On November 24, Mozilla participated at the Web & IT Summit 2010 at the AMA Computer University in Quezon City. This week-long event was attended by both high-school and college-level students from within the AMA System, and some invited schools.

The talk was attended by about 100 college students cramped into the classroom / seminar hall, and was delivered by Jun Barrun and Ren² Gabas. The presentation started with the Five Years of Firefox video. Then we walked them through the Firefox features for its stability, security and speed, as well as add-ons that provide additional functionality based on their usage. Featured add-ons include:

• Zotero
• SEOquake
• Web Developer
• Personas

Other Mozilla projects were introduced, such as the Drumbeat and the Filipino localization efforts using Narro.

The AMA Comuputer University will be holding their Web & IT Summit 2010 on November 24-26. The Mozilla Philippines community will be represented by Eusebio Barrun, Jr. and Ren² Gabas. They will speak on the local usage of Mozilla products, some history and the impact of Mozilla on the Open Web, future directions and ways to get Mozilla, join the community and contribute support.

Last week, Mozilla participated at the 8th annual Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology, more popularly known as the Y4IT Conference, at the University of the Philippines – Diliman. This year’s four-day event attracted around 23,000 IT students from all over the Philippines, making it one of the most-attended IT events in the region.

Mozilla was an exhibitor and we had a booth placed at the U.P. Bahay ng Alumni. We also had two speaking slots– one in September 15 at the Bulwagang Tandang Sora (Tandang Sora Theater) and one in the University Theater. For the first talk, around 700 students were present, and for the second talk, around 3,000 folks were in the audience.

For the speaking slots, I talked about the Open Web. I wanted to drive the point effectively that I decided to ditch my Powerpoint deck and use a slideshow from Eric Maeyer’s S5. And for the first time, I gave my talk primarily in Tagalog, or the main local language here in the Philippines. (I normally deliver my talks in English). Fortunately it worked.

Mozilla Student Reps leaders Joell Lapitan and Jun Barrun were also in the event, facing the students inquiring about Mozilla and the student reps program. Jun also took great photos of the Y4IT event.

One final note: Thanks to the support of Sarah Doherty, William Reynolds, Gen Kanai, and Seth Bindernagel for making the participation possible and awesome!

Photos:

The Mozilla Philippines Community had a kick-off meeting at the Old Spaghetti House at the UP-Ayala TechnoHub in Diliman and we had a productive meeting. Here are some of the items and ideas that were bounced around:

• Special events – We’re evaluating which special activities to support this year, some of the events that popped up were (the names in the parentheses are the point persons):
  • Y4IT
  • WordCamp
  • Software Freedom Day
  • Joomla Day
  • Ubuntu Release
  • Form Function Class
• Community-hosted events – We can also events ourselves. Some suggestions include:
  • Mozilla Devcon
  • Mozilla Hack-athon
  • Add-on Contest
  • Cosplay(?)
• Regular events – We’re targeting a quarterly assembly/get-together this year and the next event is likely to be in G2IX
• Mozilla Firefox Mascot in the Philippines – Once we have decided to host an event, I’ll try to arrange to borrow the Mozilla Firefox Mascot and bring it here
• Social Media – We decided to create presences in several popular social media sites. You can be a fan of the Mozilla Philippines Community in Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mozillaphilippines) and follow in Twitter (@MozillaPH)
  • All bloggers in the community are encouraged to create a link to the Mozilla Philippines Community site
• Campus Reps – Campus Reps leaders Ren-Ren, Joell, and Jun shared their plans of coordinating with schools. Among them is the Colegio De San Pedro, where they are coordinating w/ Sir Francis
  • The email address campusreps@mozillaphilippines.org has been created and may be ready by next week.
• Localization – The main consenus is a “Translate-athon” activity where we crowdsource the localization/translation of Firefox in an event
• Evangelism – It was suggested that a project where we give “Powered by Firefox” stickers/posters to internet cafes that carry Firefox as their main browser. This is very interesting and may need some participation of Mozilla.

Looks like a busy and promising year for the community.

The Mozilla Campus Reps Team, led by Ren-Ren Gabas and Jun Barrun, visited Angelicum College in Quezon City last December to spread the word on the Mozilla Campus Reps program.

Ren-Ren shared this very interesting anecdote on Firefox usage in the Philippines:

One of the most curious comments that we received was from a elementary school-aged girl who lingered about the booth, and told me, “Meron kami niyan sa bahay. Sabi kasi ni mama, mas maganda gamitin ang Firefox.” (“We have Firefox at home, because Mom said that it is better to use.“)

Wow! Proof that mother knows best, huh?

For more information on the Angelicum College visit, hop to Ren-Ren’s blog post.

The Mozilla Campus Reps Philippines participated in the IT Week of Angelicum College of Quezon City on Monday, December 14. This event is the first campus event conducted by the Campus Reps, and represents the first of the baby steps of the Campus Reps towards cross-campus event organization.

I accompanied Jun Barrun from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. We met at the Cubao MRT, where we rode a taxi to Angelicum College where we were met by Josie Santos, the adviser of the Computer Society that organized the IT Week. They were really supportive and helpful.

After the opening ceremonies of the IT Week, Jun spoke on the virtues of Mozilla Firefox and the Open Web Standards.

We were initially surprised at the size of the event, since was also a Family Day for the Angelicum College. Our Firefox booth consisted of two tables, two chairs and the Firefox tarpaulin from the “Fire Years of Firefox in Manila” event. The booth was positioned in front of the gym along with other booths, where we could receive a lot of foot traffic and eyeballs because of the ongoing events held at the gym. One of the most curious comments that we received was from a elementary school-aged girl who lingered about the booth, and told me, “Meron kami niyan sa bahay. Sabi kasi ni mama, mas maganda gamitin ang Firefox.” “We have Firefox at home, because Mom said that it is better to use.” She is one lucky girl who has a capable mom who can teach her how to use a secure web browser. I’ll take a guess that her mom probably works in the IT industry.

We talked with the IT students on how Firefox helps with keeping the Internet free from non-open standards, as well as a possible “Firefox Installation Day” for their computer labs, which are currently using only IE.

We also received inquiries on how Mozilla is organized and operates, and how the Mozilla Philippines Community and the Campus Reps are able to participate in campus events.

We did run out of few Mozilla goodies that we had, and we even had to give away the ones that we were already using. For future events, we created a specific checklist to follow, in order to have a smooth operation of both the booth and the talk.

We are thankful for Josie Santos, and the Computer Society for having us in their event. We hope to attend future events in Angelicum College. We are also thankful for Regnard Raquedan for his support for the Campus Reps. Special mention also goes out to Campus Reps Myra Jill Siason and Joell Lapitan.