Lots of people know that I have lots of websites related to the Philippines. But, few people know that my connection to the Web in the Philippines goes back as far as it does.
Did you know that I had a website about the Philippines even before there was Internet available in the Philippines? It’s true. And, on top of that, did you know that I had the second website on the Internet that was related to the Philippines? It’s a subject that I had not thought about for years, until I had a visit from an old friend last week.
It all started in the early to mid 90’s. My recollection is not perfectly clear, but I think it was in around 1993, maybe 1994. I had been active on America Online, and also on Compuserve for a while, and was starting to hear of people mentioning the Internet. I didn’t really know much of what the Internet was, although it kind of intrigued me. Honestly, though, the Internet also intimidated me. I was a little scared to try the Internet, because I was not very technically savvy at the time. But, I kept hearing about it, and wanted to give it a try.
One day, I was at a computer store (Computer City in Portland, Oregon) and saw some software called “Internet in a Box” which claimed that it made it easy to get onto the Net. As I recall, the software was like $39 or so, and I decided to buy it. I installed all the applications, and found how to get everything working. In a couple of hours, I was online for the first time! I opened the browser, which was Netscape, and was on the World Wide Web. I was shocked when all this graphical stuff started coming up! There were actually pictures, not just text as I had been used to. I was hooked!
After doing some exploring on the WWW, I found all kinds of interesting information. There were not too many websites online in those days, but I sure enjoyed what was there. After a while, I found a website about Davao City. It was designed and put online by a fellow named Jon Belisario. I was really awed at the site, and was even more shocked when I learned that this Belisario fellow was just a regular guy who put this online. That did it for me, I wanted a site of my own too! I decided to put up a website about General Santos City, where Feyma is from. In just a couple of days I had figured out how to get it done, and my new website was online. At that time, there were only two websites on the Internet about the Philippines – one about Davao, and my site about General Santos City. At the time that I put that site online, there was not even Internet Access in the Philippines yet!
Jon Belisario and I each got lots of accolades for our perspective sites, we got full page write-ups in the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper (there was no online edition at that time), and other such honors. I met a lot of friends through my site. Jon and I became very good friends through our sites, etc. Jon is visiting here in Davao right now (he lives in the USA) and we have had some nice time to re-connect with each other. We have reminisced about the days when we had these websites, and have enjoyed every minute of it. We were the first two people in the world to have websites about the Philippines, and todays there are tens of thousands of websites related to the Philippines.
Ah, the good old days!
Things have changed dramatically on the internet during that time, both good and bad. It's a lot tougher to distinguish yourself nowadays, but you do a good job at it. I wish I'd had the foresight to get a website going.
I remember the early days of AOL (it started as a Mac product) and the progression of online speed improvements from dial up to broadband. Nice to see the Philippines getting there, though I think they still have a ways to go with speeds and stability from what I've encountered.
Hi Randy C – Yes, things sure have changed! I remember the days of 300 baud modems! Times have changed, and I think mostly for the best. The internet in the Philippines has changed a lot too! When I first moved here there was no broadband. Then we got DSL, and it had a lot of problems. Today, I find our DSL very reliable, and pretty satisfactory in my experience.
And, yes, I do try to distinguish myself on the net, keep a high profile, and provide good sites with plenty of content for people who come to my sites. It's funny, because back in the days when I had the GenSan website, it was so simple compared to the sites I have now! 😆
i still remember it bob. when mozcom (through its franchisee omnitronics, owned by jan ced) entered into the picture in january 1995, i was among the 1st to sign up. I joined your mailing list immediately (mindanao-List as it used to be called back then) together with my brother, Orman.
that was how I got to know you and feyma. suffice to say, we became godfathers to your 2nd kid. (how is he now? taller than dad?)
and yes, your gensan website became "the" official website of the city after former city councilor and "kumare" beth bagonoc (have u seen her lately? she looks fabulous!) authored a resolution (which the SP council passed) declaring it as such.
memories…memories… memories…
if you're in gensan, pls try to give us a call and maybe fill up all those missing tidbits of the early days of the internet in mindanao…
daghang salamat & magandang gensan! 😆
It was around 1983 that i want to know something about iligan , and i just wrote a LETTER adressed to NEWSPAPER in ILIGAN CITY ,
and they answered me , and thats how started my connection.
Later , maybe 1990 – 1992 there was a little on the internet and I remember that Bobby Timonera was the first one to answer me ,
wanted to help me.
And from that time on the internet its self improved but untill now
when you mail somebody , mostly you get no answer back.
Or after a few months their side is closed again.
Even the page from iligan governement have E-mail adresses on their side.
4 or 5 times i asked something [ using their contact side ] but no respons.
And that's a shame .
Anton .
Hi bariles – Ah yes… those were the days. The Mindanao List was a lot of fun for all of us who participated. Thanks for stopping by this site – I didn't know that you read this one! 😆
Hi Anton – Ha ha… yes, so much of what you say is right on! Fortunately, and also unfortunately! 😆
this sums up the Philippines experience of the web
http://www.davaocity.gov.ph/
page not found!
Hi graham – It comes up fine for me. Maybe it was just offline for a short time when you tried it. 😡