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Computing Tools for People's Organizations: Simple Guide to Web and Data Management for Organizations (Part 1)

Computing Tools for People's Organizations: Simple Guide to Web and Data Management for Organizations (Part 1)

Saturday, 04 October 2008.
The Kubo,
26 Matulungin St., Brgy. Central, Q.C.
9AM - 5:00PM.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Topics:

9:00 AM– 9:30 AM Seminar Introduction (CP-Union)

9.30AM – 11:30AM Web Portals in Advocacy Work: Project People's Web Experience and Recommendations (Chris Raymaekers)

1:00PM - 2:00PM Design Trends and Fundamentals for Web (Dan Matutina)

2:00PM - 3:30PM Data Management: Garbage In. Garbage Out. (Elvin Catalan & Arlan de Luta)

3:30PM – 4:00PM Working with Databases: Experiences in Data Organizing. (Beh de Castro)

4:00PM – 5:00PM Data Visualization: So what if you have data? What to do with them? (CP-Union)

Conclusions/Discussions/Open Forum

Software Freedom Day (PROMETHEUS BOUND)

By Ricardo Bahague Jr.
ref: Manila Times


For the past four years, computer users beginners and experts alike, programmers, NGOs and free software advocates have celebrated every third Saturday of September as Software Freedom Day. This year, over 500 teams all over the world is celebrating the event. It is a public education event held by different groups around the world to promote the use of free and open source software.


"Software" is the word for programs and other procedures in your computer that uses your hardware to do the work you require it to do.


Proprietary software is the most common kind of many software products that users are allowed to use upon the payment of license fees. Buying a software product like an operating system gives you a license to use it under certain conditions such as installing it only on a single computer, accepting the prohibition not to modify it and not to redistribute the program to others.

Unlike proprietary software, free/open source software (FOSS) product owners, developers and/or creators give users the right to use it for any purpose and to redistribute, study, modify and improve it. This is done by doing away with traditional copyright conditions and making the source code of the software itself available to the public.


The source code of a software is like the recipe of a dish and the chef would be the software company that produces the software. Using this analogy, the main idea in FOSS is that the recipe is made available to all. Others can modify it to suit their needs and its products can be shared freely, or given away to anyone we like.

Most popular proprietary software already have free and open source equivalents. These equivalents are already on a par with their proprietary counterparts. A whole range of high quality and dependable applications that are free and open source can be downloaded from the Internet. It ranges from operating systems to run in your personal computer (such as GNU/Linux), servers that manage websites and your e-mail (Apache, SendMail), office suites such as OpenOffice, Internet browsers like Firefox, graphics design software (GIMP) and databases.

An immediate benefit of using FOSS is the reduced licensing and upgrade fees. The giant chip maker Intel reportedly saved $200 million for switching their servers from proprietary UNIX software to open software, while Amazon.com reported a $17-million savings when they migrated to Linux. FOSS in lieu of proprietary software result in significant cost savings of anywhere from 15 percent to 35 percent over a span of three years.


A UNDP study has pointed out that using FOSS in the Philippines can develop local capacity in our software industry, reduce our dependence on imports, conserve our foreign exchange, enhance our national security, reduce copyright infringements and enable software to be easily adapted to local languages and practices. Furthermore, reducing the costs of software increases the public's capacity to use and have access to information thus enabling more people to use these in their efforts to achieve overall economic development.


A government policy on using free and open source software is the purpose of House Bill No. 1716 or the Free/Open Source Software Act authored by Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño. It proposes to require the use of free and open source software in the absence of a clear advantage of using proprietary software. It also promotes open standards and open formats in all government agencies and encourages the use and development of FOSS in the private and public sector.


The government is the single biggest consumer of ICT goods and services. It spends billions of pesos to implement systems for public use. Mandating the use of FOSS to government agencies will lower the cost of implementing various ICT programs and projects. Rather than spending on software products that have FOSS equivalents, additional hardware can be acquired instead. The use of free and open source software is the affordable software alternative for a third world country like the Philippines.

You can see free and open software in action during the Software Freedom Day to be held on Saturday September 20 at 9:00 p.m. at the University of Makati. The organizers will make available the latest versions of free operating systems that can be freely copied during the event. Aside from the University of Makati and PUP-Taguig events in Metro Manila, there will also be regional events in Baguio, Angeles, Mindanao State University and in Isabela City. The event is expected to bring in more than 2000 advocates and enthusiasts all over the country in line with this year's call for "One Nation: Unity for Software Freedom." More information can be found at www.cp-union.com or at www.sfdphil.org.

Know a world where software is free and no pirates exist. Discover free and open software.
[A member of AGHAM, Mr. Ricardo Bahague graduated from physics at UP Diliman. He is a FOSS advocate, developer and coordinator of the Computer Professionals Union.] prom.bound@gmail.com.

Software Freedom Tour Celebration Kicks Off with Training Marathon

Computer Professionals Union holds open source sessions at the University of Makati

More than a thousand students of the University of Makati will participate on Saturday, September 6 in a training marathon on free and open source software (FOSS) as part of the Software Freedom Tour of the Computer Professionals Union or CPU.
Rick Bahague of the CPU and coordinator of Software Freedom Day 2008 in the Philippines said that this event is only the start of a month long celebration leading up to a coordinated celebration of Software Freedom Day (SFD) on September 20, 2008.


Running from 7:30 am in the morning up to 7:30 pm in the evening, more than 1500 students will have introductory lessons on alternatives to proprietary software. Divided into four sessions, the students will have introductions on OpenOffice Productivity Suite, Ubuntu GNU/Linux desktops and content management software (CMS) for websites. The FOSS marathon will be a non-technical forum introducing students to FOSS tools and philosophy.


"These software are examples of high quality free open source software that are available to run in your computer for office and home use", said Bahague. He added that free and open source software is the affordable software alternative especially for a third world country like the Philippines.


Support for the Open Source bill filed by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino in Congress will be solicited through an SMS support sign-up that will be launched during the event. The Software Freedom Tour 2008 includes exhibits and school events in Metro Manila and other provinces. More details can be found at www.cp-union.com.


Software Freedom Day is a yearly celebration of Software Freedom and why it is important; our purpose is public education about these important issues. Information about the Software Freedom Day 2008 event in the Philippines can be found at http://www.sfdphil.org. Regional events will be held in Baguio, Angeles City, Bicol, Cebu and in Isabela City. The event is expected to bring in more than 2000 advocates and enthusiasts all over the country in line with this year's call of "One Nation: Unity for Software Freedom". SFD 2008 Team is composed of the Computer Professionals’ Union, Philippine PHP Users Group (PHPUGPH), IT Society - University of Makati, TXTPower.org, Bayan Muna, Internet Café Association of Imus, UNDP-IOSN, and UnPLUG.


The CPU has been active not only on Free and Open Source Advocacy but also on ICT-related concerns that impact the grassroots. They also developed and maintained one of the first web based human rights documentation systems in the world and provided consultations and implementation of more than 20 Drupal sites for different NGOs under their Project People's Web.###

First Look: Automated Counting/Voting Machines for ARMM Elections

Bloggers were able to get a hands-on the DRE and OMR machines that will be used during the ARMM elections yesterday.

I asked some details on the specifications, implementation, tests and processes, unfortunately not all were answered due to vendors usual notion of security - systems are more secured if few people know how they work. A very different view from open source advocates and developers.

We'll be writing a more detailed post soon.

On the DRE machine, a big loophole also exists. I asked the CIO of the DRE vendor on what links the printed "ballot" (like an atm receipt) to the data stored on the DRE's flash storage. it seems that no such identifier exists (as far a i can understand his explanation). This means that the printed audit which will be put on the ballot boxes by the voters is useless during audits if data are compromised on the machine.

Thus, the DRE machines can not be audited during questionable results.

This feature is very basic (common sense, in fact) and should be the first to be asked during the evaluation.

What you missed on Drupal Code Sprint Manila

On 13 July 2008, DL, Joram, Jo, Marc, rbahaguejr, ganni, j francisco, and chris joined the Drupal Code Sprint Manila. The Code sprint aimed to create sites for two non-profit organizations. The Computer Professionals Union arranged the Kubo and coordinated with a number of non-profit organizations for the one-day activity. Collectivetech.org is providing the drupal webhosting for the outputs of the code sprint.






The Team started early. Before 10am, Jo was already on the venue. All the others arrived a few minutes after. We had internet connection provided by the Center for Environmental Concerns.

A subversion server, apache web server and MySQL database server were used during the code sprint. The participants formed two smaller groups. rbahaguejr, DL, ganni and Jo created the site for the Asian Peasant Coalition while marc, chris and joram joined to create Kodao Productions' portal.











The Asian Peasan Coalition (APC) according to their presentation is a:

"APC is an Asia-wide peasant coalition of farmers, landless peasants, fisherfolks, , agricultural workers, dalit, indigenous peoples, harders and pasturalists, including the women and youth across this sectors.






APC is an independent organization that shall not be subordinate to any international network, political parties, NGOs, government or religious bodies. It shall strive to achieve democracy and gender equality in all spheres of activities and decision making of the coalition. All member organizations maintain their independence and initiatives in the achievement of their aims and objectives." [1]

Kodao Productions (Kodao) hopes:

"... to bear witness to the Filipino people's struggle for justice and genuine democracy. By creating and distributing video and audio materials, we project and reproduce the people's experiences and ideas, forward their cause, and celebrate their victories." [2]





On the next code sprint you should join us.





Collectivetech.org has posted the Code Sprint outputs for Kodao and APC.

[1] Presentation during the Drupal Code Sprint
[2] http://kodao.multiply.com/

Dahil Birthday ko at Gusto ko ng Gift (Donations for Typhoon Frank Victims)

Pips,

Alam nyo na malamang ang nangyari sa mga kapatid natin sa Panay Island at iba pang bahagi ng Visayas.

Sa isang blog entry ng Citizen’s Disaster Response Center ganito ang kanilang paglalarawan sa pinsala,

“…The typhoon left at least 229 people killed and over 700 others missing in 12 regions. At least 764,380 people or 150,241 families were affected by floods, storm surge, and landslides in 1,533 barangays, 152 municipalities, 26 cities, and 28 provinces….”

Ang CDRC ay madalas ko ring mapuntahan dahil sa Disaster Monitoring Database na kasalukuyan nilang ginagamit na nagiging reference din ng National Disaster Coordinating Center kung kinukulang sila ng data.

Dahil birthday ko ang mga sumusunod ang magandang gift:

Used clothings (huwag isama ang inyong lumang gown or bathing suits)
Mats, mosquito nets, at iba pang gamit pambahay (huwag na ang insect repellant)
Food (de lata, dry dapat)

Kaya ngayong weekend, halukayin nyo muna mga hindi na ginagamit na mga nabanggit at mangyaring kontakin ang sinuman sa naka-post na announcement sa www.agham.org. Maari din kayo dumerecho sa CDRC, nasa http://cdrc1984.multiply.com/journal ang complete address nila. Maari din ninyo akong kontakin sa 09178840096 o kaya sa rbahaguejr at gmail dot com

Kung meron naman kayong credit card or gusto nyong mag-donate gamit ang paraan na ito, gamitin ang donate button sa sidebar ng blog. Ililista ko ang sinumang magbibigay doon sa blog entry sa July 14.


Rick

CPU's Human Rights Violation Documentation System featured in Linux Journal (March 2008)

May maikling write-up ang Linux Journal tungkol sa karapatan-monitor na isang documentation system para sa human rights violations na nilabas ng Computer Professionals' Union noong nakaraang 10 Dec 2007.

Bisitahin ang www.cp-union.org. May bayad ang access sa Journal kaya inilagay namin ang write-up at screenshot sa cpu website.

ang proyekto ay matatagpuan sa code.google.com

ang demo site ay matatagpuan naman sa opensource.collectivetech.org

CPU's Human Rights Violations Documentation System featured in Linux Journal (March 2008)

Below is James Gray's short write-up for the Linux Journal's New Products section on Karapatan-Monitor.

Linux Journal is the premiere magazine covering the Linux community. It is the leading media brand of the Linux and Open Source markets. Karapatan-Monitor is a documentation system created for human rights workers. It is currently in active development.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Computer Professionals' Union Karapatan-Monitor

Here's some irony for you. On one hand, Google stifles human rights by censoring Google China for the authoritarian Chinese regime. At the same time, Google Code hosts an antidote, a new human-rights monitoring program, called Karapatan-Monitor. Created and maintained by the Computer Professionals' Union in the Philippines, the open-source Karapatan-Monitor records incidents of human-rights violations and allows for classification of violations, perpetrators and victim status. Specific victim updates (for example, court cases and file attachments) also can be recorded. Now, the question remains, “Dear Google, can those who need Karapatan-Monitor most, such as our Chinese brothers and sisters, even access it?”

www.cp-union.org

Ref: http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/72

Right to Privacy is not about hiding a wrong

Right to privacy is not about hiding a wrong. It is about living in dignity. The Administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has failed to protect privacy and has continued surveillance on citizens for the past years. These findings are included in the recent Privacy and Human Rights Report of Privacy International (PI) a human rights group based in London, England released last week.

The Philippines, India, Denmark, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and France are among the societies with extensive surveillance. The United States and United Kingdom being in the forefront of the global war on terror are ranked as societies with endemic surveillance. PI noted that the "claims on the grounds of security, law enforcement, the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, ..." are used as a reason of these countries to create "hundreds of key policy initiatives that, ... fundamentally destabilize core elements of personal privacy." In the Philippines, the Human Security Act is a threat to privacy and human rights.

The Philippines is ranked as one of the worst in privacy protection due to; lack of data protection law and regulatory body to investigate privacy infractions, continued efforts to implement a national ID system and biometrics, communication interception and wiretapping, unauthorized government access to data through illegal arrests and abductions.

PI conducted a survey on the state of surveillance and privacy protection in 70 countries (http://www.privacyinternational.org/phr) and has released a ranking of the leading 47 surveillance socities around the world. More than 200 experts were involved in the development of the report.

While some technological advancements in computers can help in privacy protection, the existence of government policies like the Human Security Act which authorizes surveillance on citizens and its involvement in the global war on terror, violations on right to privacy by this government will continue.

Documenting Human Rights Violations using Free Software

This post was prompted by a number of inquiries on CPU's human rights violations documentation toolkit (karapatan-monitor) released recently as free and open source software.

More than the technologies that are available (marthus, karapatan-monitor, huridocs) the most important component in this work is the capacity of the organization to gather, organize and campaign against human rights violations.

Data gathering centers should be accessible to the public. These centers should be capable in providing immediate response and document properly all related circumstances on the incident. Credible data gathering methods and sources should also be established. Otherwise, data will always be doubted.

Data gathered should be properly identified for types of violations. Prior to this, a category or list of violations should be drawn up. This list can be based on the country's constitution, international humanitarian laws, un declarations and the likes. This would greatly help in the organization of data. karapatan-monitor requires that this categories are present. Unlike marthus, which allows all violations with categories done by every user. Marthus then
has to develop a mining tool just to gather similar violations. This is not encountered in karapatan-monitor. All entries are categorized already upon entry.

Data storage using databases will allow easy retrieval during campaigns. If you have visited the demo site of karapatan-monitor and seen the reports page, different reports are already available. We are also updating this part. In the next version, statistics of individual perpetrators will already be available.

Relevance of data should also be a priority. All updates on the cases should be entered in the system.

Before choosing which technology to use, we suggest you should have a clear plan on the campaign (are you monitoring violations by the state or rebels?). Otherwise, data will be gathered but will not be useful and reporting individuals will just get frustrated.

You can visit www.karapatan.org and contact them for help in the workflow in their documentation process. CPU helped them clarified/simplified their process so it is easily integrated in karapatan-monitor.

It took us two years to have this first version. It was a long year just to map out the categories and campaign.

Drupal and CPU

Reposting entry at groups.drupal.org/philippines

Drupal @ CPU
rbahaguejr - Mon, 2007-12-17 04:02

The Computer Professionals' Union has more than 10 deployments (for this year alone) of Drupal for non-profits with varying degree of participation from our volunteers. Most are training those organizations on Drupal CMS and guiding them on the set-up and actual site creation.

For the next year, we will continue to provide trainings for non-profits. We hope some of the members of this group can join us a volunteer (Thanks marc and DL!). In the process, you will get to know more on deploying Drupal on different organizations.

We will be releasing a Drupal deployment guide based on our experience to help the Drupal community in the country and non-profits early next year.

Our project called 3D Sessions (Down and Dirty with Drupal) will continue to channel volunteer talents to helping non-profits and people's organizations on drupal deployments. Here is a list of Drupal site we have been involved. CPU volunteers were involved on these efforts for free. It is always amazing to us how participants with average know-how on computers will eventually deploy drupal.

Actual deployments
1. www.cp-union.org
2. www.stopthekillings.org
3. www.karapatan.org
4. http://demolitionwatch.pinas.net
5. www.pinoyweekly.org
6. www.stexposure.org

Trainings and Consultations
1. www.iohsad.org
2. www.eilerinc.org
3. www.kilusangmayouno.org
4. www.actphils.com
5. www.kalikasan.org
6. www.bulatlat.org

If you want to be a volunteer, we have the following in line for early next year:
1. a site for lawyers (public interest law center)
2. enhancements for demolitionwatch.pinas.net
3. Drupal in a box for PO (people's organizations)
4. a collaboration site between computer geeks (cpu members) and creative geeks (artists)
5. Project people's web

So if you have free time, may be an hour or so every week, join us and be CPU volunteer.

rick

Train spamassasin in evolution mailbox

1. train to recognize emails not spam

sa-learn --ham --mbox /home/user/.evolution/mail/local/Inbox

2. train to recognize spams


sa-learn --spam --mbox /home/user/.evolution/mail/local/Inbox

Open source to help defend human rights

The title was taken from a tectonic article.

We in CPU is releasing the toolkit as a free software to help human rights organizations not only in the Philippines. It is current being used and still on test by the Alliance for the Protection of People's Rights here in the Philippines. To see the toolkit's capabilities, download their yearend report. All statistics and data were generated using the toolkit karapatan-monitor.

karapatan-monitor repository can be found at code.google.com. A video showcasing its features (though in Filipino, it was created as a training material last june) can be downloaded in the repository.

Source codes will be available before the year ends or early next year. We are is still documenting it for easier modification of volunteers.

Wey got press coverage during the international human rights day celebration last monday.

For the full press release see previous post and www.cp-union.org

Inquirer Tech has an article on the toolkit

Tectonic online magazine (http://www.tectonic.co.za/) also posted an article;

Open source to help defend human rights

Thanks to a Filipino organisation, open source software is once again stepping in to help humanity with the release of a toolkit to assist human rights organisations in monitoring human rights violations.

POSTED BY JAMES ARCHIBALD, 10:02 AM ON TUE DEC 11 2007

The toolkit is a bit different from marthus.org. Its focus is more on civil and political rights violations by state elements. although, it can also cover all kind of rights violations. Anyways, download the Philippine Human Rights Situation Report for 2007 from United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions website or at www.karapatan.org to see how organizations can use reports from this toolkit.

Of course we are still looking for volunteers, email rbahaguejr@gmail.com.

Free human rights monitoring software released

COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS UNION
P.O. Box 268, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
info@cp-union.org http://www.cp-union.org

PRESS RELEASE: 10 December 2007

Free human rights monitoring software released
karapatan-monitor toolkit to document and generate reports of violations

Reference: Rick Bahague, Research Head
Contact: 09178840096, rbahaguejr@gmail.com

All possible ways to stop extrajudicial killings and other forms of human rights violations should be available and freely accessible for those who need to use it, said the Computer Professionals Union (CPU) as they released a free and open source set of tools to help human rights organizations in documentation, monitoring and awareness campaigns.

"As part of our work as responsible Computer Professionals, we are releasing this toolkit as free software on the celebration of International Human Rights Day," said Rick Bahague of the CPU. CPU is a volunteer-based organization of programmers, developers, system administrators and other professionals in the IT industry.

CPU has prepared a repository of this toolkit at code.google.com, an online repository sponsored by Google. The project is called karapatan-monitor ( http://code.google.com/p/karapatan-monitor/). It records incidents of human rights violation and victims.

The karapatan-monitor toolkit will help organize documentation, incident reports, and generate reports for users. Human rights violations are classified based on a taxonomy or categories defined by the deploying organization and perpetrators of these violations are linked to specific incidents. This toolkit will be released in GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 in the hope that it can be useful to many human rights and non-governmental organizations not only in the Philippines. The GNU GPL allows redistribution and modification of software in contrast to very restrictive proprietary counterpart.

"CPU is one of the leading advocate of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the country. With the availability of karapatan-monitor, we are again showing how to lead not only in advocacy but also in FOSS development for people's organizations and non-profit institutions in the Philippines," Bahague added. CPU has been active in supporting the FOSS Bill in the Philippine Congress.

CPU has been training organizations in using and deploying Drupal Content Management System (Drupal CMS). The use of Drupal CMS helps human rights organizations create online awareness campaigns in less than a day. The launching of www.karapatan.org, an online portal of the Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights and www.stopthekillings.org, an online campaign to stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, are showcases of these deployments. The online portals are collaborations between CPU volunteers and recipient organizations.

"These CPU projects prove that FOSS is a viable replacement even for very specific tools of non-governmental organizations," Bahague emphasized. "The toolkit is also our small tribute to many human rights violation victims of the current regime as reported by Prof. Philip Alston recently."


Portals

A portal of Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights can be found at http://www.karapatan.org .

An online campaign to stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippines can be found at http://www.stopthekillings.org

Information about Computer Professionals' Union and its projects can be found at http://www.cp-union.org

Project sites:

Drupal CMS: http://www.drupal.org

karapatan-monitor: http://code.google.com/p/karapatan-monitor/ .
Videos to guide users in installations and operations are already posted here. Source codes will be uploaded on this site before the end of the year. For testing and demonstrations please contact Rick Bahague.

Scrap the National Broadband Network Project

Sign-up on the AGHAM, AGHAM-YOUTH and CPU online petition at http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/58

National Broadband Network by the Numbers

Contract price: $329,481,290

* equipments: $194,051,828
* engineering services: $118,605,650
* Managed services: $14.675,507
* price of training: $1,948,505

Payment Scheme:

* 15% advance on the equipments (10 days after)
* Loan agreement between the export-import bank of china
* 50% of the value of relevant shipment

Balance of payment

* 85% of managed services for 18 equal months
* 85% for each training courses
* All others are to be paid with 10-15 days of contract acceptance

Scope of Work

The contractor shall be responsible for the supply, installation, testing and training of purchaser's personnel and commissioning of the Equipment with cooperation of the Purchaser.

Target date of completion

* 36 months

NBN is all about overpricing, kickbacks and not about services

NBN is all about overpricing, kickbacks and not about services
Computer professionals say Filipinos could have made a cheaper alternative
ref: http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/54


"The NBN project is really about who will get the kickbacks," said Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals Union on the ongoing hearing on the controversial National Broadband Network in the Senate. The National Broadband Network is a multibillion peso information technology project. The Department of Transportation and Communications has already computed the supposed huge savings in yearly communications costs if this project is finished.

"Computerizations and improved communication networks are welcome improvements in providing service to the grassroots", adds Bahague. "But it should not be a way for the First Gentleman and his cohorts to get huge kickbacks." The NBN project aims to interconnect 2,295 government agencies and 23,549 municipalities and barangays. The First Gentleman has been recently implicated as the "Mystery Man" in the contract negotiations.

“‭The National Broadband Network, if implemented by a government with genuine interest in serving its population, can indeed enhance the flow of information between national and local agencies. Unfortunately, this administration is primarily interested on sharing the kickbacks.” Bahague added.

The government is not new to deals with such‭ ‬huge networks.‭ ‬The Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute maintains a similar network which interconnects different research institutions nationwide – the ‬Philippine Research,‭ ‬Education,‭ ‬and Government Information Network‭ (‬PREGINET‭). The said network ‬has at least‭ ‬16‭ ‬access points for use of its partners all over the archipelago‭ [‬1‭]‬.‭ ‬On PREGINET,‭ ‬local partners connect to one of the access points which has direct connections to one of the‭ ‬4‭ ‬exchange points.‭ ‬The exchange points are then connected to the ASTI.

"Filipino computer professionals have the competency to implement such a project but the government preferred foreign counterparts. This is one indication that they are really after their own interests rather than implementing the project for the benefit of the people." Rick Bahague added.

*The Computer Professionals' Union is a group of volunteers advocating information technology for the people. CPU has been supporting different grassroots organizations in the use of ICT.

NBN: Boon or Bane is posted at www.cp-union.org. ###

National Broadband Network: kickbacks and overpricing

National Broadband Network: Boon or Bane
Posted September 19th, 2007 by cpunion Articles

National Broadband Network: Boon or Bane?
Rick Bahague
Computer Professionals' Union
http://www.cp-union.org
Revised version 24 September 2007

Much controversy has surrounded the Arroyo administration's recent proposal to build a national broadband network (NBN) in tandem with a Chinese firm. Reports of corruption are rife; accusations are exchanged between the Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's very own allies. But what is a national broadband network, really? And is this a project that most Filipinos need?

Continue reading http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/55

Don't be a pirate: get your software for free

PRESS RELEASE
September 13, 2007

Don't be a pirate: get your software for free
Filipino Free and Open Source Community prepares for Software Freedom Day

Reference: Rick Bahague, SFD project coordinator
Contact: 09178840096

"Know a world where no users are pirates and software sharing is legal" invites Rick Bahague of the Computer Professionals' Union (CPU).

CPU is spearheading the Philippine celebration of Software Freedom Day 2007 on Saturday, September 15 ( http://sfd.cp-union.org ). This year's celebration will be held at the ASTI Building in UP Diliman Campus.

Students, local software developers, users and enthusiasts are expected to attend the celebration.

Rep. Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna will be present to give updates on the status of FOSS Bill in the Philippine Congress. Bayan Muna filed the Bill last year with mixed reactions from the industry and local foss groups.

"The government will continue to be dependent to proprietary and foreign software technologies unless it actively supports FOSS initiatives and give preference to the use of FOSS in institutions," Bahague added.

"However, it will take a strong political will for countries to be independent in software technologies using FOSS. The case of Venezuela should be noted." The Charge d' affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Manuel Perez Iturbe will share their FOSS policies in their country.

Software freedom day kits will be distributed to early participants and the media to introduce them to excellent softwares without the usual restrictions in licensing fees of proprietary software.

Software Freedom Day is a global event organized by more than 133 free and open source (foss) groups spread in more than 90 countries. The local celebration is participated by more than 10 groups including UP Linux Users' Group, UP ACM, International Open Source Network, local linux users' groups and peoples' organizations supported by local companies like Stratpoint Technologies, Q-linux Labs, Morph labs, and Promethost.com. The Advance Science and Technology Institute will be providing facilities for video streaming of the event and video casts of Davao celebrations.

The Computer Professionals' Union is a group of volunteers advocating information technology for the people. CPU has developed free software for use of different peoples organization. It has recently released the human rights monitoring system at code.google.com.

Ref: http://www.cp-union.org/cms/?q=node/53
###

Software Freedom Day. Come and celebrate with us!

Computer Professionals' Union
with the University of the Philippines Linux Users' Group
University of the Philippines Association for Computing Machinery

and


Stratpoint Technologies

Present



Tired of formatting your computer to get rid of spyware and viruses?

Want your kids to learn more about computers instead of just playing games?

Get loads of fantastic. feature-packed. free software that does exactly what they need.

See different demonstrations and try out the Free software.

Burn copies of Free Software. Try it out at home.

Join us. Open your mind to Free Software!

Celebrate with us at the UP College of Engineering Library II,15 September, 10:00A.M to 6:00PM

Participating Organizations
Software Freedom Philippines
TxtPower!
Philippine Linux Users' Group
Office of Rep. Teddy Casino - Bayan Muna! Party List

Special thanks to: