Thursday, March 31, 2005

 

March 30 meeting at Blugre Landco

On March 30, PUGAD had a meeting at Blugre Landco. Those who attended were: Joey Manulid, Holden Hao, Grace Villareal, Andre Fournier, George and Lisa Mae Tujan, and Mark and Pinky Suanes.

On the agenda was my proposal to have a moderated meetings or sessions. We were also going to discuss the picture for PUGAD's yahoogroup and the group's membership card.

We discussed the idea of having a moderated meeting or forum for a particular topic. I suggested that a moderator, either having volunteered or having been chosen, will facilitate the flow of the meeting and he or she can suggest what topic to be discussed. But anyone from the group can also suggest anything he or she would like discussed. The moderator will make sure that the discussion will not stray away from the topic at hand. Those present were amenable to the idea and suggested further that we get a guest for the discussion. They also suggested that we hold the meetings or fora every month.

So as agreed by all those present, PUGAD will hold a monthly session wherein as a topic, picked by the moderator or by the group, will be discussed and a resource person will be invited to talk about the topic or part of the topic. A transcription of the meeting will then be posted in our blog.

We are going to start our monthly moderated sessions on April 20, Wednesday. The first topic will be about wireless technology and our guest will be from Meridian Telekom. On May 18, 2005, our topic will be about security for our portable devices and our guest will be someone from the insurance industry. Anybody who wants to volunteer for be the moderator for next month's meeting?

We will try to make a recording of our first session and then make it into a podcast. What is a podcast? Go to Engadget and iPodLounge to learn about podcasting.

I would like to suggest that we limit our session to sixty to ninety minutes so that we can have time to discuss other matters.

Next up was about PUGAD's membership card. Those who are 'veterans' of the group will be eligible to get the membership card for free. On the other hand, new or inactive members will qualify in getting their membership cards for free if they are able to attend at least 3 meetings within a 6-month period. The April meeting will be the first month of the 6-month period.

Lastly, George brought up what picture we were going to post in our yahoogroup. We uploaded the sample picture of the membership card. You can see the picture at our yahoogroup page. (I cropped the picture after writing this blog)

Other things discusssed
Before we got down to business, Joey mentioned that his house is currently connected to the internet at 100 kbps, wirelessly. His internet service provider is Meridian Telekom. We got to know about Meridian Telekom last February when Andre mentioned that there will be a company here in Davao that will offer wireless internet access at a speed of 100 kbps. We were intently curious about it but Andre said he as of the moment couldn't give more details about the company. But about two to three weeks ago, while Joey was jogging around the subdivision we here lives in, he accidentally go to know about Meridian Telekoms. By chance, he managed to look down while he was jogging and saw a flyer that had the words "wireless" and "internet". That piqued his curiousity. He called them up and the next day, Saturday, he went to Meridian Telekom's office at the Landco building and inquired. I think he said the next week, Tuesday, he and his family were connected to the internet wirelessly. Joey said that on average, they are on 100 kpbs but they can have bursts of 288 kbps. We will learn more about Meridian Telekom and their wireless internet service soon.

Other matters talked about were the silence from PalmOne regarding their plans for the PDA market. We talked a bit about Voice over IP or VoIP and e-cash. We agreed that VoIP and e-cash will become one of the topics for the monthly moderated sessions that PUGAD will hold starting April.

Please post your comments and suggestions.

Comments:
Am I a Ghost already? I was late but was there at the meeting!

More power,

Andre
 
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