Technobiography has a new home!

Technobiography has moved to a new home!
http://technobiography.edongskey.com
Please update your links.

Come to my Blog Warming week, Oct 3 to Oct 8, 2005.
Drop a note, bring a friend!

The place is still a bit cluttered, but there's enough there to read.
I assure you, there'll be something new everyday.

Thanks to Blogger for being a good host most of the time.
Thanks to Abe, Rain and Kates for helping me sa pag-Lipat Bahay.
Thanks to my readers for keeping me company in this blogging world.

Tuloy ang ligaya sa Technobiography. Tuloy po kayo ...

ka edong

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Calliope! Clap clap clap!

Galing!!

I took my first tour of Calliope today. Calliope is the content management system behind i.ph .

Galing! That's what I can say. It's superior to blogger as far as interface is concerned. Very intuitive interface. Very simple. No html needed, so far. This one's ideal for newbie bloggers.

I started out with edongskey.i.ph today to upload some of my travel photos. Along the way, I got to check out the i.ph templates, changing background images, changing fonts and other options.

I also posted a few articles. Three, to be exact! hahaha! That was an accident. In the posting window, when I clicked on the "Add entry" button, I got a "page could not be found" error. So I tried to post the article again. And I tried a third time. Yun pala, na-po-post din pala yung article.

I tried to delete at least the third (identical) article, pero i still get the "page could not be found" error. And this time, the delete function wouldn't work.

And then!... here's the part when I announce my photo gallery. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to upload my photos. :-(

i.ph uses Gallery Remote - "a client-side Java application that provides users with a rich front-end to Gallery. This application makes it easier to resize and upload images to your Gallery. Use this if you wish to upload photos from your desktop."

Hyerp. I'm not at my laptop now and I don't want to install this Gallery Remote software in a public computer. I'll just have to wait until tonight to try to upload some photos.

Question in my mind: Will I be able to slip in some of *my* Google Ads in my photo gallery and blog? .... hmmmm.....

Abangan!

ka edong

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Edong's Photos

Alam ko na! I'll use i.ph for my photo blog.

I have a CD full of photos. Guimbal, Cebu, Corregidor, Boracay, Palawan, etc...

But I'm not yet ready to use up my webspace with photos. Saka na pag-malaki na ang webhosting ko.

It's a chance and a good goal too for playing with i.ph. Tutal, hosting photos and videos are among the good-looking features of i.ph.

The thing I want to try out is if I can insert google ads in my i.ph photo albums.

Ahh, so much to play with, so little time.

ka edong
waiting for my's key

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Lipat Bahay

I'm moving Technobiography to a new address and it hasn't been easy. I've been spending some time learning Word Press.

It would have been nice if I could invite readers to my new home, all clean and tidy. But it's not happening - it's not yet clean, it's not yet tidy. It's a work in progress.

I'll let people in early, maybe they could help me with plumbing or carpentry of my new home. Want to get in early? Leave a comment here.

Ready or not, expect a new Technobiography home within the next few days.

ka edong
naglilipat bahay
moblogging at MRT

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"See it, hear it, blog it"

Max Limpag published a story on Sun.Star Cebu entitled See it, hear it, blog it about blogging and journalism in line with Sun.Star's celebration of press freedom week.

I'm honoured to be one of Max's interviewees. I was among a group of blogging biggies that include Sassy, Manuel L. Quezon and Yuga.

Two things:

* It would have been interesting to see how the group of interviewees could collaborate with the interviewer through Max's Wiki. Unfortunately, we weren't able to use it much when Max was downed by illness.

* I considered the interview a thought exercise for me. The questions Max posed were highly insightful by themselves. It was nice taking time out to reflect on Max's questions.

Thus, I wrote to Max:

Max, it hasn't been easy writing replies to your questions ;-) But it has been a good thought exercise for me.

At the end of it all, I'd like to think about what blogging can do for the Filipino.

I think blogging is giving Filipinos a way to connect with each other. It can help us keep an open mind, what with the varying ideas and opinions we will come across through blogs.

It will also connect us with our past. On a personal note, it will allow me to look back and see how much I have grown in knowledge and in thinking.

I took sheer pleasure in reading the handwritten love letters of my grandfather to my grandmother, people who I did not have the chance to interact with. I am looking forward to the time when my own great grand children will have the chance to go back and read what their grandfather was doing in 2005.

- ka edong

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G-Cash at SM: short of my (good) expectations

I've tried transacting G-Cash at SM Megamall.

The long and short of it: long transaction, falls short of my (good) expectations.

I bought an item at SM Megamall last Saturday. I informed the cashier that I wanted to pay via G-Cash. With a doubtful tone, the cashier told her bagger partner: "Kuya, G-Cash daw." Bagger man said reassuringly, "Sige, kaya natin 'yan."

I keyed in the SMS message in my phone:

PAY SM 009113 100

009113 - store code unique to each cashier
100 - amount to be paid
I sent the message to 2318

Response from G-Cash 2882:

1/2 Shoemart requests to deduct 100.00 of G-Cash from your wallet. Reply to this messge with your MPIN if you want to confirm.

2/2 No response after 5 mins. cancels the transaction. Please note that your MPIN will validate the txn but it will not be disclosed to any party. P1.00/txn.

I replied with my 4-digit MPIN

Within a few seconds, the G-Cash system replied (from 2882):

You have sent 100.00 of G-Cash to Shoemart on 09/23/05 08:54 PM. Your new balance is 29.75. Ref. no 29781695

And then there's this odd message from 2318:

Thank you for shopping at SM using your G-Cash. P1.50 fee for this transaction. Trace# 438251.

I could dwell in the P1.50 fee, but I won't at this time. I'll just note that either this transaction fee is hidden or in fine print in the G-Cash at SM brochures (to be verified later).

What is remarkable about the transaction is that: it took me 15 minutes to accomplish this transaction!

I'll tell you more about that in another story.

In the meantime, let me just share with you that the G-Cash in SM system isn't perfect yet. Tsk tsk tsk. Not good. This will scare away "normal" G-Cash customers. Note that by "normal", I refer to regular G-Cash customers. I consider myself "abnormal" ( my wife describes me that way too ) because I go through great lengths just to test services like these. Not many are crazy enough to put up with these experimentations.

Ah, the pleasure ... the adjective "masochist" comes to mind ...

Next time, I'll share why it took me 15 mins. I'll also share stories of G-Cash transactions gone wild.

ka edong

article length rating: a little too long

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Passport service goes mobile

The Mobile Passport Service (MPS) in Oriental Mindoro will hold its processing days on Sept 29-30 and Oct 1 at the provincial capitol complex.

- Reference: Madonna Virola, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

Nice. This has nothing to do with mobile phones. There is a passport issuing office of DFA that sets up camp in different cities for a limited number of days. Thus "mobile" or being able to move or transfer.

This, in effect, brings government services closer to people.

From another perspective, the Mobile Passport Service help more Filipinos leave the country more easily.

- ka edong

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Bancnet to G-Cash

From Nox @ Work, I see G-Cash has finally worked on Cash-In through ATM to G-Cash.

This has been a long running mystery for me why Globe hadn't done this earlier. The mystery continues as they implemented it through an obscure bank (Asia United Bank)instead of through BPI (a kind of ... err ... "sister company" of Globe).

Quoting a previous comment:

jepoyeng,
> gcash should just partner with BPI to offer ATM withdrawals

That is one thing that eludes me. Hindi ko abot-maunawaan kung bakit hanggang ngayon ay di pa ito nagagawa ng Globe. Eh yung BPI to Globe Load via ATM nga ay nagawa na, eh di dapat madali nalang gawin ang BPI to G-Cash via ATM.

ka edong

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Blog =? Gold

Can bloggers turn their Blog into Gold? Some can, some do, most don't.

Picked this up from fellow Pinoy.Tech.Blogger Marc Macalua:

Can blogger Strike it Rich?

Whew, those blog revenue figures are just teeny weenie small tad above my five figure revenue from Google Adsense. That is, five figures including the decimal point and the two digits to the right of the decimal – nyahahaha!!

In the Philippine context, I’m still wondering how much Connie and Rickey are doing as the top two bloggers in the country. It’s enough to make them full-time bloggers, so one could guess at least a lower-limit to how much they’re making. I won’t make an attempt here.

Yuga, in the meantime, is making a good amount. I won’t divulge the figure here but let’s just say it makes me … “envious”. ;-) He’s been planting seeds towards growing this amount many-fold.

Another friend is making US$500-700 per month. He brushes it off as small, but I know that he puts in a large amount of time, energy and some money in maintaining his site.

Pinoy bloggers, to infinity and beyond!

ka edong

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Group blogging for beginners

My friends, Eloy and Aloy, asked me to help them out with their blog. They want to establish a group blog about social development.

Both of them individually maintain friendster blogs. Eloy doesn’t do html. Aloy has some experience Blogger, but walked away from it after facing some html difficulties.

Aloy left blogger at a time when Blogger didn’t host images – it was too complicated for her to upload photos in another site and link to the photos from Blogger. When I told her that Blogger now has image uploading and hosting, she was genuinely pleased and declared “magbabalik-luob na ako sa Blogger!”

For their group blog, they want to be able to invite people to blog about development. I showed them how to add members to the group blog. They also wanted a tagboard. I showed them shoutboxes.com .

They uploaded a sample story with a picture included. I, in the meantime, learned that photos can be resized in Blogger by pulling on the “ear tags” of the photo instead of doing it manually on html. When they saw how easy it was, they concluded: “para pala siyang friendster”. I wouldn’t know, I never used Friendster blogs.

Great! Now it’s done, I’ve given them a good enough overview of group blogging on Blogger. I gave them a few bilins, like: “you know where to go if you need help” (“No! not me, go to blogger help!”).

Pa-baon: i.ph

But then, I complicated their lives with a little pa-baon: i.ph .

I showed them the interface of i.ph, I showed them some spiffy templates, I showed them the features and I logged-in to show them the control panel. They liked it. They liked it a lot!

But then they asked, “could we group blog with it?”

Frankly, I’m not sure. If it’s any indication, the i.ph tagline is “domains for individuals”.

Have you seen any group blogs on i.ph lately? Where? What's it like?

ka edong

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PTB on Manila Bulletin

Read about Pinoy.Tech.Blog on Manila Bulletin online

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A G-Cash Machine

They call it "AGM Cash-In". It stands for Automated G-Cash Machine for Cash-In. I saw it at a G-Cash booth at the main entrance of Megamall bldg B.

It's a lot smaller than the G-Cash ATM. It's around the size of a regular desktop CPU. It has a slot where paper bills are inserted, an LCD display for instructions and a numeric keypad to enter the cellphone number.
The man I spoke to said it's good only for Cash-In and not Cash-Out. I'm told the machine accepts 20, 50, 100 peso bills (unlike the bigger G-Cash ATM that only accepts P100, P500, P1000).

I wanted to try out the machine but it wasn't functioning the time I was there. Tignan ko nga mamaya kung may balat ako sa pwet.

The machine's side was open and was awaiting repair. I got a chance to see the inside. Only thing I recognized was an antenna, presumably for a GSM modem for the G-Cash transactions.

The G-Cash guy told me that normally, the machine would be bolted firmly unto the table for security.

The AGM Cash-in machine is cheaper to manufacture because it doesn't need a touchscreen monitor. It's smaller and easier to deploy than its ATM big brother. It will fit on a 7-11 tabletop, for example, without much real estate space needed.

Upside is, as usual, an additional way to Cash-in.

But the thing is, this machine still requires maintenance. Who will collect the bills when the machine is full?

The AGM Cash-in machine is fine. It could be a solution for some companies, agencies, malls or local governments accepting G-Cash payments. But it won't be the solution to the currently limited ways to accessing G-Cash nationwide.

But hey, the AGM Cash-in machine is good. It needs to find its niche, to find where it belongs, to find where the technology will make the biggest impact.

ka edong
mobile posting
megamall to malakas to boni

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Text the MRT

Contact the Metro Rail Transit via your cellphone.

Type "MRT" and send to 2950. You'll receive this list of keywords:

Available keywords for this service are: MRT STATIONS, MRT FARE <origin> TO <destination> (Ex: MRT FARE Cubao TO Ayala), MRT COMMENT <message> <name> (Ex: MRT COMMENT Thank you MRT =)! Juan Dela Cruz). Send keywords to 2950. P2.50/txt

They should add a keyword for SCHEDULES and STATUS. I'd like to have easy access to info next time I have doubts if the train system is running normally (e.g. during power outages, typhoons or holidays).

ka edong
starbucks Julia Vargas
aga elat sa mga Tarangay alin Cuyo

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Blogging Resolutions

Last week, I scrounged around Kurdapia (my laptop) and Batito (my flashdisk) looking for some blog article drafts. I compiled them into a word document and found I had 12 pages (!) of article drafts!

I need to improve my blogging style if I want to catch up with my blogging thoughts. I want to blog meaningfully but I don't want blogging to take too much of my time.

So here's my blogging resolution:

* Mobile blog
* Blog short
* Write story summaries and then unravel the details in future posts (a tip from Yuga)
* Long article? Trim the fat before posting
* Imperfect post? Chill. Don't edit unless veeery important. Typos are tolrable.
* Don't bother editing the article for non-crucial additional info. Just use comments area.
* Keep within 500 words.
* Old drafts? Post it already, will you?

Let's see if these resolutions will come true.

- Edwin
Starbucks
aga elat para engued

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My mobile email ad is not Gmail SPAM

How do I teach Gmail that my mobile email address is NOT SPAM?

I've used my phone's email client for many months now. But these past month or so, Gmail has been identifying my mobile email as SPAM.

I've consistently gone into my Gmail SPAM folder. I always find my mobile emails (addressed to my regular Gmail account) in the SPAM folder.

What I do is select the mobile email messages, then click "Not SPAM". This puts back the message in the Inbox. But, subsequent emails still find their way into the SPAM folder.

How do I teach Gmail that my mobile email address is _not_ SPAM?

Any suggestions from my readers?

ka edong

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G-Cash in SM Malls

In Nov 2004, I wrote about a concept of G-Cash in SM using their POS Converged Machines (Part I):

That's also good news for G-Cash. I can imagine that we will one day be able to pay SM via G-Cash through Mighty POS.

SM won't need a hundred G-Cash cellphones (one per kahera) to accept G-Cash payments. I imagine that an SM mall will need just one GSM modem connected to the system running Mighty POS's (Mighty POS's boss).

And here's my experience in using Smart Money in SM.

Today, I posted this on Pinoy.Tech.Blog:

You see those Point-Of-Sale (POS) machines in SM? The machines that slurp your credit card when you make a purchase (I call it slurp, but most call it “swipe”). The integrated machines that accept almost any credit card, debit card, and almost “any” payment card.

Now these POS machines at SM accept G-Cash payments! No, the machines won’t slurp your Globe cellphone (your dog will do that for you). But these POS machines will accept payments via text messaging!

G-Cash to POS payments are currently available at Megamall and will be rolled out in other SM malls “soon”, says a press release on last Sunday’s broadsheets.

Whereas credit card payments are “slurped in” by the POS, G-Cash payments are “texted in” via SMS to SM’s POS system.

After texting in your G-Cash payment, you will receive an SMS requesting confirmation of the payment. Upon sending your confirmation, payment will be debited from your existing G-Cash. I imagine that SM kahera will see the payment received in her cashier’s machine and, possibly, a tape receipt will slither out of the POS machine.

What would increase G-Cash transactions in SM?

For starters, SM could start issuing gift certificates via G-Cash (GC via GC!). Malapit na ang pasko. Sell SM-G-Cash gift certificates to ninongs and ninangs so that they could send these mobile gift certificates to their inaanaks via SMS! How kewl is that, huh?

Sino kayang groovy ninong ko ang mag-sesend sa akin ng G-Cash gift certs?

;-)
edwin

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Sky Internet VoIP - Super Over …

Posted on Pinoy.Tech.Blog:

There’s a service called Sky Internet VoIP launched two months ago in partnership with BayanTel. Interesting how all these companies are opening all sorts of services around VoIP. Ah, we like this!

Full story here...

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i.ph – outside looking in

Now, let’s try to verify my knowledge of i.ph . Let’s check which of the perceptions I wrote about are approximately accurate, and which aren’t. ...

i.ph = spiffy layouts

Yup yup yup. Things are spiffy in here. I took a tour of the featured blogs. Well designed interfaces, I might say. You’ll see very well that the templates bloggers started out with were very pretty right from the start. I did notice a lot of material customized by the individual bloggers. I found out from i.ph’s knowledge base that Calliope has a control panel where bloggers can change a handful of properties of their blog such as header style, watermark, header image etc. I’m sure advanced bloggers can do so much more if they get their hands dirty.

Calliope – not foreign, but locally developed

The dictionary meaning of Calliope is "a musical instrument" pala. It has Greek origins. As for Calliope of Dot.ph, it is a locally developed content management software. It has such a cosmopolitan name because it’s being marketed not just here in the Philippines but also in other countries. Goodluck to the marketing team! You have a good product here, from what I’ve seen so far. (But a lot of competition too!)

i.ph for free?

Yes. You can get an i.ph blog for free. What I tried to do was to find out the limitations of a free account. For example, something to the tune of 200Mb blogspace, or some blogging features available only for paid accounts. I couldn’t find that information yet.

What I did find was that i.ph’s FAQs seem to be outdated. Whereas the first half of the FAQs speak of setting up a free account, the second half of the FAQs reverberates with echoes of paid accounts:

How long will it take to register and activate an i.ph domain?
Upon payment, the i.ph domain can take up 8 to 24 hours before it is fully visible across the Internet.

multi-media blogging?

photo blogging? – Check
video blogging? – Check
audio blogging? – Not really.
Theoretically though, you can upload your audio files anywhere on the net and link to those files from i.ph. But I didn’t find anything on i.ph that integrates audio blogging into calliope.

My total score: 3 2/3 out of 4.

What else shall we investigate about i.ph?

What features did I miss?

· Blog integration with other online services such as “Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, FWD, Friendster, Tagboard, Links, and MORE...”. I wonder how well Calliope will keep up with the ever emerging and evolving IM’s. For example, will Calliope integrate with Google Talk, too?
· Online tagboard to SMS (a text message to the owner of the blog) – the sender needs to be a registered user of Chikka.com .
· E-mail to blog! Ah, this is something for people like me! I like writing articles on the fly using Brosia, my SmartPhone. I am able to send articles via mobile e-mail. This will work perfectly with i.ph . What’s more, i.ph allows gallery upload via e-mail. I’ll be able to upload mobilephone photos via MMS e-mail to i.ph ! Worth a try. Will write about that in the future.
· There is an announcement about earning through your blog. But it isn’t up and running yet.
· I’ve visited the i.ph forums. I don’t see much activity there.

So how much of i.ph did I know of? Well enough.

That’s me from the outside looking in. After i.ph came out with free accounts, I get the impression that more people started looking into i.ph. Well, at least that’s the attitude I am personally taking.

What’s next?

I’m on the hunt for user feedback. After checking out i.ph from the outside, I’d like to hear what other people have to say about i.ph . Consider this as getting a second opinion. So I’ll be going around, searching for i.ph and non-i.ph blogs, checking out what people think of i.ph . Tignan natin what I find.

Until the next article!

ka edong
i.ph think therefore i.ph am.

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i blog the i.ph

I’ve been asked to by fellow-PTB blogger, J Angelo, to write my thoughts about i.ph . I told him I would do that but I was quick to add that I’ll “tell it as it is” whether upside or downside.

In the next few weeks, expect some articles about i.ph . I’m looking forward to taking the i.ph CMS for a ride too. But let’s start from the very beginning… a very good place to start ...

i.ph – First impressions

Let me quiz myself first and try to recall what I know about i.ph without looking at any web references.

I first heard about i.ph from an Airfagev friend, Randy Nivales. He uploaded a couple of our Airfagev EB photos on his i.ph photo album. The album had an organized layout, not cluttered. It looked very clean and spiffy.

Ah, first impressions last. I had a feeling the design people behind i.ph had put in a lot of thought into the look of i.ph .

So what is i.ph? It’s a blogging service by Dot.ph, the domain name registry for the Philippines. I remember that behind i.ph was a content management system (CMS) called “Calliope”. Sounds foreign-jer, doesn’t it? The whole time, I thought that it was French or Italian. Only recently did I discover that Calliope is a locally developed CMS. And it’s been two years in the making, I hear. Whew! It’s been in the making that long and I came to know about it only about ten months ago?! Where’s it been for so long?

Among the first things I checked out about the i.ph blogging service was whether it was free or not. At that time, there were no free accounts. My thinking was this: given my existing Technobiography blog in free service blogger.com, I don't see any reasons for me to shift to i.ph . That’s still the position I maintain. But I’m open. Especially when I’ve seen recently that i.ph has opened options for free accounts. Ah… free … my most favorite price in the whole entire world. Let’s check that out later.

I also remember writing about i.ph in a previous Technobiography article. I believe it was about audio blogging or video blogging. I do remember seeing a video of an i.ph blogger on top of a mountain.

Hmmmm… i.ph is up to something, I thought. i.ph was starting to look like a blogging service that would do well for blogs with a lot of multi-media content.

Oh, yes, I remember one more thing. I remember being visited by an i.ph blogger. He left a comment on Technobiography. But the comment looked to me as rather impersonal. I felt that he didn’t read my blog, and instead just wanted me to visit his blog. I brushed it off, maximum tolerance for blog visitors, that's what I do. I even replied to him on his blog, if I remember correctly. I found out later on that he was making the rounds among pinoy bloggers. Even read about him getting into a tussle with a blogging biggie. Tsk tsk, not good.

Nevertheless, writing about i.ph is something I can help out with. I won’t be one sided, I will “tell it as it is”. I’ll be critical too and will arm myself with a favorite quotation for times like this: “It is easier to be critical than to be correct!” ;-)

Finished or not finished, pass your papers!

And that’s what I remember about i.ph .

In my next article, let’s see how many correct answers I got. And let’s see if I could find other first impressions of i.ph from fellow pinoy bloggers. I wonder too if there are some i.ph users from other countries. Let’s see.

Ka edong
black i.ph
“Where is the love … where is the love, the love, the love ….”

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Credit Card to G-Cash

I got hold of a wallet-size codigo of G-Cash. It’s available at Globe stalls and fits snugly inside your pocket or wallet. Not a bad idea. It’s an alternative to texting “info” to 2882 to receive a list of keywords for G-Cash transactions.

They have the list of transactions starting with Registration, Cash-in, Cash-out, person-to-person transfer (P2P), payment at partner merchants, domestic and international remittance, load, bills payment, payment for food deliveries, donations to charity and purchasing G-Cash using credit cards.

That’s nice, quite a full menu of services.

The last item is rather interesting. G-Cash subscribers can use their Visa, Mastercard or JCB credit cards to buy G-Cash.

Up-side, it’s an addition to the currently limited number of ways of getting G-Cash into your phone (known as “Cash-in”). I'm sure that there's a way to enhance this service such that it becomes useful.

Down-sides: uhm, how much time do you have?

• Users need to fill-out a paper application form. I guess this so that Globe gets the authority to charge your credit card.
• Aside from the paper application form, subscribers will need to make an SMS registration.
• The SMS registration uses an un-familiar access code, 2201, which is different from the usual 2882 access code used in almost all other G-Cash transactions. This just adds unnecessary confusion. Why kaya did Globe use 2201 when they could have used 2882?
• The G-Cash you buy with your credit card will be charged. (kaching kaching, another charge?)
• I was assisted by Jay and JD of the G-Cash hotline in my inquiries. They told me that the charges are Php 49 for “cash advance” (buying G-Cash using your credit card).
• JD said that this Php49 will be charged to the user’s G-Cash account. I doubt if this is correct. My logic tells me that the credit card company will be the right group to charge me that Php49.
• JD added that this Php49 is low compared to a Php500 cash-advance charge if a customer uses an ATM cash-advance. Pwede.
• Lastly, JD told me that this service was on a promo only until August 31, 2005. Yipes! I just found out about the service and the promo period is over?! Well, I’m quite sure they’ll “re-instate” this promo.

Credit card system and G-Cash

Frankly, I was expecting to see Cash-in using ATMs before seeing Cash-in using credit cards.

So, what do we make of this creditcard-to-G-Cash service?

Call me a skeptic, but I don’t see this service flying. At least not the way it’s currently designed.

Who would be patient enough to go through a paper registration and an SMS registration to be able to use a credit card to buy G-Cash? Well, some, but not many. I think this service can use some revisiting. The technology is there (creditcard-to-G-Cash), but it needs a little more imagination before we find a more useful way of using the service.

Another thing. Customers who use a credit card – these are customers who already have access to many other financial tools. These are customers who can do most of their financial needs using the ATM, the credit card, the phone, the internet. These are customers who have many other alternatives to G-Cash.

What’s key? I think that people behind G-Cash need to compare G-Cash to other financial tools such as the ATM, credit card, online banking, regular banking, remittance centers and, of course, cash (!). Given this comparison, there is a fundamental question that begs to be answered:

What can G-Cash deliver for a customer that other financial tools cannot?

When that question has been answered, that’s the start of designing G-Cash applications that are compelling and useful for customers.

I have my own answers to this fundamental question. I’ve written about some of them before. I’ll share them again in this blog in an upcoming article.

ka edong

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Anti-Blog Spamming

Blogspot has put a little tiny defense against Blog Spamming.

They call it word verification. When turned on in a blogger account, visitors will have to type in an additional word before their comment is posted.

A little help in the fight against blog spam.

Read: Blag iSpamd

ka edong

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What's cooking at G-Cash?

By the way, I was in a couple of meetings last week with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Globe, RBAP-MABS and a few other organizations.

There are some developments in G-Cash that will soon see action outside the confines of confidentiality clauses...

I am not at liberty to say what this service is. But I’ve discussed the service in past articles as a concept. The description of the service is among these past articles, written at a time when the service was not yet created:

Converged Machines (Part I)
Explorations: G-Cash Mines
G-Cash kicks butt, but ... (Part 3 of 3)

Which G-Cash service do you think will be launched soon? Care to make a guess?

ka edong

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Push G-Cash the AutoloadMax way …

During my pilot study of m-commerce for microfinance, we identified that there was low uptake of G-Cash. I trained people in the use of G-Cash and I called them G-Cash Retailers (GCRs). Most of these GCR’s were existing AutoloadMax retailers (AMRs).

The AutoloadMax business nets around 14% for an AutoloadMax dealer. That is, out of P100 peso investment in AutoloadMax, they can earn an additional P14.

On the other hand, G-Cash Cash-in partners (Cash-in is the conversion of Cash to G-Cash) earn only 1 to 3% through the service fee they charge the customer. This means ... that for a Cash-in (a purchase) of P1,000 worth of G-Cash, a customer needs to pay P10 or more.

Put AutoloadMax Retailing and G-Cash Retailing side-by-side and you’ll see that it’s a better business to retail AutoloadMax.

There are tens of thousands of AutoloadMax dealers but only a few hundred G-Cash outlets in the Philippines.

Question: How do you increase the number of G-Cash outlets / G-Cash Retailers?

My Answer: Use the AutoloadMax model.

The AutoloadMax business model is…

For every P100 worth of AutoloadMax a retailer sells, the retailer will get a bonus of P14 worth of AutoloadMax. She can sell this at cost to her customers and thus earns P14 for every P100.

Do the same with G-Cash.

For every P100 worth of G-Cash “sold” (Cash-in) by a G-Cash Retailer, the GCR gets P14 worth of *Autoload* (not G-Cash). The GCR can then sell this P14 worth of AutoloadMax at cost. This is the same markup as AutoloadMax at 14%.

Here’s an example.

Maria is a GCR and has P1,000 worth of G-Cash.
Pedro wants to buy P1,000 worth of G-Cash which he will send to his daughter in the province.
Pedro hands over P1,000 cash to Maria.
Maria sends P1,000 worth of G-Cash to Pedro.
For this transaction, Maria will get P140 worth of AutoloadMax which she can sell to her other customers at cost.

Can this happen?

Is there anything stopping Globe from shelling out that 14% worth of AutoloadMax?
Well, why not? They’re doing exactly that for AutoloadMax retailing.
They’re also shelling out 5% worth of G-Cash each time subscribers use the G-Cash to Load service (I just tried it tonight).

Will it work?

A similar model was used by G-Cash last year for Mercury Drug.
They were “giving away G-Cash” but it could be thought of as giving away load. (See explanation here).

So, do you think it will work?
Unless I missed something, I think it will work.
I’d like to hear from my readers (paging markku and jepoy).
What do you think? Will it work?

Edwin

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TV on her Tummy

There's this humongous billboard at Guadalupe with a rather pretty "larger-than-life" model.

Couple of things:
* Rent at that gargantuan Lupe billboard cranks up to 6 Million pesos per month, I hear. Ang yaman ng advertiser? Ang yaman ng Lupe!

More...

* The current advertiser is Dove for their Campaign for Real Beauty. A lady with a little more weight than your average image model. It says "Extra Large or Extra Sexy?". Tapos there's a tally of SMS votes. I had the impression the tally is real-time based on incoming SMS votes. That would have been interesting. But upon closer inspection, I think the numbers are manually replaced every so often.

* We could have done this for our previous presidential election! Brilliant idea, that Ad is, ha!
* But wait! What's this flickering TV-thingy on her belly? It's a Samsung TV and it took them a month before they finally got it to work. At one time they were testing it, they were showing korean advertisements.

* Now the TV displays the makati.gov.ph url and has a couple of Makati City ad campaigns

* Is the Lupe billboard still worth P6M? Even if the TV, 1/8th the size of the billboard, covers a big part of the billboard most of the time?


My vote? Extra-sexy.
My other vote? Tech wins over size.

ka edong

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They just *had* to text me

I guess they just couldn't resist texting me:

From 209
FW: SMART FREE ALERT:D WAY U LUK 2NYT:'Some--- wen I'm awfly low'A)day B)wer.Tx d ans 2 d misin lyric(Ex:A).Join KARAOKE IDOL 4chans 2 win P5K 2day.P2.5/txt.DTI4793

This is after I applied for "Text Exclusion", a request to never receive SpaSMS - unsolicited SMS messages.

But, they just *had* to text me with this super dooper karaoke promo. Hrmps...

ka edong

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Class Suspension? Check DepEd Text Service

I posted this on Pinoy.Tech.Blog:

The Department of Education launched an SMS service. Among other things, the service allows users to check information on suspension of classes.

Check it out over at PTB.

ka edong

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