Telling it like it is

Thanks Steve for an “insanely great” time!

Distance is relative. With today’s technology, this means being away from your computer, laptop or any wired device. Okay, I admit it. I’m always on. Wired. Real-time information continues to flow through my veins. I live and breathe information. I eat it for breakfast. [Here I am, blogging by the pool].

Taking a break these days means going somewhere far, but not too far. You would always want to have at least a mobile network coverage [for emergencies]. In my case, the Blackberry just kills the mystery. You still get all your office e-mail. When the red dot flickers, you’re always compelled to check. Just a quick peek, and then you’re done. But no, you keep reading…

I picked up this word from somewhere: screenburned. We’re all screenburned. Wherever we are, we have a screen right in front of us. It could be the size of your window. It could be as tiny as your make-up kit. It could be as thin as your short-rim notebook. Yeah, you’re screenburned. If there was any radiation emanating from all these screens, you could just imagine how red you are now.

Technology can be your best friend. Yesterday, I had to “call” using Yahoo! Messenger to clarify issues at work while am “OOO.” [Read: Out of Office].

I read somewhere that while we’re OOO, our brain is really AFK [Away for Know]. Even sleep is hampered. We’re hooked. We’re tied to it. We’re bound to it, like a metal-ball chained to our brain. Sleep eludes us. We’re androids hooked to a matrix of connected machines with a screen lighting up the room. And we’re staring at it…looking at every pixel that now represents you’re favorite movie, video, digital photo of your lovely Pad-Thai.

AFK. No, hooked & screenburned. Those are the appropriate “status” messages you want to tell.

Everybody I know seems to be getting an iPhone 4. Why am I not rushing to get one? Hmmmm.

First, I want to get the real iPhone. Why would I let my hands do the “surfing” and “navigating” when I can just use my eyes to do everything. Forget the iPhone. Get an eyePhone!

Second, if you’re really dead serious about the iPhone, you should watch this video and decide. This model is going to be available in the future. So, I’m waiting for it.

Aileen Apolo starts her blog with a rant about the scarcity of news about the information technology industry in the Philippines for, hmm, the past months since elections started, or even way before that period.

The shortest reply to her question is this: elections. Most of the media’s attention is focused on this regular exercise of democracy. Also, there are stories that we cannot write because sources decline to make them public, as Migz would put it.

Actually, one of the sources of IT stories today are blogs or the Internet in general. As more techies get connected, it is easier to network with people who are in the know.

Sometimes, I get leads via e-mail from friendly (sometimes unfriendly) sources. But as I stated earlier, the elections has sidetracked IT coverage for some local IT journalists, including myself. I hope to get back on track in the next few weeks when the Commission on Elections finally declares all senatorial winners.

I hope this brief explanation answers some of Aileen’s questions.

Certain technologies sometimes fail to deliver what they promise.

Let’s talk about the latest wireless Internet technologies that are now available in the Philippine market.

I don’t want to name products. But let’s just say there are two popular (and perhaps the only two services available now) services that boast broadband speeds without the need to connect to a wired network. They use the existing mobile phone networks.

Recently, I’ve heard complaints about one service that promises to deliver high-speed data that goes beyond the 3G (not the gravity) speeds. I read in one mailing list that the service had been out for 2 weeks. That’s pretty bad!

I remember when I was hooked up to fairly new fixed wireless Internet service several months back. I did experience hiccups.

Lately, I still experience “no Internet” service for days. Just recently, I lost my Internet connection after a thunderstorm.

I got a call from the customer service after numerous tries. The customer support agent was patient enough to determine what was wrong. Eventually, he concluded that my wireless antennae might have been damaged during the thunderstorm.

The next morning, my connection was back. Hmmmm…

Another wireless service I dub “I ain’t roaming” is perhaps a dud. It WAS the first of its kind in the country. But it has so far failed my personal reliability test. I’ve been using it for the past weeks to provide me wireless Internet from anywhere where there is mobile phone network coverage. But one day, I found its PCMCIA card not working.

The card was not initializing and so it won’t connect to the mobile network. And for some reason, it reconfigures your Windows wireless Internet settings. So I had to figure how to revert back to the normal settings of detecting any wi-fi network available.

Anyway, this wireless roaming Internet service provides intermittent wireless Internet connection.
Moral of the story: wireless Internet technology in the Philippines is not yet reliable. Most of the wireless Internet services offered today don’t exactly provide the quality of service they promise.

The sad thing is that the local firms might be over-selling this service, amid problems and complaints of poor quality.

INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya shot this interesting video (again using a camera phone) clip of Filipino venture capitalist/entrepreneur Winston Damarillo giving advice to IT startups.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTgV9RT-RM[/video]

Who is Winston Damarillo? Read Lawrence’s breaking story.

I got this question from Mildred (see comments on sidebar): We are having our undergraduate thesis, entitled “perceptions of Professionals on print newspaper being replaced by its online couterpart… I would like to ask if young professionals can be our respondents. Do you think that their opinion can be a clue towards knowing what future newspaper will have,or we have to have a change of respondents? Your answer will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

+++

To answer you’re question Mildred, please refer to some readings I’ve seen online. Read Steve Outing’s Some Words of Advice for Small Newspapers.

First, newspapers won’t be replaced by its online counterpart. But the online component will change the way newspapers, or news for that matter, are delivered to readers. Both mediums have to complement each other, while taking advantage of the new media. Let’s just say newspapers are now evolving. And it has become clear from examples in the US how newspapers are going through transformations. To quote from a story I found on New York magazine:

We think we know that the professional news media, especially newspapers, are obsolete, that the future is all about (excuse the expression) you—media created by amateurs. But such PowerPoint distillation tends to overlook the fact that mainstream media are not all simply shriveling and dying but in some instances actually evolving.

Mildred, it is best to get both perspectives from different age groups. I’m not so sure what do you mean by young. Like any other news report, getting all sides (perspectives) will give your report a balanced-feel. On that note, I believe that the younger journalists are more open to answering your questions because (1) they’re exposed or are born to new media (2) are likely more tech-savvy. But you also have to ask the veterans what they feel about new media. With that, you can compare the differences in opinion and hope to find some insights.

It was a long day that ended on a high-note. Just to give you an idea, we’re about to make another first on INQUIRER.net but I would hold off discussing it until it’s up. But as you’ve already seen for the past weeks, we have beefed up our multimedia content on the website. We have launched INQUIRER.net TV/Hackenslash TV, Radio on INQUIRER.net, and recently our maiden podcast that centered on gaming news, reviews and personalities. Listen to it and learn a few things about the Philippine gaming industry.
Also recently, I have doubled as a photographer, videographer, and online reporter thanks to the power of phone cameras (a Nokia N80) and the Blackberry. All these developments make up the new media me, a concocted phrase to describe another blog that I used to post assignments for a convergent journalism course that I just finished. Now, it’s become my little virtual nook for discussing new media.

+++

The long day ended with Joey and me deciding to have a before-midnight-snack at a famous local fastfood. During our brief dinner, we realized how far and fast we’ve arrived at this juncture in our careers as online journalists.

What is an online journalist anyway? No, we’re no longer shoveling content from the newspaper to the web. We’re producing more content (not to mention breaking news) that is closer to what the new media world calls, well surprise, surprise: multimedia. This is beyond breaking stories. People viewing stories on the Internet expect an assault on the senses. They just don’t want to read news. They want to see, hear, and even taste it (the last one is an exaggeration but you’ll never know, right?)
Just to give you an idea what I meant, here’s a recent video clip I took for INQUIRER.net.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez talks about the nuisance senatorial candidates and the “interesting” platforms they’re espousing.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skcahJ70lTU[/video]

I found this interesting YouTube video clip posted by Mike Abundo. It features XMG IT analyst and host Lauro Vives asking Filipinos about the definition of technopreneurship and its role in the future of small- to medium-scale companies.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H0Eo9pfMXU[/video]

It is really hard to make sense of what’s happening in Philippine politics. But lawmakers this week claimed that the planned Internet voting had no election laws to justify it. But Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos disagreed, saying the law on overseas absentee voting covers the pilot-test of Internet voting in Singapore. Excerpt:

INTERNET voting is legal, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman said Wednesday.

Reacting to previous statements made by lawmakers, Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos said the plan to pilot-test Internet voting in Singapore is covered by the provisions of the overseas and absentee voting (OAV) law.

Senator Richard Gordon and Akbayan party list Representative Etta Rosales on Tuesday said there is no law that allows for this mode of voting.

“I am not against our OFWs participating in our elections, but there is no law that allows for Internet voting,” Gordon said.

Abalos, however, insisted that Internet voting is “in the absentee voting law.”