#secondmeeting

Meanwhile, Mindanao has greatly helped in propelling economic growth of the country. Mindanao has significantly contributed on the first quarter performance of the Philippines this year with its tourism, agribusiness, mining and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries (Libres, June 2014). And Davao Region has remained Mindanao’s top economy. Its industries and the services sectors helped greatly in region's performance. And Davao expects more investments and opportunities to come as its economy continues to bloom (The Philippine Star, 2014); Davao City’s economy is continuing to grow.

Life is here. One of the largest cities in the world in terms of land area. Second most potable water in the world next to New Zealand, a city beside the enchanting Mount Apo and the Island Garden City of Samal; the city of Davao. Davao, just like many major cities in Mindanao, is a typhoon-free zone. A well-known city as a leader in peace and order. Davao City is known as the crown jewel of the Philippines because of the economic activity; it is one of the most progressive cities here in the Philippines. Davao is one of the most peaceful cities in Asia. And has been constantly listed as one of the most desirable cities to live in. For the city prioritizes, good governance, health, environment, education, social services, livelihood, agriculture, fishery, tourism, investment and revenue enhancement. As for the question, “What can I do to help propel the economy of Davao City?” the answer I was able to conjure was ideas. Once Joseph Stalin, a Soviet Union leader from the 20’s, had said ideas are more powerful than guns. And making these ideas happen will be far more.

Technology right now seems to play a vital part in innovation. As innovation plays a vital part in economic growth. From the innovation genome project is had use the words look, use, move, interconnect, alter, make and imagine, every word is self-explanatory. Davao City being one of the most progressive cities and the only city in the Philippines included in the top one hundred list of fast-growing cities and urban areas in the world; its technology is adequate, therefore, economic growth is natural. One of the good thing here is that the city embraces and celebrates civilization and environment conservation. It is like the city, in my own opinion, is somewhat following what was in the SEED module. The city knows its strengths and weaknesses very well; environment is well sustained and well maintained; infrastructures and flow of investors just keep on coming; and long year plans for the future of the city which is done by the local government every now and then.

As the city of Davao continuously nurture and secure peace and order for its constituents I want to give something to the city I grew to love. This is with the help of the things I have learned and will be learning in IT Elective 1 (Technopreneurship 1). Like a person, a city changes, improves and progresses. And as I had said on my previous post to aim for the moon, I envision myself being able to provide these to the city that have greatly change the way of living in the our community better. It should not only be I that should be thinking like this, everyone must feel positive and feel the drive so that all of us will help each other as we take the city to the another level of high living that the other people from other cities and countries have never seen before. They be so jealous that they wish to have taken part or just even catch a glimpse of the way Dabawenyos rolled to higher living. In the future city of Davao; unemployment, poverty, crime, educational problems and addiction will cease to exist.

To boost our economy what we need is the most abundant in our resources which is our people. Applying this I will start off my movement, as I had considered it and I think it should be, to propel the economy of Davao City by shopping in our local shops to support our economy. What can shopping local do for our economy here in Davao City? I thought of this like when you shop at national and international retailers, only a small amount of money you have spent on that store will go back to our city. But if we shop locally, if my calculation is right, more than a half percentage will go back to our local community. As local businesses tend to buy more local products, the costing of a particular item is lesser than the other non-local products. Also, more community investments because local businesses donates to local charities, institutions, organizations and etc. Economy is a tough place to be in. But if we shop locally, we are supporting each other in efforts to strengthen and sustain our economy and as we work together our foundation will be stronger which will be helpful to brighten our future. As a saying goes, everything starts within you, I will promote in my blog to shop locally and plug local shops, and practice shopping locally so that I can be more convincing to others because I do not want to appear as a hypocrite saying shop locally when I myself is not doing so or worst I worshipping international shops.

Is this all you and I can do to help the propagation of our economy? There are lots of ways that we can do to help our economy but the one I have mentioned above could be a simple start. Notice that the proposition I had said happen that business ventures, local shop or retailers, are the topic of interest. In political economics, entrepreneurship is the development, organization and management of a business venture. Simply put, if realized, we had not only strengthened and sustained our economy but also the entrepreneurship here in our city.

Now, let us add technology to the equation. Technology, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014), is the use of science in industry to invent useful things or to solve problems. Technology has touched every aspect in human life and made great improvements. With the collaboration of entrepreneurship and technology we have technopreneurship. As I had defined, the stronger the entrepreneurship here in the city the higher the economic growth could be. Taking technology, entrepreneurship, our constant since I had tried to establish that entrepreneurship is a part of economic growth, and economic growth as elements, and have it as economic growth is equals to technology multiplied to entrepreneurship; we have direct proportionality. This means that the higher the value of technology we apply to entrepreneurship the higher the value we could have for economic growth. It is definitely going to be high figures we will see if we apply this. Because of technopreneurship you and I can possibly reach the vision wherein we can provide changes, improvements and progressions that will earn the city a higher form of living than the others is out there.

On our way to our vision, let us apply the one of first thing that was thought to us in IT Elective 1 (Technopreneurship 1) to have an alternative mind-set. Filipino parents, as I have said before on my previous post, send their children to school to get a good transcript and land a job in a company. With this kind of thinking that Filipino parents have, it is instilled to the child’s mind. The way these children will think will affect his future. Contentment of the way things are is not a good attitude to have being a technopreneur. You are aiming to innovate to better the living situation of every person in this planet. Instead of carrying that kind rationality, break it and go to school to get a good transcript and be the owner of your own company. It won’t hurt aiming high since we got nothing to lose if we fail, but at least, we got to the chance to try. Set free of the burden of our past ideology. We have to look further and try not to think of the obvious things, but think beyond them. Let us have a mind-set that could give all of the better possibilities. A mind-set were we could possibly set our own terms. Since we all want to be in the winning end so we stick on the side were there are better possibilities. It is all in the matter of proper mind-set. And with that, beware that choosing either the old mind-set or the alternative mind-set does not mean a success. For me, the most important part of this mind setting is yourself. It just does not give saying it out loud, I choose alternative mind-set; you have to do it. Work it on yourself and figure it out. With that, the bullets of risks raining on you could be easily faced on.

As we, our class, are on the midst of thinking a brilliant idea that will be entered on a competition, I had ideas for the city of Davao and the implications they could possibly give benefit to its people. E-Catalogue Store. Information, technology and rapidly changing lifestyles have all played their part in shaping the way customers’ shop and what customers expect from a retail experience (Kay, 2014). We must have a technology to improve the in-store experience of every customer. We must not only consider the increasing familiarity of a device that we will offer to the public but, also the convenience, efficiency and the services. A user-friendly touch screen device will be used as a tool for customers to do their shopping. A program is installed within the touch screen device which features: all the products that is available in the store; search an item; call for customer service assistance; and, billings and payments. All of the touch screen devices will be interconnected and has access to view the inventory to be able to see the product availability. Thus, all touch screen devices receive real time updates. This kind system will have a system administrator who will have the rights to enter the products with their current standing prices. He can enter anytime in the system by a secured system password to change the contents by adding or deleting an item or changing its price. This way customers' will be able to avoid the hassle of fighting other shoppers for the best deals. Also, the physical exhaustion of looking for an item is no longer a problem as every item must be reachable with the tip of the customer’s fingers. With this way the long lines are avoidable. Customers’ time is no longer wasted in waiting in long queues. And they will feel much closer to us with the paying treatment that we offer. The store must have designs and tempting displays that will keep customers shopping. The appealing display and theme must be able to communicate the store’s image or message. And the stores that will have this kind of technology and system will be local shops to boost their marketing and sales thus improving their income and the money return to our city. AR City Guide. Use of augmented reality technology with smartphones and tablets which will serve as informative map guide to every people in the city. This will utilise the camera and sensors of smartphones and tablets. With this innovation it will take everyone’s city experience to a whole new level. This mobile augmented reality app will be interactive to the user. Try pointing your camera to a series of buildings and the app will digitally enhance the view, and will display its information and suggestion. All things will be better with your tour handbook. This will increase the tourist volume in the city as they can explore the city in their own way with all the necessary information in their hand. Traffic Insider. Helps people monitor traffic in the city for their benefit. Traffic insider is an app that will connect to every closed-circuit television (cctv) cameras installed at every traffic light. This app can guide you to routes with least traffic congestion. It will give time to time notification regarding traffic conditions, accidents, repairs and works on the road. With this, the chances of arriving late at work, school, home and etc. is lessen.

  Everything in our life is a risk. Opportunities come and go. As a student, as we are, may we have this kind of enthusiasm till the day we could use the ideas we had come up in our IT Elective 1 (Technopreneurship 1) and in the future when the opportunity will come and I do hope that none of us will back out because of the risk. Risks make it all fun. And where is the fun when we do not take it. So that if it will be realized, we will not just be satisfied but proud and happy. Do not be depress that we are still a student and cannot do something to help our city. Fact is we, students, are already contributing something to our community it might be something we already know or don’t. As for us students of University of Southeatern Philippines studying technopreneurship and those from other schools who have such study, we are already near there. We are studying technopreneurship that will serve as our foundation on giving the greatest innovation in the city of Davao the world has never seen. Making these happen will take time which we all have. Apply everything of what we have learned and have dedication. Technopreneurship is helping us achieve higher than we are expecting we can only achieve.

  Truly, our city of Davao is amazing. Be it anything, Davao will thrive and compete. But always remember the riches of our city would be nothing if it were not of us, we make the city. We empower the city to be the best it is and will be. So it is a responsibility to every one of us to help and do everything in our hand to protect and help the city we have to progress not only our economy but also our traditional moral values. We must not be lost in self-centeredness and have compassion, love and wisdom. We must have harmony in our self not only in our city. Let us keep the history of Davao well chronicled and further improve our economy. Innovate that is feasible, not just practical but with great impact; for the betterment of life here in the city as our city slogan says, life is here.

    References:

Kay, Daniel (2014). Fashionably lost: The importance of good wayfinding in department stores. Retrieved from: http://www.endpoint.co.uk/fashionably-lost-the-importance-of-good-wayfinding-in-department-stores/.

  Libres, Lenesse Marie (June, 2014). Mindanao ‘vital’ in PHL economic growth. Sunstar Publishing. Retrieved from: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2014/06/20/mindanao-vital-phl-economic-growth-349211

The Philippines Star (January, 2014). NEDA: Davao drives Mindanao economy. Philstar. Retrieved from: http://www.philstar.com/business/2014/01/15/1279133/neda-davao-drives-mindanao-economy

After which we had our discussion, which is what this post is about. On the sharing that happened last Tuesday, I learned that technopreneurship is technology and entrepreneurship. Technology, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014), is the use of science in industry to invent useful things or to solve problems; and that entrepreneurship is the organization and management of a business or enterprise. Therefore, technopreneurship is building of a business or enterprise with the use of technology. And to be able to be a good technopreneur you have to have a proper mind set. So, we were asked what our perception in going to school is. Let us face it, Filipino parents send their children to school to get a good transcript and land a job in a company. With this kind of thinking that Filipino parents have, it is instilled to the child’s mind. And with that the cycle continues. The way these children will think will affect his future. It is like in the activity we had these children’s thinking be enclosed in a box. We have a saying that goes, “Aim for the moon.” It won’t hurt aiming high since we got nothing to lose if we fail, but at least, we got to the chance to try. Contentment of the way things are is not a good attitude to have being a technopreneur. You are aiming to innovate to better the living situation of every person in this planet. Instead of carrying that kind rationality, break it and go to school to get a good transcript and be the owner of your own company. Do not worry about how you’d be able to start your own company, just simply start your own company and everything else will follow.

Like I said before, our mental inclination will help us make it in this world. The fixation we have on our life should be changed if we need to. We must not be brought under rules, regulations or whatever there may be that will hinder our mind’s functionality due to the dictatorship of a person who imposed on you. The works in our mind is complicated but the thing is this complication can be manipulated just burry a seed and grow it, and later on this complication appears to cease to exist. That is the thing with rules and regulations set by other people in your life. People can be easily persuaded; and people can easily adapt that we lose a touch of our true self. It is part of a person to grow but growing under the influence of other people, I don’t think so. So live up, think and influence yourself. This is just my way of saying to not let anybody control you and be the person who you really want. Help yourself.

Take what I said earlier regarding what Filipino parents commonly instil in their child’s mind. Yes, you do go to a good school (prestige, even, as it was willed by your parents) have earned many awards, achievements, and good grades; and landed a job on a company; but think of this, is this what all you can see yourself in. You had gone crazy doing tons of your project, homework, assignment. Endured late nights just to study for your exams. You did everything that is necessary to be at your best and be the best. And you just ended up being someone’s beef.

This mind set reflects most of the people here in the Philippines.Indeed, the news flashes new company and businesses soon to open but the owner of this establishments are foreigners. The way I see it, it is like a new form of slavery but without the intent of being forced to because we have been satisfied with the way we are living. Do ever wonder why these foreign investors just keep coming back here in the Philippines? Well, it is because we are cheap. I do not mean cheap as a person but our work rate. It is cheaper compared to the rates on other countries. This realization shunted me. Are we really going too settled with this? I gave it a thought, as our facilitator said, we have to change this mind setting we have. Let us not settle with what our society’s ideology has been since the past ages. Let us seek beyond it. Enough with the school, good grades, then become an employee; it is time for school, good grades, then become an employer. There are a lot of risks in starting your own company or business. Chances are your either going to fail or better yet succeed.

Mr Randy made us grasp the gist of this new mind set. A mind-set that can set us free of the burden of our past ideology. A mind-set were you could possibly set your own terms. A mind-set that could give you better possibilities. Everything in our life is a risk. Opportunities come and go. But we all want to be in the winning end so we stick on the side were there are better possibilities. It is all in the matter of proper mind-set. And with that, beware that choosing either the old mind-set or the alternative mind-set does not mean a job or a success.

For me, the most important part of this mind setting is yourself. It just does not give saying it out loud, I choose alternative mind-set; you have to do it. Work it on yourself and figure it out. With that, the bullets of risks raining on you could be easily dodged.

How can I do business? You must be a person who sees the need for a particular product or service and then creates a business to supply the product or service. There are many opportunities for you to do business.

How can I start a business? First, we define what business is. Business is the activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2014). There exist a lot of business types out there. And in every business an approach is needed to be made. And the very basic of starting a business is an idea. An idea that is brilliant, that can do well for a business. Make very sure it is unique if not forget it. See to it first that your idea has its selling point because if does not you are just wasting your effort and money. Do a lot of research. Think of ways your idea could prevail in our economy.

An idea now a days costs more than a million, even billion, of money because it is within your hold. You get to mould and even make it bigger. And in order to realize this brilliant idea of yours, you need money. But before starting any business, a smart person will find out if there is a need or market for his peculiar idea, whether or not anyone is already providing it, and the possible costs of running the business. You will probably want to start researching for that matter.

Take note that before you start to establish your own business as the potential owner you must be ready to meet various legal requirements of the state and local governments. One of the basic requirement, according to my research, is a business charter, which is a legal document that gives your business the authority to operate in a particular state. The charter establishes your business as a legal entity that can enter contracts and make commitments under its own name. This means you have a limited liability. No matter what happens to your business, you can lose no more than the initial investment, and you won’t be held personally for the business debts and losses. Which is a great advantage for you, you see.

We also have to be smart here. So, take this to the heart because it will help you big time when you are under some sort of problem. Always think ahead, never forget that.

How do I get the money I need to start my business? No need to plan for breaking in and stealing for money. There are many banks today that can grant you a business loan. All you need to do is prepare your business plan that includes long year planning once it is up and going. It needs to be convincing because it will not just go under storage.

Banks are now wiser they do not just give you the money you need whenever you say, “Hey, I got an idea for business.” They always want to make sure that the money they will be lending to you is going to be returned, and of course, with great deal of interest. Once you are done filing your papers for a loan, they will call you to present your business. In there you will have to convince a bunch of wealthy and knowledgeable people as to why they need to borrow you the money you need. Do not be nervous, they will see through it. Be confident and a bit cocky, and the most important part is to believe on your business idea. Cause if you won’t, it is sayonara capital for you my friend.

Another way to get the money you need is through pitching your ideas. If do not trust bank and feel uncomfortable under their scrutiny, pitching your ideas might be good for you. All you need to do is find “VC” also known as venture capitalists and pitch your ideas to them. I just kept on mentioning the word pitching, just in case you do not know, it is to attempt to persuade. In short, you are going to persuade these venture capitalists to invest in your business.

Take note that this is unlikely to be like the presentation you do when you do business loan. You are lucky enough to have the venture capitalist to listen to you for a minute. So within that time crunch you must be able to wow him. The power of persuasion a very useful tool on the business world.

  And if you still do not feel up to it. The last option that I was able to catch up with my facilitator during our last meeting is to join Idea Hub. Idea Hub is place for people who have ideas. An idea or ideas that could change the way we leave in a good way, of course. It is a place for people who have great ideas that could led something great and could be of use to the future generations. It is a place for people like me and people like you. You all have an idea which is the mental image of a concept carefully formulated from your thought. It is a product of imagination that was processed in your brain. Say for example you want to change a certain way on how a thing works. Automatically you imagine what ifs in your brain. This my friend is an idea. And have this through a repeating process and you will come up with an idea that will change your life and the others.

The Idea Hub is a place where all people with bright ideas gather and connect. The Idea Hub or incubator, as they call it, is where this idea of yours could be realized. All you need is to sign up and they will contact you, if you have been approved. This kind of space is sponsored by big companies. They will help you under contract until you will be able to stand on your own. If you did decide to part from the hub you are asked to at least part ten percent of your earnings for a year so that the program can continue help aspirants like you were.

Let me iterate again, this place is free but it may be temporary; but, you know, it is free how cool is that? It is a better place to start with no disturbances and annoyance. I’m sort of jealous to students whose school have Idea Hub because I think it is good place to grow and improve. It could serve as a great tool between students and teachers.

These ideas that have been nurtured and developed has touched every aspect in a human life from food, shelter, safety to the ways we spend our leisure time. And every fields out there have been deeply affected by these innovative ideas that came to life. These all happens because we strive to make our lives better and easier, like who would not want to. Forming innovative ideas seems to be a universal trait to people. Over time, we have greatly improved our lives through technology. The pace of technological change and the way people think has increased. Change now takes place rapidly. Developments are now closely linked to our society as high technology became a commodity to people. Examples are the smartphones, computer hardware and software, genetics, and electronics. People will love everything that is very functional and streamlined, and it’s a plus if it has a futuristic appearance.

After which it might be a good place to start to advertise your products or services after your business has been established. Researching such issues is one of a technopreneur’s most important tasks. The profit you are going to earn must be what motivates you to start your business and it is what keeps it in operation. It is the potential for earning profit that motivates most technopreneurs. I see where Mr Randy was coming from in his vision to make Davao City a centre of IT industry. Take a look at places who have been able to make more use of the technological development they have than others. They have become richer, with a higher standard of living; while others remain as the way they were.

Feeling that I will be missing a ton of points because of my idiocy, I bought a piece of paper from Mr Alan Jan Jumawan and so as all of the other students who did not bring a yellow paper bought a piece. And then we were asked to use a black pen for the activity. And then again there were others who did not have one and brace yourself the renting price is seventy pesos (70.00), I think. After the buying and renting of items, we started the activity. The activity involved nine (9) dots. The nine (9) dots were arranged in three (3) columns and three (3) rows. Each dots is equidistant to another. Mr Randy S. Gamboa, then, gave his instructions. His instruction was to connect all nine (9) dots without lifting, even a little, the pen with a definite four (4) number of strokes only.

It was very frustrating. Every figure I can conjure up consumes five (5) number of strokes. I started in my scratch paper. I did everything from the basic. I first did a box then crosses inside the box. I did zigzag. Then, I did a crisscross. I even tried it with letters such as “G”, “N” and “S”. I also tried it with numbers zero (0) and eight (0) but the number of strokes is three (3). In totality, I think, I did eleven figures in my scratch paper. I thought that time that it is kind of impossible to connect all the nine (9) dots with just four (4) strokes because all I came up with is either have three (3) or five (5) strokes. I was feeling hopeless that time. I really want the thousands of point badly. So, I took a very short break. I put down my pen and tried thinking the possibilities this nine (9) equidistant dots can connect with only four (4) number of strokes. What am I missing? I cannot believe myself, I even did a dramatic pose like when you see famous actors putting their hands in their head and throw a couple of head shaking. And let me tell you something, it does not work. For me, it just does not help me solve the freaking nine (9) dots. You have to understand this was the moment where I was soaking in hopelessness and frustration. It was such a cliché.

But in a sudden turn of events; well, actually a couple of minutes, Mr Randy S. Gamboa gave us a hint. Him hinting, it was like I am seeing the light in the midst of hopelessness and frustration. It made me completely revved up. It was like I finally got lose a very bad screw that was messing with my thinking. It was all coming too fast. I quickly grabbed my piece of yellow paper, a very costly piece paper, then started again. This time in doing my figures I am using curve strokes. At first I did some adjusting, I reintroduced myself with lines. I felt dumb that time. Why did I forget about the curve? And that was it. I was so focused on connecting the nine (9) dots that it had gone unnoticed to me. The way we can do our strokes was not specified. Before, I just kept on using straight lines. No wonder I cannot connect all nine (9) dots in four (4) strokes without lifting my fingers. And so I practiced with the curves till I felt I got it. Then I started connecting all of the nine (9) dots in four strokes.

In my lucky second-first time attempt I was able to make it, finally. It was not really that pleasant to look at but it worked. I tell you it is hard to work with curves. In my figure, I started at the first (1) column down to the third (3) row, first stroke; next from third (3) row to the third (3) column, second stroke; then a curve from the third (3) row of third (3) column all the way back to first (1) column of first (1) row, third stroke; then finally, a diagonal line from first (1) row of first (1) column to the third (3) row of third (3) column. I had another figure. This one looked like an inverted “R”. In this “R” figure, I started from the first (1) row of third (3) column to the left stopping at first (1) row of first (1) column. From then I worked its way downward to the third (3) row of first (1) column. And next was that I drew a curve from the third (3) row of first (1) column all the way to the centre of the nine (9) equidistant dots. Finally, my fourth stroke, a diagonal line towards the first (1) row of third (3) column. And here is a thing, I came up with a funny looking figure but take note all it took was four (4) strokes. It kind of looking like a mouse minus some body parts. To get the picture of this. I started at the first (1) row of third (3) column diagonally to the third (3) row of first (1) column then to the right and stopped at the third (3) row of third (3) column. Then I worked on a curve inside the nine (9) dots all the way to the second (2) row of first (1) column; finally, a diagonal line towards the first (1) row of third (3) column. The last stroke sort of intersected with the first stroke. And there you have it my funny looking figure.