Developers' summit celebrates a decade of PHP Users Group Phils 

The PHP Users Group Philippines (PHPUGPH) celebrated 10 years of technology and innovation with the PHP Developers Summit last April 20, 2013, over at Chardonnay by Astoria in Pasig City.  

 

PHPUGPH traces its roots to a small Yahoo! Group established in January 2003 by Allan Joseph Batac, then the Pusit.Com/Friendster Philippines Product Director. 

 

Batac is presently based in Winnipeg, Canada, but thanks to Microsoft Philippines and Globe Labs – who sponsored the event that doubled as the PHPUGPH’s 10th anniversary gathering – Batac flew in to deliver a talk to a gathering of PHP enthusiasts from rising startups to conglomerates and multinational companies.

 

Batac, at his presentation addressing the delegates, explained the life of a PHP programmer, comparing it to a “basketball game” where a mix of team play and individual skill often marks the growth of one’s “developer career”. He also advocated giving back, or paying it forward, to let their fantasies run wild, as "your imagination is your limit."  

 

Ragde Falcis, of GoRated.PH, explained how PHP has become the driving for most e-commerce sites in the Philippine. GoRated.PH is a startup that aims to inspire online confidence and purchases through the implementation of a rating widget based on what's called the “social reputation algorithm”.  

 

Meanwhile, WorkInspire and Openovate's Christian Blanquera gave an overview of the Eden PHP Library and how it can launch commercial-grade e-commerce sites in three weeks or less. Blanquera even “created” a working website on the fly (Chismosa.PH) to demonstrate his baby.

 

Other foreign and local industry players in attendance were Sulit.com.ph Co-Founder and Managing Director Ronald John David, Microsoft Philippines Director for Developer and Platform Evangelism Alvin Gendrano, Singapore PHP User Group Founder Michael Cheng, and US Autoparts Network Director for Applications Development Tim Hawkins. - KDM, GMA News