A Call for Visayas Entries to the National Digital Arts Awards 2015

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Organizers of the National Digital Arts Awards (NDAA) 2015 are calling for entries from the Visayas. Globaltronics, a company specializing in digital advertising in the Philippines, is encouraging students who aspire to be part of the country’s digital arts community to join the contest.

“We are calling on Bisaya youth to be part of the NDAA 2015 Visayas leg. This is your chance to highlight your talents in creating artistic works using new tools in the digital media,” said Nato Agbayani, Globaltronics Vice President for External Affairs and Partnerships.

Agbayani added that this year’s theme #DigitalPinoyAko aims to highlight the works of Filipino youth and their interpretation of the Philippines as a country of daring and innovative people that continues to rise with the help of digital technology.

Globaltronics is partnering with local universities and colleges to encourage more entries from students, especially those from the Visayas. The official school partners are Benedicto College, Southwestern University, St. Theresa’s College, University of Cebu, University of San Jose-Recoletos, and the University of the Philippines Cebu.

Mandaue City Exemplifies a Low Carbon Model Town

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Project of the APEC Energy Working Group (EWG) has been greatly instrumental in encouraging communities in the region to embark on city planning initiatives promoting low carbon technologies to manage the rapidly increasing energy consumption and consequently, mitigate the adverse effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment.

“We are constantly looking for potential LCMT candidates and it impresses me to find Mandaue City with such a comprehensive plan involving land use, green building and transportation,” PH Senior Official on Energy (SOE) Leader, DOE Usec. Loreta G. Ayson said.

The local government of Mandaue City has a clear target for reducing its CO2 emissions and has long been crafting measures to establish a sustainable city to address air pollution and traffic congestion. Its proposed project consists of developing green growth areas and interconnecting these areas within Metro Cebu. An ordinance is also proposed promoting disaster-resilient buildings in the city.

Mandaue is located on the central-eastern coastal region of Cebu, and is one of the three highly urbanized cities on the island and forms part of the Cebu Metropolitan area. It is connected by two bridges to the island of Mactan. Mandaue is also known as the “furniture capital of the Philippines.”

“Enterprise Sachet” Model Via cloud.com.ph To Give Filipino SMEs Scalable IT Tools

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Local cloud computing and data center firm IPC (IP Converge Data Services, Inc.), a unit of ePLDT, ICT arm of PLDT, has recently announced its thrust to enable startups and SMEs to manage the cost of IT resources, given the growing adoption of IT to automate and streamline business operations. Dubbed as “The Enterprise Sachet”, this pay-as-you-go model allows companies to make use of business productivity tools and compute resources on-demand and pay only for what is required at any given point in time, via online payment.

With the availability of these business-enabling applications and systems on its cloud services portal cloud.com.ph, IPC empowers the growing startup movement in the Philippines to harness the operational capabilities of established players at a fraction of the time spent to deliver the technology, and at reasonable cost. An estimated 90% of Philippine businesses are considered to be SMEs, including startups.

“We define the Enterprise Sachet as the business model by which Filipino SMEs and entrepreneurs can use IT tools that give them the same capabilities as larger organizations but at affordable, pay-as-you-use packages. It changes the landscape of business IT as we know it because small operations are now able to compete in the big leagues using IT resources that are affordable, flexible, and easily accessible,” said IPC President Rene Huergas.

Huergas noted that many local entrepreneurs understand that growing their business requires investing in technology – from tools that help them manage client data to systems that will automate back-office operations. However, budget constraints often prevent them from deploying tools as early as possible. Further, many technology services available in the market provide for small initial use with quick scalability.