Feature

ICT People for the People: Primer on CPU's Response to Typhoon Ondoy

>> Why is the Typhoon Ondoy Issue a People’s Issue?

Typhoon Ondoy, beyond being a disaster, was a wake-up call to the harsh social realities that the Filipino people face: communities remain incapable in preparing for typhoons, with NDCC reporting 240 deaths and with an estimate of 1.8 million people affected. This is a problem that encompasses all Filipino people for the following reasons:

Prometheus Bound: Tibak into the Future

Man is a social animal that thrives on interaction, and the advent of the Information Era has amplified this disposition. Rapidly growing in number are new and democratically accessible Information and Communication Technologies, or ICTs that have spurred the Filipino people’s appetite for being in the know—and letting others know.

The Chiang Rai Declaration

THE CHIANG RAI DECLARATION ON CONSUMER PROTECTION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The Computer Professionals’ Union represented the Philippines’ pioneer consumer protection organization TXTPower in the Southeast Asian Consumer Council’s recently held regional conference in Thailand. TXTPower was instrumental to the formulation of the Chiang Rai Declaration on Consumer Protection in Telecommunications, officially announced on July 30, 2009.

Technofetishism

During a small forum on open culture at the University of the Philippines last month, the discussion veered toward the use of technology in providing access to information and cultural products to underprivileged communities. One example that was mentioned was the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project. The idea of the OLPC was to “create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.”

PROMETHEUS BOUND:There’s no substitute for the real thing

During the Ayala rally last week against the House of Representatives’ Con-Ass resolution, the Computer Professionals Union (CPU) organized a cell phone-to-Twitter link for texters to be able to update and participate in the protest event. Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows users to post 140-character messages called “tweets” to keep fellow users updated on any topic of conversation under the sun. “Hashtags” are keywords with the “#” symbol affixed that are included in a tweet used to indicate what topic the message is about.