Digital Filipino Web Awards

This coming late July, we will opening the 3rd DigitalFilipino Web Awards(http://digitalfilipinowebawards.blogspot.com) and start accepting nominations.

To make it more meaningful, a 2-days E-Commerce Summit is being planned to take place on October 20 and 21 at the AIM Acceed Conference Center, Makati City (we already have a booking to occupy the entire SGV area).

The winners in more than 40 categories will be recognized on October 20 and given the chance to attend this event for free. Some will be asked as well to share their best practices / experience that made them winners in this year’s awards.

In this regard, as club members, your active participation in this activity will be greatly appreciated through the following:

1. Nominate and help out in the DigitalFilipino Web Awards judging at http://digitalfilipinocom.ning.com

2. Propose topics that you are interested to learn about or even volunteer to be a resource person.

3. Send participants.
This 2-days conference shall be free to active DigitalFilipino Club Members where:
– individual members (participate themselves, no proxy)
– SME members (2 representatives)
– Corporate members (3 representatives)

Non-club member members shall pay a fee of P8000 to attend the 2-day event. They can also sign-up as a club member at http://www.e-commercephilippines.com on or before August 31 to avail of the free slot at current membership rates.

4. Be a sponsor.
We are targeting 150 to 200 participants for this event. Main audience will be club members, this year winners, past 2 year winners, and SMEs / enterprises / entrepreneurs at large.

We have two major sponsorship slots at 100,000 pesos.
Package includes:
1. Keynote slot
2. Logo at backdrop / website
3. Post 4 horizontal banners at the event room.
4. Send 2 participants at the event.
5. Ten blog post campaign write-ups (via Blog4Reviews.com).

We have four minor sponsorship slots at 50,000 pesos. Package includes:
1. Presentation slot
2. Logo at backdrop / website
3. Post 2 vertical banners at the event room.
4. Send 1 participant at the seminar event.

Lastly, we have the DigitalFilipino Web Awards sponsor at P150,000. Package includes:
1. Logo in all trophies covering more than 40 categories.
2. Co-presentation of the award.
3. Speaking slot at the awards proper.
4. Fifteen (15) blog post campaign write-ups (via Blog4Reviews.com).

I look forward to all club members active participation.

Thank you.

Regards,

Janette Toral

Watch out for SMX Developer Competition

Microsoft and Smart will be having a developer competition on June 26-27 at the SMX Convention Center in SM Mall of Asia. Participants will include the best (pre-selected) professional developers, student developers, and startup groups (10-15 teams).

Some quick details are the following:

– Technical and business trainings to the teams on June 26.

– Cash prizes and developer showcases will be given away by Microsoft and Smart to the winners on June 27.

– The teams will be staying overnight in SMX where the eliminations will take place until dawn.

– They will have a fun program for the overnight session (mixing elements from Big Brother, American Idol, and MTV).

BNS will be streaming the event over the web where people online can interact and participate with the event in SMX.

BNS Adopts ITIL v3.0

As part of continuing service improvement, BNS hosting today announced the deployment and adoption of ITIL v3.0 software to help track our Service Asset Management and change configuration management initiatives.

All BNS servers, routers, switches, firewalls and workstations will now be tracked using the ITIL v3.0 software. BNS adopted this hosted ITIL v3.0 software solution for quick rampup.

Social Networking and eBusiness Conference

The 2nd Social Networking and e-Business Conference 2009 ‘Reaching and Connecting to Customers Through Social Networks’

April 23-24, 2009 Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City, Philippines

Leveraging on Social Media Sites

What works in digital marketing during tough times?

The phenomenon of online social networks has created real-life and business relationships amongst advertisers, users and consumers of today’s digital marketplaces. The growth and popularity of social networks is rapidly changing marketing and advertising campaigns and e-business.

Express yourself, share your interest, post your photos, share your music, connect with friends, make new connections, and exchange insights — this is now the growing trend of communications and engagement with your customers.

Gain insights on how to maximize the sue of social networks. Learn from various case studies. Learn from various Experts sharing their unique perspectives on the phenomenon of social networks. Learn how social networking works!

Who Should Attend:

Social Networkers, Bloggers, Web 2.0 Practitioners, Interactive Marketers, General Managers/Managing Directors, CEOs, CRM Managers, Direct Marketing Managers, Database Managers, IT Managers, Brand Managers, Product Managers, Advertising Managers, Corporate Communication Managers, Marketing Managers, Media Managers, Content Providers and those involved in marketing/advertising/e-commerce using the internet and mobile.

Registration Fee:

– P9,500.00 for 2 days inclusive of snacks, lunch, and conference kit.
– 15% for Digital Filipino Club and SME.com.ph Members
– 10% Early Bird with payment due March 16, 2009
– For a group of 5, One is FREE.

RESERVE A SEAT, SIGN UP NOW!

KEY CONFERENCE TOPICS

DAY 1, April 23, 2009, Thursday

Keynote Address
Speaker: Friendster

1. Harnessing the Top Social Media Sites
Speaker: Janette Toral, DigitalFilipino Club

A presentation of top social networks in the Philippines and the world and its characteristics and strengths; how can companies and entrepreneurs tap each social networks to promote their products and services.

2. Application Platforms Race to Micro-Payments
Speakers:
– Paul Hubbard, YesPayments
– TBA

Application platforms, such as, Facebook now has tens of thousands of applications. MySpace, which mostly relies on Google’s OpenSocial platform, has 4,500 apps available to users, and 211 million applications have been installed. The iPhone, which only launched its App Store in July 2008, has more than 10,000 applications, and they’ve been downloaded 300 million times. Developments are now happening on the micro-payment side and this is the session that will provide updates.

3. Real-time News Service
Speaker: Yahoo Philippines

With internet users demanding for more real time news, this session provides a perspective on how online publications allow users to personalize and filter the real time news stream from blogs and traditional news sites. It will also look into how aggregators rank news, blogs, authors, and publications by authority.

5. Using Mobile Technologies to Extend Social Networking
Speaker: Jim Ayson, Product Manager, VAS, Smart Communications, Inc

This session will present the use of mobile technologies as a tool for extending social networking, such as — the expansion of existing social networks into the mobile space (facebook, friendster, linked in); the creation of mobile-based micro blogging networks (twitter, plurk); the creation of mobile based social networks; the expansion of the mobile internet in the Philippines; the efforts of mobile operators to build bridges to social networks; and, the opportunities for both social network users and content providers.

6. Digital Marketing Through Online Games
Speaker: Jane Walker, CEO, Level-Up Games

Another very popular form of advertising campaign plaguing the young market is advergaming in the Philippines. Level-up your product marketing and advertising campaign though online games! Learn from successful case studies of advergaming.

7. Advance Social Networking and Advertising
Speakers:
– Adonis C. Yap, President, SME.com.ph and Bizster.com
– Paolo Pineda, Managing Director, ABS-CBN Interactive/Multiply

This session will explore the use of social networking sites by power users, SMEs, and businesses. Learn from various case studies of Bizster.com and Multiply.

8. Enabling SMEs Through Internet and Other Technologies
Speaker: Christian Lim, Product Manager, SMEG Marketing

Discusses the state of internet penetrate in the Philippines, especially the SMEs – how SMEs utilize broadband connectivity in their businesses and what are the emerging technologies that Filipino entrepreneurs can use.

DAY 2, April 24, 2009, Friday

Keynote Address

1. Data Privacy in Social Networks
Speaker: – Atty. JJ Disini, UP College of Law

With so much information being shared online, this session intends to discuss the various policies locally and global standards being adopted to protect user data.

2. Application Development Platform Updates
– Wilson Chua, CEO, Bitstop
– Yahoo!SEA Representative

Developer programs tackled for MSN, Friendster, Google, and Yahoo! What are the updates to learn from these developers?

3. Having a Start-Up Business in Web 3.0 era
Speaker: Ranulf Goss, SunGame

Focuses on how new and current companies are adopting to the fast changing social networking business model to survive, attract investors, and thrive.

4. Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Best Practices
Speakers:
– Wendy Ang, CEO, MyOptimind.com
– Janette Toral, Founder, Digital Filipino Club

Best practices on search engine marketing and optimization of web sites with case studies to illustrate and learn from.

5. Philippine Music Surviving the Download Era
Speaker: Jay Frank De Jesus, TitikPilipino

Session explores how the Philippine music industry executives, online music vendors, composers, and artists embrace online streaming, online retail and music download, adapt this trend, takes advantage of e-Business, and spread the word through Internet-powered avid-followers here and abroad.

6. DigitalFilipino Social Networking Awards Ceremony The Best in Social Networking – TBA (Winners in Social Network, Widgets, Social Bookmarks, Photo Sharing, Social Shopping, Video Sharing, Micro Blogs, Search Engine Marketing, and Blogs).

For details, please contact the Event Manager at telephone numbers; +632 – 8960639, 8960637, 8996216 Fax: +632 – 8960637, 8902101, email: fiera@info.com.ph, visit web site:http://socialnetworkphilippines.blogspot.com, http://www.fmi.com.ph

Bitstop Network Services, Inc. joins SEO Workshop in Urdaneta

Urdaneta City University, College of Computer Studies together with Bitstop Network Services, Inc. and ICT Pangasinan will be conducting a Seminar Workshop on SEM – SEO this coming February 27, 2009 at Urdaneta City University, Urdaneta, Pangasinan that will be attended by IT Graduating Students and IT Instructors. And for those interested to join the seminar kindly reserve your seat with Sir Ficer into this number +63 9082299114. Reservation will be first come first served basis. See you there!

NTC Memo Dec 2008 Now Dead??

In an update to the NTC Draft Dec 2008, we just got word that CICT Commissioner Sec Roxas Chua and Monchito Ibrahim suddenly showed up in the NTC hearing. As most of you know, the NTC is UNDER the CICT. What do you know? The public hearing was suddenly cancelled!! It seems the CICT , which is the policy setting body wanted to find out more about this draft. The NTC seems to NOT have informed the CICT about this. Hence the sudden appearance of the top brass in CICT and the unceremonious cancellation of the hearings!

Insiders intimate that such a move probably means that the NTC draft is now dead in the water. We at BNS surely hopes so.

Review of Draft NTC Registration Circular

BNS is calling for urgent and rational review of the Proposed Draft NTC Memo cirular caling for registration of web content.  http://portal.ntc.gov.ph/wps/_mc/MC2009/electronic_games.html.

In essence this circular aims to require content providers (website owners, bloggers) to register with the NTC at the following amounts: Filing Fee of 300.00, Annual Registration fee of 6,000.00, with surcharge and penalties of 50% and 100% if the application is filed before or after 6 months from date of expiry.

From a hosting perspective, this registration requirement would add undue burden to our hosted clients in terms of additional procedures AND annual fees. This increases the costs of an online presence. Hosting clients and hosting companies in the Philippines would not be competitve because of this. It makes hosted sites in the Philippines more expensive compared to other countries.

Due to the worldwide nature of hosting service, clients may opt instead to be hosted OUTSIDE of the Philippines. Thus, not only will this regulation become moot and inutile, it would also cause the death on online businesses in the Philippines. This forces businesses away from the Philippines.

In the end, this will in fact hamper the growth of online content in the Philippines, rather than stimulate it.

As the draft purpotedly aims to “promote a fair, efficient and responsive market to stimulate growth and development of the telecommunications facilities and services” under RA 7925, this requirement for registration coupled with huge fees rans counter to RA 7925.

It will kill rather than stimulate growth.

If the aim is to protect consumers, hosting companies maintains records of the owners of sites. If there are issues with the website, hosting companies and service providers have the records to assist the Philippine Government protect the interests of the consuming public.

A registration procedure coupled with high annual fees is NOT needed to be able to identify the owners of the website.