(Continued from Feb. 23, 2021)
AS I SEE it however, SNS is the greatest thing since sliced bread so to speak, especially when it is combined with BPO. The latter of course would work best if it could also accept all the other voice means, including PTT.
As it is now, SNS already incorporates voice, text, video and images, thus making it the ultimate multimedia tool that was ever conceived by mankind. These technologies were all developed by foreign countries without any expense to the Philippine government, and all that the government agencies have to do now is to just use it for the good of the people. It would be such as waste if it is already there and yet it will not be used.
Facebook is perhaps the greatest of all SNS options, but it has some downsides because it does not issue tickets and it is not really focused to serve the localized networking needs within its gamut of globalized services.
Same goes for other SNS options such as Twitter and Instagram. Fortunately, there is now a new SNS option that not only issues tickets; it is also focused on the Philippines, for the exclusive use of government agencies and private entities, including the civil society. Aksyon Sentral ng Komunidad (ASK) was developed by a group of patriotic Filipino programmers for the sole purpose of using it as a tool for nation building.
An infinite number of social communities could be built within ask, but for security purposes, there is an annual registration fee of P60 that is required. The annual fee could be paid for by the sponsoring agency or it could be donated by any organization. At only P5 a month, it is really very cheap for a system that has a built-in ticketing and monitoring system.
Nothing comes free nowadays, because someone has to foot the expenses in order for the system to run. One thing good for the government agencies that want to use ASK is that there is nothing to buy, because it is web based, meaning that there is no need to put up servers or data centers to start using it.
Simply because ASK is a focused SNS, it could either be used as an official social networking site by any government agency, or it could also be used as private social networking site by any civil society organization that wants to partner with any government agency in providing certain public services.
Although ASK has the potential of practically operating as a de facto “shadow” government, I think that it would be better to cooperate with the government instead of competing with it. In theory, we already own the government because we are the ones paying the taxes to make it work. In practice however, the government could not do everything, and so therefore we should all do our part in making governance work.
I have no doubt that all the National Government Agencies (NGAs) could build their own social networking sites by using the ASK platform, but just the same, it could also be used by all Local Government Units (LGUs) from the barangay level all the way up to the provincial level.
As a matter of fact, it could also be used by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) to once and for all improve the coordination and cooperation between the two branches of government.
Needless to say, it could also be used by all the inter-agency coordinating councils, by all the Constitutional Commissions and by the Supreme Court, as a way of managing the national court system. Technically, the ASK platform is already up and running, but it still has to be customized for each and every community that wants to use it./PN
