Barangay computerization

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

I had the opportunity to submit a proposal to the Rotary Clubs, in connection with a plan to computerize the barangay units using computers that will be solicited by Our Barangay, Inc. (OBI). As this happened, there were many questions posted on the Yahoo groups of OBI. Please allow me to share some of my thoughts about barangay computerization, in the hope that I could answer some of the questions in the postings.

On the question of previous failures, I think the probable cause is the lack of convergence of the three elements of computerization, namely the infrastructure, the manpower and the content. These three should really converge and compliment each other; otherwise the computer systems will die. I have seen this happen many times in many systems.

As I understand it, Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (GILAS) has taken on the task of providing internet connections to the public schools. That is a specific task by itself, but it is different from the task of OBI. When and where the two could work together and help each other, we should make it happen. This could be true in the case of local manpower, to maintain the systems on the ground. We could be very strong in this regard, whereas GILAS could be strong in connectivity and we might need their help in that regard.

As I recall, the idea for this came about after we discovered the assets of used computers that could be reformatted and upgraded for barangay use. This our starting point, and I think that we should start from this point. In my proposal, I mentioned the use of used container vans, and we should look at this as another asset that we could tap, to complement our first asset.

Database management is a boring and rigorous task. As other organizations focus on social and political work, they may not be able to sustain their interest in doing technical work. As of now, I have already organized a resource base of technical people who could support OBI at the national and local levels, but these people are not inclined towards social and political concerns.

As mentioned in the postings, GILAS is GLOBE and that is true. It would be good if GLOBE could provide discounted if not free bandwidth to OBI, but if that is not possible, the best approach is to allow the local people to look for the best available local source of bandwidth that could give them the best price at the fastest speed.

As it is generally understood, computerization is practically synonymous with modernization. As we computerize the barangay units, we are giving them the means to modernize the delivery of public services to their own residents. That is a task that they have to do on their own, we will just be giving them the tools to make it happen.

On the question of sustainability, I think that the key to this is to have non-government organizations (NGO) at the barangay level that could partner with OBI in sustaining the computerization project on the ground level. I am using NGO in a general sense, because this could also mean civic groups. This is the reason why I sent a proposal to the Rotary Clubs, in the hope that local clubs could adopt local barangay units by going into MOAs with OBI.

On the question of manpower, I think that it would be best to place the technical volunteers under the guidance and support of our local NGO partners. Although they are volunteers, they will have expenses and it would not be fair if they have to spend using their own funds.

On the question of content, I think that we could give them software templates as they need it, but we should really leave it up to the local people to determine and decide the content that they need at their own level. Hopefully, they could contribute to the gathering of data needed to properly measure our national compliance with the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Anyone who is a user of Linux and other free software is welcome to join this project. Why are we giving away computers to the barangay units? As the mountaineers would tell you, they climb mountains “because it’s there”. This is the same the same reason we have in giving used computers. Besides, it’s such a big waste to not use these at all.
Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com