The Philippine Senate has approved, on third and final reading, the Senate Bill 2796, or the so-called Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (CPACT). 

Edit: Reader Jommie has left a note –

This is only the Senate version of the bill. The House has yet to pass its version, it would still have to be taken up on second reading. Before it gets signed into law (IF PNoy wills it), the two chambers of Congress would still have to meet on a bicameral meeting to consolidate the two versions.

Read more here:

http://www.techwireasia.com/363/philippine-senate-approves-cybercrime-prevention-act/

http://edangara.com/?q=senate-passes-cybercrime-prevention-act

This compilation is a personal list as I am aiming to answer the question — “What are your objections on CPACT?”

I will be updating as soon as I get more information from Atty. Vitangcol whom I am pressing to get more info from.

Who Will Be Affected?

1. Probloggers

 2. Long-Distance Relationship “Lovers”

3) Real Estate Agents, Deal Sites, Marketers

Objections on CPACT

General

The National Cybercrime Bill defines what are crimes committed on cyberspace (or technology) constitute a crime in the Philippines. It attempts to be encompassing, and overreaching. It is a catchall in how vague some provisions are. In many ways, this is good, and in many ways, this is evil. Philippine Law enforcement has been clamoring for a law that define crimes committed on cyberspace. It makes their job “easier” because they don’t have to think, and the overreaching power of the bill means the law can be interpreted as seen fit. Source

On Illegal Access / Interception

It touches on Your ability to Root or jailbreak your smartphone (which is btw very legal in the states). Bawal na din mag mod ng PS3, PSP, Xbox, etc. Even rooting your router as well. What’s even scary is section 13 of the senate version which reads “SEC. 13. Restricting or Blocking Access to Computer Data. – When a computer data is prima facie found to be in violation of the provisions of this Act, the DOJ shall issue an order to restrict or block access to such computer data. Source

On CyberSex

I say that this definition alone is absurd, as it would consider “cybersex” even between consenting individuals as a crime. The term “lascivious” is also subject to different interpretations by different people. What seems “lascivious” to me may not be so for someone else. (Think TTH.) Also, are boobs sexual organs? What about male nipples? Butt? Etc Source

The bill has no provisions defining sexual harrasment, assuming cybersex is sufficient definition. Source

There’s a huge difference between consenting parties having a little fun over webcams, and a pedophile preying on a kid in a chatroom. -_-  Source

Cybersex is a crime now? Papaano na lang ang mga mag-asawang bansa ang pagitan? Papaano nalang nila maitatawid “yun” hehehe Source

I happen to disagree on the cybersex provisions. It would be good to have that clause deleted, but nevertheless it’s already the law of the land care of the Anti-Voyeurism Act. Source

I hope there is also a cyberjail for me and my wife. It is really a good help to us and to our sexual life while I’m working abroad. Source

On Cybersquatting

So this could be in the realm of possibility: My name in Twitter is “Tanduay”, so if Tanduay Distillery Inc wanted to make a twitter account, instead of paying me millions (presumably haha) to hand over the name, they could sue my ass instead? I know it’s just Twitter and not a domain name but hey, there could be similar relevant cyber-squatting stories out there involving valid and reasonable use of similar-to-something sounding web domains that would be steamrolled by the “law”. Source

On Libel

This might be use to control political activists or bloggers who found a new home on the internet. Then there is the question of implementation. Source

This should give you pause. This should give you a chilling effect. The National Cybercrime Bill defines libel as “The unlawful or prohibited acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.” It simply means that what Libel means in print, broadcast and radio means exactly the same online. Source

On Privacy

“In contrast, the proposed cybercrime bills lower the bar on government intrusion into private communications to an unacceptable level,” said Tinio, adding they will allow surveillance on the basis of a broad and often vaguely defined range of acts to be known as cybercrimes.

“If passed in its current form, we will have an absurd situation where cybercrime investigators will have more broad and sweeping powers to invade the privacy of communications of citizens than law enforcers investigating threats to national security,” Tinio stressed. Source

On Surveillance

This is dangerous and unacceptable. I believe that the collection and preservation of what this bill calls as traffic or computer data will pave the way for the government to do mass surveillance. It gives the government the power to not only monitor alleged cybercrime perpetrators but also political opponents such as the opposition and political and human rights activists. Source

What are your objections for this Bill? Please let us know via comments.

A local tech community in Cebu, TechTalks.ph, officially announced its plans for a Startup Weekend Cebu.

Startup Weekend Cebu is set for June 1-3, 2012 (tentative date) with its venue at UP Cebu INIT (tentative venue). The event is open for developers, designers, marketers, product managers, business and startup enthusiasts.

The participants will be immersed in  ”an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skill sets – primarily software  developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.”

A similar event, Startup Weekend Manila, was organized in Manila last year and was held in MINT College in Taguig City. Twenty eight teams were formed at the end of the event. HobbyMash won and got invited for the JFDI Bootcamp, a tech bootcamp in Singapore.

Right now, the organizers are calling for volunteers who can help organize the event. Interested parties may email the event hosts on the meetup thread.

TechTalks.ph is spearheaded by Ms. Tins and run by local event organizers Ms. Paola Galan and Ms. Honeylyn Balingcasag.

Creativity is an often misunderstood concept, particularly in the realm of business. Some business owners and managers think that as long as all their employees do their job, they can organize a few FGDs every now and then, and someone comes up with a good idea every now and then, that’s enough creativity to be used in the business. It’s hard to quantify the impact the lack of creativity has in business, especially in terms of lost opportunities.

But lack of creativity can make or break a business. A lot of ado is made of companies like Nintendo and Apple, who had visionaries like Miyamoto and Jobs at the helm, but as a cautionary tale to doubters, you can share the story of EMAP, or East Midland Allied Press, as told by one of their former executives, HuffPo UK contributor Colin Morrison.

The Case of a Media Conglomerate

Once a media conglomerate that excelled in acquiring magazines, radio stations and trade journals, EMAP seemed to benefit most not from the actual creative content of their products, but from the creative conflict between CEO Robin Miller and Group Managing Director Robert Arculus. Without telling too much of the story, the loss of this tension following Arculus’ departure from the company in 1997 heralded the beginning of some irredeemably bad business decisions.

This and their inability to adapt to a changing marketplace led to their eventual failure and eventual sale to private equity. Even their most famous creation, FHM Magazine, is a shadow of its former self in the U.K.

Integrating Creativity

The nature of creativity is such that it has to be integrated in existing business and managerial processes in counterintuitive ways. Creativity isn’t conveniently wrapped up in a schedule, or a budget allocation or deadline, although of course practical considerations make it so that we try to tie it up under these constraints. Truly creative thinking involves taking managed risks, perhaps even defying conventional wisdom, but many know this as a necessary step.

Studies such as this one show that people in business, industry and other fields have an unconscious bias against creativity. It won’t be until you overcome this bias that you can learn to nurture true high-risk, high reward, out-of-the-box thinking that can bring you more success than overprotectionist, ‘safe’ business policies. If you need a starting point, however, the first thing you need to do is to drop the fear of being wrong and making mistakes.

I recently got into a short conversation with this blog’s webmaster, Fleire Castro, about different Twitter clients in between sharing information on how to help Sendong victims in Iligan and Cagayan De Oro. With the more recent changes occurring between the most popular 3rd party clients, user experiences have been changing and we can’t rely on them like we used to.

Seesmic relaunched themselves as a CRM tool, Hootsuite has gone the freemium route, and Tweetdeck was recently bought by Twitter. The knee jerk reaction from long time users is, of course, to gripe online, commonly using the same tools they are complaining about, but all this frustration would be unnecessary if one took the attitude of being platform agnostic.

The choice to be platform agnostic doesn’t mean spreading yourself out too thin to use every single platform available. Not everyone can invest their money or time into experimenting with all Android phones, or each open source operating system.

Of course, you’re going to find a smartphone brand, operating system, web browser and Twitter client that will work for you. And you’re likely to enjoy your experience enough to suggest it to others, and maybe even declare yourself a fan of a certain product.

In practical terms, being platform agnostic means staying informed of all the available choices out there. It means not to let your fandom affect the way you see these choices, and to be ready to make the switch when necessary. In some cases, it may even be prudent to change platforms when unnecessary when you anticipate future benefits or you can find ways of compensating for the switch. It takes a lot of self control for anyone to be this open minded.

To summarize the psychology of fanboyism, your brain will go out of its way to justify the choices you made after the fact, even if it later comes to light that your choice may not have been the best one. This is true whether you bough the product or not, because the brain will treat it as an emotional investment. If the drawbacks outweigh the benefits of using that smartphone for business, don’t be in denial about it and look for alternate processes or devices to use. The same should apply with any other platform you use.

If you would like to read about this in more detail, you can do so here.

Educator Ira David Socol puts it best when he says:

I’m not “Platform Agnostic” because I’m a crazed techie, I’m “Platform Agnostic” because I work in education, and education is about helping students prepare for any possible future, not my particular vision of a future.  source

Don’t close your mind to new platforms or ways of doing things. You can be a fanboy for a company’s success and admire the products that you use from them, but don’t let your mind trick you into thinking you owe them some kind of loyalty or gratitude. That’s the effect of successful marketing and just a little bit of you fooling yourself.

Be practical, and look out for what best suits your needs.

Image Credits to unleashedlive

Iliganons from other parts of the world stay transfixed on social media as prime source of information as Iligan City lose others means of communication due to floods.

Typhoon Sendong has hit Iligan City last night causing knee-deep floods in parts of Iligan City. It has also caused problems with local Telcos and made it hard to send SMS messages to friends and relatives in the place.

People now turn to online channels like Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging to keep track of flood news about the city. Either they are updating about the status of their place, expressing concerns for their friends and relatives or even to the extent of asking for help.

Update 1: Video of the flood posted from a Facebook user.

Update 2: Tune in to RMN Iligan for updates. Here’s the link http://tunein.com/radio/RMN-Iligan-711-s65755/. Hotline is 09265089089.

Update 3: Palao and Del Carmen saved from floods.

Update 4: Iligan Bloggers Society, Inc. has started a campaign. One For Iligan http://bit.ly/unX71B

Update 5: Tweet from @tinker_carmz december 17, 2011 a tragic day for iligan city. i hope we extend help and prayers to these people

Iligan Bloggers Society, Inc. is humbly requesting your generous help for the victims Bagyong Sendong of Iligan City through #oneforiligan @iliganbloggers is accepting donations. Please RT/share.

Update 6: Photo from @YanBasa Adrian Basa Tropical Storm Sendong destruction – Iligan City @gmanews pic.twitter.com/EFZNdLhl

Update 7: Bayug Island after sendong

As with breaking news and use of social media as source of information, it is best to verify source of information for truth.

Photo Source:
Maria Balaga
Carmela Dalangin

The misinformation in using Facebook to promote and campaign for votes can get individuals into trouble.

Take for example this incident of “Facebook Like” assignment of a grade school computer teacher. She was criticized for requiring a Facebook account and generating likes in an assignment for Grade 3 students. It became the hot topic in the Philippine blogosphere when a blogger published the whole account of the incident on her article entitled Mater Carmeli School, what is your Grade 3 Computer Teacher teaching my baby brother?

Check out the sentiments of netizens over this:

This is an alarming news for parents and guardians who send their kids to school in hopes of having their kids learn. When you look at it, the teacher just might mean well when As a homeschooler, I cringe at the fact that this might happen to my homeschooled kid when I transition him to the “big school”.

In the point of view of a Facebook administrator and social media manager, there are two important lessons that can be picked from this incident:

First, brands and Facebook page owners should be aware of Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines that states: “You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion. “

taking about this metric?

In the case of the St. Louie Phase Women’s Club, Inc’s beauty pageant that included the daughter of the said teacher, she as a stakeholder just wanted her daughter to win, thus without any doubt used all her means to generate the much needed likes however magical the means would be. The administrators should be the one know the rules of the platform and not put the blame on their contestants.

Second, the “talking about this” metric maybe something that you are eye-ing on but are these people even talking about how good your product or services are? Or are they bashing you?

The Facebook fan page administrator immediately deleted the whole album for the pageant. I am guessing that if they did not do that, the bashing would continue and would be a scar forever on the little girl involved. This is a good move I believe.

But when they mentioned that people should not be ranting on their page, it is as if they have washed their hands and took zero responsibility for hosting the Likes contest in the first place.

Again, if you are keen on watching this metric, better make sure if the sentiment is positive or negative. It could spell disaster for your brand.

Living in a digital age where information is of abundance can be quite a challenge. A challenge because every time we turn on our laptops or smartphones, we are faced with chances to sin.

To sin is to deliberately violate a religious or moral law, to put it. Maslow and his hierarchy of needs already informed you that self-actualization (that includes morality) is a need. And needs have to be fulfilled.

On the other hand, religion has painted its morbid consequence of sinning like the hot fires of hell for example. With that, you would never want to sin.

Today, I saw this image (on the left) shared on a bookmarking site and I loved how they presented the seven capital sins which I tagged as digital sins. These was originally shared at the College Humor as The Seven Deadly Websites for those of you who want the source.

If you are familiar with the internet, you might know the name of some or all of these sites. The first one is very easy to guess. What else could it be? It’s Facebook, of course.

But my friend Hero even said that you can commit all these sins on Facebook itself: envy, sloth, greed, pride, gluttony, wrath, lust. Your mileage may vary.

The specific sin that I want to write about is envy.

The way they presented envy as a 666 notification looks deadly enough but if you look closer, you will be amazed at what that represents.

That first icon is no one else but you, happily browsing around Facebook and watching the ticker stream by with the various activities and updates from friends and “friends”.

What could be more fun to do on Facebook. That’s you typing your own happy status blurb. It’s you updating your latest check in to a fancy restaurant in the city.

Well, that’s until you did the second icon: You saw, read, looked.

• Your friend checked in a more expensive restaurant that you have never been to in your life.
• Your competitor launched a website for a reputable client you could never have.
• A friend of friend just posted his six-figure earnings from an MLM company. You could never earn that with your 9-5 job.
• Your ex-girlfriend just posted a photo of her newborn baby girl. You don’t even have a girlfriend now.
• Your brother is announcing his travel plans for the world to see. You only have enough cash to pay next month’s bills without depriving yourself of an internet connection.
• Your neighbor sent an event invite to his beach wedding with a girl you had crush on back in college.

And now, your world just turned upside down. Your updates have only garnered the ‘like’ of your mom who tracks your every move with a well thought of motherly advice to your dismay. And your cat photo has only lasted a day of attention from your officemates who still think that you never truly deserve that promotion last month.

Now, there is really nothing wrong with seeing your friends and neighbors’ activities. But to covet them (and deprive yourself of happiness) is something else. I must say – Hey, you have just sinned on Facebook! And the third icon represents the people who you might want to inflict misfortunes on because of envy – that friend, that competitor, that ex-girlfriend, your brother, that neighbor.

I would not want to argue when you say “Well, it’s not like I killed anyone.” You didn’t, that’s right. But this kind of envy caused about by low self-esteem can cause unhappiness. And unhappiness has its consequences. The worst of this, in my opinion, is suicide.

How to cope? I have one advice: Log off Facebook. Count your blessings.

What’s your advice for Facebook-induced envy?

As stated on their site, Bilibid.com is a penny auction site wherein users can bid for a specific item using bid points. Just like the usual bidding process, whoever bids the highest price for the item, wins the auction.

Instead of bidding for free though and cashing out only when you win a bid, these auction sites require you to pay for each bid. It means that you need to buy bids so you can participate in an auction.

A bidding fee auction, also called a penny auction, is a type of all-pay auction in which participants must pay a non-refundable fee to place a small incremental bid. When time expires, the last participant to have placed a bid wins the item and also pays the final bid price, which is purportedly significantly lower than the retail price of the item. The auctioneer makes money in two ways: the fees for each bid and the payment for the winning bid. -Wikipedia

I decided to try out this site when their Facebook page announced on my stream that they have Krispy Kreme GC bidding ending in 20mins. Just to see what the hype was all about (and hey it’s KK!) after hearing about this from the Cebu Bloggers Society members, I decided to give it a try.

Buying Bid Packs

What I did since I already had an account was to purchase 20 bids worth of pack for Php 300. That’s about Php15 per bid. A bit expensive for my taste. The good thing about it is that they made it easy for you to purchase bids. You can get your bid packs over LoadCentral, CashSense and Paypal. I got mine over Paypal of course.

When I got my credits, I had to redeem. It’s actually just a sort of “top up” page where you enter the Card Number and the PIN that you just purchased.

Bidding on an Item

After redeeming, I navigated to the Krispy Kreme GC bid page that I saw. There are other bid pages but some still have hours to go and some are already hot at the eight-seconds countdown so I settled at the KK GC that I came there for.

I started bidding at the last-eight-seconds countdown timer. This is said to be the most crucial part of the auction. This is the time when the bid wars begin. The more bidders, the longer this would take. And in the case of the GC card, it reached about Php 4.00 before someone won the bid.

Bidder Point of View

In the point of view of a bidder, you might be able to say that it was really good way to earn items like this at a very low price. Imagine buying a GC with the market value of Php 500 for only Php 3.82. It’s that cheap!

But when you try and put yourself on the other side of the table, you would realize that penny auction sites earn way, WAY too much in the process. If you are planning on building a penny auction site as a business, it could be very, VERY profitable.

Bidding Site Operator Point of View – The Real Winner

Take a look at this screenshot below where the bidding was already really tight. You can see that nine bidders were waiting to get their hands on the GC by trying to out bid the others. Every time someone bids at the last eight seconds, the timer gets reset to back to 8 seconds. Oh my.

At this point, the price was already at Php 3.82. It means 382 bids right? Multiply it by the amount of each bid (at Php 15 each) and you get Php 5730. Five thousand pesos plus for a five hundred peso gift certificate! Guess who’s the real winner?

And yes, that does not include the final payment of the winning bidder and the  of course, the winner needs to pay for shipping.

TLDR; Penny auction sites can be a real money maker.

Is it a legitimate bidding site? Yes. It has been recommended to our blogging group and so far I have not seen complaints. So yes, you are very much welcome to visit the site and bid.

I still have 25 bids left but I want to hit myself for even purchasing Php 300 package. I know I will never win at this based on the circumstances that I need more than 25 bids to win a gift certificate. Maybe it requires skills and a whole lot of luck but it’s hard to join up when you are not under control of the situation.

Would you use penny auction sites?

Iligan Bloggers Society is hosting the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2011 with the theme “One Green Mindanao” on October 29 – 30, 2011 in Iligan City.

With this, I am off to travel mode next week to visit my hometown. Let’s get on immediately with my list because the second portion is more important – why YOU need to join the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 5.

Only seven days to go and we will traveling back to my hometown. But this trip is special and it excites me to visit Iligan again because:

• I will be joining my first ever Mindanao Bloggers Summit.
• I will be joining an event organized by Iligan Bloggers Society – a society that I co-founded with the ever passionate women – Lovette Jacosalem and Xyza Yape.
• I will be meeting the IBS Core Group that I have just been communication purely online for the past MONTHS!

Reasons Why You Need to Join the Mindanao Bloggers Summit

Enough about me. Here are some things you get when you join the summit.

1.  Get inspired to earn through blogging.

Ms. Janette Toral will be gracing the event and will be discussing how it is to become a blogger-entrepreneur. She has been a very good teacher who gave me hands-on insight on how it is to earn through what you love to do most and it would be good for Mindanao bloggers to hear straight from her on how to make it happen for them.

Ms. Aileen Apolo – de Jesus is also giving out a webinar on using content, analytics and adsense. Every problogger would know that Adsense is a good way to earn from your blog. For the more advanced bloggers, they might expect to learn a few more stuff on the exciting happenings at Google from her talk.

2. Meet Mindanao bloggers.

I am expecting to meet not just the Iligan bloggers but also those from friends around Mindanao like Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and Bukidnon. And what’s the use? Comparing notes and seeing a testament to how vibrant the blogging community is. It goes to show that the pride of being a blogger is not at all just an online thing – it’s also about building connections to further promote your personal brand.

3. Meet David DiMuzio.

I have liked the fan page of this artist and I am very much aware of the fact that he is well-loved by Filipinos. The last news I heard about this guy was that he has been “wooing” Yeng Constantino with his English version of Hawak-Kamay. Get to see him on October 30th on a private concert for MBS5.

4. Tour Iligan on Day 2.

On the second day of the summit,  a fun-filled day awaits you on as you get to admire the beauty of Iligan. You will get to tour with an Iligan Blogger to famouse places in Iligan like the NPC Nature’s Park and Ma. Cristina Falls, Iligan Paradise Resort and Eco-Park and Mimbalot Falls  and Timoga Spring Pools.

5. Learn about “green” living for Mindanaoans.

Of course, the summit is all about One Green Mindanao. Mr. Naderev Saño is Commissioner of the National Climate Change Commission, the country’s lead policy-making body on climate change and will be the keynote speaker in the summit.

There’s also DR. MARILOU SITON-NANAMAN is a professor at Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology speaking on Sustainable Lifestyle. Ms. Anna Oposa, hailed by Yahoo! Southeast Asia as one of the seven inspiring modern-day Filipino heroes for her efforts in environmental conservation, will talk about Blogging for the Environment.

What About You? What Excites You to Go to Iligan?

If you have an answer to that question, kindly visit this link to join the blogging contest. Fabulous cash prizes await those who will join!