COMDDAP Davao Expo 2009 Experience

Last July 2-4, the COMDDAP Davao Expo 2009 held an IT event at the Apo View Hotel. The Computer Manufacturers Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or the COMDDAP shared their new products, services, and technology. The event was also attended by some IT professionals and students from different colleges. The registration was held online. At the bottom of the registration form before you can submit the form was something like a confirmation and it went like this, “Just to make sure you're human: 1 + 1 = __ “. From there, I already know that it will really be a great event.
My schedule for the first day was on the Open Source For Business Applications - Spinweb Productions, Inc. It was the last session for that day. I was interested with this topic since in our Elective 1 we have been talking on Free and Open Source Software in the forum. The speaker presented applications that are Open Source Technologies. He gave differentiation on Open Source and Free Software. Although the speaker was on the Open Source side, he also gave some good points on free software. The best thing on that session was at the bottom part where some IT professionals were raising their questions and sharing their insights on the said topic. They were somewhat arguing on the issue of security towards using free and open source software and on Proprietary Software. There was a guy there who stood and gave his insights on with what will he prefer to use in the computerized election this coming May 2010. I think he’s one of the organizers of the said event and I admit, he was really cute not mentioning how clear he was on explaining his side and how good he was in speaking Filipino although he looked like an American. So much for that, on my own opinion, the election is a big event and I think no one would ever put that on big risk since it will determine the future leaders of our country. On the issue of what will they prefer to use, Free and Open Source Software or Proprietary software, it made me realize and weigh things out. If they will be using a Free and Open Source Software for the election, yes, it will truly lower the cost. But, will this lower cost out pass the reliability, efficiency and security of the system? On the other hand, if they will use Proprietary software for the coming election, that would really cost high. The cute guy was right when he said that if they will be investing on Proprietary software from an identified company for that high risk event that would give them a guarantee that there is someone (the company) that they can run to or sue when some errors or problems that would occur on that software. This discussion really left me confused on the issue between Free and Open Software and Proprietary Software. Well, I think it’s a matter of reliability, efficiency, cost, quality and security check on which is better between the two.
The next day, July 3, our first session was ERIC Dealership Management Systems (DMS). Honestly, I was not able to digest the things the speaker was saying at that moment because I cannot relate to the topic and I was a bit sleepy that time. I cannot concentrate on it because I was really excited on the next topic which was the HP Thin clients. I think the speaker on ERIC – DMS was talking about one of the systems they were making. At the first look, it was a system with a simple interface. But as the discussion went on, the functionality of the system was amazing. That simple interface covered the complicated functions of the systems. It has a number of functions essential to the system.

The next topic on that same afternoon was on the HP Thin Clients, I already read articles on this that’s why I was excited. That was the first time that I saw a thin client in front of me. It was really small compared to my system unit. Though it only has small memory capacity, the thin clients also have other advantages. According to the presentation, with the HP thin client computing model, vulnerability to virus attack on the thin client system is significantly less than a standard Windows PC. It consumes less space because of its thin appearance. Different features on the said product and its new models were also presented. Since it is designed to be energy efficient and with environment in mind, saving you money, I think this will also help in the major environmental problem of the world which is the global warming. Many institutions are now adopting this technology. At the end of the presentation, I thought of something. What if the University of Southeastern Philippines will adopt this kind of technology? Will this give a great impact to the university? Well, I think it would take a lot more years. I really had a great time listening to that discussion.

The last topic that afternoon was the Windows Server 2008. The session was more on demonstrations on the installation. The speaker presented different features on Windows Server 2008. Some applications were new to me. I think I’ll understand more on the said demonstration once I can have a face to face interaction with those applications mentioned.

Each presentation was ended with freebies which made the participants enjoy more the event. Outside the conference room were exhibits on different products and services. Some booths were also offering free registration like the sandbox from SMART. We came to see the Danpro Inks at the corner side. They offer services like converting your printer to print using those tubes and selling inks for those type of converted printers. I don’t know how it is called. Although I already heard about this ago, that was the first time that I saw it clearly.

Both the exhibitors and the participants took advantage on this event. The exhibitors gave the participants knowledge from their products and in return, they had a chance to promote their product. The participants as well gave their support to the said event and to the exhibitors there and in return left the venue with new knowledge.

Events like this are really helpful for students like me to be acquainted with new innovations especially on the IT world. I hope more events like this will be held in Davao City so we can join and experience a different kind of learning activity.