Lost in Translation November 21, 2007

I underestimated the difficulty of not being able to understand and speak Portuguese in Brazil. I thought that as long as I can speak to a person who can understand and speak little English, I will be fine. Well, I was wrong! It took me more than 30 minutes to explain to the receptionist of the hotel that I want to transfer room and an hour before they understood that I needed them to fix the internet connection in my room.

Even the road signals and signs are in Portuguese without any translation in English. We even had to buy an English-Portuguese dictionary so that we will know what to order in the restaurants. The windows of the computers we use in the client’s office are also in Portuguese so everything is guess work…hoping not to crash the computers unintentionally…

Tired of flying… November 21, 2007

It has been almost 5 days since I flew to Brazil but only got the chance to blog about it just now…

The travel time was so long …it seemed that I have already gone around the world…First flight Manila to HK…then HK to London (very long flight almost 13 hours) then we had to transit in London for 6 hours…can’t really buy anything since everything is so expensive…then from London we had to fly to Sao Paolo Brazil…another 13 long hours…I did not get an aisle seat this time so you can just imagine how uncomfortable the travel was…from Sao Paolo we had to catch another connecting flight to Recife…and guess what ?our flight from London was delayed by an hour so we missed our connecting flight!!!!! We had to wait another 3 hours in the Sao Paolo airport to catch the next plane to Recife…And when we arrived in Recife…guess what?…the driver who was supposed to pick us up in the airport was late as well. But good thing the travel agency had a nice VIP lounge wherein we were able to relax, drink some refreshments and access the internet. Finally, after almost 2 full days of commuting we arrive at our hotel. It was not a 5 star hotel since it is a beach front type hotel but it is very close to our client, so it was fine.

Will talk at Web 2.0 Workshop November 11, 2007

Will talk at the Digital Filipino-organized Web 2.0 workshop at the National Computer Center this November 13th. The workshop will be conducted at the National Computer Center.

My talk will be about how the Internet and specifically the newer developments happening with the Web (collectively called Web 2.0) is helping enable greater collaboration among individuals and at the same time improve their competitive advantage in an increasingly flat world. The talk was really inspired by a book I had just read called The World is Flat (A Brief History of the 21st Century) by Tom Friedman.

Talked at the 1st Ayala IT Summit October 15, 2007

I was invited to speak and be one of the speakers and round table panelitsts at the recently conluded (and 1st ever) Ayala IT Summit last October 1. The event was a conference cum tech update session for the CIOs and IT Managers of the different companies under the Ayala Group. The Ayala group is of course on of the largest conglomerates locally–and includes such companies as Ayala Land, Ayala Systems Technologies, Globe Telecomm, Manila Water and many others.

I gave a talk on the use of Open Source applications that had traditionally been the domain of enterprise vendors such as ERP and CRM. I had given a similar talk before at the Philippine Open Source Conference held a year before but I felt it appropriate to the audience at Ayala since there had been a special focus on open source.

I was invited to be a panelist as well at the roundtable discussion which was a highlight of the event. I was in good company with known open source technopreneur Winston Damarillo; Albert Pangilinan, head of Platform Technologies and Services over at Microsoft Philippines; Chris Stolk, President of STAG Philippines; and Mr. Teong Eng Guan, regional head of Red Hat ASEAN.

Over all a good event–would be interesting to find out how the guys from Ayala found it interesting.

 

Web 2.0 tools December 13, 2006

Have been playing around with these newfangled Web 2.0 websites lately–and have decided to use them extensively for this blog. For our RSVP page, I used an online Web 2.0 form creator called Wufoo. For our photo album I used Picasa’s Web Album service. Am now toying with Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheets for the IT in Business class I am teaching for posting of online documents and spreadsheets. Currently I am toying with the ubiqitous YouTube for posting online our Wedding AVPs.

Will be speaking at the Philippine OsCon 2006 October 2, 2006

I will be speaking tomorrow at the Philippine Open Source Conference at the Shangri-la EDSA Plaza Hotel. I will be talking about the use of Open Source in the Enterprise and how Open Source developers are now building applications for real-world business needs. I will be giving a high-level overview of leading open source projects out there for customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), Business Intelligence (BI), content management (CMS) and others.

This is in line with one of the 43 things I plan to do before getting married.

About the Conference
The Open Source Conference and Expo will focus on Open Source Operating Systems and Applications for the business and enterprise user. Organized by Imperium Technology, Inc. in cooperation with Media Focus International, Inc. the event will be held on September 26-28, 2006, with exhibits, plenary sessions, hands-on sessions, tutorials, and conferences at the Shangri-la EDSA Plaza Hotel.

The theme for the conference this year is “Ready for Change, In Tune with Enterprise Needs”. Tracks include topics on Business Applications, Programming and Technical issues, and a specialized track on Voice and Telephony. Conference speakers include Open Source Experts, Enterprises using Open Source Technology, Industry Experts, and Open Source Pioneers.

About Jan
Jan is an experienced IT Consultant who has lead several project engagements in delivering business, brand, and technology consulting services to clients ranging from prominent multi-national corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies and non-profits.

He is currently a Senior Consultant at IT Group, Inc. where he is responsible for overseeing the deployment of best-of-breed, open source enterprise applications in Customer Relationship Management and Knowledge Management for clients. Prior to that, he was one of the founders of Ecommsite Solutions�a systems integration and technology consultancy. His expertise is in systems design and implementation, IT information architecture, and IT project management.

Jan has a degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of the Philippines and is a Licensed CPA. He has had training and holds certifications in IT Project Management. He is currently taking up his Masters Degree at the Asian Institute of Management.

Philippine Open Source Conference
Ready for Change, In Tune with Enterprise Needs

Speaker: Jan Pabellon
Topic: The Open Source Alternative: Using Open Source Business Applications in the Enterprise
Date: October 3, 2006
Time: 10.30 to 11.45 am
Track: Business Applications Track
Location: EDSA Shangrila Plaza Hotel

Our first blog post! September 13, 2006

Hi everyone! You probably arrived here through our save the date postcard. Anna and I intend to blog about our wedding preparations all the way up to the date itslef–and share some of our experiences while planning our wedding. Thank you for visiting!