Technovangelism & Coopetition

Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) President Maan Tolentino posted this photocollage from a very interesting focus group discussion on Small-to-Medium Information Technology Enterprise (SMITE) financing in the Philippines. Seated in white barong and glasses is Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Commissioner Dondi Mapa.



Commissioner Mapa mentioned the need for local market educsation on the value of quality IT services, and the need to build a referral network among local SMITEs.

Having worked in software project acquisition, I've had to face companies that had a hard time seeing the value of robust software development methodologies. I've also run into SMITEs who couldn't take on projects because they couldn't find other SMITEs to outsource parts of those projects to. Market education and referral networks would ease both those situations.