South East Asia

Early this year I participated and registered in the Asian Development Bank Institute online course called the Community Information Services. The aim of this course is to teach participants to design or formulate a model to use information technology to stimulate development by bridging the digital divide.

Alertnet: Hundreds feared dead in Philippine mudslide

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who had expressed concern on whether I have friends/family affected in the disaster area. Thankfully, there are none. I live on the southern part of Mindanao island in the Philippines and Leyte island is located somewhere in the middle. (map image below)

There is no dispute that “Electronic Governance” is gradually entering the domain of public administration concepts and strategies in developing countries. (or, in what we term as the broader governance sphere)

Electronic Governance, in simplest terms, it refers to those governance processes in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing an active role in delivering governance related products and services.

Digital Governance Initiative is a virtual network of over 2800 E-governance policymakers and practitioners from developing countries. The Initiative identifies and propagates innovative e-governance models which are suited for developing countries. The models are based on strategic application of knowledge and information technologies to create an e-governance system which is citizen specific and addressess a particular development concern, viz: lack of information, corruption, bureaucracy etc.

"Give Us Your Best and Brightest: The Global Hunt for Talent and Its Impact on the Developing World" by Devesh Kapur and John McHale, the book recently mentioned in the New York Times article, illustrates best the multi-dimensional issues surrounding brain drain in a way that breaks us out of the simplistic thinking of having polarized views, either the laissez-faire attitude of "brain circulation will happen" or protectionist "globalization is damaging the local economy" answers. It is exactly the complexity of brain drain effects that makes this go beyond a black-or-white stand, and very different from issues of poverty, environment, human rights, health or equality.

We've just finished a board meeting for Digital Divide Data...and I am feeling deeply appreciative of our board of directors. Our board saw us through a critical organizational challenge...and we are poised to emerge as an even stronger organization from the experience.

I spent my Saturday installing/configuring Drupal and collecting feeds, links and images on Web 2.0 to create a pilot website for RSSRSSRSS, my project that proposes to introduce Web 2.0 to computer science schools and universities, in preparation for my school visits in Davao City, Philippines on December.

Last Oct. 20, Roberto Milk of Novica gave a talk of how his business, Novica, grew from a concept to an internationally operated retail and distribution dot-com.

His story of leveraging the Internet and global connections, and the emerging market segment called the Cultural Creatives, inspired me to look at the artisans living in my province, and consider taking their products with me when I return from Davao City, Philippines.