Philippine Commons

E-turo, a play on the words ‘electronic’ and ‘turo’ (meaning teach), is a network of free and open educational resources. It is a resource developed by Vibal Foundation, in collaboration with the Philippine e-Learning Society and the Department of Education of the Republic of the Philippines, among others. The resources contained in the e-Turo website are licensed under Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Philippines

The resource was launched on 12 June 2008, Philippine Independence Day.¹

E-turo is a free e-learning portal where Filipino teachers and learners can interact for effective teaching and learning. E-turo contains a library of educational materials which users can download, share, modify and print. It addresses basic, alternative, and continuing education.²

To know more about e-Turo.org, see the site’s Frequently Asked Questions.

1. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=121529 [↩]
2. http://www.vibalfoundation.org/cybersmart.html [↩]

The ASEAN+3 node of the International Open Source Network (IOSN) invites you to the Philippine Open Source Summit to be held on 23-24 June 2008 in Cebu City, Philippines with the theme, “Understanding the Business Value of Open Source.”

We welcome you to visit the official summit website at http://www.oss.ph for more information.

Registration details at http://www.oss.ph/registration.php

We look forward to see you all in the summit.

MABUHAY (Long live) from the Philippines!

Note Verbale: Open education empowers
by Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA

With the age of information technology at the center stage of human interaction, there is an emerging global consensus for collaboration in providing access to learning and knowledge and developing a wide range of educatinal resources in cyberspace that are free and open for everyone to use outside of the traditional models. It is referred to as “open education.”

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration in September 2007 and now signed by over 1,500 individuals and more than 150 organizations all over the world urges educators and learners participation in the open education movement, and the promotion of open education resources and open education policies (see www.capetowndeclaration.org).

Open education operates on different frameworks, such as Open University, e-learning, open content to wikis, e-books, legal commons or open coursewares. And these methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Sir John Daniel, president and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in a speech before the William Flora Hewlett Foundation Grantees Meeting in a symposium on Open Learning Interplay at the Carnegie Mellon University on March 12, 2008, said:

“Open education broke open the iron triangle of access, cost and quality that had constrained education throughout history and had created the insidious assumption, still prevalent today, that in education you cannot have quality without exclusivity.”

“Open as to people, open as to places, open as to methods, and open as to ideas. That is a good framework to think about open education.” quoting and paraphrasing a 1969 address of The Economist editor, Geoffrey Crowther, an early advocate of open education whose speech was still probably written in a typewriter.

In the first forum dubbed as “Open Education: Are we ready and where are we?” held on April 23, 2008, the Philippine Commons and the e-Law Center of the Arellano University School of Law advanced the idea that “open education” should refer to any scholarly, academic or guided initiative that promotes access to learning and knowledge in a free, open and collaborative environment using the tools and infrastructure of information technology.

Open education is an initiative whose time has come.

In the words of Kristine Mandigma, editor in chief of Vibal Foundation: “In leading economies, technology and knowledge are the critical factors of economic growth.” She emphasized though that innovation is the key.

Greg Moreno of Bayanihan Books believes that open education would eventually fill the gaps in the educational system as technology attempts to address the issue of content quality and commercial viability.

Lawyer Michael Vernon Guerrero of Philippine Commons submits that open education empowers people. He thinks that open content is the first step toward collaboration as international endeavors in this respect continue to grow, develop and mature.

Miriam Coprado of the Department of Education shares the view that while government continues to pursue the integration of information technology in the educational system, the contribution of the private sector remains a most important element.

But the societal significance of open education was best expressed by Siegfried Herzog, resident representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines, during the forum when he said:

“Remember, knowledge is power. Whenever access to knowledge is restricted, there is an issue of power behind it—a ruling elite will control knowledge in order to maintain power. If we truly believe that power should be vested in people, not in elites, anything that increases access to knowledge and deepening of knowledge is welcome. Open education is thus not just a nifty tool to enhance skills. It is a way to build a freer society.”

Certainly, open education empowers because it is built upon a platform of collaboration, equal opportunities, and open access to knowledge that could shift the paradigm of conventional educational systems that are perceived to be discriminating.

• This article appeared on print at the Manila Times, and alternatively available at the website of the said newspaper. Atty. Jimmy N. Soriano’s website is available at www.soriano-ph.com
• An article, entitled Philippine Commons Holds Conference on Open Education, and the speech delivered by Herr Sigfried Herzog are available at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation website.

23 April 2008

830-900 :: Registration

900-915 :: Invocation

915-1000 :: Introduction to Open Education
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Jaime “Jimmy” Soriano
1000-1015 Q&A

1015-1030 :: Break

1030-1115 :: Creative empowerment and liberal education
Speaker/org: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit
Mr. Sigfried Herzog
1115-1030 Q&A

1130-1215 :: The public direction of Philippine education (primary and secondary)
Speaker/org: Department of Education
Atty. Geronimo “Indy” Sy
1215-1230 Q&A

1230-130 :: Lunch Break

130-215 :: Private initiatives towards open education: International/Local
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Michael Vernon “Berne” Guerrero
215-230 Q&A

230-315 :: Private initiatives towards free and open books
Speaker/org: Bayanihan Books
Mr. Greg Moreno
315-330 Q&A

330-345 :: Break

345-430 :: commercial/business reaction to open content
Speaker/org: Vibal Foundation
Ms. Kristine Mandigma
430-445 Q&A

445-500 :: Closing remarks

Event Info
Name: Philippine Open Education forum
Tagline: Are we ready and where are we?
Sponsor: Philippine Commons
Host: e-Law Center, Arellano University School of Law
Type: Meetings - Club/Group Meeting

Time and Place
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Location: Arellano University School of Law
Street: Taft Avenue corner Menlo street
City/Town: Pasay City, Philippines

Contact Info
Phone: 639215173631
Email: guerrero +AT mydestiny +DOT net

Description

The mini-conference aims to inquire upon the feasibility and development of private initiatives to contribute in the Philippine educational or learning system, as alternative else collaborating actors in this matter.

This is pursued especially in light of the developments on Open Education in the international stage (see http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/read-the-declaration ; among others).

Considerations on the development of such initiatives locally would necessarily include the reception (either reactions and plans) of the government and the corporate providers regarding the matter, and thus would necessitate their participation in the mix.

Guests are allowed to bring friends to this event. Please inform us whether you or your friends are coming so that we can make the necessary headcount. No registration fees, by the way. Thank you.

WikiPilipinas Pilot Tests Online Writing at NSPC 2008

WikiPilipinas.org, the Philippine online encyclopedia, in cooperation with the Department of Education, pilot tested an online writing contest at the 2008 National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) in Koronadal, South Cotabato last Tuesday, February 19, 2008.

Through this pilot activity, WikiPilipinas advocates the inclusion of online writing among the contest categories of the NSPC so that student writers can discover the power of the Internet as an effective platform for writing. Learning how to write online content means that they can also exploit the opportunities in writing for new media.

The WikiPilipinas Online Writing Contest was held at the Computer Laboratory of the Notre Dame Siena School of Marbel. The first half of the session was devoted to an online writing seminar and hands-on, followed by the actual writing contest.

WikiPilipinas selected the best encyclopedic articles in English and Filipino based on substance, adherence to format and grammar. Topics with fact sheets aligned to this year’s theme of the NSPC were picked by the contestants.

The best article in English Coco Technologies was written by Josielou-Rae Francesca Lucero, of Ateneo de Davao University. The entry on Bangus written by Maaroopha A. Abdulkalin of Parang National High School in Maguindanao was judged the best article in Filipino. Two runners up in both English and Filipino were also selected.

The judges were composed of WikiPilipinas’ editor in chief Kristine Mandigma and managing editor Alfred Ursua who also facilitated the proceedings at the NSPC venue while other members of the editorial board Roberto T. Añonuevo, Frederick N. Castillo and Kristina Joy Panogot evaluated the entries online at WikiPilipinas’ Quezon City office.

Concurrent to the special session for the online writing contest, WikiPilipinas also conducted an orientation for Internet research and online writing and editing for school paper advisers from various schools around the country.

Now on its 65th year, NSPC is the biggest and most prestigious competition for campus journalists and school paper advisers in the Philippines. It serves as a training ground for aspiring young writers from all parts of the country.

As a repository of popular knowledge, WikiPilipinas.org is primed as the biggest collaborative writing project in the country. It is a complementary website of Filipiniana.net, a digital library of primary sources. WikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net are knowledge-sharing initiatives of Vibal Foundation. (By Kristina Joy Panogot)

Filipina Stories

In celebration of Women’s Month in March 2008, with its advocacy of promoting a more empowered and empowering image of the Filipina, WikiPilipinas partnered with Filipina Images as we launched Filipina Stories.

The writing contest was open to all Filipino bloggers of all ages. Interested participants were encouraged to contribute from all on three themes: The Iconography of the Modern Filipina; The Commercialization of the Filipina through the Internet; and The Role of Bloggers in Uplifting the Image of the Filipina. Cash prizes were awarded. Articles submitted were be original, previously unpublished, at least 500 words long, and in the English language. The requirements for submission were: there could only be one entry per person, the participant’s complete name and contact details, the essays were to be published in the participants’ respective blogs and were required to contain the following links: a. at least one link to WikiPilipinas.org or Filipiniana.net articles and/or images; b. a link to WikiPilipinas, using the code http://www.wikipilipinas.org”>Philippine Encyclopedia; c. a link to Filipina Images, with the code http://filipinaimages.com”>Filipina.

The three best essays were selected, and their winning authors were awarded cash prizes of:

• 1st placer - P5,000.00
• 2nd placer - P3,000.00
• 3rd placer - P2,000.00

An iPod Nano was also raffled during the launch

Other details about the writing contest are found at the WikiPilipinas:Filipina Stories page of WikiPilipinas.org or FilipinaImages.com.

The unveiling of the WikiPilipinas’ Encyclopedia of Philippine Women and Filipiniana.net’s Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite was held on March 29, 2008, 5:00-6:00pm, SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia.

For bloggers and non-bloggers alike, a wiki project can be the next best thing to publishing and showcasing the stories of Filipinos all over the world. Media organizations, researchers, industry leaders and experts, community activists, and people from all walks of life are given an equal opportunity to interactively collaborate in writing and editing the Filipina story as it happens.

Launching of the Encyclopedia of Philippine Women and Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite

In celebration of Women’s Month in March 2008, Wikipilipinas.org opened a special portal called the Encyclopedia of Philippine Women which compiles and details the achievements and triumphs of Filipinas everywhere. Filipiniana.net also hosted a Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite containing selected scholarly texts, research documents and abstracts, as well as selected literary works from Filipina writers.

The Women’s Encyclopedia compiles and details the multifarious achievements, struggles and triumphs of Filipinas everywhere. WikiPilipinas’s sister site Filipiniana.net also launched the Philippine Women Microsite containing key scholarly feminist texts, research documents and abstracts, as well as an anthology of the most important literary works from Filipina writers and Philippine laws on and for Women.

Spread across the Philippines’ historical landscape are hundreds of markers of Filipina pride. There is this group of young women from Malolos who asked the Governor General that they be educated. Now that’s boldness. And who hasn’t heard about the fearless exploits of Gabriela Silang and Teresa Magbanua? Other than the Filipina being the first in Asia to be granted the right to vote, a Filipina was also the first female president in Asia. The women of this country have proven time and again that they have a say, and, more glaringly, that they should be heard. As a tribute, Filipiniana.net, WikiPilipinas’ tandem website, has created the Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite. This project puts online full texts of Philippine laws and scholarly studies for and/or by women; snippets of literary works by women writers like Lualhati Bautista, Genoveva Matute, and Paz Marquez-Benitez; and images of the Filipino women from earliest times up to the present. The Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite can be accessed for free by logging on to Filipinina.net.

Helena Benitez Global Forum

The WikiPilipinas Team took part in the Helena Benitez Global Forum on Women, Power and Sustainable Development last March 3, held at the Manila Hotel. The forum was named after pioneer Helena Z. Benitez in recognition of her staunch advocacy of sustainable development and women’s advancement. The NGO-initiated event was organized by the Ugnayan ng Kababaihan sa Pilipinas and was sponsored by the Philippine Women’s University, Asian Women’s Network on Gender and Development, and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Philippines to the United Nations. The team launched the Encyclopedia of Philippine Women and Philippine Women’s Studies microsite in front of an audience of local government officials, while partner FilipinaImages.com forwarded their advocacy of uplifting the image of the Filipina through the Internet.

National Women’s Day Celebration (PUP)

On March 8 (Saturday), WikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net were at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Sta. Mesa for the 2008 National Women’s Day Celebration spearheaded by the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW). There was an overview of the Encylopedia of Philippine Women, the Philippine Women’s Studies Microsite and the deadline for the Wikipilipinas Filipina Writing Contest to was then extended to March 15. Program started at 8:30am to 12:00nn.

UP Centennial Lecture of Dr. Carol Sobritchea (UP)

In connection with the UP 100 project, with an aim to build a database of all UP-related information, WikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net joined the UP Centennial Lecture by Dr. Carol Sobritchea on March 11 (Tuesday).

An overview of WikiPilipinas.org & Filipiniana.net and a call for more entries to the Filipina Writing Contest were executed.

Announcement of women-centered projects (Lipa, Batangas)

On March 13 (Thursday), Vibal Foundation announced its women-centered projects, in partnership with NCRFW and local women leaders and government officials. It was held at the Batangas Provincial Capitol, Batangas City.

Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines (WSAP) 2nd Asian Regional Conference and 7th National Conference - (Miriam College)

The Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines (WSAP) held its 2nd Asian Regional Conference and 7th National Conference on March 24-26 (Monday to Wednesday) which was held at Miriam College. WikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net team were there to attend the three-day event. Editor in chief Kristine Mandigma presented the Encyclopedia of Philippine Women and Philippine Womens’ Studies Microsite including the the role of women in ICT.

Women Can’t Wait! Job and Trade Fair (SMX, Mall of Asia)

In celebration of the World Women’s Month this March, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, John Clements Consultants, Inc. and Primetrade Asia, Inc. organized an event entitled, Women Can’t Wait! An all-women transformation workshop and job fair, held at Hall 3, SMX Convention Center, Bay Area in Pasay City from March 28 to 29, 2008.

Wikipilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net gave a presentation on Celebrating the Power of the Filipina Online and announced the winners of the Filipina Writing Stories on Saturday, March 29, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm.

WikiZine April issue

WikiZine launched its April 2008 issue featuring the summer month of April.

You can download all issues in this address: http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=WikiPilipinas:WikiZine

Local electronica group DRIP (Beng Calma-Alcazaren, Malek Lopez, Arvin “Caliph8″ Nogueras, Ian “Morse” Magbanua), Mark Laccay, and Creative Commons Philippines (Atty. Jimmy Soriano and Atty. Berne Guerrero) were guests in the RockEd Radio session (hosted by Lourd de Veyra and Gang Badoy), entitled “Dripping Creativity” on 13 April 2008, 2000H +0800 at the NU107 studio in Pasig City.

Besides performing three of their songs live on the show, DRIP provided audience the rationale why they licensed their second full length album “Identity Theft” under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines license. Creative Commons Philippines provided a short orientation on copyright and Creative Commons licensing by answering inquiries on the matter during the show.

More pictures at Facebook.

The sixth issue of the CC Newsletter, including the PDF thereof, was released on 9 April 2008.

This PDF version of the sixth issue was a result of the collaboration, for the content and design-layout thereof, by Creative Commons headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States (through CC Development Manager Melissa Reeder, and CC Senior Designer Alex Roberts), Creative Commons International in Berlin, Germany (through CCi Project Assistant Michelle Thorne), and Creative Commons Philippines, among others.

The PDF version of the newsletter has been adopted as an official version, supplementary to mail-list version, coming from Creative Commons headquarters in San Francisco, unlike previous newsletter remixes in the past.

Cover: “Airborne.” © 2008. Berne Guerrero. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise noted, this work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/. This remixed image includes images from glutnix / Brett Taylor. “Cooing Commons” CC BY 2.0 and paparutzi / Christina Rutz. “hot air balloon.” CC BY 2.0.

The Document Freedom site¹ provides in its “About” page:

Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation. It will be a day of grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general.

Complementary to Software Freedom Day, we aim to have local teams all over the world organise events on the last Wednesday of March. 2008 is the first year that Document Freedom Day is being called for, and we are looking for people around the world who are willing to join the effort.

DFD’s main goals are:

• promotion and adoption of free document formats
• forming a global network
• coordination of activities that happen on 26th of March, Document Freedom Day

Once a year, we will celebrate Document Freedom Day as a global community. Between those days, DFD will be focused on facilitating community action and building awareness for issues of Document Freedom and Open Standards.

There are three (3) DFD teams in the Philippines so far. We hope that you will join the DFD community.

Activities ongoing:

Korakora Proyekto: Open On-Line Dialogue “Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?” From 26 February - 26 March 2008 http://korakora.org/proyekto/dfd08/

An on-line event organized in conjunction with Document Liberation and Open Standards 26 March 2008 Document Freedom Day http://documentfreedom.org/

In response to efforts of promoting, adopting and raising awareness for Free Document Formats and Open Standards, the Philippines-based art initiative Korakora.org is organizing an open on-line dialogue entitled “Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?”

Within the context of issues addressed within the free, open-source, and open-standards community, “Surfers or Serfs” seeks to investigate realities of Freedom within the Culture of Ignorance: Are humans being turned into machines so others can exploit them without them questioning their own slavery? Why do we consider somebody “computer literate” when they can only operate the controls of a commercial computer system?

“Surfers or Serfs” also seeks to interrogate the methodologies of “free, open-source, and open-standards” from a broad philosophical perspective, in particular, the celebrated shift from the image of the computer as a complex rule based simulation system to a simple communication device that has enabled the computer to be commercially and politically exploited as a (postmodern) propaganda machine.

“Surfers or Serfs: Digital Freedom or Digital Feudalism?” opens 26 February and runs until Document Freedom Day March 26, 2008. The on-line dialogue is created and facilitated by Fatima Lasay (PH) and Trevor Batten (UK). To participate, go to http://korakora.org/proyekto/

Philippine DFD Teams:

AsiaSource-Pilipinas (Lungsod ng Maynila)

AsiaSource-Pilipinas was formed to gather delegates of Asia Source 1 and 2 from the Philippines (vernacular: Pilipinas). Asia Source camps are source camps that focused on capability-building and empowerment with Free/Open Source Software. Asia Source 1 was held in 2005 in Bangalore (India) and Asia Source 2 in 2007 in Sukabumi, Indonesia.

AsiaSource-Pilipinas was created and formally launched as a team (with the same name) for the Software Freedom Day 2007 and actively took part in the day’s activities in collaboration with other F/OSS groups in Manila, Philippines.

The group continues to promote the source camp concept and F/OSS in other activities and events organized by the International Open Source Network ASEAN+3 (IOSN ASEAN+3), a F/OSS advocacy group established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under its Asia-Pacific Development and Information Programme (APDIP) initiative.

AsiaSource-Pilipinas is gearing itself for the planning and organizing preparations for the forthcoming Asia Source 3, which will be hosted by the Philippines in 2009.

MABUHAY AsiaSource-Pilipinas!

JEDI (Lungsod ng Quezon)

UP Java Research & Development Center is a group of faculty members and students developing free and open Computer Science and IT course ware using Java. Our materials are all in Open Document Format.

Korakora Proyekto (Lungsod ng Quezon)

Korakora Proyekto is an arts initiative focussed on language-making. Proyekto encourages: The Commons. Free and Open Source Software as philosophy and pragmatic methodology. Creative, bootstrapping systems. Integration of knowledge, understanding, research and practical experience. “Traditional” social debate about political alternatives and choices.

1. http://www.documentfreedom.org/About ; licensed under GNU FDL [↩]

DRIP is scheduled for a radio guesting on the show RockED Radio at NU107 FM on April 13, 8PM at NU107, AIC Gold Tower on Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. The show features current issues in music and what not, and on occasions, bands or groups also perform live on air. As it was deemed necessary, Creative Commons Philippines was invited to talk about the Creative Commons license and how it works, its application to the Philippines and beyond, and other related topics, in the same session.