Moving Forward

Disruptive Technologies that will Reshape Business
by: Jerry Liao

Change will come whether we like it or not, and technology is helping all these changes to happen in a faster pace. The technological advances achieved in the past few decades have brought about a revolution in the business world.

Business will continue to evolve and so as technology, as seen in the recent report issued by CSC’s Leading Edge Forum (LEF).

CSC announced that a wave of disruptive technologies is reshaping industry, triggering new business models and altering consumer and employee behaviors. The report identifies seven “digital disruptions” that 21st century businesses must understand to position themselves for success in an emerging economy that places value predominantly in the production, enhancement and sharing of information and cultural content.

Mobile Phone Dermatitis

New skin disorder caused by mobile phones discovered
by: Jerry Liao

Ask your friends or the people around you what they regard as their most important gadget, and chances are people will say “mobile phone”. There was even a joke that somehow proves that mobile phones are people’s most cherished possession. It goes something like this:

If a user drop his/her mobile phone, they will quickly pick it up, clean it and check it if there are scratches or damages. If someone tripped and fall, people will not even bother to help them but instead will say “How careless”.

And since mobile phones are very important to users, it’s only but proper that they know their mobile phones inside and out. So let me ask you “Do you know that your mobile phone can cause skin disorders?” The new phenomenon is called “mobile phone dermatitis”. This can happen when people who spend long periods of time on their mobile phone develop an allergic reaction to the phone’s nickel surface.

The Right Direction

Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009
by: Jerry Liao

Some of you might say that it’s too early to say or to predict what’s going to be hot or not this coming 2009. But there are things that are obvious and information technology research and advisory company Gartners seems to agree with this statement when they highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.

These technologies impact the organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they have matured to broad market use or because they enable strategic advantage from early adoption.

The top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 according to Gartner include:

Things Change

Four Disruptions That Will Transform the Software Industry
by: Jerry Liao

Due to innovations happening so fast, the I.T. industry practically is having ‘change’ for breakfast almost everyday. Weekly you get to hear announcements of new services, new products, new partnerships and more.

Eversince I was introduced to I.T., the three components has always been hardware, software and peopleware. The hardware transformation and transition have been very obvious. From the mainframe to desktop, notebooks and now netbooks and nettops. For manpower, developers should continue learning the latest programming techniques and tools to stay competitive. And lastly, software – from writing codes to visual programming, now we see Web 2.0 emerging due to the pervasiveness of the Internet.

Well it seems more changes will be coming our way with this new study released by Gartner:

The Philippines 40 Richest

According to Forbes, the Philippines’ 40 richest are worth a total of $14 billion, down from $17 billion in 2007 and $16 billion in 2006.

The Philippines’ 40 richest are as follows:

1. Henry Sy & family – $3.1 billion
2. Lucio Tan & Family – $1.5 billion
3. Jaime Zobel de Ayala & family – $1.2 billion
4. Andrew Tan – $700 million
5. Tony Tan Caktiong & family – $690 million
6. John Gokongwei Jr. & family – $680 million
7. Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. – $610 million
8. Enrique Razon Jr. – $525 million
9. George Ty & family – $435 million
10. Inigo & Mercedes Zobel – $430 million
11. Manuel Villar – $425 million
12. Emilio Yap & family – $420 million
13. Vivian Que Azcona & family – $360 million
14. Beatrice Campos & family – $325 million
15. Luis Virata – $270 million
16. Oscar Lopez & family – $240 million
17. Andrew Gotianun – $235 million
18. Alfonso Yuchengco & family – $200 million
19. Mariano Tan & family – $195 million
20. Manuel Zamora – $130 million
21. Menardo Jimenez & family – $129 million
22. Gilberto Duavit & family – $127 million
23. Alfredo Ramos – $126 million
24. Jon Ramon Aboitiz & family – $125 million
25. Felipe Gozon & family – $110 million
26. David Consunji & family – $105 million
27. Rolando & Rosalinda Hortaleza – $90 million
28. Eugenio Lopez III & family – $85 million
29. Betty Ang – $80 million
30. Tomas Alcantara & family – $75 million
31. Lourdes Montinola & family $68 million
32. Salvador Zamora – $67 million
33. Philip Ang – $63 million
34. Wilfred Steven Uytengsu Sr. & family – $55 million
35. Enrique Aboitiz & family – $50 million
36. Frederick Dy – $49 million
37. Bienvenido R. Tantoco Sr. & family – $45 million
38. Jesus Tambunting – $40 million
39. Manuel Pangilinan – $39 million
40. Marixi Rufino-Prieto & family – $30 million

I remember a friend of mine once said – “the poor have their problems, but the rich have their own as well, and believe me the problems of the rich are much bigger than the poor.”

If this is true, my question to all of you is “Who wants to be a billionaire?”

A Numbers Game

RP ranks 10th as Asia’s top Internet countries
by: Jerry Liao

A recent report released by Internet World Stats (http://www.internetworldstats.com/) showed that Asia has the most number of Internet users in the world with 578.5 million users. Followed by Europe (384.6M), North America (248.2 mil), Latin America/Caribbean (139 mil), Africa (51.1 mil), Middle East (41.9 mil) and Oceania/Australia (20.2 mil).

But here’s another reason for our country to rejoice. Among the countries in Asia, the Philippines ranked number 10 as Asia’s top 10 Internet countries.

Bad Timing

Senate Bill 2402 – Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP) Act
by: Jerry Liao

By now I am sure most of you have heard of Senator Richard Gordon’s (Senate Bill 2402) proposal to compel telecommunication companies to set aside 20 percent of their SMS profit for healthcare and education. The idea was to set up a trust fund to be managed by telecom players, the Secretary of Health and Secretary of Education.

First let me commend the good senator for thinking of ways to improve the education and health care services. I must say it’s long overdue. But better late than never right?

Some of you may say this is a good proposal since it will help improve our education and health services. I respect your views so I am going to ask that you respect mine because with all due respect to the good senator – I don’t approve of the bill.

The Book of Dreams

Sony starts a reading revolution : PRS-700
by: Jerry Liao

The three biggest problems facing third world countries are food, health and education. Feed the citizenry well and the health problem may already be lessen. But for education, it’s going to be a little bit harder to solve.

Quality education does not come cheap. This is the main reason why our group ‘INFOCHAT’ decided to launch an I.T. TV show (with the same title) 12 years ago, to provide quality I.T. knowledge to the widest sector possible using television as the medium. TV is free – how can you be more affordable than that.

The expenses surrounding education is the real problem, it’s not the tuition that hurts less fortunate Filipinos, its the expenses happening every day like tranportation, food, uniform, school supplies and books. My eldest daughter will be taking up medicine a year from now. Of course I am worried about her tuition fee but I am more worried about the miscellaneous expenses especially medical books. You know how expensive they are.