GTUG Philippines in 2011

It's almost the end of 2011! This year has been another great year for GTUG Philippines. Here is our year-end report.

Highlights:

• Official domain name, www.gtugphilippines.org
• Our official Google Chrome Extension and Android App
• New subchapters (GTUG Philippines Singapore, Bacolod GTUG)
• Summer of MapUps (mapping parties) for the Philippine Red Cross and the community

Here are our events and meetups for the year:

• Show-and-tell meetup (January 26) at the Orange & Bronze office
• Google Adsense and Doubleclick for Publishers Meet-up (March 22) at CodeFlux office [Photos]
• Google I/O Extended 2011 Manila (May 10) at UP Department of Computer Science [Photos]
• Mapping Party (May 21) at Redfox Innovative Technologies Center [Photos]
• HTML5 and Chrome Extensions meetup (July 20) at CodeFlux office [Photos]
• Google DevFest 2011 Manila (September 19) at Asian Institute of Management Conference Center [Photos]
• Google Analytics Meetup (October 11) at Smart Jump Experience Center, MegaMall [Photos]
• GTUG Philippines Christmas Party (December 4) at RedBox Greenbelt 3 [Photos]

Thanks to everyone who attended our events, and those who sponsored the food/ venues. We hope you continue to support us next year. If you have suggestions/recommendations or if you want to sponsor food/venue, contact the group managers or just send an e-mail in the mailing list. See you all again on January!

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GTUG Philippines Christmas Party

In behalf of the group managers of GTUG Philippines, I am inviting you to our last activity for the year, our first Christmas Party. It will be this Sunday, December 4 (4-7 PM) at RedBox Greenbelt. The venue can only accommodate 40 participants so please register now here. We will send confirmation emails within this week.

We are planning for games and other activities. If you are interested to join the exchange gift, please prepare a gift worth PhP 250 (we will give the final amount on the confirmation emails).

Some of these details (except venue and time) may change. We will inform you as soon as possible, if ever there will be.

Google Analytics Meet-up

Google Analytics guru Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar will be in Manila! Come and join the meet-up on October 11, 2011, Tuesday, 6:30pm at the Smart Jump Experience Center in Megamall. This is the talk that we missed during the DevFest (Implementing Google Analytics)!

If you are interested to attend kindly sign-up on the form below and join us on the mailing list to get more updates about meet-ups.

Chrome Extension and Android App

I had made an android app for the Google Technology User Group (GTUG) Philippines. It contains blog posts and the latest messages from our mailing list. There is also a tab for links to our online presence. To download the app, check it out in the Android Market or you can scan the QR code below:

Also, I have also made a Google Chrome Extension for the group. The initial version has been published last January. Now, it is in version 1.6 already. The extension is available in the Chrome Web Store. Users can get the latest blog posts, mailing list feeds and tweets. It also contains GTUGPH links.

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GTUG Zamboanga 1st Anniversary

I know this is so late but nevertheless, here it is...

Last August 20, 2011, GTUG Zamboanga Chapter celebrated its 1st Anniversary at the E-Learning Center.

With the activities prepared for that afternoon, around 30 local developers, tech enthusiasts, educators and students gathered together and celebrated the event. For the first year, GTUG Zamboanga Chapter had around 8 events and we are looking forward for our next event this coming October 2011.

Big thanks again to our following supporters: Ariba Tech Solutions, E-Learning Centre, Inc., O'reilly Media, DevCon Philippines, and Orange and Bronze Software Labs.

Check our website and Facebook Page for more updates.

Summer of MapUps for the Philippine Red Cross

Filipino volunteer mappers organized mapUps across the country to map important healthcare places for the Philippine Red Cross in preparation for the rainy season. 

Malaybalay, Bukidnon

April 27, 2011

Team: Bukidnon Bloggers

Blog post 

(Photo from Irene)

General Santos

April 30, 2011

Team: Soccksargen Bloggers

Blog post

Video

Photo from Orman

Baguio

May 7, 2011 at University of Baguio

Team: University of Baguio with super mapper Theofrenz Cayambas

Photo from Ellen

Iloilo

May 14, 2011 

Team: Iloilo Bloggers Society

Photo from Mari Claire

Manila

May 21, 2011 at RedFox Training Center

Team: GTUG Philippines

Photos  

(from RedFox)

Makati

May 28, 2011 at Asian Institute of Management

Team: Tech Tanod

Cebu

May 28, 2011 at University of the Philippines - Cebu campus

Team: UP Cebu geology students

Photos

Zamboanga

May 30, 2011 at Ateneo de Zamboanga University

Team: GTUG Zamboanga

Blog post

Photos

Photo from Jerome

Iligan

July 30, 2011 

Team: Iligan Bloggers Society

Blog post

More information about mapping in the Philippines on our sites page. And drop us a line on this form if you are interested to organize a mapUp in your neighborhood.

HTML5/Chrome Extensions Meet-up, the Aftermath

Last July 20, Wednesday, about 50 Filipino developers flocked to CodeFlux for the HTML5 and Chrome Extensions meet-up. Brian kicked off the meet-up by welcoming all those who attended. It was immediately followed by the talk on HTML5 by Mardan Tesoro and Raymande Leano (both from 98Labs). Here's the video of the talk -



The next talk on Chrome Extensions was done by Jomar Tigcal (Orange & Bronze). Here's the video -



To cap the evening, Paolo Melendres (CodeFlux) spoke about the KKB Android app.

Here are some resources you may want to check out:

Jomar's Chrome Extension slides
Jomar's awesome GTUG Philippines Chrome extension

Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore
Business Site: www.google.com/chrome/createanapp
Technical Docs: http://code.google.com/chrome/apps/
HTML5 Tutorials, sample code: http://www.html5rocks.com/
Chrome Apps Google Group: http://bit.ly/chromeappsgroup

See you on the next meet-up and join us on the Google Group!

More photos -

HTML5/Chrome Extension Meetup

Topics: HTML 5 (Brian Tan Seng) and Chrome Extension Development (Jomar Tigcal)
Venue: CodeFlux office [Penthouse (8th Floor) RCI Building, 105 Rada Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City]
Time: 07:00 PM to 09:00 PM

If you want to attend the meetup, sign-up now.

Offline Web Applications on App Engine and Django

What: Offline Web Applications on App Engine and Django
When: 7pm - 8:20pm June 8, 2011
Where: 38th Floor 8 Shenton Way Bldg. Singapore

Dan Delima - "App Engine development has gotten better over the past year with other groups taking the effort making django work without much modifications on it.  I have taken personal interest in building offline applications and have tried isolating problems and solutions on making web applications work with or without internet access.  Applies to mobile web applications too."

If your interested to join this talk, please register here https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&pli=1&formkey=dDNRZ04zQnN1VWhtRXJoTmVfdk53NFE6MQ#gid=0

Or visit our blog the blog at http://gtug-ph-sg.blogspot.com/

GTUG Zamboanga's Chrome Extension Development, Android Workshop, and MapUp for Philippine Red Cross

It was a busy May 2011 for GTUG Zamboanga Chapter. We had three events:

Chrome Extension Development
Held at the CS Research Lab in ADZU last May 6, 2011 from 2PM to 5PM, I introduced to the group the basics of creating Chrome Extension and how to publish and monetize it.

Android Development Workshop
This is actually the 2nd batch of the workshop. This was held at the Advanced ComLab in ADZU. Around 20 Android Developer enthusiasts attended the event last May 21, 2011 around 1PM-5PM. The topics discussed are the following: Android Architecture, Basics of Android Development, and how to Publish Apps in the Android Market.



MapUp for Philippine Red Cross
In partnership with Philippine Red Cross, the GTUG Zamboanga Chapter had their MapUP last May 23, 2011 at the E-Learning Center, Zamboanga City. Around 20 Google MapMaker volunteers converged to help map Zamboanga Peninsula and other nearby provinces like Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.



Thanks to all who attended the events, volunteers and venue sponsors.

GTUG Fil SG 2nd Meetup

The 2nd GTUG Fil SG meetup was held at Starbucks, 8 Shenton Way, the attendees were five GTUG Fil SG members and Aileen Apollo of Google. The meet up turned out to be a fun and productive meeting, Nikki 'volunteered' to be the first resource person for Google AppEngine (well actually we volunteered him). He will be sharing to the group his expertise in GAE and Carl will be handling the logistics of the venue. Hoping to see the other members to be more active and participate with the group's activities. On the next meetup I’ll be giving away Google stickers and keychains, so see you guys on the next meetup!


Randell, Nikki, Carl, Bryan, Aileen and Elvin

More pictures from Aileen's Album

GTUG PH Singapore Chapter Meet-up

What: Filipino Google Technology Users Group in Singapore Meet-up
When: May 23, Monday, 7 to 8:30 pm
Where: Starbucks, 8 Shenton Way

To join this group please sign-up at http://groups.google.com/group/gtug-ph-singapore

Google I/O Extended Manila

Organizing Google I/O Extended Manila was really tricky since the keynote was at midnight in our timezone. We managed to bring together a small group of developers from Manila and Los Banos to watch the keynote and the first Android talk. Our gracious host was University of the Philippines College of Computer Science to Professor Rom Feria.

Up next: Manila Mapping Party together with the Philippine Red Cross. Sign-up now and get a rare Google Mapmaker-Philippine Red Cross shirt when you attend! Details and sign-up can be found here.

GTUG Zamboanga May 2011 Events

Hi there! Jerome here, your GTUG Zamboanga Coordinator. I just want to update you with our events for this month of May 2011.

GTUG Zamboanga  is hosting 3 events this month, so please don't miss it fellow local developers and volunteers!

May 6, 2PM-5PM: GTUG Zamboanga: Chrome Extensions Development at the CS Research Lab in ADZU
May 20, 1PM-5PM: GTUG Zamboanga: Android Development Training (Part 2)
May 23, 1PM-5PM: Zamboanga Peninsula MapUp for Philippine Red Cross

Please check the links for more details. Muchas gracias!

Summer of MapUps

Volunteer mappers are coming together from all over the country! We are mapping to help the Philippine Red Cross. For more information on how to help, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/mapphilippines/home

Bukidnon MapUp
April 27, 2011, 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Malaybalay, Bukidnon

Soccksargen MapUp
April 30, 2011, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
General Santos City Mayor's Office
Event Site: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124046884336491

Baguio City MapUp
May 7, 2011, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.
University of Baguio
Sign-up Form: http://goo.gl/1QWpT
Event Site: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=199999790039007

Iloilo MapUp
May 21, 2011, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Netopia, SM City Iloilo
Sign up Form: http://goo.gl/2y8CT

GTUG Philippines Metro Manila MapUp
May 21, 2011, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
RedFox Training Center,
Sign-up Form: http://goo.gl/Bh7On
Event Site: http://www.gtugphilippines.org/2011/04/may-21-mapping-party.html

GTUG Zamboanga MapUp
May 23, 2011, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Ateneo de Zamboanga University
Sign-up Form: http://goo.gl/jSFzq
Event Site: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183467248372722

Blog and Soul MapUp
May 28, 2011, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Asian Institute of Management (Meralco Caseroom)
Sign-up Form: http://goo.gl/tS2Hd
Event Site: http://blogandsoul.org/

Upcoming: Cebu, Tacloban, Ormoc, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod

If you are interested to host a mapUp, kindly let us know at http://goo.gl/DR2gA

May 21 Mapping Party

To help out the Philippine Red Cross and the community, in general; GTUG Philippines will be sponsoring a mapping party. It will be held on May 21, 2011 (1:00 to 5:00 PM) at Redfox Innovative Technologies Center, 26 Dona Hemady Ave., Barangay Marianas, New Manila, Quezon City (right across Jubbilee Christian Academy) [Map]

The venue will only be able to accommodate a maximum of 35 attendees. Sign-up now here. We will notify via e-mail to confirm if you will be part of the participants. If you will not be selected, don't fret, you can still help in the efforts by going to http://www.google.com/mapmaker.

For more information, visit the project site here.

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Mapping Parties for the Philippine Red Cross

(Front) Paolo, Brian, Wayne*, Dante*

(Back) Avel, Theo, Aileen, Lakan, Orman, Leonel*

Eight Filipino mappers represented the Philippines during the Google Geo User Summit in Singapore early this month. We had a great time in Singapore learning more about Google's geo products and we also got a chance to present how volunteer mapped data has helped our country during crisis (Ondoy) and the elections (Find Your Precinct). (See our presentation here under NGOs, Edu and Govt).

With 7,100+ islands there's still a lot more areas to map and so we thought we'd do mapping parties for the Philippine Red Cross.

Help the Philippine Red Cross by hosting a mapping party. Just bring together a couple of your friends and start mapping your neighborhood. It's easy! All you need is a Google Account (i.e. Gmail) and you can start mapping via Google Mapmaker. We'll even send you some shirts, just register your mapping party on this form.

Or you can join any of the mapping parties across the country! Here's the schedule (will be updated) -

GTUG PH Mapping Party, May 7 (Jomar will announce the details after Easter)
GenSan Mapping Party, April 30 (details here)
FEU-FERN Mapping Party, TBA
Baguio Mapping Party, TBA
Iloilo Mapping Party, TBA
Bukidnon Mapping Party, April 20 at Malaybalay City
Davao Mapping Party, TBA
Digitalfilipino Mapping Party, TBA
Tech Tanod Mapping Party, TBA

*Wayne, Dante and Leonel are geo advocates :)

The Google Adsense and Doubleclick for Publishers Meet-up

Our small meet-up Tuesday last week was packed with website publishers/developers and bloggers.

Amrita Kamat from the Google APAC Adsense team gave an overview and tips. Here are some resources on Adsense:


Google Adsense Blog
Google Adsense Videos
Google Adsense Support

Carrol Lapsys from the Google APAC DoubleClick team spoke about DoubleClick ad serving technologies, specifically DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business. DFP Small Business is an ad management tool that's free to use for up to 90 million ad impressions per month! Here are some resources on DFP Small Business:

DFP Small Business website

DFP Small Business YouTube channel, with tutorial videos

And here's our class picture!

More photos!





Many, many thank yous to CodeFlux for hosting the meet-up!


Please watch out for the mapping party in April with the Philippine Red Cross!

GTUG Meet-up in Manila

Topic: Adsense and Doubleclick for Publishers

Guest: Carrol Lapsys, Partnership Development, Google SEA
Amrita Kamat, Adsense, Google SEA

Date & Time: March 22, Tuesday, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Venue: Makati (will send info when we confirm if you are part of the first 20 to register)

We have limited space for this meet-up, so we can only accommodate 20 attendees.

Kindly sign-up at http://goo.gl/iurPA if you are interested to attend.

Introducing Android development to Zamboanga developers

Last week, Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU) Computer Science Department celebrated the 2nd ICT Week. With the series of events prepared, GTUG Zamboanga participated and introduced Android Development to the local developers, educators and CSIT students who plans to engage in Android application development.

The Android Seminar was held last February 23, 2011 from 1PM-5PM, Wednesday, at the ADZU College AVR wherein 60+ people attended the event. Attendees came from different local universities and colleges. I introduced them to the basics of Android development using Eclipse as the IDE and Ms. Grace Sojor, a fellow GTUG Zamboanga member, showed us on how to setup Android development using Netbeans IDE.

More photos to come...

We were supposed to have a Android Hackathon but unfortunately we had a little Internet connectivity problem and running short of time. So, we decided to move the Hackathon on our next event this coming April. We'll keep you posted on the final schedule.

We would like to thank our sponsors: Ariba Tech Solutions, Orange and Bronze Software Labs, Inc., Ms. Grace Sojor, GTUG Philippines, and all the volunteers who assisted us during the event.

On a side track, last Saturday, I went to Pagadian City to attend and talk at the 2nd Philippine Society of Information Technology Students (PSITS) Regional Conference (Region 9) wherein hundreds of students from different colleges and universities from the region attended. I talked about Web Development and introduced GTUG PH to them and our activities.

Anyway, until our next event! See you!

GTUGPH Show-and-tell meetup

The Google Technology Users Group Philippines (GTUGPH) had its first meetup for the year last January 26 at the Orange and Bronze office. It was a show-and-tell meetup where group members demo and present their apps built using Google Technologies.

The following are the apps presented:

• GTUG Philippines Chrome Extension by Jomar Tigcal
• whatzo.com, a social recommendations site, by Mike Mallete
• Open Map Charts by Brian Tan Seng
• 7-Elections by Tom de Leon and Mike Ng
• Orange and Bronze Maps Demo by Butch Landingin
• Haybol.ph, a Google Maps & Philippine real estate mashup that runs on Google App Engine, by Edge Dalmacio and Lorenzo Dee

It was the first show-and-tell meetup of the group and there might be more of this kind soon.

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GTUG Zamboanga Mapping Party, a Success!

Our Mapping Party last Saturday, January 29, 2011, was a success! Yey! We were able to plot and map different establishments, tourist spots, streets, etc. We also edited some entries with wrong labels and location. Thanks to all who volunteered!

Here are some pictures (courtesy of Nicoy) taken during the mapping party:



We would like to thank Mr. Bean Cafe for opening as early as 4PM to accommodate us and also our thanks to an "unnamed" startup company in Zamboanga City for sponsoring our snacks.

Until our next event! See you!

Android Development (with Hackathon)

In partnership with the Ateneo de Zamboanga University ICT week this coming Feburary 21-25, 2011, the GTUG Zamboanga Chapter will give a seminar on Android Development on February 23, 2011 at the College AVR from 1PM-5PM.

We would like to introduce this mobile technology to local developers in order to promote open source technology and encourage them to develop Android Apps.

Also, during this event, we will have a short hackathon that will be particpated by the attendees and we will ask them to develop an Android App within an hour.

If you're interested to join, please signup here.

We are also looking for sponsors (snacks and swags perhaps? hehe ) for this event. Just contact me on Twitter @jeromelocson.

Muchas gracias! See you!

GTUG Zamboanga Mapping Party!

Our local chapter, GTUG Zamboanga, will have a Mapping Party this coming January 29, 2011, Saturday from 4PM to 8PM. Venue for the party will be announced soon.

Our main goal here is to help map more streets, business establishments, tourist destinations, different institutions, etc. since Zamboanga City is not yet well mapped on Google Maps. And this is our small contribution to promote local tourism, in one way or the other.

If you are available and interested to join, please sign up here. Muchas gracias!

Let's parteh! Parteh!

GTUGPH January 2011 meetup

The past year has been great for our group. This 2011, we have a lot of plans in mind. To start the year, we will be having our first meetup on January 26, 2011 (6:00 PM) at the Orange and Bronze Software Labs office. It will be a show-and-tell of apps developed using Google Technologies. The first 10 who will present will also have a chance to get a black Google shirt, from Ms. Aileen.

Join us to present your apps and see others' apps. If you are interested, sign-up here.

Davao Del Norte Convention for I.T. Students

On January 8, 2011 Tagum City, Davao Del Norte is promoting its first wide Information Technology Convention in which GTUG Davao was invited. It is one of their bold steps to update trends and development in web, mobile and technopreneurship.

Speakers shared their knowledge on the following:

Eric Su (founder of Piclyf a local startup in Davao) - social network and pictures bringing to life with Piclyf.

Mark Anthony Panizales(GTUG Manager for Davao and founder of Wormbizz) - HTML5 , WebGL - Google Body and Aquarium, and Wormbizz a social site for entrepreneurs that uses GWT and other Google API’s.

Eric Lasorita - Java

Chris Ibara – Technopreneurship

Andre Fournier – Android

Isah Gem Gonzales - Responsible Blogging

The talk lasted about 4 hours and created an impact to most students.

To view more pic you can visit http://picasaweb.google.com/makspanizales/StMaryTagum#