Anyway. Back to the insights.

Although we had originally planned to hold the event in UP because UP offered us a venue for free, our ever so wonderful counselors suggested much better locations in Makati. The Glorietta Activity Center is the best place on our list: a central location with plenty of pass-thru traffic would result in great crowds during the actual event. Who can miss or resist a large banner inviting people to get free software there? We've also added AIM to our list. It's amazing how other people can jolt us out of our limiting assumptions...

I guess the key paradigm shift here is that we can plan with sponsorship in mind. The bigger we dare to plan, the bigger the possibilities are. And I _want_ to reach out to the casual user, the Windows-using non-geek who's missing out on all the wonderful free software out there. If we manage to convince them to switch to Linux, well and good. But if they don't feel comfortable doing that yet, there's still plenty of free software out there to make their lives better. Mozilla Firefox. Openoffice.org. Gaim. Stuff like that.

I'm coming to realize that my address book is more important than my source code. Having these insightful people on my team... wow!

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For inquiries, please call dondon marquez or abby pacquing at 843-5231, 843-7044 or email homla@info.com.ph

コンピューターを使える人を探しています。 We are looking for somebody who can use a computer.

On Technorati: events

- Revolutionize computer science education by making it highly

individualized and experiential. - Become a world-famous expert on creating systems for planning one's life. Instead of pushing a particular methodology, I'd like to work with people's current ways of planning, suggesting improvements and software/hardware to support their life.

I'm at the 1st Philippine Blogging Summit right now with my BHAGs firmly in mind. It's _amazing._

The first person I talked to was J. Angelo Racoma, an old friend from my BBSing days. After chatting about blogging, talk turned to what we're both up to. He told me about his work at http://i.ph . I told him about my BHAGs.

It turned out that his wife is into tutoring, and one of the things they're planning to do in the future is set up a tutoring portal to help students, parents and tutors find each other. Neato. That looks like a great fit for what I want to do. =)

As I explained my BHAG for teaching and training to him, I realized that one of the things I really, really, really care about is quality assurance for teachers and tutors. I firmly believe that it's not just about technical knowledge, but it's also about teaching and communication skills. I don't think we're paying enough attention to that, and I think that's a compelling sales point.

I also got to meet Gabriel Narciso. He started by asking me if I was still into open source. Of course! He then asked me if there was a native version of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X. I remember OpenOffice.org used to support the Mac, so I should be able to find one. =) Good deed! I told _him_ about my BHAGs too. It turned out that he used to work at Franklin-Covey (as in, _the_ Franklin Covey franchise in the Philippines!), and is now into executive coaching.

Wow!

Let's say that again. Wow!

_That's_ why you should practice talking about your BHAGs until you can squeeze it into a small-talk conversation. Joey Gurango told us how wannabe entrepreneurs would give him two-inch-thick business proposals and expect him to have the time or interest in reading them. He said that's entirely the wrong way to do that. You start with your 90-second elevator pitch. You get people interested. Then you go for your executive summary—the shorter, the better. You get people hooked. When you get them hooked, _then_ you hit them with the business proposal.

BHAGs work the same way. Refine them until you get a sound bite. Say it with confidence and passion. Get them hooked. Explain the rest over lunch another day!

コンピューターが使えたらもっとお金をもらえるかもしれないのに。 They might pay me more if I could use a computer.

On Technorati: blogging, events, plans, passion

This will be a whole-day conference featuring CICT Commissioner Dondi Mapa, The Sassy Lawyer, Yugatech, Dean Alfar, the PCIJ Bloggers and many more.

See you folks at iBlog!

I guess I'll take the Mensa test in the morning or something like that...

E-Mail from Janette Toral

問題は誰が猫に鈴をつけるかだ。 The question is who will bell the cat.

On Technorati: blogging, events

Same here. Personally I was amused at the sight of them: actually, I was more interested on the (pleasant sight of the) pretty girls inviting everyone to sign up to MSDN. I did sign up (which shows my soft spot ;p), and I was expecting the reply mail confirming it. It never came. :-/

Hmmm. Maybe I should go in my Japanese schoolgirl outfit (or my kimono, or some other costume ;) ) and convince people to try out Emacs.

World domination one geek at a time! Mwahahahahahaha!

E-Mail to Philippine Linux Users' Group Mailing List

猫が丸くなって寝ていた。 The cat was curled up asleep.

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