Y4iT Planned Schedule

Being unemployed, I finally have the chance to go to the Philippine Youth Congress in Information Technology (Y4iT) this year.

With the event less than two weeks away, I’ve decided to plan out what I’ll be doing in those four days. Given that the talks will be done simultaneously at the UP Theater and the UP Film Center, I have to decide which talks to attend.

My choices under the cut.

September 8

For the first half of the morning, I chose the Ateneo Prof/CSP guy and the Sun Outreach guy over the PSITE guy and the CICT guy. I don’t really have a preference here so I could go to the other if I feel like it.

The choice after the break is much easier. Sun’s RIA for Java, JavaFX, is more relevant for me than animation, and I have no intention of listening to Manny Villar’s keynote.

For the first talk of the afternoon, I’ll take a talk on IT Career over one on OpenSong. I’m confident about my taking charge of my career but I couldn’t find anything about OpenSong on Google so the former wins by default.

I’ll be going to the Web Toys talk instead of the more relevant talk on ERP because of the speaker. Luis was a regular at the internet cafe I hung around at during my college days (Sonic Internet Cafe) and I got to play CS with him on an almost daily basis back when I was a freshman. Naturally, I’d be more interested in his talk than a talk from someone I don’t know.

After Luis’s talk, I’ll walk over to the UP Film Institute to listen to the Marketing Through Social Networks talk. The topic is somewhat relevant to me and it’s a lot clearer than the “Ongoing Search Marketing Education: How to Keep Up” talk in the UP Theater.

I’ll skip the other talks for the rest of the day to attend DevCon. As a gathering of software engineers, I’m definitely interested in this event.

Based on the videos, I don’t expect this gathering to be in the level of InfoQ in insights or knowledge transfer. I mean, comparing Java and .NET and Ruby on Rails? That’s like comparing apples and oranges and grapes!

Still, I think it’s better to give it a chance. Besides, if it gets too boring or the participants’ opinions get in the way of the facts, I can always heckle like crazy. Having developed in the three platforms listed above and knowing the pros and cons of the three makes heckling a lot easier.

[Edit: The “Web 2.0 Demos with DB2” looks like a WTF to me. Web 2.0 deals with front end technologies like AJAX and curved images (hehehe). DB2 is a database, not a front end technology. I really don’t see the connection here. ]

September 9

I’m getting bored of comparing in prose so I’ll do the next comparisons microblogging style.

Chiz Escudero vs CICT keynote:
Not interested in politics. Will go with CICT.

Feria’s Microblogging vs Love in Cyberspace:
Cyberspace has always taken a complicated role in my love life so I’m wary about that talk. But at least it’s more interesting than a talk on Twitter.

TBA (Sun) vs ASP .NET 3.5:
Unless Sun’s talk is about Oracle’s merger, I’m better off understanding the new things about ASP .NET 3.5.

Careers in IT vs Robotics AI:
I’ve been through most roles in IT already. Robots and machine learning looks like a fun refresher course to AI.

Predicting Innovations vs Democratizing Innovation:
Predicting tech has always failed in history. Thus, building tech through collaboration is more interesting.

Software Engineering vs IT Journalism:
Going with SE’s a no-brainer. Looks like the guy knows agile so I probably won’t be able to heckle as much as I like.

Careers in Game Development vs Empathic Computing & iPhone Development:
The first two are about as interesting as the other, but the Open Forum for the previous talk is potentially interesting.
iPhone Development looks interesting, but somewhat impractical until Apple fixes their AppStore approval process.

September 10

CICT keynote vs talk from a Google Asia Pacific guy:
no contest

Obvious Reasons Why People Succeed vs IT Security Audit:
I’m familiar with both, but let’s face it, the former’s target audience is college students and not retirees like me.

TBA (IBM) vs Education 3.0:
I’m more interested in e-Learning and teaching as a whole (I even got a Training category in this blog) than a talk from IBM.

TBA vs Voice Acting talk:
VA’s not relevant, but neither is TBA. Besides, Pocholo voiced Limone in Wedding Peach. (Doesn’t make sense, huh?)

Global IT Certification Standards vs eHealth and Telemedicine talk:
Both aren’t that interesting, but since I’m a PhilNITS certified guy…

Cloud Computing and SaaS vs Legal talk on Online Privacy:
The former’s more relevant than Anonymous. But only just a bit.

Animating Dayo vs TBA:
TBA again. You know the drill.

Sugar vs nothing:
OS for kids’ e-learning. Somewhat interesting. Having no simultaneous talk also helps.

September 11

Dick Gordon vs CICT guy
no to politics again

Internet Romance vs Kinesthetic Learning
One cyber-romance talk is enough. A slightly non-standard training approach is much more relevant to me.

Skill Needed in the Workplace vs another microblogging talk
Career vs microbloging? Career.

“IT” Fashion talk vs TBA (NIP)
Me listening to a fashion talk? Uh.. I’ll take what the Physics dude is having.

IT Governance vs SEO
SEO is overrated. But then again, how do you rate IT Governance?

Game Development 101 vs Aligning Your Social Network Assets with Your e-Portfolios
One game dev talk is enough, and you can’t have enough talks about career management in web 2.0 (unless you’re using microblogging…)

Creative Media vs Spring Roo
Imee Marcos vs the Java equivalent (or shall we say, approximation) of Ruby on Rails? Tinatanong pa ba yun?

Election System talk vs nothing
Not really interested, pero last talk na kaya pagbigyan na natin.

Final Words

That’s it for my four day plan. I didn’t include some things above like browsing the Technology Jobs Expo at Bahay ng Alumni and having DMST fishball lunches, but I guess that’s a given.

If any of you guys plan to go to Y4iT, just holler. I might need more hecklers for DevCon. (Just kidding. :P)