DevFest 2010 Manila

Google D3vF3st is a free developer event where you can learn a lot about Google technologies and other developer news. It is a tour of Google engineers and developers advocates in various cities around the world where they serve as resource speakers and give talks, coding demonstrations and answer questions. D3vF3st 2010 will take place this year on cities in Australia, Israel, Spain, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

The Philippines already had a DevFest last 2008. This year, we are very lucky to be a part of another DevFest. And our country is their first stop-over on Southeast Asia. DevFest 2010 Manila will focus on the following topics: Chrome/HTML5, App Engine, Social APIs and Maps API. There will be five engineers and developer advocates coming here. They are Jeremy Orlow, Daniels Lee, Patrick Chanezon, Timothy Jordan and Bob Aman. Additional information about them can be found at http://code.google.com/events/devfests/2010/asia1.html. There will also be a Hackaton during the DevFest.

DevFest 2010 Manila will be on July 6, 2010 from 08:30 in the morning to 06:00 in the evening. The venue of the event is still being finalized and will be announced soon. You can now register at http://code.google.com/events/devfests/2010/asia1.html. (Register early because slots are limited).

See you in the D3vF3st!

Update: The event will be held at UP-Ayala Technohub. The registration is already closed by now.

GTUGPH meetup (March 10, 2010)

The Google Technology User Group Philippines had another meetup last March 10, 2010 with Dan Delima, Software Engineer from Google Japan and Christine Songco, Technical Program Manager, Developer Relations, Google Inc.

Dan discussed Google Visualizations API, Google App Engine (GAE) and Google Web Toolkit (GWT).

The meetup was held at the Tech Bar of G2iX.

GTUGPH: From 0 to 1

It all started as the Filipino Developer Help Group mailing list. Because most of the members of the mailing list use Google Technologies and there isn't any Google Technology Users Group (GTUG) for the Philippines, the group became the Google Technology Users Group Philippines. It was then registered as the official GTUG for the Philippines in the GTUGs directory.

GTUGPH proved it was more than just a mailing list. A GTUGPH page was created, which was intended to be filled with announcements and tutorials in using various Google technologies. It also had various events. The first event was a webinar about Google App Engine by Dan Delima last July 3, 2009. The first meetup was then held on July 24, 2009 at the Penthouse of Orange and Bronze Software Labs, Inc. Roger Filomeno discussed and demonstarted using Google App Engine and Facebook API to create a Facebook app.

On August 27, 2009, a meetup was again held at the Tech Bar of G2iX. It was about Google Wave. Google Wave developer sandbox invites were given to the ones who registered early. A day before, Aileen Apolo, Marc Lester Tan, Roger Filomeno, Alvin Gamboa, Nikki Ramirez, Randell Benavidez and Jomar Tigcal had tried out using Google Wave.

Another meetup was held on November 17, 2009 at the fifth floor of Orange and Bronze Software Labs. There were three guests from Google: Christine Songco, Nikki Bui, Search Quality Manager for Southeast Asia, and Diana Skaar, new Business Development Manager. The topics discussed were iGoogle and Google and Open Source. GTUGPH then kicked off 2010 with an Android meetup last February 19, 2010 at Room 3302 of Smart Tower. Miguel Paraz and Marc Lester Tan were the speakers.

The group continues to grow. As of now, it has already different chapters: the Students Chapter, Cavite Chapter, Cebu Chapter, Cagayan de Oro Chapter, Davao Chapter and Zamboanga Chapter