Smart’s #TGIFreeday is on!! If ur a Smart subscriber, internet is free from ur fone! Continue 2b connected even when ur out! Spread d luv!
Smart’s TGIF! is on!! If ur a Smart subscriber, internet is free from ur fone! Continue 2b connected even when ur out on gmk!! Spread d luv!
TGIF!!! Smart offering FREE trial to the wonders of the Mobile Internet this Friday!!! http://ow.ly/2ichE
Where are still the possible points of failure that we, the citizens, can watch and do something about?
At the Fira Barcelona Grounds
It was nice to come again to a city I used to call home, Barcelona. In a way it still is like an ex girlfriend who you will always love even when you’ve already got a wife and 4 kids. But we’re digressing so let me get back to the topic at hand.
I’m back in Barcelona to attend Mobile World Congress 2010. As the congress winds down to its last day, I want to highlight and report on what has inspired me.
Mobile Broadband is an inevitable future.
The future of always on, always connected to the network, always up, always fast is no longer a possible future but an inevitable one. It’s a scenario the reality of which my imagination could only touch the surface even if I already have a wild imagination. As technology advances, network capacities we could not have imagined possible will be achieved at ever lowering cost. The power of computers which used to occupy whole buildings can now literally be had on the palm of your hand. Network speeds will no longer be an issue or a comparative basis because everything will be so fast that we will no longer think about it. It will be as natural as breathing or a more closer analogy will be thinking. A thought will just pop up without us having to think about the speeds of the synaptic signals between neurons in our brain. Imagine if these signals were constrained, we would never get anywhere or do anything.
As capacities and speeds unimaginable become available, expect that we will always find ways to use it.
It will not just change the industry, it would have psychological and philosophical consequences. How would life be in such a world? The challenge for the industry is not just limited to how to provide this capacity at a recuparable cost but more fundamentally how will the industry look like in such a world. It’s not just about pricing and business models to recuperate the investment but what will the structure of that industry be?
Philosophically, an interesting notion comes to mind. If we are connected with anybody and anything in this network at the speed of thought, then won’t we become just neurons on this cloud which we could now call the metabrain, a brain of brains?
Marriage of telephony and cloud computing
Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, gave a talk and demoed a voice and video search (aka google goggles), which at first glance seem like trivial tasks but are in fact tasks that involve such sophisticated complexity with secret algorithms, a lot, I suspect, involves Bayesian heuristics and other data alchemy. Then it occurred to me that telephony and cloud computing is a match made in heaven. (I could already picture in my head a romantic movie of 2 lovers destined to be together and the conflicts, challenges and tribulations in between are mere illusions so you get the audience glued to their seats for 90 or so minutes. The “live happily ever after” ending is bound to happen whether you watch the movie from the beginning or near the end or not watch the movie at all. But then I am digressing and I have to stop.) It is inevitable.
Which brings me back to the earlier insight on the transformation of independent individuals to just neurons in this brain of brain. Telephony are the synapses. We are part of the cloud as these server farms, which some of us initially think of as the only main components of the cloud, and embedded devices are. We will all be just neurons in the brain of brains. I wonder if that will develop its own consciousness. Ok stop.
Meanwhile back in Earth, I am inspired to guide my organization to learn, adopt, live and immerse everything that we do in the cloud. Another thing I want to borrow from Google is the mantra of “Mobile First”. Everything we do now should be “Mobile First” and “In the Cloud.”
I can’t contain the excitement of the geek in me.
Open API. Write Once. Deploy Everywhere.
App Store Wannabe?
As developer of mobile enabled apps, our company Chikka.Com has always looked with envy at web players with their “develop once, deploy globally immediately” reality they luckily find themselves in. I especially felt this as I led Chikka’s foray into foreign markets. It was “develop once, take 1 year to convince telco A to allow you on their network, then redevelop it for A, another year for telco B in country C, redevelop it for B but charge the receiver and wear white on Mondays, convince telco C in country D that it’s ok that telco A has it even if C and A hate each other…” I could go on and on and make this into a book instead of a blog but I wouldn’t do that because it’s 1Am and I’m sleepy and the point is clear that it simply is not efficient and sustainable. Even in one country, develop once deploy everywhere is impossible so I began to do my favorite past time: playing the what if game. What if it is possible? What do we need to make, change, destroy, grow, pester, cajole, steamroll, pull, push, hug, kiss, slap around, pat in back to make it happen? And I thought of HAL of Windows NT in my Microsoft days. (HAL is Hardware Abstraction Layer for you non geeks which if I could simplify means developers not having to think about the transistors in the processor to make a program.) What if we have a HAL or TCAL (TelCo Abstraction Layer) so developers don’t have to think about the telephone operator to develop his killer app. So we embarked on a mission to be the TCAL for developers developing apps for mobile subscribers in the Philippines.
So it was with great satisfaction to learn that GSMA (the association of GSM telephone operators (I wonder how meetings among these highly competitive bunch are?)) is launching an initiative called One API. This just means that I am not alone in the desert. There are other people… in the desert. I could always eat them in case we run out of food.
There will be industry support, in theory at least. There will be specifications, which on one hand could be limiting but on the other hand could be viewed as a guide guiding the lost souls in the desert who are about to eat each other because they’re running out of food.
And finally because I’m sleepy, cool new phones
HTC (OEM makers of Palms, XDAs and just about everything even your kitchen sink) launch a slew of really cool phones. Cool because they look and feel like iPhones but with Android in them. Kidding aside, they are stylish, slick and fast. I snobbed Nokia and Samsung, whom I used to like because they partnered with IDEO on some of their designs as I made a resolution around September last year that a friend of IDEO is a friend of mine. Samsung’s models, including those in skimpy outfits in their booth, failed to impress me.
I’m sure you could google for better pictures but here’s a glimpse (badly taken):
iPhone wannabes?
The surprise to me was good ole Microsoft. I used to work with MSFT, used to own Windows Mobile phones before I shifted to the iPhone and the Berry, used to use Vista before I upgraded to Windows 7 on Parallels, used to drink Bill Gate’s water after he spoke before I spoke in one conference (Seriously! Bill spoke, left an unfinished bottle of water on the lectern, I got on stage, took a swig and started my speech with “glug glug, this is the water from the fountain of wealth.” I got rehydrated but never got wealthy. So as you can see, good ole MSFT has lost its coolness and relevance for me. Then wham! I saw the vaporware of Windows Phone 7 and I was in love again at least with the vaporware. The phone won’t be available til Dec 2010. The interface was so cute and cool, I couldn’t believe it didn’t come from Cupertino. (You have to google it because I did not take photos.)
Sleepy thoughts
Well these are the things that inspired me at this year’s congress and I’m writing this so I won’t forget and also to share my thoughts. There are so many things going on (some maybe potentially world changing but slipped my mind as I write) which shows a vibrant industry it is hard to keep up but also hard not to be inspired by the ideas and efforts of the people trying to eke a living in the Wild West of mobile for it is the Wild West out here, dusty, savage, full of dueling cowboys, hard and romantic. Who could have thought at that time that California would have the 8th largest economy with an Austrian governor or Arizona or Texas be what they are today? The mobile industry is still the Wild West. Its future, its possibilities I could only imagine and even my wild imagination will end up a gross underestimation of what it will be. So brace yourself for the new world and it will be totally something you did not expect.
I met with Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals’ Union who are a jolly good bunch of computer professionals (hence the name) who volunteer their time (hence jolly good bunch) to bring technology to the people, help NGOs with their computing needs, etc. Among the many projects they have on their plate, they started Vote Report, which is “a grassroots-based electoral campaign that aims to inform, organize and mobilize the Filipino people to push for meaningful reforms in the 2010 automated polls with the aid of new media technology.”
When I first stumbled upon their website, I thought wow! no need to reinvent the wheel for the Citizen Election Watch Project. So we met. Rick turned out to be a really cool guy with a purpose that makes mine look amateurish. We agreed to work together. We also concluded that since this is voluntary, i.e. no company requiring its employees to give in their time in exchange for compensation, we need as much help from all sectors.
We agreed that CPU will implement the project. This may be just an enhancement to Vote Report. We, including you, will brainstorm on added features like reporting by SMS, video streaming, etc. but whatever we decide, CPU will make that happen.
We still need more volunteer programmers. I will continue to encourage our engineers to volunteer. If you want to volunteer or know anyone, please join in.
We need a hosting or datacenter company out there who’s kind enough to donate servers, hosting space and bandwidth. Know anyone?
For my part, I will continue to work on getting Smart, Globe and Sun to allow their subscribers to send SMS to a shortcode to report an incident (that’s about to happen or has happened) and capture location data so they don’t have to type in where they are, MMS, stream video, in that order. For Free. Wish me luck.
Then we need to let the world know about it. This is critical! If the no one knows about it, no one will use it. If no one knows about it, it will produce no fear on the bad guys therefore it is no deterrent.
If anyone has contacts in both traditional and social media who can help, please ask them to get in touch with me.
Celebrity endorsement could give this a boost. Anyone?
I’m trying to get hold of NAMFREL, church groups and other organizations who already have people in place nationally. They can use this tool. We can train them to use it. Do we have contacts there?
Like all voluntary work, this is a choice you have to make without any form of reward, renumeration from me or anyone. If you don’t do it, it’s ok. If you do it, only you can feel that satisfaction that’s hard to explain to anyone but it doesn’t matter. You know when you feel it.
Anyways, that’s what I can think of right now. If you have any ideas, please share it. Spread the love baby!
- I’m working on getting a deal with Globe, Smart, Sun to provide free SMS/MMS facility for reporting. 80% of phones in the Philippines are still not internet ready. We need to be able to give them the facility to report for free.
- We can create syntax on twitter hash tags so we can easily automate the collection of tweets to mash to Google maps.
- I want to provide streaming video capability, again mashed to map. This will be critical especially during counting. The world has to be the witness to the actual counting and not just a select few to avoid “dagdag bawas.”
- Facebook app? It seems like Facebook is the social network du jour so let’s use it.
- Email reports? Email is still the most ubiquitous way to communicate in the web.
- I know it’s no longer fashionable but given the penetration of smart phones, we may still need to design a WAP specific User Interface.
- Hosting it on bigger, more scalable and faster data centers.
- Encourage our company’s (Chikka.Com) engineers to volunteer their time for this. Developers and techies out there, we need you.
I made several recommendations last night after my first day at the controversial DSWD/UNICEF warehouses regarding the need to optimize the packing lines so we can move goods faster. The critical need, however, are warm volunteers, a lot of able hands, because without them nothing will get packed. The optimized lines will be like online commentaries, nothing but air.
In the morning, there were only 4 volunteers who came to help Ensha at the UNICEF warehouse. My good ole friends from Microsoft days Marvin and MR Cruz were there from 8AM. They worked for 12 hours with Marvin supervising the operations after Ensha left. 12 hours! Marvs, MR, you guys are my heroes. With Ensha was Elay from Antipolo. And if this doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what would. An American film maker, Ian, flew from Cebu to just help. He’s flying back tomorrow. I will repeat that. Ian is not even Filipino and he is based in Cebu. He flew all the way from Cebu, pack and go back. Can you imagine that? And some can’t even be bothered to get off their comfortable seats but I’ll stop the bitching here.
DSWD had many volunteers. The UPS guys were still there. DSWD kindly sent 16 Singles for Christ members to help the 5 guys slaving away at the UNICEF warehouse.
At around 2PM, 41 Army reserve soldiers and 3 officers headed by Col. Javier and Master Sgt. Penafiel arrived and things started moving faster.
In the afternoon, Carla Sta. Cruz of ADB, Martha Sapalo of the Air Force, my friends and fellow Red Cross Rizal volunteers Chef Christine Zarandin and Benjo Ramos arrived. I was the last one to arrive.
My hats off to everyone who came and helped.
I’m deeply concerned though if we want to move these goods where they are needed. I’m no logistics expert but in order to move these goods, we need people and an efficient process. But we need people first. It’s a weekend and only 8 volunteered. If not for the military and the Singles for Christ, they couldn’t have packed over 800 starter kits to families displaced by the floods. I cannot count the Facebook posts, twitter RTs and online commentaries on the issue. It even made a trending topic in twitter which is not as easy feat. But only 8 came.
Many reacted to Ella’s blog whose photos are taken from the UNICEF warehouse. Many reacted passionately crying why the goods are not moving. You know why the goods are not moving? It’s not because DSWD personnel are corrupt or incompetent. It’s simply because YOU, yes YOU are doing nothing but cry, complain, criticize from your air-conditioned rooms, pointing your fingers, devising your conspiracy theories and blaming. If Ian can take the plane from Cebu so he can contribute, what can you contribute? Instead of saying what else is wrong with our government, ask yourself: “What can I contribute?”
Just a volunteer,
Gio
To volunteer, please let us know:
For UNICEF: Ensha: 0917 577 4108 or me 0917 577 7602.
For DSWD Ms Fabian: 8528081 or Gang: info@rockedphilippines.org.
We need the following:
- Your name
- Contact info
- Days and times you can commit. (This is very important because we are coordinating with DSWD and UNICEF and they need to know how many people are they expecting at which times so they can also inform their staff, eg security guards, warehouse managers, etc. It will just make it easier for everyone, most especially you when you get there.)
Wow! So much talk and so many extra issues.
I personally went there this afternoon to (1) help move the goods that were supposed to be not moving and (2) see for myself what’s happening and see what else I can do. (MLQ3, thanks for quoting my blog. I wanted to clarify things for myself and hopefully for others. I did not insinuate that original blogger talked about pilferage. I was just clarifying through issues that could be going in people’s minds.)
To everyone who has not gone there, stop the talk and go there before you pass any judgment.
As far as I could actually see for myself, the DSWD, UNICEF personnel, volunteers were working as hard as they can and sweating it out there, getting cuts in their arms trying to insert those blankets inside the water jugs.
I see a lot of people talking and commenting in this blog. While I will kill and die to defend your right to free speech and expression, I want to request that you please stop for a while and just go there, if not to see for yourselves what is happening but to lend a hand. I twitted, FBed, SMS, called everyone I know and only 15 came earlier. We need all the hands and less talk.
Can things be improved there? Yes!
I may disagree with how DSWD is managing the packing lines but I understand it. I wouldn’t have if I didn’t go. The DSWD warehouse management is limiting the number of volunteers, a choice they made because it may have been to them the most optimal way to manage the process better. I disagree with it and think the warehouses could handle more (if more volunteers come) but I feel that it was done with the good intentions of delivering the goods where they are needed. I feel no malice.
My suggestion: recruit line managers, delegate responsibility to them and have 24/7 shifts. (Assuming volunteers come.)
There’s also a very obvious communication problem. I do not personally know Dr. Cabral but it seems to me that what she thought at her level was implemented, was not implemented down the line, eg security guards blowing off would be volunteers. This happens in any organization.
My suggestion: As soon as the 24/7 production line is organized, get everyone in the organization on the same page, including and especially the guards and the front office for they are what volunteers encounter first. (If I didn’t ask for UNICEF none of the people would have suggested it and I would have spending that Saturday afternoon reading your blogs instead of stuffing pots and soaps in sacks.) Then recruit, recruit volunteers. Many are willing.
Are the goods going to where they are intended? I don’t know.
Suggestion: Call Dr. Cabral and find out how you can help with deployment. Then go with the deployment teams. Then you can see it first hand and give it from your hand to hand of the very person receiving the goods.
There are a lot of corruption in the government but not everyone is corrupt. There’s a lot of things that needs to be improved in the way the government is handling things. Question is: “Are you just gonna talk about it or get up and do something?”
From someone who’s been there and still trying to do that.
See MLQ3′s blog.
I just want to share my experience at the DSWD to shed some light into the DSWD controversy because I had enough of the online speculation and just wanted to go there and see it for myself and volunteer to help.
When I got there I looked for Miss Fabian who’s managing the warehouse for DSWD. She informed me that they no longer need volunteers for the weekend because they have too many. So I asked about UNICEF and they exclaimed that I could help there. UNICEF needs volunteers.
So I met with Ensha of UNICEF, some volunteers from Don Bosco and Jordan, a volunteer from Boston. We were about 15. After about an hour, my fellow volunteers from Red Cross, including Geraldine Repollo, who’s managing Rizal chapter, followed and relieved the students from Don Bosco. We were still about 15.
There are 5 (if my memory doesn’t fail me this time) huge warehouses. 1 warehouse housed the goods from UNICEF. The rest housed rice and other food stuff. The UNICEF goods are packed as starter packs for those families who have been relocated due to the floods. A starter pack consists of cooking pot stuffed with towels, bath soap, laundry detergent, water jug stuffed with 4 blankets, 2 plastic mats. These are then picked up by trucks and supposed to be delivered to the relocation centers. The rest of the warehouses pack food and snack packs, as far as I know because I did not actually pack one. Distribution is centralized through DSWD.
Those are the facts as I’ve seen them.
The blog that started it all, after checking the posted pics and what I actually saw, referred to the UNICEF warehouse. Is there corruption? I don’t think there is. At least not at the warehouse packing stages. Ensha and the volunteers seem intent only on the job at hand. (Bless you guys!)Security seems strict and I see no signs of pilferage. I’m not sure what happens after the goods leave the warehouse. I just hope they get to their supposed destinations. Someone needs to check on that.
Is there intentional hoarding? I don’t think there is either.
Goods are just moving slow. I posit 2 reasons:
1. There are not enough volunteers. Ms. Fabian says that on weekdays they only get around 40 volunteers. When I came there, there were not more than 15 working on a Saturday even when I posted on my FB page with my 1800 “FB friends”, several FB groups totaling around 400 members, twittered it, and SMSed to 20 buddies. 15/2000 is not a good ratio. Gang, I hope you are more successful. No volunteers.
2. Limits set by the management. When I was told that DSWD is no longer accepting volunteers for the weekend because there were already a lot of volunteers from UPS. I don’t have the exact count but I saw several hundreds. However, after 2 hours of work, I noticed that the other warehouses were empty. I strongly think the 5 huge warehouses could accomodate and harness at least 1000 per warehouse. When we were repacking at Red Cross Rizal in a 40sqm room, we had 600 volunteers at some points and managed to release 1000-2000 packs per mission and we ran several missions per day. The DSWD warehouses should be able to improve their output. They could run 24/7 on continous shifts when volunteers and managers (from DSWD, UNICEF, or volunteers) running the packing lines. In business, we call this a good problem. It is a scale problem.
My recommendations:
- Train more packing line managers from staff and volunteers.
- Run the lines as a 24/7 operation with your trained line managers.
- Make the schedules public. Use social media, the internet, radio, whatever. (I know of some who volunteered but returned home when they were told they need no more volunteers. If I, myself, [emphasis mine] did not ask for UNICEF, the peeps at the DSWD office wouldn’t have volunteered the info. Clearly, we have communication problem here.)
- Get more volunteers.
Those are my recommendations to the people in charge of the warehouses.
To the rest of you readers, stop reading, stop speculating about corruption and criticizing from your comfortable chairs and fast broadband, stop making those stupid farmville whatever, stop waging virtual mafia wars, get out, volunteer and get ready to sweat it out.
I’ll post pics and videos when I get home. Now massage.
