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And Now,
A Good Word
By Michael Alan Hamlin
January 20, 2003
Every few years I'm asked to sit
as a judge for the Philippine Web Awards (www.philippinewebawards.com),
which are organized by WS Computer Publishing Corporation (WS).
WS is the International Data Corporation (IDC) licensee for the
Philippines, and publishes ComputerWorld Philippines and two other
technology and business-related magazines. The other publications
are PC Digest and Enterprise, a serious - and impressive - business
magazine.
Among the categories I was assigned
this year was Government and Law. Which was a good thing, because
I came away impressed by the experience as well as the sites a number
of the entries represented. Government and Law, like the other 16
categories, had two winners. One, the Website of the Year, was voted
on by a group of judges who made their evaluations and posted them
electronically with the auditing firm that oversaw the evaluation
and voting process. A People's Choice Award was also given to the
entry that received the most e-mailed and SMS-texted votes from
readers.
In the Government and Law category,
a site developed for the House of Representatives won (www.congress.gov.ph).
Although this isn't the only quality work to emerge from the House
of Representatives, it stands out. In fact, as far as government
sites anywhere go, it's pretty impressive, especially for opinion
writers, lobbyists, and rainmakers who want to keep up with the
work of the House, or plan a public relations attack on someone
who didn't cast a politically correct vote.
The site provides a number of useful
search categories. Among the most popular, naturally, is "The
Members" category, which provides two options, search by name
and search by province. When I searched for "Villarama,"
I came up with Wilfrido B. Villarama, that distinguished congressman
representing the Second District of Bulacan. You may know Willie
better as the tormentor of former Justice Secretary Hernani Perez,
and sidekick of congressman and presently jailed fugitive Mark Jimenez.
House statistics are presented on
this page along with information particular to Villarama. One of
the most interesting statistics, in view of my column last week,
was the age distribution of members. Only about 50 percent are younger
than 54 years old. That's a real anomaly, because close to 80 percent
of voting age Filipinos are between 21 and 50 years old, according
to the latest statistics. So old guys are really over represented.
But I digress, of course.
There are three links on every congressman's
page: Bills Filed, Committee Memberships, and Contact Information.
Their utility was apparent when I clicked through to Bills Filed
on Villarama's page. It's a long list, consisting of 11 bills authored
and many more co-authored, and it was interesting to parse. One
bill that stood out, for example, was House Bill No 05096, entitled,
"An Act Penalizing the Offense of Presenting to the Public
Suspects Who Are Wrongfully Accused Without Due Process." The
bill reflects Villarama's status as an opposition congressman, and
is in obvious reaction to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's fondness
last year of posing with suspects alleged to have engaged in kidnapping
or other illegal activities, such as stealing from the government
and the people.
The site provides a great deal of
other useful information, including e-mail addresses of the members,
so that constituents can write directly to their representatives.
It's an educational site, providing a guided tour of the House and
the legislative process. It's well laid out, it's fast, and viewers
can download laws and pending legislation in which they have an
interest. It's a quick and effective way to learn a lot about the
House, and an easy way to keep your congressman on his toes.
The Government and Law Website of
the Year Award went to the not-very-well-known National Mapping
and Resource Information Authority, or NMRIA (www.namria.gov.ph).
The main page features a neat, unobtrusive video from a driver's
perspective with the caption, "Need a Map? Get One." Clicking
through to the next page provides a similar view, this time looking
toward three highway signs that provide the principal links to the
site. They include a Catalog, Utilities, Interactive, and Profile.
The Catalog consists of an exhaustive
but well-organized electronic listing of products available from
NMRIA. The disappointment is that you can't actually buy any of
these products online, or download them. But it is an excellent
resource and will become even more so when it is possible to purchase
and download these materials. Hopefully, that day isn't far off.
In the meantime, you can play some
interesting Interactive games, such as TIC-MAP-TOE. As the site
explains, "This is a classic tic tac toe game but instead of
using the conventional X's and O's, you will have to use the red
and green pieces. These pieces are actual polygon shapes of two
Philippine Islands. If you want to know their names, explore the
Learn interactive section of this site." The Learn section
is less fun but more study, which helps make the site worthwhile.
Check it out.
Both these sites epitomize the wild
contrasts we so frequently see in the Philippines. Although Internet
penetration is growing, it is among the lowest in Asia. Still, we
have some of the best sites built anywhere. And a significant portion
of e-Services sector revenues comes from companies that specialize
in making sites like these for companies throughout Asia, the U.S.,
and Europe.
And that's the good word.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is currently
at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Asian Professionals
into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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