Saturday’s episode on Vigattin Radio at Radio Inquirer 990 on It was another timely and informative episode as the program dealt with open source technology and the communities that revolve around them, and how the development of the various aspects of open source languages in particular can contribute positively to Philippine industry and society.

 

The program started with an update on the recently concluded Geeks on the Beach with a phone patch from Tina Amper, founder and president of TechTalks.ph and co-organizer of Geeks on a Beach, the newest conference that features technology and startups and how these can change the world.  She said that Geeks on a Beach as a coming together of great minds and those at the grassroots level to have great discussions about innovation, startups and technology, at one of the best beaches in the world, Boracay. She says that Geeks on a Beach was a big success, with over 300 participants from around the world.  She said that there was a fun, casual environment where people came together and talked, with businesses from Boracay also taking part and contributing to the event.  Many who came had a great experience and the organizers have been receiving positive feedback about the event.  Tina said that they have started planning for next year’s event.

For the program proper, on hand to discuss their respective open source language communities were esteemed guests, Paul de Paula of the Drupal IT community in the Philippines ,Cherrie Ann Bautista Domingo President of  PHP User Group Philippines, and Bryan Bibat of Philippine Ruby Users Group (PRUG/PhRUG). These are young professionals who are advocates of open source technology in the country.

 

Bryan Bibat started off with updates on the latest events of the Philippine Ruby Users Group (PRUG/PhRUG), particularly monthly meetups at companies where people get together and discuss the use and exciting new applications for Ruby.  Ruby is a general-purpose programming language derived from different concepts and ideas from various other languages.  Of particular note is Ruby on Rails, an open source web application framework which runs on the Ruby programming language. Bryan sais that there is a high demand for those using Ruby, and that it is simple for beginners to learn but it has a high learning curve.  He said it is in demand worldwide for most web applications.  Bryyan said that his group plans on making a repository of ideas and doing various other projects in the coming months.

Paul de Paula of the Drupal IT community in the Philippines was the next guest to speak.  He has been an opensource advocate since 2007 and a frequent speaker about Drupal in the Philippines.  He stated that  7 months ago, US President Obama promoted the use of open source language and Drupal in particular and is now used for the purposes of the White House and that of New York.  He says there has been a great need for developers using Drupal and its applications for CMS, or content management system, and says it’s a powerful tool in building websites.  He says that their group has already conducted campus tours in La Union and Pampanga, and that they have intensive training for 8 weeks 8 hours a day to teach anyone who wants to learn it.  Paul says they have had good feedback from students who wish to learn more about it.

Then there was Cherrie Ann Bautista Domingo, President of  PHP User Group Philippines.  She said that her group has organized and conducted roadshows at schools and companies.  She said that they will have a meetup Oct 5 with Microsoft.   She also says they have a yearly conference on PHP.  She sys their group has the mission to spread opensource technology and that forprojects they need volunteers, especially students. She said that they also have a proect underway that would promote continuous learning to students of the language.

All of the guests agreed that collaboration and community-building is important for the growth of open-source language use in the country, and that changes need to be made in the academe to promote IT instead of hampering it by making relevant curricula that are relevant to todays technologically-dependent world.

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