Commissioner Angelo Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera

Claire Peque Fernandez, Regional IT Coordinator for Region VIII, was hailed as one of the top bloggers in the recently concluded telecentre.org blog contest, with her entry entitled “Realistic Path to Sustainability for the Telecentre Champions Group”.

The National Computer Center (NCC) will join Convergence 2009: Empowering the Filipino through ICT, part of this year’s National ICT Month celebration. With ICT initiatives permeating through the Filipino life and society in this time and age, convergence is but an apt direction to take in remembering the past, celebrating the present and broadcasting the future for ICT.

Over the years, we have seen a lot of significant changes in how governments provide services to their people. We have seen how these governments, all over the world, have used information and communications technologies (ICTs) to provide faster, convenient and efficient services.

In the olden days, going to the library was the easiest and most convenient way of doing research. For easy retrieval of books or materials, a student who is doing a paper work would usually browse over the card catalog to get information about them. He can either give the details to the librarian or look for the materials himself in the library shelves. This method of researching had been pursued by many researchers through the years.

Imagine these scenarios: A civil servant who is about to retire accesses his file in the computer and downloads a complete record of his whole tenure in government. A Human Resource Officer accesses the database of its agency and generates the manpower inventory report with just a click of a mouse. An agency responds within minutes to the request of another agency for a statistical report of its human resources.

Introduction
Can the sugar content in a can of cola drink be known?
Can the amount of fabric shrinkage be measured? Can the total length of a yarn in a thread holder be determined?
Can the manager of a gasoline station be assured that the tanker of gasoline which states that it carries 40,000 liters of gasoline is delivered exactly as stated?

Food gives our body the nutrients we need to stay healthy. Good nutrition means eating the right types of foods in the right amounts to keep us healthy. Today, however, more people are at risk of malnutrition as food prices rise. This means that people, especially those living below the poverty line, would be more vulnerable to disease and other problems brought about by malnutrition.

The Local Government Unit (LGU) of Cagwait, through the leadership of the Municipal Mayor Hon. Bonifacio G. Ondona, in partnership with the National Computer Center-Field Operations Office (NCC-FOO), conducted the Website Upgrading Workshop (WUW) last March 3-5, 2009.

It was two years ago when this Community e-Center first opened. It was a fresh concept then – connecting the people from far flung municipalities like Alegria, Cebu to the world thru the information superhighway. With just a dial-up connection and a borrowed nook from the Municipal Health Center, the center plowed on.

The National Computer Center, in partnership with the Association of Progressive Communications (APC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), has successfully implemented the piloting of the Gender and Evaluation Methdology (GEM) in two Community eCenters in the Philippines. The workshops were conducted by the Molave Development Foundation, Inc.

Upi is a municipality in the province of Maguindanao. Upi Community eCenter was the first eLGU CeC to be established. Since the CeC’s birth in 2004, the Municipality of Upi became globally competitive in terms of technology. It was months after Upi CeC started operating that Smart Telecommunications saw the need to extend their SmartBro services to Upi to cater to the rising demand for ICT-based services. Now they are serving five Internet cafes, 200 private residences, and several private and public schools in the locality.

Tanauan, Leyte  -- True to its being known as a people responsive local governance, the Local Government of Tanauan has just acquired a Greater Modular Access (GMA) Jobs Center Kiosk where its job seekers could find available local and overseas jobs and where they could apply right there and then.

Last February 23, 2009, the town of Tabogon, Cebu was filled with excitement.

(AP MANILA) - The computer network of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has been infiltrated by a cyber spy network based mainly in China, Canadian researchers said on Saturday.

Based on the latest Global Information Technology Report 2009 released by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranking slipped further in the race for global IT competitiveness. Compared to its 81st ranking in 2008, the Philippines has fallen four notches and was placed in the 85th spot in terms of Network Readiness. (In 2007, the Philippines had a good ranking as it was ranked 69th among 122 economies surveyed).

Some prospective bidders for the automation of the 2010 national elections expressed concern over the eligibility requirements for bidding of the machines to be used in the elections.

The comprehensive cybersecurity legislation currently in development in the US Senate aims to bring high-level government attention to the serious problem of cybersecurity by giving one White House official oversight of critical network infrastructure. Yet the proposal in the draft legislation to give the national cybersecurity adviser the ability to disconnect federal or "critical" networks under threat of cyberattack may create more uncertainties than solutions, at least initially, cybersecurity experts warn. Full Story

MANILA, March 26, 2009 (AFP) - Internet usage in the Philippines is on the increase but rarely for doing business online -- most people are using the web for social networking or to play games, according to a survey Thursday. It is the first time such a survey has been conducted in the Philippines, where only around 20 million people -- 22 percent of the country's 90 million population -- have access to the internet. The survey by Yahoo! and consumer information group Nielsen found that most of those going online are between 10 and 29 and are educated and techno-savvy. It showed that 53 percent of internet users play online games, and only 24 percent read the news online. In stark contrast, "online transactions or commerce remain low," with only three percent conducting banking activities or making purchases online.

THE SENATE will start plenary deliberations on a bill seeking to create a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) once it resumes sessions on April 13. Senator Edgardo J. Angara, chairman of the chamber’s committee on science and technology, said at the weekend he would sponsor the measure in plenary once Congress returns from its Lenten break that started on March 6.

Last February 6, 2009 the Department of Trade and Industry conducted a public consultation on the proposed certification scheme for the implementation of digital signatures in the government.

Interconnected helplines of all government offices may be the wave of the future. The Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) gathered last March 11 government officials, including information technology (IT) managers and public information officers, for a forum on interconnecting current and future public assistance systems to improve the delivery of services to the public and to cut red tape.