Recent Projects of the Computer Professionals’ Union

1. AOM 2.0: Integrating Info-Activism in People’s Campaigns

PROMETHEUS BOUND
Tibak into the future  
By Jose Leon A. Dulce
Thursday, August 27, 2009

Man is a social animal that thrives on

interaction, and the advent of the Information
Era has amplified this disposition.
Rapidly growing in number are new and
democratically accessible Information and
Communication Technologies, or ICTs that
have spurred the Filipino people’s appetite
for being in the know—and letting others
know.

The traditional communication models have been transformed by new media and other ICTs from being a one-way,
messenger-receiver relationship into a network of audiences that serve as content providers themselves. While
new media tools such as the Internet and SMS have not yet attained penetration rates that most developed nations
enjoy, they can, if applied to the Philippines’ local conditions, maximize a communicator’s reach to an extensive
segment of the population. Social movements in the Philippines have only recently begun to acknowledge the
significance of new media as a channel of communication for their advocacies, and tibaks, or grassroots activists,
in the Philippines, are starting to tap this potential.

In its effort to provide technical support to progressive causes and campaigns in the Philippines, the Computer
Professionals’ Union (CPU), in cooperation with its network of cause-oriented and nongovernment organizations,
recently organized “AOM 2.0: Integrating Info-Activism in People’s Campaigns” in Cebu City, on July 30—
August 1. Arguably it was the first national workshop on Info-Activism, or the use of ICT tools in socio-political
campaigns. Participants were introduced to the basic theory of new media and to ways of applying them in getting
their messages across. Among its co-organizers is DigiActive.org, an international organization of volunteers
dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world in using new media to increase the impact of their
advocacies and campaigns.

The first day saw the sharing of the best campaign practices of
invited resource organizations, such as consumer advocacy group
TXTPower’s Action Center, BAYAN Bikol’s Ban Balikatan
Campaign, and the Kilusang Mayo Uno’s International Solidarity
Affair. These were run through workshops where the campaigns
were incorporated with suggested new media tools that could be
used to improve their practices.
The second day focused on the basic concepts behind the use of blogs, social networking sites, micro-blogging
platforms, web portals, visualizations and other tools and skills that comprise the recipe of a good digital campaign.
Ibon Foundation’s People’s Education Resource Center (PERC) shared the importance of advocacy research in
campaigns and MASAI Inc. provided a short introduction on project management. Participants later attended
laboratories where they were trained in the technical know-how of these tools.

The last day focused on web-based video production and web

security and privacy. Mary Joyce, co-founder of DigiActive.
org, presented the strategies utilized in Barack Obama’s
presidential campaign, where she served as the new media
operations manager. CPU also shared a theoretical look into
the dynamics of social movements within social networks such
as Facebook and Friendster.

A clear analysis that emerged from the workshop was that new
media and ICTs had their limitations and must not be treated
as a panacea to the problems of social movements. The trend of
having deregulated and privatized services, for instance, equates to having Internet and electricity accessibility
limited only to those who can afford them. There also remains the problem of translating online gains into the
offline: in other words, the challenge of enabling the transition from the ease of cyberspace into the inevitable
sacrifices of participating in real-life action. These are fundamental problems where technology can only do so
much to help.

New media and ICT, despite their limitations, remain viable tools for
people’s campaigns. AOM 2.0 demonstrated how it is fundamental for a
campaign to be people-centered in orientation and sharp in social analysis,
for regardless of what medium is utilized to deliver an advocacy’s
message, whether or not it addresses the concerns of the majority of
the Filipinos will still be the gauge of a campaign’s success. Such can
be likened to the concept of advertising: it will only work if the product
delivers what the message claims.

For social movements to be part of the new media is inescapable. Testament to its universality is the fact that
even activists are naturally drawn to social networking sites and other ICTs, albeit more for their personal use
than the political. There remains a basic question: Is there even a divide to begin with? The virtual has long been
perceived as a separate entity from reality, when it is in fact an extension of the social space we people traverse.
The comprehensive tibak must then consider it a necessity to propel himself into the Information Era, and must
treat cyberspace as another venue to expose social ferment and advocate social change.

Jose Leon Dulce is a volunteer of AGHAM. He is currently a Visual Communications Major at the UP-Diliman
College of Fine Arts and Head of the Data Visualization and New Media Team of the Computer Professionals’
Union.

Source: Manila Times, August 27, 2009 (http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/aug/27/yehey/opinion/20090827opi3.

html)
2. SnT in a Box: Education Toolkit for Math & Science

SnT in a Box opens exciting possibilities in science education

Contributed by Mary Grace P. Santos
Wednesday, 09 December 2009

As a special event of iTalk (Innovation

Talk), the Computer Professionals’ Union
(CPU) launched the product of their iBoP
project, the SnT in a Box, last December 4,
2009 at the Ateneot de Manila University.
The activity was hosted by iBoP Asia and
the Ateneo Innovation Center (AIC) of the
School of Science and Engineering of the
Ateneo.

SnT in a Box is is a collection of free and

open source software (FOSS) programs
packaged as a teaching aid for public school
teachers. The toolkit contains helpful entries and programs in the fields of Biology (wikipedia articles), Chemistry
(periodic table of elements, BKChem), Geology (Google Earth), Mathematics (wxMaxima, GNU Octave) and
Physics (Qucs Project, Celestia). A demo on how to use the toolkit was conducted by Mr. Rick Bahague, project
leader and coordinator of CPU.

Atty. Bjay Angeles-Mendoza, project manager and research coordinator of iBoP Asia, congratulated CPU for
their efforts to advance ICT for the people and, through SnT in a Box, bring the benefits of technology to the
poorest in the country.

Dr. Fabian Dayrit, dean of the School of Science

and Engineering, in his short message during the
event, recognized the value of the engagement
between the academe and innovators like CPU.
These opportunities for collaboration, he said, are
great ways for our Science and Engineering majors
to not only apply what they learn in the classroom,
but more importantly, contribute to and be involved
in development work.

Electronics, Computer and Communications

Engineering (ECCE) students from the Ateneo and
STI College, Munoz attended the launch. During
the open forum, the AIC proposed to gather student
volunteers to help CPU in updating the SnT in a Box and bring the toolkit to the public schools where ECCE
majors are being deployed for outreach. Mr. Elcid Pangilinan, an instructor at the School of Management and
a consultant for the Department of Education, also volunteered to help link CPU with the DepEd in order to
mainstream the use of the toolkit in our public schools. iBoP Asia will be assisting CPU in these exciting new
engagements.

Source: Science and Technology Innovations for the Base of the Pyramid in Southeast Asia (http://www.ibop-asia.net/
index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=253)
3. Info-Activism Camp 2009

Tactical Tech’s Info-Activism Camp 2009

The Info-Activism Camp was hosted by Tactical Tech

in collaboration with Aspiration in 2009. The camp was
an intensive seven day hands-on workshop that brought
together 130 advocates, from 35 countries, at a retreat
style venue in Bangalore, India. Its aim was to enable
advocates to creatively implement digital advocacy tactics
by connecting them with others facing similar challenges,
showcasing examples of successful tactics, helping them find the right solutions to meet their needs and giving
them the hard-skills to implement ideas.

The 10 tactics project evolved out of this camp. Co-

founder of Tactical Tech, Stephanie Hankey, says “we
knew [all the participants] had really interesting stories
to tell about how they had turned information into action
using digital technologies. We decided to document and
explore people’s stories throughout the camp. When
we had finished we knew that what we had collected
was pretty remarkable.” These stories from the camp
provided most of the content for the cards and video
stories in 10 tactics.

The Computer Professionals’ Union participated as member of the advisory group in the 2009 Info-Activism
Camp in India.

4. New Media: A Powerful Tool for the 2010 Elections

New Media: A Powerful tool for the 2010 Elections

Press Release
07/17/2009

“The “New Media experience” as exhibited in the Obama presidential campaign can be replicated in our country
to boost advocacy promotions and to even elevate the election campaign system. And we will be in forefront in
conveying the necessary inputs in order to utilize and maximize these new technologies,” says Rick Bahague,
national coordinator of the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU). “As our launching activity on New Media tools
for electoral campaigns, Ms. Mary Joyce, the New Media Operations’ Manager for Barack Obama’s presidential
campaign is invited by CPU and she is scheduled to speak on July 24, 25 and 26.”
 Obama’s resounding victory in the last US presidential
elections demonstrated how internet resources could
contribute to the success of an election campaign. Using
New Media tools, the campaign mobilized 2.5 M donors
to contribute over $400M online in micro-donations,
inspired 250,000 member-driven events in communities
across America and drove over 10M vote-to-voter phone
calls by 350, 000 participants.

“It is true that we are not at par to the US in terms of

population’s accessibility to New Media but still the statistics that we have in the Philippines show a promising
contribution of the maximization of new technology in the success of advocacy and electoral campaigns,” added
Bahague. “The presence of new media outfits in the country like Friendster and Yehey.com are also indicators that
we have the skills to implement such strategies.”

The following are some of the data gathered to gauge the extent of the scope of information and communication
technology in the Philippines:

* Internet access in the Philippines is limited to urban/metro areas

* About 28% of 35M Philippine urban population have accessed the internet based on AC Nielsen-Yahoo
2009 survey

* About 20% of internet users are aged 20-29, students from the middle class, who access the internet outside
their homes; majority of internet users (50%) are mostly high school students aged 10-19
[AC Nielsen-Yahoo Net Index, Philippines, 2009]

* Top internet activities are e-mailing, instant messaging, online search, social networking, and online gaming

* About 60M Filipinos have mobile phones

* leading in recent surveys have an online presence (personal website and social network pages)

The “New Media: A Powerful Tool for the 2010 Elections, Winning the Campaign with New Media and the
Obama Experience” is scheduled on 24, 25 and 26 July at 1-5 in the afternoon at Sofitel Philippine Plaza. Visit
http://www.cp-union.com for details or call CPU office at [632-440-1430].

The “New Media: A Powerful Tool for the 2010 Elections” is co-presented by Friendster.com, the most popular
social network in the country. It is also sponsored by Yehey.com, the country’s leading search engine and portal
with about a million visitors monthly. The Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU) is a nationwide organization
of computer professionals, students and enthusiasts working in advancing information and communications
technology for the people. ###