Monday, April 28, 2008

Mobile Ads: The Next Frontier

Among the latest developments in the tech sector today which got my interest is from Ben Kunz of BusinessWeek.com entitled "The Real Threat to Google".

From his article, I would like to emphasize one main point - that Google's biggest threat may not be Microsoft or Yahoo, but may be Apple!

As the on-going takeover bid by Microsoft on Yahoo seems to be taking forever, Google is doing everything to further dominate the web advertising and making its OpenSocial as a standard platform for social networking sites.

Aside from this, the Big G "wants a say in what fits on that tiny screen" when it launched Android late last year. Many thought that Big G is preparing to launch its own mobile phone, somewhat similar to the iPhone of Apple.

Now it's much clearer that the next frontier for web advertising will come from mobile devices. As Ben pointed out and I quote,

"It was Apple (AAPL), a frequent Google collaborator, that tipped the trend. Consumer use of mobile Internet in the U.S. has longed trailed Asia and Europe, where standardized cell networks made it easier for handset makers to produce gadgets that tap the Web at blazingly fast speeds. But in the summer of 2007, Apple rocked America by launching the iPhone. The computer maker wasn't the first to put the Web on phones, but for many consumers, the iPhone made the experience more robust.

Almost two-thirds of Americans have had some experience with mobile Internet use, and the adoption trend is most pronounced among teens and young adults, according to Pew Research Center. About 60% of adults 18 to 29 use text messaging every day, compared with only 14% of their parents. Nearly one-third of young adults use mobile Internet. This is the future, because people take their media habits with them as they age."

It may really be the next thing about the Internet. That more and more devices will have more of the Web - news, email, chat, social network and even web apps. And definitely, mobile ads will also be there!

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

"Starts from a Simple Idea"

For our second feature of our personalities in the technology sector, I'd like to share with you someone who is one of the luminaries in the academic community and he is also involved with one of the biggest computer organizations in the Philippines.

His specializations are into computer technology, geographic information systems and database.

He has doctorate, masters and undergraduate degrees in Computer Science at the De La Salle University in Manila.

Some of research works made by him and/or his team were published in various publications.

He is no other than Dr. Caslon Chua, Dean of Computer Studies at the De La Salle University.

Herewith is my interview with him about his work, his projects and accomplishments and his insights for our future innovators.

Melvin: What is your vision for the College of Computer Studies?

Dr. Chua: My vision for the college is that it will keep on doing researches that contribute to the field of computer science. It will continue to come up with innovative ideas and not simply focus on developing applications.

One has to understand that software development is only a small part of the research process. It always starts with an idea no matter how small or simple; then it continues to grow ensuring its contribution to the scientific community. This may be a long process, but we are committed to be creative, patient and enduring.

Melvin: Can you share some of the latest researches being done at the College?

Dr. Chua: Currently the college has been doing substantial researches in the field of natural language processing (NLP) specifically on the Filipino language. Work on NLP ranges from the ability to automatically evaluate essays to detecting plagiarism among students submitted computer programs. Technical work includes the analysis of the Filipino language for subsequent processing by computers.

We also have researches done in the field of artificial intelligence and digital signal processing among others.

Melvin: Can you share some of the scientific papers that were published both locally and internationally?

Dr. Chua: Please find below some of the recently presented scientific papers from our college

  • Cheng, C. et al 2008. e-Wika: Philippine Connectivity Through Language. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Filipino as a Global Language. University of Hawaii, March 17-19, 2008.

  • Chua, C. et al 2008. Three Dimensional Model Graph Derivation for Path Traversal. In Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Society Congress (PCSC 2008). UP Diliman, February 23-24, 2008.

  • Cu, J. 2008. A Text-to-Speech System for Counting in Filipino. ADD-3 School of Applied Natural Language Processing for Linguistics Diversity and Language Resource Development. Bangkok, Thailand, Feb 25 – March 1, 2008.

  • Pantola, A. 2008. Epsilon: Information Security. In Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Society Congress (PCSC 2008). UP Diliman, February 23-24, 2008.

  • Pineda, M. 2008. Promoting Innovative Technology-based Class Projects Using a Knowledge Sharing Mindset. In Proceedings of the Amazing e-Learning II Conference. Bangkok, Thailand. March 7-10, 2008.

  • Cabredo, R. 2008. Extending Shape-based Similarity Measures for 3D Models. In Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Society Congress (PCSC 2008). UP Diliman, February 23-24, 2008.

  • Suarez, M. 2008. Design and Use of an Open Individual and Group Student Model for Learning Object-Oriented Design Using UML. In Proceedings of the 8th Philippine Computing Society Congress (PCSC 2008). UP Diliman, February 23-24, 2008.

Melvin: How do you see the impact of having Microsoft Innovation Center under the College?

Dr. Chua: The Microsoft Innovation Center provided a venue for both faculty and students to work together on creative projects. We see it as a commitment from the industry to assist the academe in providing a venue to generate and cultivate new ideas. It is also a venue where industry can find out what the academe is doing in generating new ideas.

Melvin: In your collaborations with other industry players such as CA Philippines and Microsoft, what do you consider some of the outputs of such partnerships?

Dr. Chua: Currently, partnerships with industries are still limited to the on-the-job training for the students. To some extent, we are able to invite industry experts to handle portions of the courses as guest lecturers with or without a partner faculty member. This way, we are able to provide students with a different perspective in some of the courses in the curriculum.

Melvin: As one of the stakeholders in the Computing Society of the Philippines, how will it be of help to the current state of our ICT education? Especially in the provinces?

Dr. Chua: As one of the stakeholders in the Computing Society of the Philippines, we are committed to bring about the culture of scientific research into our educational institutions doing ICT education. This is currently proving to be a challenging task, as many institutions accept any work on application development as research. Works that focus on the development of an accounting system, payroll system and enrollment system are sometimes being termed as research. But we have to start from somewhere. Today we are seeing faculty members from different institution realizing the importance of scientific research and its meaning.

In the Computing Society of the Philippines, we provide a local venue for faculty members to learn and share researches from different parts of the country. We hope this will encourage the faculty members to be pro-active in initiating a culture of doing research in their respective institution.

Melvin: What are the emerging local innovations that can be valuable this year?

Dr. Chua: For now, I can not mention any.

Melvin: How does the Web 2.0 technology evolving in the academic community? Particularly, is it now being utilized by the College?

Dr. Chua: Personally I don’t have a direct experience in developing applications using Web 2.0 technology. Therefore I cannot comment on how it is evolving in the academic community. To date, it is currently the technology we discuss and introduce it in some of our courses, however we do not have courses that specifically teach it.

Melvin: Your thoughts and insights for our future innovators?

Dr. Chua: Often times the best innovations starts from a simple idea, who would have thought that a single mouse click process used in a website can be patented?

The key idea would be to make the use of ICT easy and intuitive for people. It is to be noted that people who uses ICT are varied, thus we have to target only specific group. In order to be successful, one has to have creativity and patience.

Many success stories come from those who love to create new things and are committed to take care and improve on the things that they created. Many people takes the first step to create, but loses out on commitment. Like preparing a garden, it is always fun to start it out, being creative to get the right landscaping. But it takes patience to care for the plants, in order to enjoy the blossoming of the flowers and bearing of the fruits later on.

The first step to success is the feeling of being appreciated by the community given the knowledge that you freely share.




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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Philippines' Top Websites

As part of our compilation of ranking (based on Alexa.com) the most popular destinations on the Net, here are the top 25 Filipino websites well-known in the technology, academe, media and government sectors (list is by ranking, domain, Alexa.com rank, location):

  1. levelupgames.ph - 1,806. Makati City
  2. e-games.com.ph - 2,613. Makati City
  3. inquirer.net - 2,619. Makati City
  4. tipidpc.com - 2,701. Pasig City
  5. sulit.com.ph - 3,203.
  6. gmanews.tv - 4,432. Quezon City
  7. philstar.com - 5,335. Mandaluyong City
  8. yehey.com - 6,688. Pasig City
  9. pinoypsp.com - 8,210.
  10. abs-cbn.com - 8,416. Quezon City
  11. mb.com.ph - 16,419. Manila
  12. dlsu.edu.ph - 16,457. Manila
  13. sunstar.com.ph - 16,585. Cebu City
  14. chikka.com - 17,326. Pasig City
  15. smart.com.ph - 22,333. Makati City
  16. philmusic.com - 26,769. Pasig City
  17. up.edu.ph - 27,294. Quezon City
  18. dost.gov.ph - 44,955. Taguig City
  19. globe.com.ph - 48,092. Mandaluyong City
  20. mapua.edu.ph - 56,632. Manila
  21. admu.edu.ph - 76,645. Quezon City
  22. villman.com - 80,048. Quezon City
  23. pldt.com.ph - 112,974. Makati City
  24. tesda.gov.ph - 137,971. Taguig City
  25. amaes.edu.ph - 140,901. Quezon City

Out of the 25 websites, schools are 5 or 20%, online sites are 8 or 32%, news/media sites - 6 or 24%, ICT and ITES - 4 or 16%, and government sites are 2 or 8%.

In terms of location, Makati City has 5 or 20%, Quezon City has 6 or 24%, Pasig City has 4 or 16%, Manila has 3 or 12%, Cebu City has 1 or 4%, Taguig City has 2 or 8%, Mandaluyong City has 2 or 8% and the undetermined location has 2 or 8%.

In terms of popularity:

  • 10 sites made it at the Global Top 10,000
  • 12 sites made it from 10,001 to 99,000 rank
  • 3 sites made it from 100,000 to 150,000 rank


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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Goog + Virg = Mars


In 2004, Pres. Bush announced that man will go back to the moon and beyond in the coming decades. Within that year, NASA was successful in landing robots in Mars.

As I can recall, it was also in that year when SpaceShipOne was able to travel in space and won in a competition. For its breakthrough, I later learned that Virgin Group had invested in it and had that ambitious plan of creating space tourism in the near future.

And now, Sir Richard Branson (of Virgin Group), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (of Google) had joined together in a joint-venture, with a mission: "the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars".

The newly launched Virgle Inc. believes that...

"contemporary technology is sufficiently advanced to make such an effort both successful and economical, and that it's high time that humanity moved beyond Earth and began our great, long journey to explore the stars and establish our first lasting foothold on another world."

Timeline

2010. The Virgle team will plan to use the Lunae planum area of the north side of Kasei Valles as the Plymouth Rock of the new New World.

2014. The 550-million-mile journey to Mars will begin with 550,000 1/500th-of-a-mile steps, as the LSE3, a multi-stage heavy lifter now under construction using the World War II-era Liberty Ship philosophy and launches the staging components into low earth orbit.

2015. When the Virgle 1 lands, teams of autonomous rovers and assembly platforms will leap into action, building the facilities such as nuclear reactors, Martian Positioning System, Earth return vehicles, Hab modules, production plants, assembly platforms, robotic vehicles, and greenhouses.

2016. The program will begin a synchronized semiannual schedule with human crews. In the five-month voyage to Mars, Virgle Pioneers will experience the same way they enjoy on Earth.

2108. Building the Virgle City.

"We feel that ensuring the survival of the human race by helping it colonize a new planet is both a moral good in and of itself and also the most likely method of ensuring the survival of our best... So, you know, it's, like, win-win." says Google co-founder Larry Page.

This is indeed an exciting milestone in our lifetime. Investments will really be huge, but of course, the founders have already considered the risks involved in this project.

And if one will consider the potential benefits, I don't see any limitations for this project not to push through.


reference: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/announcing-project-virgle.html



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