Philippine Open Source Summit

The Philippine Open Source Summit will be held from June 23-24, 2008 in Cebu, Philippines, with the theme “Understanding the Business Value of Open Source”. Continuity with the past -- Cebu ICT 2005 to 2007; and, moving strategically towards the future, this annual gathering of ICT local and global stakeholders shall henceforth be guided by the Cebu Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Industry Development Blueprint laid down at the 2nd Cebu ICT Strategy Summit of 2006.

The 2nd Cebu ICT Strategy Summit held in May 2006 was an “internal strategic planning retreat” among the key stakeholders of Cebu’s ICT industry, with the primary objective of mapping out the roadmap of Cebu’s ICT Industry from 2006 to 2011. It took on the theme “Defining the Tasks Ahead for a UnITed Cebu” as a testament to the sincere hope in the unifying power of a shared vision for ICT. The strategy summit aimed to “take stock of things” in order for Cebu stakeholders --- from the industry, academe, government, and non-government sectors --- to even more cohesively “pull the cart” in the same direction.

The Philippine Open Source Summit also seeks to further enhance the rapidly growing support for Open Source systems and software in Asia, which links the event to the thrusts of Cebu ICT 2005 and 2007. The Lead Organizers, the Local Implementing Partners, and, the Corporate Partners of the Philippine Open Source Summit shall strategically collaborate with their counterparts among the proponents of the Asia Open Source Conference & Showcase which is also scheduled to take place in Cebu in October 2008.

Summit Learning Objectives

Among many other concerns, through both the plenary and breakout sessions, the participants will find answers to the following vital questions --

• How can mainstream organizations best manage the selection, adoption, and management of Open Source software within their ICT strategies?
• How can Open Source software be integrated into existing ICT strategies for maximum return on investment?
• What are the business factors that are driving Open Source adoption across many markets and industries?
• What inhibitors exist to potentially limit the value of Open Source in conventional ICT strategies? How can IT organizations navigate around these challenges?
• What are the key selection criteria in evaluating Open Source software projects and vendors to maximize ROI and minimize risk? What markets will be most heavily impacted by Open Source software and when?
• How will Open Source software change the way commercial software vendors develop and support products in the future?
• Which Open Source products have the most significant impact today across markets and what trends can we expect within the next several years?

Target Participants

• Top Executives - CEOs, COOs, CIOs, CFOs of ICT companies involved with Open Source decisions from all industries;
• IT leaders and stakeholders from Government, Industry, Academe, and NGOs
• Senior Executives - VPs, Marketing Directors, Customer Service Managers, R&D Heads, Product Sales Directors and Managers, HR Directors of ICT corporations;
• Heads of applications and software infrastructure, integration and development managers, software project managers, technical architects, web technologists, application developers, database and data managers;
• Trainers, instructors and IT practitioners; systems integrators and resellers; and team leaders of ICT and IT-Enabled services firms; and,
• Independent software vendors and IT consultants

For more information, visit http://oss.ph/index.html

PayPal Philippines Can Receive Now - Part 2

In my last post, I noted that PayPal in the Philippines can now receive money. Now they added a new feature that allows withdrawal from Filipino bank accounts. I received this email and to me it seems that PayPal in the Philippines has been fully launched. This is another sign of progress in the IT industry of the country.

Eversun Software's Agents of Value

Our business is online services. We hire skilled agents to clients that need them to perform business tasks that can be done over the Internet.

The main source of our income as an outsourcing company is that which comes from clients who avail of our services. Services are our main market, hence the need to have people who perform those services, called agents.
In an outsourcing relationship, the client and the company engage in a business relationship that puts the agent in a position to provide services over the Internet to the client. The client hires the agent who is employed by the company once the client believes that the agent has the necessary skills to perform the service for the client.

In Eversun Software, we provide services to the clients, and these services can be performed over an Internet connection. We are mainly focused on web development and web marketing, two areas of business that involve the use of the agents' skills and producing results that can easily be monitored by the client.

Web development includes the production of web sites and web pages, as well as their maintenance. In Eversun, we make use of PHP, HTML, CSS, and Javascript in the development of web pages.

Web marketing includes everything related to helping web sites generate traffic, page rank, and sales (if the site sells products). The tactics vary, but the goal is the same – to make the web site more visible to users in the Internet.

When agents are hired, they are hired by the company based on their skills as well as educational background. The agent works for the company first, and the client second. An agent may be given up by his client and yet still maintain his job, since he is an agent of the company and he can be given to other clients. When the agent first starts working for Eversun, he is posted on the site with his profile which can be viewed by potential clients. When the client requests an agent, the client must specify the skills he needs for the work that he wants the agent to perform. Agents who qualify for a certain client are given to that client. The client then pays the setup cost and hires the agent on contract with the company. The agent receives a monthly salary which is a portion of the monthly payment given by the client to the company. Should the client choose to terminate services from Eversun, the agent can be given to other clients. The agent's employment status depends on the company, not the client.

Supervising the agents are project managers, and they act as a mediator between the agents and the clients. Their responsibility is to maintain client relations and monitor the transactions that the clients make with the company.


For more information on Eversun Software, visit http://www.agentsofvalue.com/ .