WebFWD Manila Activities
There’s been some activity in WebFWD Philippines these past few months, and one that I was personally involved in was the kick off of Women and Mozilla (WoMoz) Philippines last May 25.
I feel very strongly about WoMoz’s mission of promoting IT to women and I was glad to be involved in the kick-off and that I was able to introduce and promote WebFWD to the group!
It was an exhilarating experience but we (Team WebFWD Philippines) also realized that in order to fully promote WebFWD we also need to increase awareness of Open Source so recently, Alvin Edwald Chan, fellow WebFWD Manila Scout, organized an Open Source Discussion for the Academe.
The Open Source Discussion was held last July 24 and held in Globe Corporate Showroom, Valero, Makati with professors from De La Salle University, Mapua Institute of Technology, and Informatics with fantastic resource speakers in Bryan Bibat from DevCon Philippines; Wade Mealing, a Red Hat certified Engineer, and Adric Schreuders, Freelancer.com’s Director of Engineering.
Alvin and I briefly talked about WebFWD then Alvin began moderating. It soon became a lively discussion on Open Source and the trials and tribulations some professors encounter in teaching Open Source. On the other end, Mr. Schreuders pointed out how experience in Open Source can help boost a graduate’s resume to employers.
The misconceptions about Free and Open Source Software was also touched on, which was that to quote Mr. Mealing: ‘Just because it’s open source doesn’t mean you can make money.’
In the end, it was agreed that there is still a lot of ground to cover in promoting the philosophies and practices of Open Source to students but extracurricular activities promoted by organizations outside of the colleges do help a lot.
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Thanks to Globe Labs for the venue and Freelancer for the food!