IN OUR FAMILY, it’s the younger generation we turn to when we’re lost in the world of technology. My mother asks my 13-year-old son to find out why her mobile phone does not ring (it was on vibrate mode). My brother-in-law asks his kids why his cellphone keeps ringing (it had a virus). And my father turns to his 17-year-old apo to download kundimans into the iPod my sister gave him.

It turns out that a lot of us aged more than 20 years old are clueless about technology. I have a batchmate who knows how to check her e-mail but cannot figure out the ins and outs of our yahoogroup. Another friend confessed to not knowing how to attach photos onto her e-mail, so we’ll just have to wait for her husband to do so before I can view our pictures. And I hear about executives who are so clueless with the computer that they are dependent on their secretaries for PowerPoint presentations and reports made on Excel.

Well, the non-techie among us should decrease in number soon. That’s because Microsoft Philippines and Netopia recently partnered to offer free e-learning programs at Netopia Internet cafes (just pay for the use of the PC). Need help in figuring out Office 2007 and Microsoft Vista? No problem. Want to know how to maximize the use of the Internet? Help is here. Want to do awesome PowerPoint presentations and be an expert in using Excel files? Yes, finally, you can do them yourself.
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EVEN without the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas telling us that inflation hit 11.4 percent last June (the highest in 14 years), we know that prices have gone up way beyond expectations. Just last year, in June, inflation was at 2.3 percent. We feel the pain, don’t we, every time we gas up, pay for groceries at the supermarket, or fork over money for FX fare.

Businesses have been feeling the pinch too, and my dad’s fave binalot outlet in Silang, Cavite is no exception. The chicken adobo binalot he buys regularly has shrunk in size.

Other than shrinking portion sizes or adjusting prices, what can business people do in these tough times when business may be slower? Rather than wallow in self-pity, here are some things you can do:

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By Tony La Viña*

Nation building is best done place by place, village by village. The combination of social entrepreneurship and technology solutions is making this possible in many places in the country.

This weekend, I went around Negros Occidental to visit the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI), a citizen organization that specializes on developing and disseminating appropriate technologies to help small and poor upland farmers improve their farm-based livelihoods.

As the Ashoka representative for the Philippines, I have been on the lookout for social innovators, and a number of people have pointed me to the ground-breaking work that Nonoy Moraca and his colleagues in AIDFI have been doing, especially in water technology. They have developed and installed their technology all over the Philippines, starting with their own island Negros, but they have also gone out to other countries like Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and, more recently, in Afghanistan. Using the hydraulic ram pump as the flagship technology, AIDFI is solving an age-old problem – lack of access to water – and helping upland farmers and communities improve their communities and uplift their lives.

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While sipping barako coffee today at Figaro on Congressional Avenue in Quezon City, I thought about how the area has changed in the past 10 years or so. You see, I live in the area, and have seen how this extension of Congressional Avenue has changed from a grassland occupied by squatters to a busy concrete road connecting to Mindanao and Visayas Avenues.

In the early 90s, Congressional Avenue ended just after the road leading to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish and Congressional Subdivision in Project 8. Now, you need to take a jeep or drive a car to reach the end of it at Visayas Avenue in Project 6. Where before, there was cogon everywhere, now there are gas stations, banks, schools, salons, spas, supermarkets, a bookstore, strip malls, fast-food outlets and restaurants. In fact, when I need to take a quick break from working at home, I head off to this area for a quick meal or just to browse at the bookstore. It’s just ten minutes away from our house.

When Cherry Foodarama put up a supermarket here in the mid-90s, people at first wondered if it will survive. Most people did their grocery shopping at SM City North EDSA. But now Cherry Foodarama has won a steady clientele, and the traffic is terrible around it on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, when everyone it seems is shopping for Noche Buena here.
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Putting up and maintaining an office is getting costlier every day. If you have been working out of your home for some time now and are put off by the idea of putting up a brick and mortar office due to cost, a virtual office may be the answer.

Virtual offices have been around for quite some time now in major cities in the world like New York, London and Hong Kong. It’s great for those who don’t need an office full-time but need an office presence. Companies that are downsizing or are just starting up may also benefit from having a virtual office.

Just what is a virtual office? Tina Cuerva, marketing consultant of My Office , a Makati-based company offering virtual office services, says: “A virtual office lets the entrepreneur enjoy the benefits of having a traditional serviced office without having to physically occupy office space. This way, an entrepreneur will still have a professional image without having to spend much on capital.”
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