Tuesday, September 26, 2006

PICS Book Launch + BlogCon



The Philippine Internet Commerce Society launched its new book, e-Business Made Easy, last night. I've had an advance copy for nearly a month; author Joey Alarilla was kind enough to sign it.

At the end of the day, e-business is everyone's business. This book is a dream come true for Joey. The other dream is to meet Nicole Kidman; he's working on that.

Joey is a genius at simplifying tech. I had to drop 50 IQ points to read this book. That makes it just within reach of the average Filipino businessman.

Joey's flying to Singapore today for a Hellgate: London event. I asked him to say hi to Level Up founder Ben Colayco while he's there. I hear Ben's local subordinate isn't very happy with me today.

Innove CEO Gil Genio says the Philippines now has 200,000 consumer broadband accounts. Wonder how many of them are tuned in to YouTube.

Commission on Information and Communications Technology Commissioner Tim Diaz De Rivera says Dondi Mapa's old job (Commissioner for Strategic Business Development) is open for application. If you think you can create one million IT-related jobs in the Philippines by 2010, drop Tim a line. If you're thinking one million meaningful new tech jobs, you have my support. If you're thinking one million more call center McJobs, you have my violent opposition.

Companies are banging down Lauro Vives' door to appear on his new business tech show Venture. He's even got people from outside IT interested; I told biotechnologist Maoi Arroyo to give it a go. He upgraded his whole production team, so expect the show to get even better. No, he won't be putting his sexy co-host Aliya Parcs in lingerie anytime soon.

Oh, and Lauro, here are the Philippine music stores where you can sell your show audio: Fliptunes, Mobius Live, and MP3 Pilipinas. They ain't iTunes, but you gotta sell this stuff to Filipinos too.



The content-packed launch party concluded earlier than expected, so I caught up with BlogCon a few blocks away. There, I watched the ongoing construction of blog network Dash Media. Local SEO guru Marc Macalua also shared WordPress-centic blog optimization tips.

Hats off to the hostest with the mostest, Abe Olandres. The guy makes PhP 85,000 (~$ 1,700) a month problogging -- an SME executive's salary in the Philippines. Dondi's successor should create a policy environment to faciliate the rise of a million Abes.

Launched something analog for n00bs, watched something digital for geeks. Overall, a well-rounded night.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was there and there were "Mikes" all over the place and I think I just shook Mike Leano's hand. There was even a caucasian guy that I did not get to know. I think he left after the talks.

Maybe next time.

Anonymous said...

Good you caught up with us. great to meet you once again Mike.

Mike Abundo said...

Good to see you too, Noemi. Too bad Lauren couldn't join us. Let's meet up next time, Jun. :)

Anonymous said...

nagpunta ka ba talaga doon? nagtatago ka na yata sa mga taong galit sa iyo eh.

Mike Abundo said...

More on the book from Joey Alarilla and Erwin Oliva.