Case Studies
Web 2.0 Training Workshop
April 17-19, 2006
National Defense College of the Philippines, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, Philippines
Purpose and objectives. The training/workshop was conducted to develop and strengthen the local IT industry and IT professionals. It covered the latest developments in web technology and social software.
Strategies/Methodology. The training consisted of a series of lectures, hands-on exercises and workshops. Each participant were provided with his/her own internet-connected personal computer for the whole training duration. Integrating the Web 2.0 concept and social software into the training methodology, Pandora Squared appropriately made use of Pinoy Web 2.0 as medium of instruction allowing the participants hands-on experience of web 2.0 applications, textile formatting, ruby on rails and social software. Pinoy Web 2.0 exemplified the seamless integration of various components taken up during the training. The trainees were also provided with their own wiki pages for their personal notes and references that they can go back to after the training. Continuity of the educational process is enhanced by the on-going discussions at Pinoy Web 2.0.
Proceedings.
Day 1. After the opening, levelling-off of expectations and introductions were done. Hunter and Hans gave a brief overview of Web 2.0 followed by Hans talk on search, search marketing, search metrics and organic search. He expounded on click fraud, its relevance and the dynamics behind PPC and revenue generation. The afternoon session was started by Kevin detailed overview of Web 2.0 and run through some web 2.0 sites.
Day 2. Kevin continued discussion on Web 2.0, Social Media Marketing, and business solutions. As a workshop, the class were divided into three teams, and instructed to conceptualize a Web 2.0 business or tool. After the workshop, each team was asked to present their outputs and explain what would it take to realize their concept in terms of resource and requirements.
Day 3. The last day was solely on ruby on rails by Hunter, after which, the teams were regrouped and asked to concretize their outputs by integrating all the elements discussed.
In addition to using an actual social software or online community, the training was also shown live via webcast for those who were not able to make it. References were also uploaded to the site for public consumption.
Pinoy Web 2.0
What is Pinoy Web 2.0. Pinoy Web 2.0 is an online community of Filipinos interested in the latest developments in the web and web applications.
Purpose and objectives. The Philippines has failed to attain its objective to become the Asian hub of software development and training by year 2005. Pinoy Web 2.0 was conceived to enable and empower the Filipinos by providing an interactive and edifying platform for web users and developers alike and converse about web 2.0 concept and memes, blogging, social software, ruby on rails, search, and web 2.0 applications.
Methodology. Pinoy Web 2.0 was developed using Pandora Squared’s Genesis Engine, running purely on ruby on rails. As an amalgamation of simple and effective user centric design with a solid core of technology, Pinoy Web 2.0 allows community members to post blogs and discussion topics, create their own groups and networks and interact with their fellow members through messages.
Alpha Magazine
News Corporation’s first Weblog.
We worked with News Corporation on the launch of their first weblog ALPHA, which supports a new Australian sports magazine. ALPHA magazine is designed to break all the traditional rules and stereotypes of Australian Sport magazines.
Building something that matched the unconventional approach of Alpha was a challenge. Working with Strategist Consultant to News Corporation – Mike Walsh and the News Team we delivered the creative and technology enablers to allow their staff to converse with their readers any time day or night 24×7.
Delivering to market the Alpha motto of: >>It’s Sport and It’s Personal.
APIC
5 sites in 7 South East Asian Markets, over 100,000 users: Malaysia.net, Indonesia.net, Singapore.net, Tamil.net, Teleindia.com
In November of 2004 we were approached by Bala Pillai Principal of APIC to help him develop the resources of five consumer generated media sites in 7 South East Asian Markets. The sites built on simple HTML did not look that impressive yet had nearly ten years of user content and 100,000 users a month across all 5 sites.
Our process was a straightforward and monumental effort that suffered two catastrophic setbacks: a global DNS hacker attack and the deadly Boxing Day Tsunami. Few business relationships survive under such circumstances yet our relationship with our partner IC Consulting, experts in legacy systems and ebusiness and our client grew much stronger.
- First we had to stabilise the servers, as they where currently a haven for malicious web spoofing, spamming and other black arts. While patching the many holes in security we suffered massive retributions. One attack was generated by nearly 11,000 servers, yet all the sites remained operational.
- Second we had to gather more information from the users, and make them part of the evolutionary process to do this we conducted a series of surveys to gather ethnographic and demographic detail.
- Third, the Tsunami hit, not only was it devastating for the region most of the support team was away for holidays. Luckily we were able to help the local population and with our partner IC Consulting we reacted quickly, developing and launching forums on the three main sites Malaysia, Indonesia and Tamil. In addition we immediately worked with the affiliate arms of the United Nations and The Red Cross Red Crescent to host online donation advertising prompting nearly a 15% Click Rate on traffic of over 50,000.
- Finally by making the user’s part of the process we developed and sucessfully delivered 5 social software enabled consumer media sites within 60 days. Each Web site allows for native language support in English, or the participants mother tongue. Each user has a digital ID, can blog and participate in any discussion.
By April 2005, Malaysia.net had secured one of the leading places on the web for citizen journalism and participatory media. By June 2005, Malaysia.net had attracted international recognition for open media and continues to this day.
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