|
The
Philippines is fertile ground for the growth of
information and communications technology (ICT) talent
and has great growth potential in the field, top
officials of software development firm, Sun
Microsystems, said.
Speaking
in an exclusive interview with the BusinessMirror, Sun
senior vice president for software marketing, Aisling
MacRunnels, said the Philippines ranked eighth in the
world in terms of open-source software use and
development thanks to the Filipinos’ “culture of
communication.”
Sun
Microsystems director for technology outreach and
open-source programs office, Matt Thompson, concurred
saying that the Philippines “is fundamentally about
communications because Filipinos are into many forms of
communication.”
MacRunnels said Filipinos could reach the top of the
list for open-source software use and development “if
they gain the confidence to just go and do it. It is a
matter of making the decision and taking it to the next
level, of owning the concept instead of just employing
it.”
Having
immigrated to the United States for lack of job
opportunities in her native Ireland, MacRunnels likened
the Philippine situation to that of the Irish
experience: “I went to the US because there were no
opportunities in Ireland [at that time]. When open
source was brought to Ireland, the people there began to
own the technology, to innovate with it. The Filipino
can do the same and benefit tremendously from it.”
Ireland
had suffered a 50 percent unemployment rate as a result
of a moribund economy. The entry of open-source software
into Irish territory has, over the last 15 years spurred
economic growth and, now, “Ireland has a 100-percent
employment rate. Not only are there jobs for everyone,
but the people in Ireland have a wide range of choices,
thanks to the people’s ownership of the technology and
to angel investors who believe in the technology and the
people.”
According to her, Ireland went from supplying other
countries with labor to rising up the value chain and
becoming entrepreneurs rather than being employees.
The
country, she said can take a page from the Irish
experience book: “Anyone [in the Philippines] can have
anything we have to offer and anything they want to
achieve if they just reach out and grab the
opportunities open to them.” |
