Globe Labs loves connecting to the future
What would the classroom of the future look like? Try to imagine a classroom where the teacher could give a test, send a PowerPoint presentation or a list of reading materials for the week with visuals to all her students in one go.
“This is what a mobile classroom could be like,” said Harvey G. Libarnes, head of Globe Labs product and service delivery group at the recent launching of Globe Labs.
“The connectivity can be anything from Wi-Fi to GPRS, EDGE to 3G — any data connection that would have the facility for that.” Libarnes added that data applications could be so advanced that if the same teacher wanted to give her class a mobile quiz at any time, all she has to do is upload questions and send them to the students, who do not necessarily have to be in the classroom.
“The best part for the students is that they could get their scores in real time,” he added.
What Globe aims to achieve with Globe Labs is to develop future technology applications — now. And it is through the 3G Multimedia Challenge, launched early this year, that Globe hopes to achieve this. The challenge encouraged developers to design, develop and deploy applications on advanced VOIP, group games, file sharing, enterprise/consumer IM and calendaring, M-Learning, whiteboard and social networking, using SIP/IMS (Session Initiation Protocol/IP Multimedia Subsystem). What SIP/IMS delivers is multimedia services including voice, pictures, text and video or any combination of these with existing services, creating converged multiple service offerings using any access network and device.
Globe Labs chose Ericsson as its technology partner for the competition. It was D3Systems Inc. that won the grand prize for its Whiteboarding application; Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Information Systems and Computer Science and the
Globe Telecom introduced Globe Labs, which is tasked to bring in the latest information and communications technologies at the earliest market-relevant time to customers. It aims to immerse Globe and its different partners in future technologies to identify and develop applications across fixed and wireless networks that can be commercially introduced.
As a new department in Globe, it is designed to build future technology development and test beds in a creative and secure environment. It establishes partnerships with developers to build and showcase these new applications. Also, Globe Labs provides technical support to mash-up new services using both old and new technologies.
“Globe Labs is focused on building market-relevant and easy-to-use applications and developing future business opportunities that will not only benefit customers but also the industry and the country as we find more ways to improve our technology landscape,” said Fernando P. Teodoro, Globe innovations development division head.
Globe has done very well when it comes to the company’s ability to read the different markets and come up with services people need.
There are still other technologies that have yet to find the right service type for the Philippine market and GPRS is one such technology. Over the last few years there has been a lot of talk about this technology taking off here but so far it hasn’t happened yet.
“We know that that the Philippine market is very SMS oriented, very simple in terms of its service preferences,” quipped Libarnes. “But that doesn’t mean that there are no users for these new and alternative technologies.”
With Globe Labs the company hopes to veer away from the traditional approach to creating a service. Traditionally, when a telecom company wants to offer a new service it finds out how much the service will cost, find the market, make a business case and build it. After that, the service is launched and then monitored.
“Globe Labs is one of those ways for Globe to step away from the traditional business development type and immerse itself into new technologies so that we can find a strong market relevance for them,” he added.
This is why the competition was open to individuals and teams with two to five members. It required that the application’s user interface be in English or Tagalog and that it be compatible with Sony Ericsson phones M600, P990i or P1i. Participants got to do live tests of their applications at Globe Labs facilities during the judging.
Winners were judged on completeness and quality (40 percent), ease of use (30 percent), overall appeal and attractiveness (15 percent), and originality (15 percent).
Finalists got P50,000 per team and the Best Team from the Educational Institution won P20,000. The second runner-up bagged P100,000 per team, the 1st runner-up got P300,000 per team, and the grand winner received P1,000,000 per team.
“The 3G Multimedia Challenge will soon be followed by another competition that’s bigger in scale. We hope to replicate the success of this effort and engage more Filipino developers and young talents in our forthcoming project,” Teodoro said.
“For Globe, what is most important is to be able to develop applications that will enrich the lives of our customers,” said Libarnes. “This way, we can help build a better future for the country and make communication better and faster.”
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For more information and to sign-up as a partner of Globe Labs, visit www.globelabs.com.ph.
