IT businesses as well as a hotel and recreation area.
“These investments will spell [sic] more income to the local government unit; but more importantly, it will create more jobs for the people in Palo in Leyte and other parts of the region,” the mayor said.
Ms. Petilla said that, with new businesses coming to the Palo area, the local government is putting in place the necessary support system to ensure smooth flow of business and investments, particularly in terms of securing needed documents and permits.
The municipal council of Palo is drafting the Business and Investment Code, while the Mayor’s Office recently established the Economic and Development Unit which will address concerns of investors and local entrepreneurs. -- Reyan L. Arinto

[carrieso]

indeed

[Narnian_King]

TrendLabs engineers spotted a phishing email that looked like the legitimate Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) express alert. It informed the recipients that BPI online banking has upgraded. It then asked the users to view the message by clicking the link. Clicking the URL directs the users to a spoofed site that asks for user information.

http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/...+Phishing+Scam

[boypad]

Bloggers’ promos, contests to be regulated

BusinessWorld Online
Posted on August 28, 2011 10:48:45 PM
BY ELIZA J. DIAZ, Reporter

THE TRADE department plans to regulate bloggers who hold online contests and promos in an effort to protect consumers from fraudulent activities on the internet.
A group involved in digital social media, meanwhile, advised the department to consider the personal -- rather than commercial -- motivations of bloggers when giving away prizes to its readers in drawing up guidelines.

The new guidelines, due in less than three months, will be considered an extension of the Consumer Act (Republic Act 7394), which regulates business sales promotions.

"There is already a technical working group composed of public officials and representatives from the blogging community drafting the guidelines," Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya, head of the consumer welfare and trade regulation group, told BusinessWorld last week.

"Their deadline for the guidelines is first week of November -- earlier, if possible, but we gave them three months to come up with it," Ms. Maglaya continued.

Trade officials explained last month at a consultative meeting that the government didn’t want to step into the blogosphere to impose restrictions but to promote consumer welfare.

"We understand that many of these bloggers do this [blogging] for personal reasons and not to make money. We are simply here to ensure traceability of the items given away and to promote transparency -- for example, we want the readers to know from the bloggers how the ‘winners’ are picked," an official explained.

Hence, one of the proposed guidelines only requires bloggers to secure a permit from the Trade department if they plan to hold a contest or a series of promos within a year where the value of the giveaways total in the hundreds of thousands of pesos or higher.

"We plan to require a DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) permit for bloggers who give away P200,000 worth of sponsored prizes, or items given to netizens by a business or commercial entity, per year or P1 million worth of personal items given as prizes per year," Ms. Maglaya said.

However, imposing clear-cut rules on a fluidly defined activity like blogging -- and an online activity at that where identities and nationalities can be concealed -- could foster the creation of outlaws.

"Bloggers are not businesses. They were saying [at the consultative meeting] that they put up blogs not to earn money or to sell, but to share their thoughts and opinions," said Michael Palacios, Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) director for policy and ethics, said at the sidelines of the recent Fifth Internet and Marketing Mobile Summit.

"Bloggers have readers, not consumers. So when they do raffles, which is most of the time, the prizes usually come out of their own pockets," he added.

Bloggers who develop huge followings, however, often draw the attention of brands and businesses looking for strategic and cost-effective ways of reaching their target market and delivering their sales pitch convincingly.

Filipino Fashion blogger Bryan Grey Yambao, popularly known as Bryanboy, eventually became a "professional blogger" earning over $100,000 a year, according to Huffington Post, as haute couture designers took notice of his ability to sway his site visitors, be they fans or haters.

"Blogs can evolve to become ‘commercial’ or an ‘income-generating activity’ over time, but even then, they still retain their personal nature," Mr. Palacios said.

The IMMAP, in a statement issued on July 29, said that "while we appreciate the DTI reaching out to communicate its policies with concerned individuals and entities, IMMAP recognizes that the definition of eligibility they are operating on can be seriously problematic for brands, companies, and individuals who run online promotions, many of them out of their own pocket."

Using the Consumer Act as basis for the guidelines, the organization said, could end up forcing bloggers to conform to outdated models and attitudes toward building consumer or reader rapport.

For instance, the IMMAP pointed out that the current law, which hasn’t been updated since 1992, does not acknowledge "[t]he notion that a raffle can be conducted purely for goodwill purposes, and not by a company but rather an individual."

It added that the law was passed at a time before greater internet accessibility created, for many people, a "virtual reality" where time and distances are compressed.

The Consumer Act, the organization said, does not acknowledge "[t]he fact that timelines to deploy and operate an online promotion have shrunk from weeks to days to hours...."

The Trade department, said Ms. Maglaya, wants to take these new circumstances into consideration in coming up with the guidelines.

"We are aware of the personal nature of these blogs and how they can evolve, which is why we are working with bloggers on these guidelines," she said.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content....lated&id=37332

[greenice]

Email is 29 years old today

GMANews – 15 hours ago

Email (electronic mail), one of the staples of the Internet age, marked its 29th birthday on August 30, 2011, with its inventor looking forward to its continued growth.
Dr. V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai, who got a copyright for "EMAIL" on Aug. 30, 1982, said EMAIL has so far defied "experts" who had been writing it off since 2000.
Email not dead
"Since 2000, experts at Gartner, PC Week, and others have made these claims. Even now, in 2011, experts, (Facebook founder Mark) Zuckerberg, etc. claim, EMAIL will be replaced. The data shows otherwise. EMAIL volume continues to grow. EMAIL access on web, and now mobile devices, is growing exponentially," he said in his website.
He said that while many people text and chat, that is not replacing email, which he said is "a bit more structured (and) formal."
Also, he found it ironic that, although Zuckerberg had been quoted as saying "email is dead," there are reports of him launching @Facebook as a direct challenge to GMail.
Vaporizing paper mail
Shiva, a scientist-technologist, inventor and educator, said he started work on the first EMAIL system at age 14 in 1978, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).
"The two words, 'Electronic' and 'EMAIL' juxtaposed together for me originally brought images of vaporizing paper and somehow transporting it across electrical wires, like the transporter in Star Trek. That is how NEW those two terms next to each other were in 1978," he said.
At the time, he hoped to make the electronic equivalent of the paper-based inter-office communications for UMDNJ, complete with elements such as "To:", "From:", "Date:", "Subject:", "Cc:", "Bcc:", and "Attachment."
"It was fascinating. Cc literally meant carbon copy. A secretary would put a piece of carbon paper between two sheets of white letter and type to create a carbon copy, on which was sent to the original recipient and the other to the person Cc'd. Such an analysis and understanding was new in 1978. I spent the next three years building the first Electronic MAIL system," he said.
Award-winning achievement
He was recognized with the Westinghouse Science Award for original innovation in 1981. In that same year, Shiva applied for a US Copyright.
"No one compelled me to. I thought about it as a literally piece of work, and thought it should be properly referenced. It took over one year to explain to the Copyright office what EMAIL was, finally resulting in the Copyright being issued in August 30, 1982 for EMAIL," he said. — TJD, GMA News

[boypad]

More Pinoys access Internet

BusinessMirror Online
Tuesday, 06 September 2011
By Armin Amio - Companies and Technology Editor

JUST like anywhere in the world, it appears that human life in the Philippines is now being mirrored online. Nearly half of urban-based Filipinos are turning to the Internet for information, communication and entertainment. This, thanks to the lower acquisition cost of Internet-capable devices such as computers and mobile phones and the decline in connection charges, market-research company Synovate Inc. said on Tuesday.

In its 2010-2011 Media Atlas Philippine survey, Synovate said 46 percent of urban Filipinos access the Internet, 14 percentage points higher than the previous year’s 32 percent, with the bulk of the increase coming from the 15- to 24-year-old segment which posted a high 71 percent. Last year only 57 percent of this age group accessed the Internet.

“Based on these figures and on the resulting psychographic analysis done on the data, Internet may be considered a real challenge to print and radio as an advertising medium, with 25 percent of the respondents finding it an effective medium for advertising compared with television’s 37 percent,” Carole Sarthou, managing director of Synovate-Philippines, said.

Sarthou, however, pointed out that in terms of people engagement, the print media figures much higher than with television and radio. She said newspapers and magazines posted a high 62 percent compared with radio’s 19 percent and TV’s low 19 percent. “This means that readers are more focused when accessing information from the print media compared with those whose main information channels are TV and radio as they tend to do other chores such as eating, doing housework or talking to the phone,” she said.

The Synovate executive also noted that the observed decline in preference for the print media may have tapered off. “Over the past two survey periods, newspapers remain a firm favorite with 30 percent of the population reading one or more local language or English titles and about 22 percent read magazines,” she said.

As in previous years, Steve Garton, Synovate managing director for media for Greater China, pointed out that print readers tend to be more upscale, belonging to the A, B and C+ socioeconomic classes and tend to be within the older age group. The company also observed that there is a “flight to quality” in terms of print media consumption, meaning readers want value and excellence from their newspapers and magazines.

The challenge for print media owners, said Sarthou, is how to drive the interest of the younger age category to this medium.

“Mainstream media must learn to be a part of the action,” noted Garton, adding that the continued growth of Internet use in the country cannot be ignored. Access to the Internet has crossed all socioeconomic classes and age groups. “Even those in the 50- to 60-year-old age group find it a whole lot easier to access the Internet, thanks to easier user interface,” Garton said.

The precursor to this trend, however, remains those in the younger age group who now “define their lives digitally.” He explained that there is now a growing preference for the two-way communication provided by the Internet as readers can interact and reply compared with the one-way information transfer given by traditional media. A game-changer, he said, is when the so-called Internet or smart TV will become predominant in the market.

Garton also said more and more Filipinos are accessing the Internet in their homes rather than the Internet café, mainly because of the lower cost of broadband connection provided by telecom companies. Desktop PCs are the predominant mode of Internet access at 82 percent of the study population, while laptops and mobile phones posted 35 percent and 21 percent, respectively. He, however, expects mobile-phone Web access to increase to around 33 percent by 2012.

Filipinos, the survey noted, access the Internet mainly to communicate (e-mail and chat), visit social-networking sites (such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace), search for information, download or upload music video and software, play online games, listen to music, share files and even book for their travel requirements.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/hom...ccess-internet

[InformaticIAN]

OT. we're working for an ONLINE SHOPPING MALL, hopefully to be launched on October 1. If anyone wants to have their online Shop and promote their products for free, let me know. PM me.

[d7beast]

Goodbye STEVIE,..

[boypad]

Steve's genius was in marketing, not technology. He had an awesome intuition for what retail customers wanted. The NYT quotes him delightfully in response to a question about market research for the iPad: "... it's not the customers' job to know what they want". In a nutshell you have the reason why he became a billionaire: he gave customers what they wanted even when they didn't know they wanted it.

In this he follows on from Akiro Morita, who gave the world the iPod's precursor, the Sony Walkman. He also famously ignored the market research sticking to his personal belief that the product would be a hit with customers even though focus groups rejected it.

I have seen this point made before, but it doesn't get the recognition it deserves. So: Steve Jobs became a billionaire because he ignored the research on what customers wanted. He trusted his own instincts for taste and quality.

Lesson: if you want to follow in his footsteps, recognise that you need to learn "taste" and "quality" and so long as you produce a product which has both, you will have produced something the customer wants. It's not about building a better mousetrap - indeed the iPod, Ipad and even the Apple Mac weren't technically innovative, they were brilliantly repackaged technology delivered with "taste" and "quality". This was Steve's genius.

http://www.economist.com/comment/106...omment-1069185

[InfinitiFX45]

Philippines tagged as 'rock' of global IT-BPO industry

by Tam Noda Home Updated October 11, 2011 03:50 PM

http://www.philstar.com/nation/artic...ticleid=736317

MANILA, Philippines - Citing the way Filipinos deliver their services through call centers and outsourcing firms in the country, the Philippines today was tagged as "rock" of the global IT and Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry.

"If before we call the Philippines as an important key in the field of outsourcing, we call it today as the rock of the global IT-BPO industry," said Martin Noel Conboy, president of the Australian BPO Association, during this afternoon's press conference of the 3rd Annual International Outsourcing Summit (IOS) at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel.

Conboy made the announcement with Alfredo Ayala, chairman of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP); Valentin Makarov, president of RUSSOFT Association in Russia; Gaurav Gupta, managing partner (India) of Everest Group; Nour Al Hmoud, director of Investment Promotion at Jordan Investment Board; Grace Castillo, head of enterprise segment of Globe Telecoms; and Albert Mitchell Locsin, vice president and head of corporate relationship management of PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.).

Ayala told reporters that over 400 delegates and 80 speakers from various countries took part in this year's IOS, a high-level conference organized by BPAP to tackle the future of the global IT-BPO industry, particularly the development of non-voice and complex IT-BPO services.

BPAP reported the more than 50 percent of the summit's audience composed of foreign nationals only shows the country's significant role in the global IT-BPO industry that is expected to grow to $270 billion by 2016.

"Competition may be tough, but it opens a world of possibilities as well, especially for Asia. Our focus is on strengthening the country's IT-BPO sector," Lacdao said, as he reiterates BPAP's strategies in creating stronger collaborations and partnerhips with the government.

Lacdao shared that President Benigno Aquino III is keeping a proactive stance towards the industry by way of his Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program, intending to extend this to infrastructure projects and to be applied later on to the local IT-BPO sector.

BPAP said that although voice service has grown globally by 20 percent since last year, non-voice is growing faster in services on back office, health care, IT, engineering, among others.

Conboy said the current outsourcing industry in the Philippines is no longer entirely made up of voice service, but more on non-voice and the challenge remains on how to attract the country's rich pool of non-voice talents to work in the industry.

Conboy added that among the new non-voice talents that are in demand today are the country's supply of workers who are skilled in social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Animation, according to Lacdao, remains a hot channel that the country can explore and develop fresh talents.

A study by The Everest Group revealed that Asia accounts for 21 of the 38 new delivery centers established in the second quarter of 2011. Aside from the Philippines, Brazil is considered a "mature" market location for IT services, while countries like Nicaragua and Kenya are emerging destinations for delivery centers.

[InfinitiFX45]

'Philippines is rock of global BPO industry'

by Ira Pedrasa, abs-cbnNEWS.com Posted at 10/11/2011 6:01 PM | Updated as of 10/12/2011 12:16 AM

Global partnerships, local initiatives seen to buoy BPO-IT sector

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/10...l-bpo-industry

MANILA, Philippines - Sustained by strong fundamentals, the Philippines’ information technology and business process outsourcing sector (IT-BPO) will be able to surpass the bleak economic outlook affecting the globe, experts said on Tuesday.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) President Alfredo Ayala told reporters the industry will “post a similar experience of a slowdown like in 2008…but will still post a double-digit [revenue] growth.”

The global economic downturn suppressed the industry’s economic growth to 18% in 2009, but this picked up later in 2010.

The same can be said this year, even if the World Bank changed scenarios for the country.

“After the drop, it will grow again,” Ayala said.

The Washington-based lender recently changed its forecast for the country’s economy to 4.5% this year and 5% in 2012. It initially expected a growth of 5% for this year and 5.4% for 2012.

Ayala said the industry will be able to post around US$25 billion in revenues by the year 2016 if government comes in to spur growth.

“We’re pleased with a pro-active Aquino administration, we hope they’ll be able to [add to] the initiatives we’ve been working on.”

‘Rock of BPO industry’

The positive outlook is also shared by other countries looking to partner with the Philippines in terms of “synergies and exchange of ideas.”

Australian Business Process Outsourcing Association President Martin Noel Conboy said the country used to be the best kept investing site secret in Asia, and now it is the “Rock of the BPO industry globally.”

To keep pace with the changing times, the country has to go beyond the voice segment of the industry.

BPAP said the voice segment is now only 70% of the whole BPO industry.

Some call centers, for example, have even moved up to higher-end, non-voice-based services, which require more of technical knowledge and problem-solving capabilities.

Nonetheless, the voice-segment still posted a 20% revenue growth last year. This means it remains a major driver of the BPO sector, BPAP said.

Jordan Investment Board director for investment promotion Nour Al Hmoud added there are sub-sectors by which foreign countries could partner with the Philippines, such as in animation and online gaming.

Local initiatives
Locally, the BPAP is working on key initiatives aimed at strengthening the supply-side.

Ayala said that if the $25 billion revenue goal by 2016 is to be achieved, the industry should be able to keep up with the growing demand for quality workers.

At the current pace, companies are able to get only 5 quality workers from around 100 applicants. The industry needs around 80,000 new hires per year.

“We have to increase the volume and quality…maybe we could market more to non-fresh graduates and career switchers. We need to do a better job at convincing them,” Ayala said.

In the meantime, the industry is looking into academic curriculums, combined with professional training, to fill-up the supply-side of the equation, he added.

This includes tapping the so-called “near hires” by investing in the skills they have and making them more employable. He also cited the need for “training the trainer.”

BPAP is also pushing for a global competitiveness assessment test, which will analyze the skills and capabilities of students or applicants.

At present, the Department of Science and Technology is also working with a private firm for the creation of a modules-based software that can be used by anyone interested in joining the IT-BPO sector

[Carlosaur]

[r0mm3l]

United States revealed as Philippines' best friend in cyberspace
http://mb.com.ph/articles/337492/uni...end-cyberspace

Philippines’ Facebook connections revealed as Western Union announces last call for the world’s most globally connected person

Manila, Philippines – The United States has been revealed as the Philippines’ best friend in cyberspace, according to a unique new league table released by Western Union, one of the world’s most globally connected brands.

The league table has been created using data from Western Union’s Your World Facebook Application, which visualises each user’s Facebook connections around the globe and gives them a score for how globally connected they are.

Your World has enjoyed more than 250,000 hits worldwide since its launch in July this year, as individual users compete in the Western Union Network Challenge: a hunt for the world’s most globally networked person on Facebook. On the 18th of October Western Union will announce the winner - and reveal an opportunity for them to use their global network as a force for good.

With so much aggregate data being generated by Your World, Western Union has been able to build a bird’s eye view of how different countries connect to one another on Facebook. The data reveals the Philippines’ top ten best friends in cyberspace: those countries where Facebook users in the Philippines have the most Facebook connections.

The results show how social media is shrinking the world we live in – with some of the Philippines’ closest friends in cyberspace based thousands of miles away in the real world:

United States
Canada
Singapore
United Kingdom
Australia
United Arab Emirates
Spain
India
Indonesia
Saudi Arabia
Western Union launched the Your World Application and associated Western Union Network Challenge in July this year to mark its 160th Anniversary and celebrate its unique status as one of the world’s most globally connected brands. With approximately 470,000 locations in 200 countries and territories[1] turning over 19 transactions per second, Western Union has a greater physical presence than any other company globally - and ten times more locations than famous global restaurant chain, McDonald’s.

Western Union President and CEO, Hikmet Ersek, said:

“We’re delighted that so many consumers have been enjoying Your World. It not only gives them a fun way to see their global network, but as a business provides us with a fascinating bird’s eye view of how countries around the world connect to one another. Western Union has been privileged to connect people across the globe for more than 160 years, so this kind of insight is invaluable.”

He added: “On the 18th of October we will be announcing the winner of the Western Union Network Challenge - the Your World user who has the most global connections. We will be inviting him or her to partner with us to use their network as a force for good. So I would urge anyone who has not yet tried out the Application to give it a go.” (Green Bulb PR)

[r0mm3l]

Originally Posted by Carlosaur

HAHAH! NICE!