Message from the CEO
During my talks
in schools, not only once was I asked about educating educators. It
would seem that there is a great number of them who sees incompatibility
as a bug, instead of a limitation. A student who uses a Mac and submits
a presentation file without exporting it to a format which the
instructor uses got berated for submitting a file with a virus.
There are those who are more forgiving.
A
friend's 6-year old daughter complains that she can not find the
computer lesson that they are doing in school because her dad's laptop
does not have Paint. (It has Gimp). She asks her dad to get Microsoft so
she can pass kindergarten.
Younger, I would have been frustrated.
Younger and if I were in my friend's shoes, I would have stormed into
the kindergarten class and berate the teacher for putting my kid into
proprietary softwares.
The lacking ability of some to learn and
keep pace with technology should not be a burden for the others to bear.
Older, and hopefully wiser, I ask, "Should it?"
8Layer is 8
years. 2 years passed kindergarten. Robert Fulghum lists what we should
have learned by this time in his modern classic book. First on the list:
Share everything.
We are proud to share a vision. Ambitious, it
is, but not impossible – an IT-enabled nation. Here, we recognize the
growing importance of enabling individuals. It hasn't been over a year,
but with a team so dedicated, we have touched base with a lot more
schools than we have anticipated. Zenzic, how the program would be later
known, has almost skidded to a stop. The team fought to go on. Share
everything. Trials and triumphs, everything.
Fulghum's lesson
learned number two: Play fair. Responsibility and accountability have
been used interchangeably somehow. Most often, in the corporate setting.
It could be because an effective worker can not live without the other.
If an employee failed to file and pay the necessary tax forms, and the
employee leaves, do we blame the government for imposing taxes? The
limitation of one could be a burden and if overlooked too often, it is
the company's failure, too.
On 8layer's 8th year, I am proud to
walk alongside my team, bruised yet still prodding on to cascade what we
have believed in our hearts since the beginning. We are free to choose,
we are free to think. We hope to reach as many individuals and share
these to them.
On 8layer's 8th year, I stand indebted by the continuous support of and partnership with IBM-APAC, Intel
Philippines, PLDT, Epson Philippines and Philippine Opensource Network.
These big names have humbled us. Like a father to a son, they have
fueled and nurtured our greatest interest and passion to learn, to share
and to teach opensource.
8layer's 8th year beckons an exciting
year ahead. This year, milestones will be created and celebrated. This
year, we shall strengthen a service-oriented strategy in all areas of
our operations. This year, we shall continue to affirm the magic and
wonder of collaborative interactions.
This year, we share the fruits of what we have learned and plant the seeds of sharing and collaboration as we move forward.
