We're baaaaaaaaack!

... and you're invited. :)

Details to be announced soon, so watch this space for updates!

Philippine Transport App Challenge

Google Developer and Business Groups are hosting bootcamps all over the Philippines to help participants prep for the Philippine Transport App Challenge! Join us at the bootcamp on Saturday to learn more about the competition, tinker with the Google Maps and Directions API, coordinate with World Bank directly in case you have any questions, or even look for potential teammates!

Developers and business folks are welcome to join us at the meetup on Saturday, July 13th! To reserve a seat, get your tickets at ptac-bacolod.eventbrite.com

Update: We're dropping by Iloilo on Sunday, July 14th! Register at ptac-ilo.eventbrite.com to reserve your seat. Just like Bacolod, devs and business folks are welcome to join!

About the Competition
The Department of Transport and Communications, in partnership with the Metro Manila Development Authority and Cebu City Government, is hosting the first national transport app development competition. You are invited to develop applications based on two new kinds of publicly available data: regularly updated geographic location and service information for all bus, jeepney, and rail routes in Metro Manila, as well as live traffic incident data streams in Manila and Cebu.

During this 3-month development period, you can work together with fellow developers and volunteer mentors, to build innovative solutions for the Transportation challenges.

For more information about the Challenge, please visit the competition site at philippine-transit.hackathome.com/

1Q Recap: SanHack and SDD!

We started out a bit slow this year with two events. Two awesome events. :)

In partnership with the World Bank, GDGs all over the Philippines hosted Sanitation Hackathons in six cities: Bacolod, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Manila, and Zamboanga.

From the Sanitation Hackathon site:

In dozens of countries around the world, IT and sanitation experts join forces for an intensive brainstorming and programming marathon to develop innovative applications that will help address the challenge of the 2.5 billion people who lack access to adequate sanitation. 

Interest in the hackathon was more than what we expected. With amazing support from our host school, Colegio San Agustin and local sponsors GlobeLabs and SMART, 45 developers in the Bacolod site were able to roll out 10 solutions (out of 29 all over the Philippines!).

And now on to the good news...

To meet up with the hackathon winners and formally announce the news, World Bank representatives flew out to Bacolod last February. Out of the 10 apps that were developed, one caught the eye of the Organization --- WaterHole, created by Ian Divinagracia and the father and son duo of Walter Adrian and Walter Frederick Seballos, will be granted financial support to make their app a reality. Congratulations!

 Team CSA & WaterHole with World Bank Representatives

1st Place: TrashIt

2nd Place: WaterWatch

3rd Place: WaterNess

A week later we were back in Bacolod to host Student Dev Day Bacolod, an event to introduce what's awesome in tech to 500 students and members of the academe from colleges and universities all over Negros Occidental. The event covered a wide range of platforms, including Android, HTML5, Sites, plus a talk on innovation and startups.

Check out the event photos at Google+!

Big thanks go out to Google for making the event possible, GlobeLabs for providing lightning-fast internet connectivity and our host, La Consolacion College.

Photo Credits: Aumar Daguia (SanHack), Hubert Gamboa (photos, c/o Google+)

GDG Bacolod in 2012: Year in Review

5 Meetups. 6 MapUps. 3 Hackathons. A MapMaker Summit and a DevFest.

Over the past 18 months, the GDG Bacolod community has grown to become one of the Philippines' most active chapters. Check out our journey in 30 slides.

GDG Bacolod year in review, presented at the GDG Organizers' Summit, December 2012

2012 Planning/Meetup, Colegio San Agustin Meetup, Global Android Dev Camp

The Bacolod community started the year with a massive meetup: 400 students showed up at Colegio San Agustin to know more about everything new and awesome about tech. Hosted by the Engineering Department of CSA, students from seven colleges and universities flocked (some even travelled for 2 hours just to get there!) to learn more about ideation, development, and monetization.

Devs later camped out, sleeping bags in tow, at the Global Android Dev Camp in February. Hosted by CSA, the community saw so much potential in the local developers that succeeding hackathons were a no-brainer. Churning out 6 apps in its first hackathon, attendees later went on to join (and win!) Startup Weekends in Manila and Cebu.

MapMaker Summit & Meetup, DART Hackathon, Silay & Bacolod MapUp, Google I/O Extended, Google Apps Dev Challenge, Negros Occidental Tourism MapUp

Coming out of the first quarter with a stellar track record in supporting local developers, Bacolod joined 18 other cities all over to world for the Happy Hour Hackathon. Organized by the community with support from Google, attendees were treated to a technology preview of DART.

Bacolod and Silay City MapUp, DevFest Bacolod, Sanitation Hackathon, Maps API Workshop

DevFestBCD, which was prepped, announced, and organized in under two weeks, was the community's first time to witness a DevFest outside of Manila. Local developers were treated to discussions on Android, HTML5, DART, Apps, and YouTube amidst colorful bean bags and red, blue, green, and yellow lights.

We thought that was it for the year. We were proven wrong a month later.

Organized in partnership with the World Bank, the community joined more than 1,100 developers and experts to tackle sanitation challenges. Bacolod produced 10 apps at the Sanitation Hackathon --- 200% more than any other site in the Philippines. We'll be announcing something even more awesome on February 9th, so watch this space for more details.

What's next?

This is just the beginning. 2013 will be a whole lot more awesome.

We're off to Bacolod this weekend with the World Bank reps to award the winners of the Sanitation Hackathon --- with special announcements to boot! ;)

A week later, we will be back to run our 2nd student event, now known as the GDG Student Developers Day. Hosted by La Consolacion College, the student community will be given a preview of what to expect after they graduate. There will be discussions on HTML5, Android, Google Sites/Apps, and Startups.

We're working with local developers to develop a tourism app too! Stay tuned, we will be posting announcements in this blog.

Want to learn more how to help GDG? Shoot me an email! We're always on the lookout for volunteers passionate about sharing their time and resources to help the community.