Y4iT 2008

Prof. Cherrie Joy Billedo

Dept. of Psychology, UP Diliman

The youth of today is undoubtedly inclined with the latest social networking websites that the Internet has to offer. But what exactly is the meaning of social networking and how do the youth of today view relationships that were formed over the net? Prof. Cherrie Joy Billedo of the UP Department of Psychology answered such questions during her Y4IT talk about Social Networking last September 3, at the UP Film Institute.

“Psychology is the scientific study of human while Cyber-social psychology is psychology in the context of cyberspace” Prof. Billedo said as she started her talk. She explained the Cyberworld or the Internet is a form of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), meaning any form of human interaction across two or more networked computers. However, CMCs do not stop on networked computers. She added that the simple text messaging is now considered as part of the CMC. These CMSs made it easier for people to be drawn together for a common interest. This connection between people forms a Social Network.

Prof. Billedo discussed that the rich and wide variety of content of the Internet makes the socila network to evolve and everyone to fully express themselves. For instance, one can use Emoticons (smileys), Emotes (verbalization of actions e.g. *hugs*), the use of capitalization to express anger, Paralinguistic markers (e.g. hmmm’s and oooooh’s), Acronyms and Misspellings are tolerated.

Anonimity and The Self

The Internet makes it easy for everyone to create identity. However, Prof. Billedo warns us about the “fakesters”. As the word implies, “fakester” is a person who creates a hideous profiles just to fool and trick other people. But still, there are many honest person who gave their profiles true self-description, picture or avatar that depicts their true selves and an honest nickname. Prof. Billedo thinks that there is nothing wrong with people who uses only good pictures for their profiles. “We call it selective self penetration” she said, “it is basically maintaining a good image. Nagsisinungaling ba sila? Hindi. Just preparing to present oneself in a desirable manner”.

Why go online?

Prof. Billedo pointed out that in the context of social networking, there are two reasons to go online: 1) to establish new relationships and 2) to maintain existing relationships. She explained that the latter is more common because it was in 2004 that most of the new relationships were formed. Presently, the only thing that most people do is maintain relationships that were already existing. She also gave a trivia that Carmen Leilani de Jesus, the 91^st member of Friendster, is the 1^st Filipino to join Friendster.

“Human nature does not change drastically because of the Internet”, she said . She mentioned that the core values of human in a social network still remains the same regardless of proximity or the medium or technology that is used. “Evaluate your Internet relationship if it is complete and not if it is ‘real‘ ”, she concluded.

It was the last day of the Philippine Youth Congress for Information Technology and yet, the venues were still jam-packed! Hope you learned a lot and had fun. Thanks for participating and being part of the biggest IT event. See you next year IT enthusiasts!!!

Prof. JJ Disini

College of Law, UP Diliman

A lot of people learn to post other people’s contents such as pictures and videos. They re-post articles of others’ sites without the proper citation and other legalities.

To introduce legal aspects of E-publishing, the E-commerce Act (ECA) was enacted. It covers all commercial and non-commercial contents on the internet. Hacking is one of the many important things covered by the ECA. Jurisdictional issues of hacking are place of commission, effects to doctrine; venue under the rules and penalties are imprisonment and fines.

Everybody makes a copyright of work. Copyright is under the intellectual  property law and anyone who infringes it is punishable by law. When copyrights are granted, the person has the right to reproduce copies of the contents, right to dramatize, adapt, or transform the work, etc., and a right to public display and perform. Excluded works from the copyright are works within the public domain such as the ideas behind contents.

Fair use discussed is the linking back to the page where an idea or a content was got. What is not fair use is when somebody ripped a music and posted it in his page without linking the page where he got the original post.

On-line Piracy under the ECA is defined as the unauthorized copyright, reproduction, dissemination, distribution, importation, use, etc. of contents through the use of telecommunication networks. Covered by the on-line piracy are the file sharing, all forms of infringement, domain name, cybersquatting and framing.

Professor Disini also talked about bloggers who usually deal with quoting and writing about anything, and who do not have authority to write. The problem with them is that they have no publisher to protect them from libel suits, thus the liabilities are direct.

Service providers like Youtube are exempted in the E-pubishing Act. The only duty of Youtube, for example, is to take down an illegal post if a someone complained it with copyright issues. Service providers are not liable for copyright law.

By: Prof. Oliver Malabanan

IT Department, De La Salle University

Trivia: Top ten sites visited by Filipinos are: Yahoo, Friendster, Google, Youtube, Multiply, Wikipedia, Blogger, Imeem, Photobucket, and Msn.

Next top sites are: 11-15, Would You Believe, Youporn!, Rapidshare, Y8, nba.com, Microsoft.

The youth today learn more about the world via the net than teachers. It should be studied. There’s a lot of trash out there.

A mosaic of the connective intelligence is: people on the net create, share, re-create, extend content because of similar interests.

Wisdom of the Crowd: Given a popular idea, the majority rules. Popular idea rules, common idea rules, common idea is the one who rules.

Blogs are connective inteligence; wikis in a way are also collective intelligence, more wisdom of the crowd.

New formed idea is crowd sourcing or the collaboration of the abilities of the crowd.

Collective intelligence is better in smaller groups, not the whole world.

By: Dr. Carlo Mar Blanca

National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman

Wireless Technology is now extending its capabilities and features to cater to biomedical information. UPD Physics professor, Dr. Mar Blanca introduces the latest and cheapest microscopic and microphoto imaging instruments available more efficient diagnosis of microscopic and optical elements in biomedical field as well as in physics.  Instruments include: confocal microscope, which generates high focal imgaes of microprocessors utilizing laser diode to detect defective parts of microprocessors and Bioimaging, a diognosis wich generates imaging with the use of projector microscopy.

Nanophotonics, a research by the Dr. Blanca, in collaboration with Dr. Cynthia Palmes-Saloma, emphasizes the use of micro photo imaging for biocellular diagnosis.  This method of technology is now applied in micropunctioning, microDessication, and patterned photobleeding.

The remote ECG, a wireless technology that uses mobile phones for generating ECG results, was also introduced. with this, doctors and physicians can now monitor their remote patients in real time. Other advancement in the said field is the use of Medical visual diagnostics and Wireless Telemicroscopy.

By: Ms. Gina Duminy

President, itprosasia.com

The Philippines is the third largest offshore destination in Asia. In order to keep up with the changing trends in technology, IT professionals must be competent and certified. Certification tests the skills and competencies of professionals. There are two basic kinds; Vendor-specific and Vendor-neutral certifications. Certifications are needed to ensure quality people, and in turn, quality services and systems. Certifications also benefits companies, individuals and HR practitioners. These are also considered milestones for individuals.

Bear in mind, though, that one should consider some things before aiming for that certification. These include career paths and goals and costs. Certifications are expensive to train for. In the end, however, to remain relevant in the highly-technological workforce, we must remember that quality matters.

By: Ms. Imee Marcos

President, Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines

The Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CREAM) is a digital media alliance committed to the production of original Filipino content for the international market. It consolidates industry databases and takes the lead in the production, distribution and merchandising to further the interest of creative media in the country. With the Filipino’s high consumption of multimedia, such as computer games and films, it is only fitting that the Philippines, which started the first film industry in Asia, must improve its production value, stories and distribution channels in order to keep up with the increase in demand and competition in lieu of the digital media boom.

Among CREAM’s initiatives include the revival of Metropop this October 2008, the Environmental Film Festival, Earth Day 2009 and Asian Music Studio. In the realm of animation, CREAM is also venturing with co-productions with neighboring countries to produce animated, universal films with a Filipino heart. The society also will aim to improve licensing and distribution, in order to the keep up with the global marketplace.

By: Mr. Jefferson Cheng

Product Specialist, Acer Philippines

Mr. Cheng gave an overview of the important features of the new Acer Notebook Computers. Among these are the latest multi-core processors and mobile computing technologies. Multi-core processors are processor chips have a number of multi-layer cores inside a single processor, which provides up to four times the computing power of a single-core processor. The latest of these processors is the quad-core chips from AMD and Intel. Aside from more powerful processors, notebooks will and are now carrying the latest mobile computing technologies like Intel’s Centrino mobile platform, which maximize the available computing memory and connect to the web through WIFI and WIMAX, which is currently being tested in several parts of the country.

Mr. Cheng also presented latest technology innovations from Acer. Some of these are the Data Security Technology built-in the fingerprint scanner, and now on the webcam, such biometric technologies protect the computer from strangers as the computer identifies the owner’s fingerprints. Cutting-edge design also complements the latest technologies in Acer’s notebooks, accents like a holographic 3D finish and backlight logos will surely delight design-savvy users. A new Cine Dash Media Console also makes the Acer notebooks very functional, yet still very easy-to-use. Are you still waiting for the latest in technologies before buying that new computer? Unfortunately, there is no right time to buy; technology is emerging, and it would never stop. Fortunately, Acer’s latest offerings in notebook computing will surely wet our appetites for the latest and the greatest in technology and award-wining design, and make our work and play more productive as well.

Latest specs for new laptops: 4” and 12” models. 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320 SATA Hard Disk Drive, 14” Widescreen WXGA Screen, Blu-ray

By: Mr. John Ruero

Country IT Manager, Misys International Banking Systems

Based on 2007 data, most hack attacks happen on a Wednesday, at 6 in the evening. By 2008, it happens almost everyday, and every hour.

Honeypot: resource setup for hacking to test security

Honeyney: advanced honeypot, network of honeypots

Honeymonkey: aggressive honeypot, invites hacking

By: Mr. Noel Feria

Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman.

Michael Casey introduced the concept of Library 2.0 in September 2005. Mr. Feria said that the Libraries of today must operate according to the expectations of its users. And in an increasingly technology literate population, libraries must integrate Web 2.0 into its offerings. From the old days of static Web 1.0, we now have the collaborative, dynamic technology that is Web 2.0.

Social Cataloging websites for instance, have gone into the realm of books. These websites include the like of Shelfari and LibraryThing, which allows users to “share” their books virtually. Mr. Feria also introduced to the delegates in the UP Film Institute the up-and-coming Web 3.0 technologies and new concerns for libraries in lieu of fast-changing technology: Participation, User-oriented services, Privacy, Personalization and Globalization.