An Interview With The Country's Top Java Programmer Rommel Feria
Rom Feria is one of the country's leading advocates on maximizing Information Technology to benefit schools, colleges and universities. He is an avid computer enthusiast and urges our government to work in providing universal Internet access for all. He is also one of the movers behind the TEDxManila event. (HungryPeople Note: There will be a TEDxManila event this coming December 5 in UP Diliman.)
What's the state of the Philippine Internet Community? Please share with us any interesting statistics.
Unfortunately, I do not have statistics to share about the Philippine Internet Community. I have lost track of how fast the community is growing.
How has social media changed our country's political, economic, and social landscape?
Social media has affected the country in ways that nobody expected. The use of Facebook and Twitter has made Filipinos disseminate information at a more rapid rate than any of the traditional media, radio, TV or print, could imagine. Connecting to other Filipinos, here and abroad, is easier now -- making them more involved in issues that affect the country.
How can ordinary Filipinos use social media tools to build their own businesses?
There are lots of ways to take advantage of these tools but I only encourage one -- to build applications on these social media platform or even build our own social media tool, i.e., to generate our own IP.
Why aren't Filipino engineers or computer programmers/enthusiasts pursuing game-changing technologies or even developing social media tools? Why can't we build the next Twitter, Facebook, etc.? What can we do to make it happen?
Schools stifle creativity, according to Sir Ken Robinson. Without creativity, there is no innovation. From personal experience, students today are lacking in imagination. In addition to this, there are (only) a handful of local companies that allow their employees to be creative/innovative. Can you name a local company that has a research and development arm?
If YOU were Secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, what would be YOUR top 3 priorities? What would YOU be remembered for after YOUR term?
Make broadband access more affordable and readily available. Akin to Finland's right to 1Mbps broadband, all Filipinos should have the same right! Filipinos should be able to connect to the internet any time they want to and at acceptable speeds.
Who are the social media experts of the Philippines?
Anybody can be a social media expert. One should be wary of those who claim to be experts in social media. :P
What can Philippine businesses and business groups do to jumpstart the creation of the Silicon Valley of the Philippines (if not Asia)?
Silicon Valley is an area where companies and universities meet. Unfortunately, Philippine businesses and business groups do not see that they need to invest in colleges and universities for this to happen. Investment is not restricted to giving money as donation or grants. The academe can only do so much but without industry participation, the Silicon Valley of a region will not be realized.
Who are YOUR personal heroes? Why?
Frankly, I do not have one. Don't ask me why.
What are YOU hungry for?
Change!
We're not sure if YOU know Rapleaf CEO Auren Hoffman, but he said aside from teaching a man how to fish so he can eat for a lifetime, YOU also need to teach him how to cook, what can YOU say about that? Are some of our efforts not helping because we forget the fact that some people might not exactly know how to grow revenues/profits after catching a lot of fish?
Being an entrepreneur is not easy but not impossible to learn. Financing is available, via micro-lending projects, etc. The country is not friendly to the small businesses. Try to setup your own business and the documentation required to be legit will easily frustrate you and eventually discourage you from setting up your business. This is the reason why there are less tax-paying entrepreneurs as compared to your local sari-sari stores.
How can we help YOU in the Java Education and Development Initiative?
Featuring the JEDI project in one of your blog post and urging CS/IT teachers to contribute can definitely help.
About Rommel Feria (as taken from www.TEDxManila.com)
Rom Feria is an educator and a computer scientist. After graduating with a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of the Philippines, he joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Science from the same university. Rom later went to the United Kingdom to complete his MSc in Information Systems from the University of Leeds, England.
With 15 years of experience as an educator, Rom received awards as BioMedical Informatics Fellow of the US National Institute of Health-National Library of Medicine, Apple Distinguished Educator and Sun Java Champion. He is a certified Java Programmer, a certified Linux Certification Exam Proctor, a Professional Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Rom leads the UP Java Research & Development Center and supervises the Java Education & Development Initiative Project. He also heads the Web Science Research Group of the University of the Philippines – Diliman’s Computer Science department.
Rom is one of first TED Fellows (first Filipino TED Fellow) to attend the TED Conference at Long Beach, CA, USA. He is also one of the organizers of the first TEDx event in the Philippines, TEDxUP.
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