theBobbery

LivingSocial User Database Hacked – 50 Million Accounts Affected

Franky Branckaute — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:13:03 +0000

AllthingsD’s Kara Swisher reports that LivingSocial has become the victim of a database hack, and its whole customer database with more than 50 million user accounts may have been accessed.

LivingSocial, which is known in the Philippines for as owner and operator of Ensogo, so far hasn’t publicly communicated with its users yet. The site is the second largest group deal site in the Philippines. LivingSocial acquired Ensogo in June 2011.

Ensogo.com.ph users are highly recommended to change their passwords, despite Swisher reporting that the Ensogo database is maintained on another system.

Swisher obtained an internal email, which we reprinted below. According to the internal mail, the credit cards database, and merchants account database, were not affected by the cyberattack. The internal email obtained by Swisher doesn’t make any mention of Ensogo’s system not being affected.

Re: Security Incident
LivingSocialites –

This e-mail is important, so please read it to the end.

We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords — technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

Two things you should know:
1. * The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.
2. * The database that stores merchants’ financial and banking information was not affected or accessed.

The security of our customer and merchant information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

To ensure our customers and merchants are fully informed and protected, we are notifying those who may have been impacted via email explaining what happened, expiring their passwords, and requesting that they create new passwords. A copy of the note is included below this email.

If you have any questions or concerns, please visit Pulse –https://pulse.livingsocial.com/intranet/Home/more_updates.html — for a list of frequently asked questions. If you have additional questions that aren’t answered in the FAQs, please submit them via email to XXX@livingsocial.com.

Because we anticipate a high call volume and may not be able to answer or return all calls in a responsible fashion, we are likely to temporarily suspend consumer phone-based servicing. We will be devoting all available resources to our web-based servicing.

I apologize for the formality of this note, which the circumstances demand. We need to do the right thing for our customers who place their trust in us, and that is why we’re taking the steps described and going above and beyond what’s required. We’ll all need to work incredibly hard over the coming days and weeks to validate that faith and trust.

– Tim

Swisher also published the email LivingSocial users may receive in the next hours/days.

Subject: An important update on your LivingSocial.com account

LivingSocial recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords — technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.

Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one.

For your security, please create a new password for your account by following the instructions below.

1. Visit LivingSocial.com
2. Click on the “Create a New Password” button (top right corner of the homepage)
3. Follow the steps to finish

We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s).

The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website — and require you to login — before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information.

If you have additional questions about this process, the “Create a New Password” button on LivingSocial.com will direct you to a page that has instructions on creating a new password and answers to frequently asked questions.

We are sorry this incident occurred, and we look forward to continuing to introduce you to new and exciting things to do in your community.

Tim O’Shaughnessy
CEO, LivingSocial

The cyberhack which hasn’t been claimed so far, is but the latest of many in the last two years. Locally Sulit became the victim of a dotPH security issue more recently.

The post LivingSocial User Database Hacked – 50 Million Accounts Affected appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Multiply to Shut Down on May 31, 2013

Franky Branckaute — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:00:56 +0000

Multiply just announced that the site, which has recently undergone a major pivot from free blogging and photo upload platform to e-Commerce platform, will shut down completely by May 31, 2013.

The news has been announced by the Multiply CEO, Stefan Magdalinski, via the Indonesian Multiply site and locally Jack Madrid, Multiply Philippines Country Manager has emailed Multiply merchants the following note.

Dear Multiply Merchant,

We regret to inform you that Multiply will be closing the marketplace on May 6, 2013 and discontinuing all business operations by May 31, 2013.

Multiply will maintain normal site operations through May 6th and will wind things down through to the end of the month. We will use the rest of May to make sure that all accounts are settled and that you receive all funds you earned on the platform. We hope this provides you time needed to identify and migrate to alternative ecommerce platforms, settle all payments on items bought and delivered, and try to minimize disruption to your business.

In order to ensure that all your earnings are disbursed to you in full prior to May 31, we will cut off buying activity on May 6, 2013. This will ensure that all orders have sufficient time to be completed and delivered to your customers before the end of the month.

If you have a Trust Badge, please contact our customer support team and we will ensure that you receive a pro-rated refund for the remaining time on your subscription.

If my team can be of any assistance to you during this transition, we will do our best to help.

Respectfully yours,

Jack Madrid
Multiply Country Manager – Philippines

The announcement can also be read on Multiply.com.

DailySocial has an additional statement by Multiply CEO Stefan Magdalinski.

Magdalinski’s statement highlights the inability of the team to successfully pivot from blogging/social network to e-Commerce platform. Anybody who has ever performed a search on the new Multiply will probably have run into site errors in recent weeks.

“About a year ago, our local Multiply teams were given the mighty challenge of totally re-inventing the company,” said Stefan Magdalinski, Multiply CEO. “After much effort, we are forced to admit that we were not able to pull it off. I’m proud of my team for their diligence and determination, despite the disappointing outcome.”

This is the end of an era, but at the same time also the beginning for new entrants in the local e-Commerce scene. With Checkout.ph having gone inactive, we are looking forward to who else may emerge and can grow to become a major e-Commerce PAAS provider locally.

Infinite.ly recently moved in the e-Commerce space already.
Other online store platforms merchants can join after Multiply’s demise include Bolooka for Filipino made products, Shopinas, Hallo Hallo Mall, Heartlandmalls and JaunStore.

Product brands can also look at AVA.ph and even Rocket Internet’s owned Lazada and Zalora.

The post Multiply to Shut Down on May 31, 2013 appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Launchgarage Announces Second Batch Dates, Opens for Applications

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:40:15 +0000

Launchgarage, the startup accelerator organised by Proudcloud and Kickstart Ventures, has announced the dates for the second batch.

Launchgarage investees, AKA Garageheads, receive $30,000 seed funding for 15% equity upon entering the 5 months accelerator program.

The second Launchgarage batch will start on July 1, 2013 and end on November 30, 2013.

The participating startups to the first batch, Launchgarage Stratos, were Tripsiders, Apptivate, WorkInspire and MyLegalWhiz, the latter which went on to win the Philippine Echelon Satellite program and will be participating to the Echelon finals on June 4-5, 2013, in Singapore.

The program, which covers 5 months, during which the participating startups need to regularly be present in Manila, is lead by Jay Fajardo, CEO and Co-founder of Proudcloud, as well as the Kickstart Ventures team with Minette Navarrete, Christian Besler and Dan Siazon.

Also read the extensive interview with the Launchgarage team we had when the program opened its application doors for the original batch, last September.

Launchgarage

Startup accelerator founded by Kickstart Ventures and Proudcloud

Launched in September 2012
Website
on Twitter
on Facebook
on theBobbery

During the 5 months of acceleration the startups can expect extensive initiation and training in the methodology of the Lean Startup, as well as pitch training. Launchgarage also covers several networking events, within the startup scene but also within its extended business network which can lead to strategic partnerships beyond the initial $30,000 investment in the startups.

During the first batch, Isaac Souweine and Phil Morle of Pollenizer, also conducted 2 intensive training seminars focusing both on Lean and pitching. Check out Isaac Souweine on theBobberyCast for a brief introduction to Lean and Pollenizer.

Applications to the Launchgarage program, which is open to startups from all over the Philippines, are now open and happen via f6s. For more info visit the Launchgarage website.

The post Launchgarage Announces Second Batch Dates, Opens for Applications appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Galleon launches private Beta affiliate program

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:59:10 +0000

Galleon.ph, the online store which offers products which aren’t found on the local market and was covered by us when launched mid 2012, is moving to another stage and preparing the public launch of an affiliate program.

At this time the program is open to applying bloggers, but not to the wider public yet. Galleon offers commissions higher than most entry rates usually found on international ecommerce stores.
The importance of this affiliate program launch is not just huge for Galleon, but for the whole Philippine e-commerce space. As also discussed on theBobberyCast with Ralph Manalo Wunsch, affiliates are world wide an integral part of online shopping and e-commerce marketing.

Products

startup profile
Work Inspire: Email & project management platform
Kosmos.ph: Online shopping with highest security standards
Galleon.ph: Bringing locally not available products to the Philippines
WP-This: Better social buttons for WordPress

While in the Philippines more and more online stores have started to offer an affiliate bonus upon first purchase of referred store clients, affiliate marketing is still almost inexistent and no Philippine affiliate marketing platform[1] exists locally.

The question is whether Galleon, who have recorded more than 100% month over month growth in recent months, can be the initiator to this, but as history has shown usually once somebody starts something others are quick to jump on the bandwagon. There is also very little doubt that in many a ~~stay at home~~ local blogger will participate to affiliate programs and drop as many an affiliate link as possible in their content, just as we have seen with Amazon and other popular affiliate programs since e-commerce and online affiliates were created.

Galleon launched mid 2012 and is developed by , under lead of Christian Blanquera. &ltOpenovate Labs> are also the dev shop behind, WorkInspire, a Launchgarage participant and Kickstart portfolio company.

Bloggers who wish to apply to the Galleon Publisher Affiliate Programm can do so by filling out this form.

Like ShareASale

The post Galleon launches private Beta affiliate program appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Politi-ko, Your Electoral Guide to Simpleton Season

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:23:03 +0000

Thanks to the behavior of several candidates at times, it seems like it is simpleton season, AKA as electoral season again. In a society often ~~brandished~~ defined by the behavior of celebrities, the great inspiration of the TV watching and FM/AM loving demographic, it is important that people research who they will give their vote to.

Which candidates to trust enough to possibly help define how our taxes are spend, and what will happen with important issues such as the Reproductive Health Bill, Divorce or the Cybercrime Law.

But do voters actually know the stance of the candidates on the main topics?

Some local developers have build Politi-ko as a basic guide to know how the main candidates think about nine major topics, and how that compares to your own sentiments on those topics.

The topics covered are:

Total gun ban
Same Sex-Marriage
Death Penalty
Divorce
Anti-Political Dynasty
Freedom of Information (FOI)
Anti-Cybercrime
Sin Tax
Reproductive Health

And for each topic site users have the following choice options:

Strongly for
For
Don’t care / No stance
Against
Strongly against

Every time a user expresses their sentiment on said topic, Politi-ko will automatically rank the candidates according to how many topics candidates have in common with the user’s sentiments. Politi-ko uses the electoral topics published for each candidate by GMA Network[1].

A simple idea, and a great basic guide for those who have not built an opinion yet who to vote for, or to validate whether your preferred candidate has the same values you find important.

Politi-ko is still in Beta according to the site’s header, but that is probably due to the fact that many politicians love to change their opinion as the electoral season progresses, and not due to a lack of coding knowledge of the developers.

The team, who wish to stay anonymous but confirmed depending on their mood they may sport a mohawk or not, also wish to emphasize that Politi-ko should not be the only decisive information base for voters but voters should further research the candidates and their electoral program before making a final decision.

Still don’t know how to vote, or wish to verify whether a politician has an agenda similar to what you deem important? Check out Politi-ko.com.

Source

The post Politi-ko, Your Electoral Guide to Simpleton Season appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E16: World Startup Report

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:45:09 +0000

Bowei Gai, of CardMunch and the World Startup Report, joins on theBobberyCast almost immediately after landing in the Philippines after a three day long journey from Brazil to Manila. His travel assistant Tina Amper, of TechTalks.ph fame, also joins us as there’s a Startup Weekend – World Startup Report t-shirts stand-off live on air.

Show Synopsis

Bowei Gai

Thought he could do it just like that. And did it: more than 25 countries and plus 30 cities.

Bowei shared his amazing story how he hustled his way to an internship at Apple, which led to him becoming one of the original iPhone team members. And then the pink slip landed on his desk, mainly because his manager wanted him to convert his ideas in own projects, in an era without app store.

And thus the startup life started for Bowei.

Several years later Bowei’s x-th startup, CardMunch, was acquired by Linkedin and Bowei was lucky enough to be part of one of the more successful internet startup IPOs, Linkedin’s.

After a while at Linkedin Bowei decided to leave, take a break and give back to the community. And end last year he embarked on a 9-months long trip. The World Startup Report had started.

Check out the previous World Startup Reports here.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video
Mobile video: 360p video
Audio only: MP3

theBobberyCast is soon moving to Monday evenings, 6-7PM as well.

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

The post tBC S01E16: World Startup Report appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

RockItDub, Creative Indie Distribution Platform for Facebook Loving Indie Musicians

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:34:32 +0000

In this era where musicians have become the content creators who can now decide how to distribute their art, rather than being at the whims of labels, distribution and especially sales of records still are a difficult operation for artists. With Facebook having become the main platform everybody and their three nephews like to ~~procastinate~~ hang out Cebu based team Symph Studios decided to create a sales platform for musicians which makes use of Facebook: RockItDub.

RockItDub allows artists to sell their music via the largest social platform. The idea to create RockItDub started when a local artist approached the Symph team, end 2012 and the team decided to create a cheaper and easier way for musicians to sell their music, using the largest social network where many artists have a royal fan base already, often larger than on their own website. The platform, which functions as a Facebook application linked to the fan page of artists, hosts the music and generate voucher codes for musicians. Codes which can then be redeemed in exchange for music downloads.

RockItDub allows the musician to decide how they want to distribute the code, leaving artistic freedom open to every content creator and also the option to decide the price of the music for sale. Codes can also be printed on Dubcards, a collaboration with RedTag. Or the artist can just send the redeem code via SMS, or print it on a mug or T-shirt. Anything is possible, anything goes.

Even selling digital music at gigs.

RockItDub was launched on January 25th 2013, with two Philippine indie artists, Carlos Choi (Facebook page) and Bamshak (Facebook page).

The pricing model[1] of RockItDub is interesting for artists as well, and is based on storage volume. Artists are charged per code, starting at ₱5/code, which includes 50MB storage space. Every further 50MB storage space is charged at an additional ₱1/code.

Artists are free to upload several tracks for the initial ₱5/code. An artist with for example 12 high quality tracks uploaded, in total 120MB, will be charged ₱7/code. The artist can request as many codes as they want. A limited free trial offering 5-10 codes is available for artists who wish to try out RockItDub.

RockItDub

It’s not easy to be an indie musician, so we’re here to help you make a living out of what you love.

Music has always been an active niche in the Philippines and many artists have joined the internet, often with large success. In the last two years the Philippines have seen several music internet startups such as ArtisteConnect, Twitmusic (both the class of 2012 laureats) and NDFY, and also rich media startups such as Radio Republic and New Media Factory.

There is no doubt that over the next months we will see more music focused startups emerge in the Philippines as well, not in the least thanks to an active indie OPM music scene and the large gamut of local online musicians, not to mention a vast array of popular artists who have decided to turn the back to the music labels and abuse the power of the internet.

With RockItDub Cebu based Symph Studios, under lead of Dave Overton, has created an excellent opportunity for artists to easily sell their music or use the internet to promote the launch of an album via a cheap voucher code system. Without any required knowledge of the internet for the artist, nor difficult pricing model. And there is no doubt that soon we will see artists use ArtisteConnect to fund their next release, and offer it for download via RockItDub.

RockItDub is still in Beta and may change its pricing model in the future

The post RockItDub, Creative Indie Distribution Platform for Facebook Loving Indie Musicians appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Why I Am Seriously Considering Joining a Major Advertising Agency as Entrepreneur in Residence

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:40:15 +0000

Since several weeks I have been courted by the local arm of a major international advertising agency, a Top 10 Digital Agency in the country, in order to join the agency as Entrepreneur in Residence. To evolve their internal development team into a lean startup launchpad.

After many years both in Management and Product Management, I am seriously considering the opportunity, despite my indie character and ethos.

Here’s why.

This Is Innovation, It Is About The Challenge

Advertising agencies are often seen as the more creative companies around, but there is no denying that these companies have in many cases become legacy companies. Much of their (online) development tasks have traditionally been outsourced to third party development shops. Only in the last 12-18 months have (some) agencies started to hire an in-house dev team.

intra-pre-neur:
A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation

A development team which in most cases works on campaign projects, at the whims and desires of campaign managers. And at many an agency twiddle their thumbs in between campaign projects, also because often when a campaign is launched the work and maintenance on that project stops.

Typical for agency development is that most tasks are heavily tied to deadlines, and in many a case even that the complete roadmap is dictated by the campaign manager. Leaving little freedom or creativity to the development team. A team whose task I usually summarize in the words developers on call. Developers on payroll with little to no incentive to become entrepreneurs. Merely cogs in the digital campaign engine.

Totally the opposite of the lean startup methodology.

We are now seeing the first step and agencies are starting to look into intrapreneurship by using part of their resources differently to diversify their revenue streams. But the path is a long and difficult one, often requiring a complete cultural change within a department and company.

Away from classic modi operandi to a modern and more agile approach. Towards good and lean startup practices.

This is innovation at the core of international corporations with more than 10,000 employees worldwide. It’s all about the challenge, Stupid!

Is This An 800-Pound Gorilla Case?

Just like with Magneto it is easy to see but the drive to conquer and dominate, but it is also important to look at the background and origins[1]. In truth this new venture is a startup in itself for any digital agency. While it is simple to think that an international agency may join the landscape and flex its financial muscle as well as its rolodex, intrapreneurship often doesn’t come with large or unlimited budgets or even the desire to dominate.

Nor is innovation a guaranteed success story.

There will be fails.

When advertising agencies started building their own in-house social media teams this could correctly be seen as an 800-Pound gorilla case and directly threatened independent social media specialists who aren’t bleeding edge in their work practices. This case is different though.

In the era when many may re-evaluate their actual job, larger organizations such as advertising agencies have to start from scratch to convince creative and innovative developers to join them. They are at the bottom of the ladder in the startup ecosystem.

Agencies will have to build a culture which is interesting for talented developers, a culture in which entrepreneurship is favored and developers are stimulated to become creative and start projects. This may include even equity, a novel concept for legacy corporations where paid over-time the usual reward is.

To do so, and to be able to hire talented developers, corporations have to become an integral contributor to the startup ecosystem, rather than the blue monster with deep pockets or a competitor copying successful projects. Become a successful contributor to the ecosystem without self-interest as main goal. Even share their marketing knowledge and experience in taking products to the market.

Arguably the only benefit advertising agencies right now have upon entering the startup entrepreneurship landscape.

The power of the rolodex, a muscle an advertising agency can flex but alone isn’t a guarantee to success without a positive culture for developers and startup experience.

“The key to being a successful contributor to an ecosystem is the ability to take yourself out of the equation”
Christian Besler
Kickstart Ventures

What About theBobbery?

What about conflict of interest? Let it be clear from the start that I have absolutely no interest nor plans to become the Philippine TechCrunch-AOL train wreck version. As such it is not more than logical that if I start this new role, or any similar gig, all projects started/launched on my watch are EXCLUDED from coverage on theBobbery. It is also logical that as founder and lead author of theBobbery I have not negotiated any equity in projects which may be created under my lead.

NO projects I will launch during such employment will be covered on theBobbery. Not by me, not by anyone else. More even, theBobbery and I will be unbiased enough to admit it when another startup executes a similar idea better. I will probably curse myself if that happens, but credit’s due where credits due.

As simple as that.

The advertising agency, or any future employer, will not be allowed to be a site-wide or content sponsor of theBobbery either.

In the spirit of full disclosure: plans to create a new platform which may benefit startups exist. The advertising agency I may join is not a partner in this project. A launch announcement may be done via theBobbery, explaining the benefits of the platform when the time has come, but that project will never be compared to similar ideas on theBobbery.

The End

Intrapreneurship will lead to more entrepreneurs starting their own companies

I am looking forward to taking up this challenge, further contributing to the local scene, and also continuing the old mission that entrepreneurship is a viable future for students and any professional. If done well developers will leave my team to launch their own startups, because we will have inspired them to become entrepreneurs.

This opportunity is but one of many evidences that even larger corporations are open to the startup life and want to diversify their revenue streams.

Both intrapreneurship and M&A are leading to ever more agile innovation within the corporate world. Being offered the opportunity to spearhead this innovation within a company is an exciting challenge, and possibly the largest challenge I have taken on so far.

But it’s a damn exciting one.

Do you know your comics?

The post Why I Am Seriously Considering Joining a Major Advertising Agency as Entrepreneur in Residence appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

20 Local Projects Announced as Ideaspace Finalists. Bonus: TechCrunch Screws Up

Franky Branckaute — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:00:26 +0000

Philippine incubator program

IdeaSpace

Earl Valencia on theBobberyCast

Besides the fact of offering local startups above mentioned opportunities, IdeaSpace is also an advocacy according to President and Co-Founder of IdeaSpace Earl Martin Valencia. The former Manager, Business Development, Strategy and Incubation – Emerging Technologies Group at CISCO Systems, aims to raise awareness among students that the corporate career path doesn’t necessarily have to be the outcome after graduating from college. Find out more about IdeaSpace from Earl Valencia when he guested on theBobberyCast.

The national IdeaSpace competition received around 700 submissions from all over the country and several submissions were sent in via traditional snail mail even. Of the 700 participants 20 finalists were chosen. Most of the finalists are not launched projects yet and will now receive the opportunity to present their idea a last time to the IdeaSpace selection community after Easter, on Friday April 5th, 2013.

Aside from the fact that less than half of the finalists are from the Metro Manila area, it is noticeable that in the country many new ideas are created in synergy with other industries such as farming, health care and even power generation via traffic. Creativity in the Philippines knows no bounds and there is no doubt that in an emerging country such as the Philippines founders are looking for solutions combining actual issues.

Modern technology is not just about creating the next photo filter or instant messaging app.

Earl Valencia and team members travelled the country and visited all selected finalists personally, to bring the news.

AgriCultureTechnology – monitors growth of aquatic livestock (Metro Manila)
Armtech – affordable water purification machine for households (Angeles City)
CornerData – simplified data gathering for agriculture and disaster preparedness using electronic sensors (Metro Manila)
DateCola – natural date enriched beverages (Davao)
DepEd Smart Cloud – enterprise solution for public schools (Angeles City)
FindmyDok – platform to find doctors (Davao)
Lost Meets Found – online platform for lost and found objects (Cebu)
miCab – smartphone solution for to find cabs, with or without data connectivity (Cebu)
Mirand – cheaper and high quality total joint implants for the Asian market (Metro Manila)
Nambal.com – online healthcare system with portable features (Cebu)
PGRS – creative electricity generation solution using road strips (Metro Manila)
PinoyTravel – provincial bus seat reservation via mobile (Metro Manila)
PortfolioMNL – online marketplace for creative professionals (Metro Manila)
Prodigo – platform for digital marketing campaigns (Manila)
SafeCab – review platform for commuters riding cabs (Cebu)
Summarize and Notify – online search alert platform with summarized notifications (Leyte)
Tech4Health – health monitoring of chronic conditions, including diabetes, platform (Metro Manila)
TimeFree – SMS-based automated queuing system (Zamboanga)
Tudlo – emergency situation solution (Cebu)
WeGen – new, more efficient, wind turbine design (Sorsogon)

The advocacy propagated by the IdeaSpace team is also found in the selection of finalist, several of which are concepts similar to projects which have conceptualized by people in the Manileño startup scene or have recently launched. Neither of those (more experienced) startup teams have been selected as finalist though.

On Friday April 5th the 10 winners will be selected, who will join three previously selected incubatees who were participants to recent SWEEP competitions.

Bonus: TechCrunch Messes Up Telcos

When TechCrunch covered the news earlier, eager Singaporean based TechCrunch blogger Victoria Ho – without any understanding of local telco ~~turf wars~~ situation – made what was probably the biggest c*ck up in her author career so far. One she probably still doesn’t grasp either.

The error has now been corrected, but nevertheless was worth a giggle or a facepalm for the more physically inclined ones in the local startup and/or telco scene.

We look forward to the IdeaSpace finals in some weeks.

The post 20 Local Projects Announced as Ideaspace Finalists. Bonus: TechCrunch Screws Up appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

NDFY.me, Showcasing the Modern Indie OPM Scene

Franky Branckaute — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 08:05:50 +0000

Original Pilipino Music, OPM, has always managed to keep a large group of hardcore fans and while detractors love to clamor that the genre is almost blue in the face, OPM is well and truly alive. NDFY.me is a local startup created to help local OPM artists, who haven’t signed under any label, by highlighting their music via streaming on the NDFY platform.

NDFY (pronounced “indie-fy”) is a movement that aims to bring back OPM to its former glory.

Streaming music of OPM bands isn’t everything the platform plans to offer. NDFY has a three steps strategy to aid indie OPM artists, summarized in the terms Grip. Stand. Throw.

The website or portal, NDFY, is the first element of the OPM project. With the portal the team wants to highlight as many local OPM indie artists as possible, and will soon also allow them to sell their music via NDFY. NDFY offers artists the possibility to upload their music as well as have their tracks embedded on third party websites, such as fan blogs.

Since soft-launch earlier this year, 65 bands have joined the platform already. In order to improve the discovery factor of the project, NDFY has continuous play, and will play the music of another artist once the songs of the selected have ended. GRIP.

STAND, the second stage, will improve the distribution possibilities for artists and THROW will help the artists be discovered and become a success internationally.

NDFY.me shall offer the independent OPM artist support, given the three phases we’ve identified, in order to uplift their level of artistry, and help them penetrate the international scene.

NDFY first differs from other online music streaming platforms such as SoundCloud in the attention factor, by highlighting one specific music genre, OPM only. While platforms such as SoundCloud and Youtube may be the obvious platform for artists to upload their music to, the sheer size of and noise found – pun intended – on those makes it difficult for artists to stand out on said platforms and be discovered amidst the huge number of artists using these platforms.

The targeted niche and genre NDFY focuses on guarantees that only OPM music will be played and fans will always hear and discover new, local OPM artists when using the continuous music player.

NDFY.me offers localized support: Filipino professionals supporting Filipino artists, Filipino music consumers supporting independent OPM artists, and indie OPM artists supporting other indie OPM artists.

The idea for NDFY started in 2011 but it took the team a while to get going. End 2012 building started by the core team which consists of three members: Glen and Gep Macadaeg, and Ken-Lauren Daganio[1].

NDFY

All artists, all indie, all OPM.

What does NDFY mean?

NDFY, pronounced indie-fy, consists of two words:

Independent – since our goal is to empower the independent OPM artist, we used a word, or better yet, the spirit, that they can most surely identify with.

Defy – given the current state of our music scene, the movement is an act of defiance to what is currently being fed to us. A challenge to break the old “rules,” given the new web-enabled era we are in.

NDFY is completely bootstrapped, also because of the team’s ambition to stay indie. The team is confident that the further development of the platform will finance the operation once launched the next iteration is launched, but will entertain investment offers.

Who also guested on theBobberyCast WebGeek +4SQHackPH special.

The post NDFY.me, Showcasing the Modern Indie OPM Scene appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

My Dentist Pal, Making Patient Management for Dentists Easier

Franky Branckaute — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:24:39 +0000

Imagine an industry hasn’t changed over 5 years and modern technology which could improve the running of a profession hasn’t made its entry yet? Such was the experience of Marc Medina when he worked in the dental industry several years ago, before turning to the internet as a professional in recent years.

My Dentist Pal will turn your practice into a paperless dental clinic
Marc Medina
Co-founder

Having experienced the dental sector over several years, Marc Medina saw very little evolution or introduction of the power offered by IT and the internet. Thus, together with the Cloudwalk Digital Team, he started building My Dentist Pal, an online platform facilitating the administrative tasks dentists face during practice.

The My Dentist Pal project started in 2012, when the team started to observe how dentists operated during their working day and what tasks they were confronted with. Besides taking care of patients, administrative tasks were a major time sink for dental practitioners, often tasks which could not be replaced by assistants. Weaponed with a gamut of information coming from this observation and interaction with dentists, Cloudwalk Digital started to develop the platform, including different features.

My Dentist Pal offers several features for dental practitioners, including a scheduler[1], patient management complete with dental and medical history as well as visitor record. My Dentist Pal also offers a patient address book as well as a basic invoicing feature. Without a doubt the most interesting element of the platform though is the opportunity to keep a patient’s complete dental history at hand. A possibility now with tablet computers.

My Dentist Pal even includes a tooth chart for dentists, allowing to easily fill out a patient’s record. On the spot even when using a tablet computer.

Not only will the opportunity to track a patient’s complete record online make life easier and improve the paper mountain often still an integral part of dental practices. My Dentist Pal will even offer dental practitioners to fill out most details immediately, but also to easily access a patient’s file remotely.

My Dentist Pal

Making dental clinics paper free.

My Dentist Pal also offers patients the opportunity to stay updated with their preferred dentist, thanks to the blogging feature offered to practitioners. Patients will soon also be able to use the platform to find a dentist[2].
SSL Encryption will also be integrated over the next days, Marc Medina told us.

Upon launch on Thursday, March 21, 2013 more than 50 dentists signed up to My Dentist Pal already, additional to several tens of dentists who participated to the private Beta test stage. The launch event was co-organized by the Philippine Dental Association North (PDA North).

The Cloudwalk Digital team is currently looking to partner up with dental associations as well. My Dentist Pal is currently free for dentists, and will initially be powered by advertising.

Using
Ramon Pastor

Family man
We also try to discover which local apps did recently catch our attention, to realize that while there is a large buzz about mobile apps, we struggled to highlight well know local apps. Apps mentioned are Kuyi Mobile’s apps and the Juan Tamad game for how they excel at highlighting Filipino Culture in attractive apps.
Other apps mentioned are looloo for iOS and Sensor Camera for Android.

Obviously working in a startup environment versus becoming a corporate done after graduating is a topic as well.

Don’t forget to check out Numlock’s apps, and definitely have a look at the awesome Klieg for iOS app!

And Ramon’s ‘Mobile isn’t everything’ presentation.

During Holy Week no show is recorded, but catch us again on April 3 as Bowei Gai guests on theBobberyCast, to kick off his World Startup Report visit to the Philippines.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (322.0 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (151.6 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (21.1 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E15: FilJedi appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Guestlist.ph Relaunches, Making Partying Easier

Franky Branckaute — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:08:28 +0000

It is only months ago that Guestlist.ph announced its first e-RSVP scanners in collaboration with Republiq club. When times seemed awesome for the Philippine nightlife ticketing startup, soon dark clouds would loom. Internal struggles with a co-founder who had joined at a later stage started and it was time for Ronster Baetiong who started Guestlist in 2009, returned to drawing board. Several months later, with a new partner setup, Guestlist.ph is now ready to relaunch.

Guestlist.ph makes partying even more social

The story itself is not a unique one, internal struggles are a regular cause of startups being deadpooled and shutting shop,

Christian Blanquera

I am an officer of Openovate Labs forming a militia to protect free information from the tyranny of those who would monetize it. I am open source.

Work Inspire, created by the Openovate Labs team, is one of the four startups of the Launchgarage accelerator program. Originally the concept was to integrate several tools such as Track and Pivotal, email, task management all in one platform, making the life of every freelancer and developer easier by minimizing the amount of needed open tabs, as well as offering a solution to easily convert incoming mail to tasks. And that is exactly what Work Inspire does. Facilitate life and workflows.

Started as a tool to facilitate his own workflow, Christian Blanquera, has long been working at this project, Work Inspire is an evolution of the earlier launched Kolibo.

The first thing one notices about Work Inspire is it rather uncommon design, especially for an email platform.

Where Work Inspire already excels is its easy conversion of email to whether tasks or time sheets. With a simple click from within any email, this conversion can be done and WorkInspire allows to easily add to existing tasks or create new tasks with just two clicks.

Beyond this ability, one of the nicest features of Work Inspire is easy invoicing integration. Creating an invoice from within WorkInspire is as simple as going into a specific project and visiting the timesheets tab. Invoicing within Work Inspire can be done directly from within timesheets and Work Inspire will send clients an invoice.

WorkInspire is also a collaboration platform, allowing tasks to be easily assigned to team members. And by easily, we mean Asana level easy. That easy.

Work Inspire is still in very early stage, and the team is still tackling the integration of further features, as well as the development of a desktop client for those who do not like to keep their email in an open browser tab but prefer dedicated clients. Nevertheless Work Inspire already shows where it is going, and the major element of its functionality is ease of use. The design may not be everyone’s cup of tea, others may want to wait until Work Inspire has implemented SSL encryption which is among the dev team’s highest priorities right now.

Work Inspire

Manage your inbox and tasks

But there is no doubt that the platform which was started out of an own need has lots of potential and can become an awesome tool for freelancers everywhere. Already is. And the upcoming Google Chrome extension will be an awesome addition to the platform too. The pricing of Work Inspire is absolutely competitive will no doubt aid with WorkInspire’s reach and acceptance. The cheapest Work Inspire plan, at $10/month, comes with 8 projects and 25 users, as well as 1GB of file space.
The much hyped, and much more basic in functionality, Basecamp offers 15 projects for $30/month. For $20/month only, Work Inspire users get 24 projects with up to 75 users.

The concept of Work Inspire made it the Launchgarage startup with the largest global potential and even in this MVP launch iteration, the team has delivered on this already. Work Inspire offers a 30 days free trial, and for those who want even more launch benefits and like snooping round for a steal, head over to FS6.

Work Inspire has also been selected as Echelon 2013 Philippines finalist. The event will be held on April 13th at MINT College.

The post Work Inspire, the Perfect Task Management and Invoicing Tool for Freelancers appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E14: The PollenizerCast

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:01:47 +0000

This week’s guest on theBobberyCast is Isaac Souweine, General Manager, Southeast Asia at Pollenizer. Isaac was beamed in from Singapore, straight on the sofa, for this week’s show.

After Isaac introduces what Pollenizer does we discuss Lean Startup, how lean can improve the success rate among startups and also how lean could possibly be taken up in the corporate environment by innovation departments.

Isaac is also full of praise for the Philippine talent and attitude found in the startup scene. Check out Isaac’s guest entry 8 Tips to win a Startup Weekend here on theBobbery too.

Join us next week again as Ramon Pastor, Numlock / @filjedi is our guest.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (276.6 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (130.2 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (18.2 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E14: The PollenizerCast appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

SMART Overcharges. When #LiveMore Becomes #PayMore Highway Robbery [UPDATED]

Franky Branckaute — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:04:44 +0000

For reasons which can easily be simplified to “Telco screwed up”, last year I switched network, albeit begrudgingly. After months of sitting through absolutely poor performance by the number #1 telco in Postpaid, but number #4 in data, I was looking forward to the new network and ready to give them another chance when I got that phone which is bigger than most human’s face. Or almost as big at least. But things weren’t supposed to be and it resulted in me going to where there is less issues and more to enjoy. Or so I thought.

The jury is still out over whether it was a smart move or not. Until Globe launches its new network over the coming weeks, I will not know. As expected, I have had to #WaitLess and according to the marketing department that means that I now #LiveMore.

But I also #PayMore. More than what I signed up for, more than what I consume.

Being the data geek everyone expects me to be, the plan choice was simple: Unli Data. I don’t care about calling, I have WhatsApp, others try to occasionally force me into installing a huge selection of other messaging apps too, and I have been using Skype for more than 10 years now. Plus I am connected to everyone and their three nephews via Twitter and/or Facebook.

My communications are covered by data mainly. Unli Data it is. Besides, who wants to be publicly seen using a 5.3″ phone stuck against their face to make calls? Beckham does, I don’t. No frakkin’ way.

Total damage: ₱ 2,000/month for the next 24 months[1].

But that was not what the telco thought of this. Apparently unlimited data does not include a certain fee for Facebook Mobile App Unli. Which if I remember well is both a free app and consumes data. Unlimited data.

Accounting at SMART disagrees, and decides to charge a whopping ₱ 9.09 for this data consumption or free app.

You read that right: a whole ₱ 9.09 is what annoyed me and suddenly made me become less tolerant to the other issues such as dropped data connections, data black holes near SMART Araneta Center. Data black holes which represent a black hole for the Network Department at SMART too, i.e. no problems are known in the area despite NEVER having data network connectivity in that specific area.

Because their network works, ya know.

Beyond the marketing, sadly but surely, SMART’s data network in Metro Manila is becoming spottier and spottier, every day more. It must be all the switchers who are starting to cause bottle necks, right?

Why the fuss about ₱ 9.09 though? Even if for the remainder of my contract, another 19 long moths, this fee is repeated I would be out of pocket of only ₱ 172.71 + VAT. Merely more than what many readers will spend on a flavored coffee at an international franchise.

But things become different when everyone on Unli Dataplan is charged ₱ 9.09 extra. A fee many would even not notice or think that they called a little longer than their free minutes. A fee that small nobody will throw a fit about it. But I asked several people whom I know are on Unli Dataplan, and all where charged that Facebook Mobile App Unli fee.

So for the sake of argument, let’s assume SMART has 1 million subscribers on Unli Dataplan, using Android phones. 50% Of those subscribers do not claim for a reversal of fee, in other words 500,000 subscribers pay that fee.
Total ~~rip-off~~ profit: ₱ 4,545,000

What if those same 500,000 subscribers are charged that fee a whole year long? Assuming that 1 subscriber out of 2 complains.
Total damage done: 500,000 * 9.09 * 12 = ₱ 54,540,000

How about you? Have you also become the victim of #PayMore and been overcharged?

Update: What Happens and Spread

Now around 24 hours after the publication of this post, thanks to mainly Tweets, and comments, the spread of this overcharging habit is becoming visible. This is frakkin’ huge rip off business and has been going on for more than a year already.

What does actually happen?

From a Tweet from Jayne Uymatiao, I learned a little bit more about why this happens.

@franky I just checked bill & I did have the charge. CSR is filing a reversal request. Apparently only Java phones are to be charged this.

— Jane Uymatiao (@philippinebeat) March 13, 2013

Basically this seems to be a fee for Facebook access, charged to feature phone users who have a Java OS based phone.

Now apparently some smart dude/dudette at SMART has not discovered yet that Android apps are written in Java, but should not be charged if subscribers are on Dataplans. So it seems that this indeed does affect mainly Android phones, which is no fanboy troll/fodder.

This even happened to a BlackBerry user, which uses JAVA SDK.

@donmanganar @franky I’ve seen that notorious 9.09 charge from my less than a month old Freedom plan on BlackBerry unlimited pack

— Gan (@Gan) March 13, 2013

So why are some iPhone users affected too?

@noemiruth @franky I saw that FB charge on @miguelolfindo‘s bill and I think it was around P50! My bill gets charged for those wallpaper…

— Kaye Olfindo (@kayeolfindo) March 13, 2013

We hope that SMART fixes this issue ASAP, and does not restrict itself to fee reversal for everyone who complains, but instead sorts this long known billing issue out. SMART reached out to me, more than 8 hours after publication of this post. I have not replied yet, since I made SMART aware of this issue first on February 24. A tweet I had to retweet myself the next day, to get a reaction.

By lack of reply, I repeat: “Dear @smartcares, why does my unli data plan bill include PHP 9,09 charges for FB Mobile app? CC: @abbiereal“

— franky (@franky) February 25, 2013

This may even be an issue important enough for the NTC to look into. This is a whole different can of worms than the bug Globe experienced when super star blogger Jayvee revealed the customer’s credit card number[2]. Bug turned major hassle thanks to an overtly happy SMART advisor.

And ₱ 2,500 cash out to walk out with a clothing iron for my cheeks
Update 17.30, March 14 2013: this link has been taken down after this was posted here

The post SMART Overcharges. When #LiveMore Becomes #PayMore Highway Robbery [UPDATED] appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Lavandera.ph, Organizing the Jungle that Laundry Shops Are

Franky Branckaute — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:31:08 +0000

Ever wondered where you find the best laundry shop in your neighborhood? The internet era may have brought everything closer to woman and man, like obscure food communities or brains for robots, many things in our mundane life have not been solved yet by the internet. Things like flying cars, teleportation, the need to deal with car sales people and coffee out of the wall.

An income tax form is like a laundry list – either way you lose your shirt.
Fred Allen, Comedian

If you had added laundry shop reviews or losing a shirt in the laundry to that list, we would have agreed with you. But the crew at NES Ventures decided they had enough of that typical mess and decided to solve this problem. Thus was Lavandera.ph born.

Launching on Monday March 11, 2013, Lavandera.ph has more than 7,500 laundry shops mapped for Metro Manila according to co-founder Jose Capistrano. Jose estimates this is less than 50% of all laundry shops in the Metro, so far the laundry shops listed are those registered as such with DTI. Users can suggest more shops via a form. Shop listings can specify services offered, as well as opening times and contact details.

Lavandera goes a step further than merely be a directory with review and rating features. Anyone who has ever sent clothes to the laundry, only to realize some items have gone missing upon return, will rejoice at the option to manually list every item they sent to the laundry.

OCD required and fashionistas are the logical audience we think.

Shop owners can easily connect with users, update users about the status of their laundry, as well as receive pick-up requests or send notifications the laundry is ready for pickup. Personally I’m not convinced that I want to list every item for every pickup, despite some neat language interpretation Lavandera has included in its platform.

The geek in me is not that OCD that I want to list every single sock, complete with its color, but at a price between ₱4- ₱50 I would get lots of washable RFID tags to equip my clothes with if Lavandera were to offer such option in the future and equips laundry shops with RFID scanners. A laundry shop with that kind of equipment would definitely get my preference and my custom.

Lavandera.ph

Find, rate and share laundry shops.

Key will be for the Lavandera team to find as many shop owners interested in the platform as possible, but until then the ability for the site’s users to discover the better laundry shops around itself is an enticing one already. More even, the Third Row/NES Ventures team has come up with a platform most would never have thought the internet could or would help with.

The beauty of the platform is that it can also be used for other micro-service niches as well.

Lavandera, which is soon also coming to most smartphones, with mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, is an ambitious startup making a bold entry in a totally untapped niche in the local market. It doesn’t happen every week that we see a team launch a startup in an untouched market, but Lavandera definitely belongs to one of the more creative products we have seen so far this year. With ample further opportunities to take both startup, its products and the platform further.

Lavandera.ph, an early contender for theBobbery 36, the Class of 2013 already?

The post Lavandera.ph, Organizing the Jungle that Laundry Shops Are appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

RideIn, Making Commuting More Fun in the Philippines

Franky Branckaute — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:28:51 +0000

Co-founded by Maui Milan and Rai Escarez, RideIn is launching its pilot project, in collaboration with bus operator JAC Liner’s Solid North, today. In a further stage later this month taxi operator BASIC will also join the pilot launch. RideIn, a mainly mobile app, aims to make commuting more fun in the Philippines by gamifying the commute as well as offering options to rate a trip in the first stage, similar to the early Foursquare years, and rewards.

There’s this thing with the rather familiar homepage design.

Busses and taxis participating in the program will have an easily scannable QR Code to identify the vehicle on board, which allows the passenger to easily check in to their ride.
The app itself looks polished and has an own QR Code scanner integrated[1]. Users can also chose to enter the details of the car/bus manually. The app also displays the most recent tweets from the MMDA account.

The RideIn app is already available on Google Play for Android users.

Later this year RideIn will integrate a payment gateway for bus rides in a similar concept as the Indian Redbus platform offers. RideIn also plans to launch a Filipino Uber alternative, an Uber for taxis. This service will allow its users to request a cab from within the app. A very ambitious initiative and one which was at the start concept of RideIn. Difficult access to operators led the team to their actual MVP, a simpler launch which may help with user acquisition and scale to facilitate further negotiations with more operators in the future.

Gamification is a dirty word
Nils Pihl Bohlin
Tech in Asia

Right now the inclusion of rewards and discounts for commuters will be very important because without those, the offerings of the RideIn MVP are outdated and too minimalistic, without any ‘Wooh’ factor. At this stage RideIn very much boils down to a 2009 alike Foursquare mobile app for commuters, with virtual badges which no adult truly cares about. I myself can not remember when was the last time I actually shared that I earned a badge on a platform, with the exception of being one of the first looloo users to have gotten a badge. A barhopper badge nonetheless. Now gathered on my virtual wall of just as virtual tweets, adding to a deactivated Klout score or something like that. Or in the words of Nils Pihl Bohlin, Gamification is a Dirty Word.

Maui told us that the idea first took ground early 2011, as one of the initiatives of mobileTAO[2].

Despite the massive growth of mobile internet and popularity of smartphones in the Philippines, there are many issues RideIn will encounter and has to overcome in the near future, in order to grow beyond the meaningless achievement stage, is that the reality of commuting in Manila a harsh and not flexible one is.

Anybody who has ever tried to get a cab during rush hour will testify that when a driver stops and is open to go where the passenger wants to go, relief is the normal reaction. Nobody will think whether they should first check the reviews of that vehicle/driver on RideIn, or the more basic taxi reporting platform TaxiKick. TaxiKick which I use myself, but am still to find a person who will first search for reports on the cab which just stopped to offer you a ride.

The passenger will not check a car’s reviews but instead be happy to have found an available cab

Contrarily to checking out reviews for a spa, restaurant, holiday resort or gadget, users report their bad experience after the ride. Generally their focus is on getting a ride as soon as possible, not on first checking possible negative reports.
Only the fewest passengers will let cabs pass because they look too shabby, not trustworthy or they just noticed they were being reported for ripping off passengers, being rude or taking their passengers on a Manila side-seeing tour after they checked TaxiKick. At this stage the focus of RideIn seems wrong. Unless another meaningless achievement is truly what you care about.

When evolving to an Uber for taxis, RideIn’s problem will be bi-fold. First of all anyone who has ever tried to call Basic in order to have a cab come and pick them up, will acknowledge that the process is flawed and often no cars are available, or available cabs are too far away and do not respond to the central’s call because the time it takes them to drive to the pick-up location would allow them one or more other rides already. During rush hour calling BASIC often requires more than a patient spirit, and definitely not an urgent need for a ride. Unless many operators join and RideIn can provide one central back-end for a dispatch center, both the decentralized participation of many different operators and traffic situation in Manila will lead to dissatisfied users ditching RideIn because it doesn’t speed up the process of finding an available cab.

Add to that additional fees caused by the use of the service. Right now operators such as BASIC get away charging the passenger PHP 50[3] for pick-up when requested via the dispatch central. This additional fee will without doubt become part of any service such as RideIn and it won’t take long before the LTFRB will become interested and rear its ugly and bureaucratic head.

RideIn

Foursquare + RedBus + Uber

What RideIn did get right is the sense that despite everything pointed out before, we live in an era of online ratings and reviews. There may even be an incentive for operators to join RideIn and get customer feedback on the general performance of their drivers. RideIn also rightly discovered there is a niche for a payment operator, allowing passengers to pay via the most common and local mobile wallet options, as well as via mobile load, and that could possibly be their main focus going forward. Definitely their best chance of a viable business model.

Truth is that the increase in commuting startups since 2012 has shown that the niche is ripe for disruption, and while RideIn has possibilities, they don’t seem on the path to have cracked it in their actual format. Rather than having an elaborate list of plans, covering several different niches, it is primordial RideIn discovers focus and launches something users do care about rather than a selection of meaningless achievements which no-one gives a damn about.

And then there is that thing with the rather similar looking home page design.

Using Scandit
mobile Technology in Action Org
Not charged via meter and thus also not appearing on the printed OR

The post RideIn, Making Commuting More Fun in the Philippines appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E13: Plug and STAC

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:30:03 +0000

This week’s guest on theBobberyCast are Christina Laskowski (STAC-SV / Science and Technology Advisory Council – Silicon Valley), Jojo Flores (Plug and Play Center) and Roland Benzon (Chikka) who was invited as live audience, but found his way on the couch. And some od legends from the Hollywood history join us in the background too, which we thank Paramount Pictures for.

Show Synopsis

Jojo Flores

Co-Founder & VP Operations, Plug and Play Technology Center

With Silicon Valley in the house, represented both by Christina and Jojo, we talk perception of the Philippine startup ecosystem, future and also evolution. Franky goes on a tangent bashing Singapore for living its own bubble.

We wonder try to discover how Silicon Valley, especially Sand Hill Road thinks about foreign investments and also whether the Philippines are the ‘next Indonesia’ for VCs.

And the family keeps growing. With a true live audience even. With the people present in the background, we were the Magnificent Seven.

Join us again next week, as Phil Morle and Isaac Souweine of Pollenizer fame guest on theBobberyCast.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (333.0 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (156.8 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (21.9 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E13: Plug and STAC appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Infinitely Launches e-Commerce Module

Franky Branckaute — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 07:06:49 +0000

For the second time in as many months page builder Infinite.ly has announced a new feature to its website builder platform, this time in the form of an e-Commerce module. End January the local startup announced the launch of blogging features to the website, with the new e-Commerce, features for Pro accounts, Infinitely has squarely positioned itself in the middle of the free market by both filling in the empty niche left by Multiply who ditched blogging as a free service several months ago, and a still way too popular Weebly e-Commerce platform.

The e-Commerce feature is offered to Pro customers for unlimited products, and to free users with a limit of 5 products per account. Infinitely has both integrated Paypal payment for sellers and also bank transfer option.
Bank transfer payments happen offsite and require the seller to manually verify payment. This is no limitation on Infinitely’s end though, but rather another proof of the poor state of online banking in the Philippines.

Infinitely Co-founder Luis Buenaventura told us the team plans to prepare more templates focused on e-Commerce, and similar to the e-Commerce demo theme. Adding a shop module to an Infinitely site is as simple as anything else on Infinitely, and requires just one click within the site builder.

Adding products is as simple as adding a blog post on most platforms, and definitely easier than with most (free) e-Commerce plugins for WordPress or similar platforms. The product adding features have been thought out very well, and also include the possibility to add product videos very easily, as well as product variants.

As it should be the platform also comes with an easy interface to see orders, additional to already existing possibility to easily integrate Google Analytics, thus allowing more experienced online sellers to easily track and optimize their product marketing and online advertising.

Once merely a simple website builder, a concept popular in recent years, but one we do not consider as a viable business at theBobbery, the launch of an e-Commerce module within Infinitely takes the platform and startup to a new level and adds a future beyond user acquisition on the back of free platforms (and heavy data fees for the platform operator).

Infinitely

Build your website in only 60 seconds. Easy drag and drop interface.

After the demise of the by us loved Checkout.ph, whose team have parted ways for now, Infinitely has now entered a competitive niche but has discovered a huge potential new market. In recent months more and more (local) businesses have signed up to host their website on Infinitely and now with the excellent integration of the shop expansion for us suddenly Infinitely has a viable business model. Rests to be seen whether the new premium fee of $5.00/month is the best pricing model for the company going ahead, a reflexion we also made about the Checkout.ph pricing model.

For entrants in the e-Commerce scene, who are not in need of a full blown store platform, nor want to dedicate much time or money to getting their offered products online, and who do not believe in operating a store via classified sites, Infinitely has now become one of the most viable and price-worthy solutions.

The post Infinitely Launches e-Commerce Module appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E12: Startups Unplugged

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:00:47 +0000

This week’s guest on theBobberyCast is Peter Cauton of Juan Great Leap fame. Peter, a former corporate HR guy, now turned startup advocate and enterprise kickstarter shares his story about how he took the great leap and turned indie startup mode several years ago.

Show Synopsis

Peter Cauton

Manila-based Entrepreneur, Philippine Startup Advocate, HR Guy.

The show, on which Jay Fajardo walks in, blame Manila traffic, focuses once more around the topic of people starting their own business or join a startup, the local startup scene which is constantly growing and of course how we can help those who want to but are not sure yet how. We also talk about the academia, students and how they can be aided to discover new paths away from the corporate world when graduating.

Peter Cauton shares the format of the Juan Great Leap’s Startups Unplugged event, Saturday, March 2, 2012 at UP-Ayala Technohub. At the event 20 startup entrepreneurs will be present and visitors get the opportunity to ask them all questions they ever wanted to ask these successful entrepreneurs.

From the internet startup scene present will be Luis Buenaventura, Justin Garrido, Nix Nolledo, Joey Gurango and Gian Scottie Javelona.

Join us again next week, as Jojo Flores guests on theBobberyCast.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (314.9 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (148.2 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (20.7 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E12: Startups Unplugged appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E11: LeanNext.co

Franky Branckaute — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:25:37 +0000

This week’s guest on theBobberyCast is Kahlil Corazo. Kahlil, a one time corporate drone, is a lecturer at University of Asia and the Pacific Faculty and Management (UAP).

Show Synopsis

Kahlil Corazo

Making things happen.

Since leaving the corporate world Kahlil has heavily invested in the howto of running a Lean Startup, a topic which he has taken with him to his courses at UAP, with a practical course. Obviously this is a topic on the show, as well as his experiences during his semester long course, which is also partially documented on his website, in the DIY Lean LaunchPad series.

We also talk about his upcoming SWNEXT project, a 5-week long program around Steve Blank’s LeanPad method, which Kahlil plans to bring to the Philippines this year.

NEXT is a comprehensive curriculum rooted in Steve Blank’s Customer Development methodology, built around in-person interactional with potential customers, and delivered by an accredited NEXT instructor.

Find out more about SWNEXT at the SWNEXT.co.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (361.6 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (170.2 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (23.7 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E11: LeanNext.co appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Who Will Disrupt The Philippine Real Estate Classifieds Sector?

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:37:32 +0000

Like globalization has allowed the multinationals to overtake the whole world, the internet has not been any exception to this principle and the Goliaths now dominate most networks. Also locally everyone aims to be aggregated by the larger media outlets like Yahoo.ph, or wonders why compete with the Sulits online?

But the fact is that these once novel platforms have become the dinosaurs of the internet and are in need of disruption themselves. Many people are often blinded by the size and scale of these platforms, hoping to make a true business from them but also forget that together with reach comes noise and the reach of their publication, or listing, can actually be smaller due to all the surrounding noise, or competitive prices or just poor quality. And when it comes to real estate the online landscape in the Philippines is even worse.

Thanks to a fast growing economy the Philippine real estate market has been expanding quickly and it is difficult to find popular areas in the capital without new developments or cranes visible on the horizon. In the Philippines more than 13,000 real estate agents or brokers are registered and the reality is that they will use any possible, even more so if free, mean to make a deal. Anyone who used the internet to look for a location probably knows the issue.

Page after page on classified platforms are littered with not yet finished developments, often also with multiple listings from the same users. And if you go to another major classifieds platform you find the same ~~spammers~~ users again. Over and over. Your best bet is just to start your search on page 20.

If you still believe in using the internet to find a good deal on housing. It’s a real jungle out there and if sometimes people say ‘Don’t come in between an Asian and something free‘, the online real estate classifieds sector is a perfect example of that mantra. Real estate listings are the online equivalent of the tubero ads covered lantern post.

But even more so online, disruption can happen anytime and execution is key. In last year here in the Philippines we have seen two perfect examples of how (online) niches can be disrupted and now more than ever is the time to jump in and disrupt. News outlet Rappler took on the whole MSM and looloo app, which we reviewed here, took on all established restaurant review sites such as TripAdvisor and even powerbroker Foursquare[1].

Classifieds, one of the more successful online niches, are a different market all together and locally dominated by South African power house Naspers who own not only Sulit, but also OLX and Multiply.
Nevertheless there are several new players looking to disrupt the online classifieds scene, even in the arguably most difficult niche to do so: real estate. But are they a true menace?

Having real tors in your circle on social networks will often result to seeing the same property images on Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and above mentioned classified platforms. If in the Philippines you start a real estate search on the larger platforms, your search will not just benefit from the largest selection but also from the largest offer in duplicate ~~spam~~ listings. A not enviable task to take on, a mountain chain to climb and conquer. Additionally many developers, like DMCI, spend only very small numbers on digital[2].

Real Estate in Philippines Links

Generally most focus is given to traditional billboards, of any size, as well as leafletting in malls. And the ~~desire~~ goodwill of most real estate agents to litter free online classified boards with their available properties.

It’s an evil present in most countries, and innovation is urgently required. Not only for the user, but also to break the monopolies of few companies. But who dares to take on the Goliaths of this world and who has the effectiveness to scale and grow rapidly? Can there be a local Zillow alternative, which does not only offer a wide gamut in properties but is also user friendly.

Few months ago only, the Philippine online real estate classifieds sector had some promising solutions on offer.

360 Homes

The new, and bandwidth heavy, 360 Homes launched without much fanfare and brought virtual tours to real estate properties. The once so popular for online tourist locations or hotel websites, now made more viable thanks ever faster internet in the Philippines[3]. While 360 Homes is a great and well-designed platform, the platform founded and operated by Milo Timbol, has struggled so far and no new listings have been added since October 26, 2012.

360 Homes clearly struggles with the need to visit every location and take high quality photos on location. Worse even, when we reached out to Milo via the on the website advertised phone number late November last year, we did not receive any reply for several weeks. And we still haven’t.

Rentspot.ph GoBooki

Last year around October we first noticed Rentspot.ph, a well designed online real estate classifieds platform in early Beta stage. The platform was clean and used lots of whitespace and high quality images in its design. It was a pleasure to browse.

Since then Rentspot.ph has returned to the drawing board and will soon relaunch as GoBooki. We have not had any preview at the new site yet, and probably that is a good thing because for now we are still flabbergasted by the rebranding.

GoBooki, really? It would not surprise us if within the shortest time after launch the platform will see another rebranding effort.

Until GoBooki launches, the online real estate classifieds niche continues to be in a dire state, and while we can hope, it still rests to be seen if GoBooki[4] can make a dent in it.

RealtyCheck.ph

RealtyCheck.ph was pitched at Startup Weekend Manila #3, last September, by Lara Santico. The platform is nearing its Beta launch and will soon offer better options for real estate brokers to post their properties, and also provide brokers with the online tools to both easily manage and list available properties. Once we have more information, and Realtycheck.ph closes in on Beta launch we will obviously review the platform. Co-founder Lara Santico decided to create the platform because as a real estate broker herself she knows the issues and struggles on a daily basis with the poor solutions available to brokers and the difficulties to highlight properties amidst the noise on the larger sites.

Are there any disruptive real estate classified platforms in the Philippines? Who will capture the niche like Zillow did in the US. It is more than likely that investors will be interested in innovative solutions, just like Zillow and Trulia did. Both have now gone IPO already. When reaching scale, even Naspers may be interested just to make sure their stranglehold on the niche is maintained.

While we recognize the difficulty of the market, we are convinced that the niche is up for innovation, disruption and needs to be improved in 2013. But who has the guts to try, the skills to execute and the perseverance to hustle to reach scale?

Photo credit: Lead pic by Agustin Rafael Reyes.

Yelp has no significant presence in the Philippines
Often resulting in merely a basic WordPress setup with a free theme
Don’t complain about lack of high-speed internet compared to other countries, even in the UK 2Mbps is when internet is considered high speed already
There is that name again!

The post Who Will Disrupt The Philippine Real Estate Classifieds Sector? appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Pricepanda Philippines Launches. Lazada Wins ‘Most Expensive Shop’ Price

Franky Branckaute — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:16:39 +0000

After several months of rumors, reported first here on theBobbery, Rocket Internet’s PricePanda Philippines finally launched. The price comparison site follows Rocket’s venture in the market after the German multi-clone factory first launched PricePanda in Malaysia.

In the Philippines PricePanda is an early entrant in the ever growing, but still rather unpopular, price comparison niche and joins PricePrice, PriceMe and Save22.

PricePanda right now offers the mobile phones, tablets, computers and digital camera price comparison verticals and it seems prices are sourced from around 10 online stores, also from Rocket Internet’s Philippine Lazada store. Right now a little less than 1,000 items are listed. A quick look around the site made us notice that generally Lazada is the more, often even most expensive shop in the ‘hood.

PricePanda Philippines is the fourth launch for the multi-clone factory, after the price comparison vertical was already rolled out in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Since the initial roll out in Malaysia, PricePanda has received an overhauled design and all four countries now have the same design, as was to be expected from the clone factory. The previous design is seen in the image on the right.

PricePanda Philippines

The jury is still out on whether price comparison sites will pick up locally, but in an always bigger e-Commerce landscape there is no doubt that these sites will make a splash in the market. So far the Philippines have no affiliate system in place for user, thus any business model for price comparison sites is still a big question mark, unless the sites will charge online stores to add their product catalog. PricePanda has no public option yet for online merchants to submit their products, which could be a disadvantage for the newest kid in town because most stores listed on PricePanda are already present in other local price comparison sites and thus PricePanda has no real USP or edge over other Philippine price comparison sites.

With only 2 Likes on Facebook so far, the road for PricePanda is still a very long one, and more products will have to be added before anyone will care about PricePanda.
The Rocket team internally also seems to struggle with brand consistency, camelcasing more specifically, as revealed by a tour of its social media accounts. And that despite being less of a capitalization train wreck than theBobbery. Small errors like that will undoubtedly be further punished by most an internet pundit, who have made a sport out of bashing Rocket Internet’s Asian efforts.

The post Pricepanda Philippines Launches. Lazada Wins ‘Most Expensive Shop’ Price appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E10: The MetroDealMan

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:38:31 +0000

In recent years e-Commerce in the Philippines has grown, not in the least thanks to the popularity and hype around group buying deal sites. Recently we ranked the Philippine group deal sites by popularity and now we had the honor to have MetroDeal founder Ralph Manalo Wunsch guest on theBobberyCast.

The busy man with the iPhones constantly ringing.

Show Synopsis

Ralph Manolo Wunsch

MetroDeal

The story of MetroDeal is as amazing as the deals site is popular. Born in Austria Ralph worked at Daily Deal GmbH, Austria, in sales and subsequently as Head of Online Marketing. At the Austrian group buy deals sites he learned both how to market in the competitive, often cut-throat, group buying sites craze as well as how to approach both merchants and the client differently, before he moved to the Philippines end 2010. The founder of the now largest Philippine group buying website, and son of a Pinay mother, shares the story how he arrived in the Philippines end 2010 and by January 2011 launched MetroDeal from a local McDonalds. The site which he built on his own, and launched without co-founder because most people he spoke to weren’t convinced by his concept and didn’t want to join.

Ralph decided not to lose any time talking and trying to find a co-founder, instead he buckled down and just launched the site. Operating as solo employee in the first weeks, until he decided after several weeks, and having sold several thousands of deals in the first month already, that it was time to remove his personal phone number from the website and get a support team member. Not in the least because he had enough being waken up by possible clients at 5Am on a Sunday morning.

Since then, in barely more than 2 years, the site has grown to become the largest and most popular Philippine group deal website, and entered the Top 30 most trafficked Philippine websites[1].

Right now MetroDeal displays 200 concurrent deals on its homepage, and Ralph shared with us that the next goal is to display 500 concurrent deals at any time. Ambitious goals for sure, but he also shares that MetroDeal aims to enter the Top 10 most popular Philippine websites and they are planning to launch new MetroDeal verticals over the next months, which should help with this aim.

The company now based at the prestigious Enterprise Centre in Makati, has grown from 1 solo founder to now more than 50 employees, and generates thousands of deals per month, with some deals having sold almost 40,000 times last year. In this year the company saw its best traffic today with more than 160,000 unique visitors in one day.

We also talked about major differences in the European and American e-Commerce landscape and the lack of affiliate systems in the local online commerce. Both affiliate providers and 2]. Because giving away a major share in the next big thing shouldn’t be a decision you take lightly.

And of course you may also want to consider to work for a startup first. Earn your medals in the field and build your profile within the scene. Build and don’t hesitate to invest in your future partner. Also money.

There is no magical formula to finding the right co-founder.

Photo credit: Mik Salac on Flickr, Shane Curcuru on Flickr.

Internet tech
If after more than a year no one has ‘applied’ to be your co-founder yet, maybe your idea isn’t as good as you thought

The post Finding a Co-Founder, Often a Stumble Block for New Startups appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E09: The StreamEngineCast

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:08:51 +0000

This week’s guest on theBobberyCast is Gino Caparas, Founder of Stream Engine Studios. Stream Engine Studios is a local animation studio which is specialized in the creation of animated explainer videos.

Stream Engine Studios

Better communication through animation.

In the show we talk about how Stream Engine Studios started, what lead Gino to chose for animation as the central concept. And how in very little time Stream Engine Studios grew from a one man band to a team of 6 already. And there is hope the Stream Engine Studios team will continue to grow in 2013.

Gino also shares his previous background in web design and e-commerce, and we talk inspiration. And Pixar.

Stream Engine Studios Videos

Despite Stream Engine Studios being a very young company still, the company was founded only in January 2012, the studio has made a name in the online scene already and worked with some of the best known startups and even won the Professional Class award at Animahenasyon 2012, the Philippine Animation Awards organized by the Animation Council of the Philippines.

Stream Engine Studios has released several own, internal videos in the first half of 2012 already, but probably one of their first more popular videos was the How to Create a Stream Engine Studios Video, which also became the video which landed Stream Engine Studios the Animahenasyon 2012 award.

In the following months Stream Engine Studios released several well known videos among the Philippine Startup scene members, starting with the MRTTrackr video.

In the following months we animated videos about several local startups were created, starting with Kickstart, My Legal Whiz and Sulit.

And then of course there was Stream Engine Studios’ hilarious Holidays’ Season video.

Check out Stream Engine Studios’ Youtube channel even more videos. Visit the Stream Engine Studios website for more information.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (320.1 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (150.7 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (21.0 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

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theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

The post tBC S01E09: The StreamEngineCast appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Website Builder Infinitely Grows Up, Launches Blogging Feature and Facebook Integration

Franky Branckaute — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 07:30:19 +0000

Philippine startup Infinitely today announced the release of two more features to its website builder. Lead by Luis Buenaventura, the team added easy integration of Infinitely pages to Facebook pages and a blogging editor to the website builder platform.

Infinitely

Build your website in only 60 seconds. Easy drag and drop interface.

Infinitely, a laureat of the Class of 2012, has been making waves in recent months thanks to collaborations with Hack2Hatch, for which it build pages for all participating startups, as well as for the Ten Outstanding Employees of Manila competition.

The website builder, which started as a landing page builder, has now clearly chosen the path to future all-in-one option for its users. Infinitely recently also released an improved Drag and Drop.
The new integrated blog features already include drafts, tags, archives and comments[1] and further features are upcoming according to Luis.

While the inclusion of the blog platform to via the drag and drop builder very simple is, at first it may be confusing for users where to edit their blog. Editing happens at [yourinfinitelyurl]/blog[2], where your Infinitely blog is also hosted without your Infinitely landing page design. No doubt the Infinitely team will change this in the future and offer design consistency in a near future.

Infinitely is available freely to users, or comes with a custom URL for PHP 1,600/year. Infinitely excels with its design and instant mobile design for its users websites. But it rests to be seen whether there is still a future for the Geocities of this decade and custom user build design and typography, i.e. possibly horrendous websites reminiscent of Myspace before Timberlake. We personally think that the wide range of design templates and available drag and drop options can be detrimental to the platform, but that is because we are not fans of free websites builders without too many design limitations. In fact we do believe that if the average user is given the option to create a horrible design, they will.

Nevertheless we do hope the platform will succeed and continue to churn out nice and enjoyable visual experiences such as the Colab and Medcurial Infinitely pages.

Via the Disqus comment platform
Example here

The post Website Builder Infinitely Grows Up, Launches Blogging Feature and Facebook Integration appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Streetfood Tycoon World Tour Review

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:41:58 +0000

After several months, and short on the heels of the original Streetfood Tycoon game being released for Android and Amazon Kindle, Thursday January 24 is the launch date for the sequel of the popular game, Streetfood Tycoon World Tour.

Last week game creator and developer Erick Garayblas was our guest on theBobberycast and revealed that the original game had been downloaded more than 4 million times from the iOS app store already. The sequel, Streetfood Tycoon World Tour, which we had the pleasure to play before release, is even better.

Gamers who played the first game will immediately feel at home and recognize the game. In itself Streetfood Tycoon World Tour is exactly what one expects: the continuation. But with a twist, with improved game play, slightly more difficult and with an added feature to launch franchises in different parts of the world.

Erick Garayblas

Cartoonist, mobile game developer. Digital Sinigang.

As players start a new game, they are now offered where they want to start, whether in the Americas, in Europe, or in different parts of Asia, all with their own difficulty level and own different special food items on the menu. Upon popular demand, Streetfood Tycoon has now a drinks dispenser as well, offering different (non alcoholic) drinks in different parts of the world.

What makes Streetfood Tycoon World Tour so great a game is that Erick Garayblas found the perfect mix between adding more elements to the game and thus making the game slightly more difficult as well, without moving away from the original fun factor the game has. In all honesty, just like with Streetfood Tycoon within the shortest time the game had devoured hours of my breaks time, and serving to people at the same time, while sometimes having a slow drinks dispenser led to a healthy level of occasional frustration.
The desire to do better the next round and improve both in customer satisfaction level and revenue would keep me going, long before I had the saved enough coins to unlock the next location even.

Summarized: Streetfood Tycoon is the perfect game for both adults who get easily addicted to mobile games and kids who are eager to keep on improving their scores. We know we were caught by the bug as soon as we started.

And it is hard to imagine that you won’t be once you download and install the game. Just like others were when we showed them the game during recording of theBobberyCast[1].

So what are you waiting for? Have you downloaded Streetfood Tycoon World Tour already? Just like before it’s free, there’s no excuse for you not to give the game a go. Nor is there any excuse if you do not get addicted to it!

Here’s the link for you. And once more.

Although rock star Basti Artadi didn’t immediately get it, but that’s merely a déjà-vu. Not dissimilar from his initial reaction to Twitter.

The post Streetfood Tycoon World Tour Review appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Filipino Career Development Platform Kalibrr Accepted into Y Combinator

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:18:23 +0000

During a round trip to the USA in November 2012, the online learning platform which has specialized in helping trainees prepare to land a call center job, Filipino startup Kalibrr was accepted in to Y Combinator. Kalibrr is the first Philippine startup which has been allowed in to Y Combinator, a fact founder Paul Rivera is extremely proud of, together with its all Filipino team. The team officially entered the program the day after their pitch, on November 29, 2012 and left earlier this month to sunny California on January 4, 2013.

Kalibrr

Improving Filipino English one student at a time. Consolidating the Filipino #1 BPO status.

Y Combinator is a 3 months incubator program in Silicon Valley, famously found by Paul Graham. Usually the investment offered is $11,000 plus $3,000 per co-founder in exchange of 7% equity on average[1]. The program offers several mentor session helping selected startups to prepare best for the future, as well as improve their pitches. Every Tuesday common dinner is held with all startups in the batch and a guest speaker. Speaker in the past have included, but not limited to, Paul Buchheit, Jessica Livingston[2], Marissa Mayer, Chris Sacca, Joel Spoelsky and Trevor Blackwell.

Kalibrr is also part of the first YC batch which can benefit the post Y Combinator backing of “YC VC“, a convertible notes investment from Yuri Milner, Andreesen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Maverick Capital. This is a replacement for the previous Startup Fund by Yuri Milner and Ron Conway. Each investor will fund every startup in the YC batch with $20,000, as convertible notes and without valuation cap or discount.

Startups selected for Y Combinator receive access to its large network of mentors and partners, also after their batch has ended. Since its creation in 2005 Y Combinator has backed more than 350 startups, some of the more notable names including AirBnB, Dropbox, Disqus, Scribd, Reddit, 9Gag and Posterous.

Kalibrr has also benefited a $100,000 investment of seed fund Kickstart Ventures Inc., and recently opened its first Job Center Station in Makati, where trainees can assess their skills and benefit training sessions from the Kalibrr Job Coaches.
Kalibrr is a free program to candidates, building its revenue from providing BPO companies with skilled and extremely hirable candidates, thus speeding up the hiring process for BPOs.

Deals may vary for each startup accepted
Founding partner of Y Combinator

The post Filipino Career Development Platform Kalibrr Accepted into Y Combinator appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

COMELEC Publishes 2013 Electoral Guidelines

Franky Branckaute — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:40:25 +0000

The Commission on Elections, COMELEC, has published the rules and regulations under Republic Act 9006, in connection with regulated campaigning for the May 13, 2013 elections. Resolution No. 9615 also regulates the online promotional opportunities given to electoral candidates. It is fair to say no webmaster, nor agency, will become rich from this electoral campaign if COMELEC has anything to say about the matter.

The complete act, as found at the COMELEC website and embedded below tries to possibly over-regulate campaigning this season, despite the governments inability to deal with epal. The act not only defines the authorized banner sizes which can be used online, but even goes as far as limiting how often electoral banners can be shown. And COMELEC has shown itself to be very generous.

“Said online advertisement, whether procured by purchase, or given free of charge, shall not be published more than three times a week per website during the campaign period. For this purpose, the exhibition or display of the online advertisement for any length of time, regardless of frequency, within a 24 hour period, shall be construed as one instance of publication.”

We will assume that what COMELEC actually meant is three times per week per page visitor, rather than three times per week per website. But even then due to both ad-blindness and limited time spent on pages on many a website, this straight copy and paste from the “print” regulations also defined in Section 9 of Resolution No. 9615, makes one wonder whether these official agencies consult internet specialists before publishing resolutions or decrees.

Additionally website owners shall also keep records and provide information.

For the above purpose, each broadcast entity and website owner or administrator shall submit to the Commission a certified true copy of its broadcast logs, certificates of performance, or other analogous record, including certificates of acceptance as required in Section 7(b) of these Guidelines, for the review and verification of the frequency, date, time and duration of advertisements aired for any candidate or party through:

For website owners or administrators – The City/Municipal Election Officer (EO) concerned, who in turn, shall furnish copies thereof to the Education and Information Department (EID) of the Commission which in turn shall furnish copies thereof to the Campaign Finance Unit (CFU) of the Commission within five (5) days from the receipt thereof.

All broadcast entities shall preserve their broadcast logs for a period of five (5) years from the date of broadcast for submission to the Commission whenever required.

The act also includes social media networks and micro-blogs, albeit doesn’t specify whether an electoral candidate is required to label its own profiles as “political advertising” or “election propaganda”, which should effectively prohibit candidates from tweeting or updating their Facebook profile on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, eve of Election Day, and on Election Day.

No mention in the act covers whether candidates, or their online media practitioners, can create mobile applications which fall outside of these guidelines. In fact it seems that mobile applications fall outside of the definitions of the Resolution No. 9615[1].

While we applaud the effort by COMELEC to try to regulate campaigning, despite the still omnipresent and often blatant epal all over the country, once more we are confronted with a lack of understanding of the internet and an attempt to copy rules from the offline world to the internet. As someone replied on Facebook, A for effort.

At least COMELEC isn’t alone in its need for internet specialists. They share their lack of understanding about how the internet works with BIR Chief Kim Jacinto-Henares.

I am not a lawyer and may be wrong

The post COMELEC Publishes 2013 Electoral Guidelines appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

BIR Chief Kim Jacinto-Henares Again Aims at Online Commerce Platforms. Still Doesn’t Understand How Internet Works

Franky Branckaute — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:56:38 +0000

According to a report by Interaksyon, BIR has once again recalibrated its weapons against online platforms such as Sulit, AyosDito, eBay and Multiply. In a new statement, coming on the heels of last Summer’s war declaration on online sellers BIR Chief Kim Jacinto-Henares (pictured above) now announced that they may go after the platform operators, and not just after the e-sellers.

Henares justified this announcement falling back on laws which can barely be applied to the internal working of the open and accessible internet, specifically by falling back on Revenue Regulation 12-2011, Section 2:

“…it shall be the primary responsibility of all owners or sub-lessors of commercial establishments/buildings/spaces to ensure that the person intending to lease their commercial space is a BIR-registered taxpayer.”

Does Pedro, who has a sideline of selling t-shirts to his classmates to help pay for his college, need to pay tax?
RJ David
CEO Sulit[1]

Failure to do so may according to Henares make the platform operators of classifieds or online auction websites such as Sulit, eBay and Multiply liable, by a penalty of not less than Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00) and imprisonment of not less than one (1) year but not more than ten (10) years (SEC 255).

“In the same way, if you operate a buy and sell website, you have to make sure that your members or subscribers are registered with us. These websites have to make sure that the sellers are issuing receipts, otherwise, they will also be held responsible,” Henares said.

According to RR 12-2011 owners or sub-lessors also need to file a declaration for every lessee and provide following information:

Building/space layout of the entire area being leased with proper unit/space address or reference;
Certified True Copy of Contract of Lease per tenant, and;
The Lessee Information Statement shall be presented in the prescribed format

Henares went on to emphasize that online sellers are subject to the same regulations as regular sellers, and thus need to provide an official receipt for every sale or service of PHP 25 or more.

Most baffling about Henares’ continued vendetta against online classifieds and sales platforms is her total and complete lack of understanding how the internet works, or acknowledgement thereof. In an era in which website operators are often covered by laws such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which protects site owners from copyright infringements uploaded by the users of the site[2], it is difficult to see what drives Henares.

I guess the BIR, once done with online, will run after children selling ice candy during summer. Revenue is revenue.
John Limjap[3]

It also takes a stretch almost beyond the imaginary to compare online websites with retail property and imagine that platform operators such as Sulit are required to verify the information of every user, as well as file a Lessee Information Statement for every ad listed on their platform for an item more expensive than PHP 24.

Doubts such as whether every sari-sari store issues official receipts for bottles of Coca-Cola, or every newspapers submit the same information for every paid classified listing immediately come to mind. Additionally we need to raise the question whether platform providers need to acknowledge the content value of every product and service listed.

Even more so if no fee is charged to list ads like is the case for platforms such as Sulit and AyosDito. For exclusive sales platforms such as eBay and Multiply, which offer a payment service for the operation to be concluded online, the situation may be slightly different and due to the nature of the platform, and the possibility to actually calculate the total (gross) revenue generated by sellers.

To hold platform operators hostage will not only negatively impact the budding e-Commerce industry in the country, it also displays an inherent lack of the BIR Chief to evolve and could possibly make innovators think that Henares’ may try to protect the interests of mortar and brick commerce. Which will nevertheless continue to be disrupted by the internet.

While we can understand Henares’ strict application of the law when it comes to revenue generated from sales online, despite the possibly stifling impact this hunt for online sellers may have, her seeming lack of acceptance as to the different soul and modus operandi of online classifieds sites make us wonder whether the BIR Chief a relentless quota driven pitbull is.

via Interaksyon
Under the condition that the website operator will take down any infringement reported by a rights owner
on Twitter

The post BIR Chief Kim Jacinto-Henares Again Aims at Online Commerce Platforms. Still Doesn’t Understand How Internet Works appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E08: Streetfood Tycoon Cast

Franky Branckaute — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:42:07 +0000

Join the first theBobberyCast episode of 2013, with Erick Garayblas, the creator and developer of the popular Streetfood Tycoon game as guest. And we have an exclusive T-shirt give-away, the first of theBobberyShirts.

Show Synopsis

Erick Garayblas

Cartoonist, mobile game developer. Digital Sinigang.

Erick Garayblas has been developing mobile games for more than 10 years now. In the show he talks about the challenges he discovered over the years, monetization and also the upcoming Streetfood Tycoon sequel: Streetfood Tycoon World Tour. Streetfood Tycoon World Tour will be released on January 24th, 2013, in the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPod and iPad.

In the show Erick also reveals download number about Streetfood Tycoon, and discusses cross platform game development.

theBobberyShirts

To celebrate the launch of Streetfood Tycoon World Tour, we have a giveaway of exclusive, and limited, theBobberyShirts. The shirts have been designed by LoveArmy and are all numbered. Only 25 of these shirts are made, and we are giving away 5 to our readers.

To participate to the giveaway enter the giveaway below. Participants tweeting daily will earn extra raffle tickets and improve their chances to win. Additionally, participants who leave a comment with a link to a tweet with screenshot of Erick’s daughter in the Streetfood Tycoon game can earn 5 (five!) extra raffle tickets[1].

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The 5 winners of an exclusive Kuyi Mobile theBobberyShirt will be announced on January 24, the day Streetfood Tycoon World Tour is released on the Apple App Store.

The game has now been released and can be downloaded . Also check out our Streetfood Tycoon World Tour.

theBobberyCast Download Links

HD video: 720p video (369.2 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (173.8 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (24.2 MB)

Catch us every Wednesday from 6PM – 7PM LIVE ON AIR!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

theBobberyCast podcast is produced by the fine folks at NEW Media Factory and recorded at Beyond The Box.

We moderate comments, your comment may not immediately appear

The post tBC S01E08: Streetfood Tycoon Cast appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E07: The LeanCast

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:59:55 +0000

In the most recent episode of theBobberyCast, Ray Wu, Ambassador to JFDI Asia, and Christian Besler, VP for Kickstart Ventures, Inc. join Franky, as Jay was stuck in town dealing with a client.

Highlight of the show: Christian Besler claims that there is such a thing as ‘the best’, or ‘a better’ network, and does so while dancing in true Sting-alike style.

Show Synopsis

Ray Wu

Digital nomad at JFDI.Asia. All things Lean Startup and WhatFailed.us

Blog

WhatFailed.us

on Twitter

on Linkedin

JFDI.Asia

The main topic of the show was obviously Lean Startup and its dependencies. Ray Wu, is a Lean Startup Machine veteran and lean is a major factor during incubation/acceleration program of JFDI.

JFDI Asia is taking applications for the next JFDI Asia Bootcamp batch right now. Submission deadline is on December, 23rd, 2012.

JFDI.Asia operates the longest-running, most successful seed accelerator program in South East Asia. It takes teams of entrepreneurs from idea to investment in 100 days, with greater than 60% success raising an average S$650,000 per team. We offer S$25k cash investment, over S$100k in technical facilities, office accommodation, intensive mentoring and an introduction to more than 100 active early-stage investors.

Independent valuations prove that we increase the value of start-ups 4–5× in 100 days. Just as important, we probably cut a year or more off the time it would take an independent business to achieve traction: that’s why we call it an accelerator. Informally, we also call it a ‘bootcamp’ because it is a life-changing intense experience, like basic military training for entrepreneurs. JFDI.Asia was first in SE Asia to be accepted into TechStars’ Global Accelerator Network.

To find out more about JFDI Asia Bootcamp, visit the application page.

Download Links

Will be added as soon as the episode is uploaded and available in iTunes.

The post tBC S01E07: The LeanCast appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

News Rundown at 6 for December 10th, 2012

Franky Branckaute — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:02:47 +0000

The month of December surely isn’t a more relaxed, or quieter, month. Hackathons have been replaced with the Christmas parties, or should we say Season parties. But just like the year 2012 has been an exciting one, news from the Filipino internet scene keep on coming in.

Streetfood Tycoon

After an excellent year, with more than 3 million downloads, Kuyi Mobile developer Erick Garayblas has won the Best Handheld/Mobile Game Award at the Philippine Game Development Festival for the excellent Streetfood Tycoon game.

As a bonus Erick Garayblas teased his readers with the announcement that he has been working on a new game and will soon announce the release of his newest game.

Insync

Insync, another of our ‘Class of 2012′ laureates released a new Beta version of their Insync for Gmail client. Insync for Gmail easily syncs your Gmail attachments with the could, both in your Insync folder and also in your Dropbox or Google Drive cloud.

dotPHRegistryGate

The dotPHRegistryGate continues to be featured across the internet, with Jim Ayson, one of the most active people during the first fight to break Disini’s monopoly, analysing the actual situation, as well as offering a recap of the past.
The renewed dotPH debate has also been picked up by the government’s Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) who are engaging in a round table discussion both about the security breach and the dotPH monopoly we recently highlighted.

Ray Wu, JFDI.Asia

The last news item for today is Ray Wu, who has been in town since end last week. Aside for being partly responsible for Mr. Christian Besler of Kickstart Ventures Inc, growing a beard for the next 3 weeks, Ray Wu is Ambassador to JFDI Asia. On Tuesday evening DevCon Philippines hosts a talk at El Pueblo with Ray Wu.
On Wednesday December 12th, Ray Wu will guest on theBobberyCast, together with a then beardy Christian Besler[1].

We are not sure whether to say ‘hopefully’ or wether we should to try to resist any additional commentary

The post News Rundown at 6 for December 10th, 2012 appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Philippines 7th Fastest Internet Growth, 17th Largest Smartphone Population WorldWide

Franky Branckaute — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:33:34 +0000

Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, presented her State of the Internet 2012 report earlier this week at Stanford University. This is the second KCPB report for 2012, with the earlier report published in May 2012 at the D10 conference.

According to the numbers presented by Marissa Meeker, the Philippines are the 7th fastest growing internet population since 2008, three position down from the May 2012 report[1].

The Philippines also entered the Top of largest smartphone populations, 8 places up from May 2012, with in total 25million smartphones, a year over year growth of 38%.

We embedded the slides of Mary Meeker’s presentation below, as well as the numbers presented in May 2012 for comparison. Other interesting tidbits of the report include:

Meeker’s data show 2.4 billion Internet users worldwide, a number that’s still growing eight percent yearly.

There are 1.1 billion smartphone subscribers worldwide — but that’s still just 17 percent of the global cellphone market.

29 percent of adults in the U.S. now own either a tablet or an e-reader.

Mobile devices now account for 13 percent of worldwide Internet traffic, up from 4 percent in 2010.

Mobile app and advertising revenue has grown at an annual rate of 129 percent since 2008, and now tops $19 billion.

Mobile traffic app Waze has been adding users faster than all GPS makers combined have sold personal navigation units, and it’s been that way since the beginning of 2012.

Source: KCPB

Source: KCPB

This may be because not many numbers about local growth and subscribers are known/published, not a lack in growth in the last 6 months

The post Philippines 7th Fastest Internet Growth, 17th Largest Smartphone Population WorldWide appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

tBC S01E06: #4SQHackPH + Mars Beer

Franky Branckaute — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:48:05 +0000

Join us this week as theBobberyCast ~~is still on Mars~~ and special guest Ken-Lauren Daganio thinks his beer is from Mars. Or something like that. In this week’s show John Arce, of WebGeekPH, joins to talk about the recently held #4SQHackDay and Jim Ayson, of SMART DevNet, calls in in what is the New Media Factory call-in pilot test!

Show Synopsis

John Arce

Mister WebGeek Philippines and Mr. Startup Digest Philippines

WebGeek PH

on Twitter

on Linkedin

This week’s topic was the recently held Foursquare Hackday Philippines, #4SQHackPH, co-organized by WebGeekPH, SMART DevNet and Foursquare. Check out the #4SQHackPH highlights over at WebGeek. The event was the first Foursquare Hackathon outside of the US, a big honor for the organizers and also the proof of how big Foursquare is among Filipino netizens.

We also talked about geolocation, how geolocation will move to constantly be on, on an opt-in basis of course, and apps like Highlight and CircleMe already point us towards the future of geolaction based applications.

Another topic was how hackathons recently have taken over every geeks’ weekend, a great evolution and one which will definitely improve the quality of local developers and keep the startup and developers’ scene going strong next year.

Jim Ayson

SMART DevNet Evangelist.

blog

on Twitter

on Linkedin

SMART DevNet blog

On the home front we have been lucky to see MRTTrackr which was the result of a hackathon, Taghuddle which brought Nikko Bautista the WebGeek DevCup, and of course Ken-Lauren Daganio, AKA @SuperKen, had the Beerspots project he pitched at the most recent Startup Weekend Manila, last September.

And as a closing remark, of course there was a quick mention by Jim Ayson about the 2012 dotPHRegistryGate. But more about that soon, and in 2013!

And as a bonus the Kimi Raikkonen Apple iOS6 commercial mentioned early in the show.

Upcoming theBobberyCast Schedule

Wednesday December 12th, 2012: the 2012 Philipippines Startup Scene Wrap-up!

Subscribe to theBobberyCast on iTunes: 720p – SD – MP3.

Download Links

HD video: 720p video (309.5 MB)
Mobile video: 360p video (139.9 MB)
Audio only: MP3 (20.4 MB)

P.S: As usual, we borrowed the background for the post. Find the original 4SQHackPH design here.

The post tBC S01E06: #4SQHackPH + Mars Beer appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

Can dotPH Run the Philippine Internet Domain Registry Competently?

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:03:02 +0000

The most recent dotPH hack last weekend once again made the dotPH critics come out of the wood and we asked the question: ‘Is dotPH armed, and the right partner, to help the local internet and technopreneurship evolve in our fast moving era, an era of the explosive economical growth in the Philippines and in our online startup scene?.

For those who don’t know the situation: there is a long story all the way back to 1990 and critics of dotPH and its CEO Joel Disini have often been vocal.
TL;DR: Joel Disini, CEO of dotPH, has often been accused of his monopoly position and more than once his critics have moved in the hope to rescind his license with help of both the CICT and DTI. This never happened and in 2012 the Philippines still have to deal with a monopoly in which Joel Disini controls both the domain registry, and the administration, being able to decide prices at his will.

It needs to be noted that the prices for a .ph domain have not changed since 2000 and a domain name costs still $35/year. Exactly the same as 12 years ago. Last weekend’s dotPH hack, which was done with a basic script which can be readily downloaded from the internet as the members of Anonymous Iligan, who claimed the hack, told us was the second time that Sulit was taken down due to a dotPH hack.

Before proceeding further, I have collected a selection of links found across the internet about previous dotPH issues and communications with Joel Disini. Some of these links may require you to join the respective Yahoo Group to be accessible. Registration to those groups is free and requires only a Yahoo! account.

These links are a collection of content written by dotPH critics between 2001 and 2004. I recommend to definitely read the first link, also embedded:
- PhilDAC whitepaper: The .PH Domain and The Need for Policy Reforms HTML form – PDF on Scribd, 2001 and still valid in today, December 2012

- The People vs. dotPH by Joey G. Alarilla: INQ7, via Wayback Machine, March 9, 2001
- New organization formed to administer PH domain by Joey G. Alarilla: INQ 7, via Wayback Machine, April 6, 2001
- Janette Toral, a friend of both Joel Disini and JJ Disini, on the dotPH Advisory Board topic: Yahoo Groups, April 6, 2001
- Trade dep’t issues official statement on ‘.PH’ dispute by Joey G. Alarilla: INQ7, via Wayback Machine, April 19, 2001
- Heated debate between and Horacio “Bombin” Cadiz and Joel Disini, JJ Disini: Yahoo Groups, April 20, 2001
- PhilDAC Complaints Comittee is investigating whether action should be filed: The Mail Archive, April 26, 2001
- ICANN expresses it would intervene if the debate can not be solved domestically: Copy on Pipermail archive, May 7, 2001
- Philippine League for Democratic Telecommunications, Inc. joins anti-dotPH protest: Yahoo Groups, May 28, 2001
- Settling the domain debate by Chin Wong: Digital life, July 29, 2003
- NTC Draft : Guidelines in the Administration of the .Ph Domain Name: PDF on Scribd, February 6, 2004
- On the DotPH Comments to the NTC Proposed Guidelines on the Administration of the Philippine Country Code Top Level Domain – Rebuttal by Horacio Cadiz : On PhilDAC via Wayback Machine – PDF on Scribd, March 20, 2004
- CICT (draft) Guidelines Governing the Administration of the .PH Domain: on PhilDAC, August 20, 2004

Since 2004 nothing has changed, and the issue has died a quiet death, allegedly because of family ties between Joel Disini, CEO of dotPH, and Commissions involved in the whole issue.

In order to be able to gauge interest in the reopening of the debate and issue, we invite all industry players to express their interest in a possible roundtable to discuss whether the debate needs to be picked up again and the status quo has to be reinvestigated. Especially since dotPH has proven that they are not armed to competently administer the single most important element for local webmaster: their domain name.

.PH Domain Registry Roundtable
Please express your interest by filling out the form below.

Name*
FirstLast
Email*
Phone
Company*
Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

We hope to once and for all settle the issue that is Joel Disini’s monopoly on the .PH Domain Registry and further improve the online business landscape and contribute to the explosive growth of the Philippine online economy, with a better and more competitive landscape.

Update: Just a little showcase about the honesty and transparency offered by dotPH. dotPH finally made a public statement on their news page. On Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 5.00PM the dotPH news page was not updated yet, which shows that their statement is backdated. Probably due to the whole debate flaring up again.

The post Can dotPH Run the Philippine Internet Domain Registry Competently? appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.

News Rundown at 6 for Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Franky Branckaute — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:00:45 +0000

As we are nearing the holiday season and traffic in Metro Manila is becoming even worse, the Philippine startup and development scene knows no halt. Last weekend was again filled with several hackathons across the country and despite the Philippine domain registry behind hacked once again, it was all good vibes and fun.

4SQHackPH

The first ever outside of the US Foursquare Hackday was held last Saturday, December 1 2012, in the Philippines. Co-organizers WebGeek and SMART DevNet held the 4SQHackdayPH hackathon at SMART’s Tower. First price was won by PicXplorer of Team Triple A. PicXplorer is an app which can instantly create a “More Fun in the Philippines” poster from photos posted on venues near your location. The members behind the winning team were Aci Cartagena, Danielle Padilla, and Mikko Asis.

Check out John Arce’s coverage of the event over at WebGeek Philippines.

View more event photos via Taghuddle and via Eventifier.

Sanitation Hackathon

In collaboration with Google Developers Group, and GlobeLabs, the 2012 Sanitation Hackathon was held simultaneously in six cities across the country: Baguio, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Makati and Zamboanga.

The Grand Winner in the Philipines was Project Nature’s Call by Team Comfort from Davao City.

Project Nature’s Call is a mobile app that is based on Android platform that helps people to find and locate the nearest and most importantly the cleanest available toilet within the area you currently in. The user is guided by the help of his smartphone’s built-in GPS tracker and Google Map API.

The list of winners can be found over at the Sanitation Hackathon website.

Check out photos of the different hackathons via Taghuddle.

Stream Engine Studios

Stream Engine Studios, under the lead of Gino Caparas, won the Best Animation Professional Division Category F (Title sequences, infomercial, TVC’s , demo reels) in the professional class of Animahenasyon 2012, the Philippine Animation Awards organized by the Animation Council of the Philippines. Stream Engine Studios was selected among more than 20 finalists.

Photo via Gino Caparas. Check out Stream Engine Studios’ winning video below.

iPhone 5 Comes to the Philippines

The moment many have been waiting for: the extended, every inch an iPhone, iPhone 5 will finally be launched in the Philippines, on December 14th, as Apple announced in press release

The post News Rundown at 6 for Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 appeared first on theBobbery and was written by Franky Branckaute. Sometimes videos may be included in the original post.