racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Yesterday I put up a short commentary about the Boy Bastos (literally translates to lewd boy or rude boy, depending on context) issue. I just breezed through the links, and didn’t really read in-depth. I’ve decided to revisit this issue, with a more objective perspective.

Let me highlight the press release published in the Philippine Senate’s official website.

Sure, the press release itself is lacking, in terms of having a grasp of the actual concepts behind the sites and applications involved. For instance, the Boy Bastos site was referred to as providing “access to a YouTube,” (emphasis mine) as if YouTube were an object itself. However, the ratonale behind the whole thing is noble, I would think (if a bit misguided).

Senator Loren Legarda is known to be a staunch advocate of women’s rights. And it is for this reason, among others, I believe, that she is popular among her constituents (she topped in the Senate elections in 2001 and 2007). True enough I, for one, would definitely want to protect my wife and kids from the dangers that lurk around the corner. And I’m pretty sure other people would feel this way.

Legarda is author of Senate Bill 1375, the proposed Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which seeks to reinforce the war on electronic smut.

Under the bill, peddlers of online porn and other “indecent materials” would be punished with up to six years in prison or a fine of as much as P500,000, or both.

The bill provides that it would be illegal for any remote computer facility operator, electronic service provider or electronic bulletin board service provider to knowingly transmit, offer or attempt to send any communication that contains indecent material, to a person under 18 years of age.

It would also be unlawful for them “to allow access to transmit indecent material to a minor.”

However, in terms of proposing legislation, the Internet is a difficult thing to handle. It’s like a two-pronged tongue. It’s like beauty and the beast in the same person (or Jekyll and Hyde?).

The Internet is a powerful tool and medium that espouses and personifies freedom of information. This is freedom both as in free beer and freedom as in free speech. This means information is both free to get, and free for you to disseminate and distribute, as you please.

So with the Internet, the flow of information is largely unrestricted. People exchange ideas freely. People communicate faster. This is the very reason that some regimes try to curb, censor and even ban this medium–for the very reason that they fear dissent among their citizens. In most cases, the Internet still prevails.

However, along with the beauty of freedom comes the ugly side (which is also a profitable side, depending on your perspective). Pornography has been known to be a driver of technology, and along with the freedom of information that the Internet gives us is also the freedom to transmit less desirable content and information (again, desirability is subjective).

So the question now is how to combat the evils brought about by this new medium, like exploitation of women, children, and individuals in general, but still keeping in mind that the Internet is a different animal that cannot be contained by space.

Here’s what I propose

* Educate your kids on the dangers of the Internet. Teach them not to share personal and private information online. Teach them not to haphazardly post photographs online. Teach them to only talk to trusted people online. Teach them to be responsible with what they read and watch online.
* Educate parents (most important!). Teach them how to use the Internet themselves; I’m aware most kids today are more tech-savvy than their folks. Teach parents about the benefits and the dangers of the online world. Teach them how to cope with the dangers, without necessarily having to curtail their children’s freedoms.
* Educate lawmakers, law enforcers and their staff. Teach them how to handle the Internet as an entity. It cannot be contained by space or geography. Unless data itself resides on servers within a country’s soil, it may be difficult to prosecute within one’s jurisdiction. Help them keep up to date with the trends and issues.
* Teach lawmakers and law enforcers how to handle the Internet as a medium. Can ISPs be held liable for serving access to pirated content? What about pornographic content? Can social media apps be held liable for questionable content that its users upload? Can blogs be liable for comments made by readers? It’s just like blaming the telephone company when you receive undesirable messages like death threats.
* Teach respect. Earn respect.
* Actively promote productive use of the Internet as a medium.

I would think the best way to keep people from engaging in illicit activities (crime, immorality, etc.) is to effect changes from within. Society’s ills cannot be solved by imposing expectations without first ensuring that the people’s attitudes are in tune with what society thinks is right. This would be unrealistic.

I think there are two ways by which you can make people follow you. One is if they fear you, and another is if they love you. Imposing a reign of fear will sure curb or minimize whatever undesirable acts, but this will only foster dissent (and deep down inside, people will want to disobey). Focus on the positive, and people will do what you think is right because they also think it is right.

If you try to impose filters on your home computer or network, so that your teenaged sons cannot access porn, they will only find workarounds and get access to these through other means. Perhaps they can tunnel through proxies. Perhaps they can turn off the filters themselves. Perhaps they can still gain access at a friend’s place, or a public terminal. Or maybe they can get hard copies of lewd magazines pretending to be men’s lifestyle mags). But if you help them learn about the sacredness of sex and the beauty of the human body (of course, in an interesting and non-boring way), I don’t think they will resort to pornography.

Same goes with your daughters. Teach them to be confident with themselves and to be smart, and they will be less likely taken advantage of (by the teenaged boys whose parents impose filters and restrictions ).

Why they need people like us

And so folks, here’s the reason why our country–and those in power–need people like us. We are well-versed with new media like social media, blogging, podcasting, Web 2.(insert number here). And we are well aware of the potentials of the Internet as a medium, both for good and for bad. It is our responsibility to use this medium for good, and to guide our fellow citizens in using this medium in a productive manner.

So whichever side of the issue you stand on, I think you would agree with me on this.

The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worth while. The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity. – John Dewey

During my brief stint in NEDA, one of the projects I handled (to some extent) was one for the modernization of the Philippine Postal Corporation. Among the goals of the project was to make the postal system more efficient, and to lessen corruption in the system.

I don’t know what has happened to that project. Chances are, it’s still going through the bureaucratic hurdles (it’s a joint venture with the private sector after all, and these things really take years to process).

Looks like we have a long way to go. I chanced upon this post by Greg Moreno of MicroISV Philippines (one of our .com.ph bloggers) detailing some corrupt practices at the Cainta post office.

For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been sending out snail mails to Deped officials, school associations, and schools for my SchoolPad website. My mail includes 8 pages of letter-size bond papers. The cost for each mail is 23 pesos (around $0.50).

The other day, one mail was returned because the addressee has resigned. OK, no problem. Except that the cost of the mail is only 14 pesos as stamped on the envelope. If not for this returned mail, I wouldn’t have known the true cost.

When you send a mail just like mine, the receiving staff would weigh your mail first before telling you the price. The price list is not posted anywhere and only the receiving staff can see the price list or maybe she acts as if there is a price list. You cannot even see the reading on the weighing scale. The 1st time, I asked for a receipt but the lady in charge politely said they don’t give receipts and that everything is OK. The reason I asked for the receipt is I want to be sure that they would actually send my mail. The 2nd time, my worry is that the price would change given that the weight and price list is virtually non-existent. The good thing is they price consistently. They also corrupt consistently.

Whenever I claim registered mail at the Quezon City post office, they always issue receipts (anyway, the PhP 35 for “customs inspection” is standard). I haven’t lost any mails yet (including ever-important AdSense and TLA checks), so the QC post office seems to be efficient and effective in doing their job.

The goings-in at the Cainta post office reeks of blatant corruption.

Can something be done about this?

I always thought you only had to stick a postage stamp onto your envelope and it will be sent to its destination. Maybe people can avoid paying over the counter and instead just buy stamps directly to avoid this kind of abuse.

If you pay for something, should you still see advertisements?

This is one question that has been looming on my mind since the first time I ranted out about advertisements on Sky Cable a couple of years back.

When you pay for a premium Flickr account, do you get ads? No? When I bought myself a Flickr Pro account, the promise was for ads to disappear unless it was absolutely necessary to display advertisements. And Yahoo!/Flickr made good on their promise.

What about SkyCable? No.

Take Nickelodeon, AXN, Cartoon network, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel. All of these channels that feature ads for their own shows during breaks now also feature ads for Sky, Home Cable, and affiliated companies like Sky Internet.

I mean I pay PhP 800 plus (~$16 +) per month for a Sky Cable Gold subscription, and I expect nothing but quality ad-free programming. But what do I get? Advertisements.

Abe recently posted about ratified.org, the latest project that ranks Philippine blogs. Abe says ratified uses mostly Technorati rankings, but also factors in Feedburner reader count. Now I’ve been a fan of technorati because of how easily you can have your blog indexed (as opposed to Google, which may take a few days or weeks even). However, I just realized Technorati ranking may not be the best way to determine your blog’s popularity and even worth.

Here’s why.

Technorati ranks sites according to the following metrics: (1) number of inbound links from other blogs; and (2) number of blogs linking.

For instance, ratified.org ranks me at number 27, even higher than Manolo Quezon’s quezon.ph and even Connie Veneracion’s pinoycook.net, and even Bianca Gonzales’ superbianca.blogspot.com (now that got me wondering!).

So let’s say you have ten blogs linking to your site, and each of those blogs have two links to your site each (for instance, one link from the sidebar, and one specific link in one post). Your site gets 20 inbound links, and 10 linking blogs.

Technorati uses the linking blogs metric to rank blogs. So a blog with 11 blogs linking toward it will rank higher than one with 10 linking blogs.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, in terms of legitimate links and blogs. It’s a good metric after all–determining popularity and credibility based on how many people link to (and therefore like) your site.

But imagine this. What if I created a thousand flogs (fake blogs) on a free blogging service like WordPress.com or blogspot.com and what if each of those blogs had a link to my original site? And let’s add in a couple of posts from each of those blogs linking toward my original site.

I could easily get 1,000 inbound blogs and 2,000 to 3,000 inbound links from those blogs.

I’m not sure what kind of algorithm Technorati uses to determine quality. With Google, at least you know blogs have their own “link juice,” meaning a more popular, trustworthy blog linking to your site will give you better chances of ranking high in relevant searches than having a thousand newly created sites/blogs linking to you.

Okay, granted I do have more Feedburner readers than Manolo–maybe this is because I use a Feedburner redirect plugin that redirects all my RSS readers to the Feedburner feed. Or maybe I have more feed readers because my readers are more likely to come from the RSS reading crowd (the techies?). I guess it’s really not that easy to rank sites based on a few simple metrics.

Just wondering out loud.

We’ve read about horror stories all too often. AdSense checks get delayed, and before you know it, the check has already been deposited and the funds have cleared (the AdSense control panel gives you information on clearing date). In short, someone has stolen your AdSense check. They’re either from the postal service, or someone who was able to intercept your check en route to your mailbox. Chances are, they’re in cahoots with bank employees, or are able to create fake documents to impersonate you, in order to deposit these checks, which are crossed (marked for deposit to payee’s account only).

That was before, when Google sent checks directly from an office offshore. The alternative was courier service. You get the checks 3 days after being issued, but you have to pay $24 (about PhP 1,200). It sucks. I know–I’ve tried it, but that was after asking for a re-issue, when I suspected my check was lost or stolen. This is a good idea for those who put their checks on hold until the account accumulates money, or for those who get big amounts regularly.

When I got my check in the mailbox yesterday, though, I was surprised to see a local return address attached to the envelope: APCEI Logistics, Inc. It was printed on sticker paper, and slapped on top of the Google Mountain View, CA address. Also, the postmark says April 23, 2007–just two days from the date of my receipt (and almost a full month after my check was issued by Google). This indicates that Google is likely sending checks to the Philippines in bulk, and then someone here is handling the mailing for them.

Here’s the return address.

And here’s the postmark.

I’ve sent an email to Aileen Apolo, Google’s country consultant here, to ask whether there are changes in how Google handles AdSense checks here. Hopefully this will mean we can have more options soon, like cheaper courier service (anything cheaper than $24 a pop would be great) or even electronic funds transfer like what they have in the US.

Heck, even receiving the checks via regsitered mail would be okay with me. At least this way, your check doesn’t have to be carried by the postman and left at your door/mailbox/gate. Instead, you would have to claim it at the post office by presenting a valid ID. I know this is still not as secure as EFT or DHL. Even having a courier service handle your packages/letters/checks isn’t a 100% surefire way to be safe. But at least these add a few more layers of protection.

I also emailed APCEI, and I’m waiting for their response as I type this. I do hope this is good news for AdSense publishers in the Philippines who are worried about the safety of their checks. And I do hope there’s more in store for us.