Dr. Reinabelle Reyes answers 20 questions from Ateneo Physics Majors on graduate school and physics careers

Last Feb 8, 2012, 12:00-1:30 p.m., Dr. Reinabelle Reyes met with the Ateneo Physics majors of  at Rm 318 of the Padre Faura Hall.  Below is an edited transcript of her answers to 20 questions asked by the students.

Responses to Questions of Ateneo Physics Majors

by Dr. Reinabelle Reyes

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes

I am Reinabelle Reyes. I finished BS Physics in Ateneo in 2005. I then went to ICTP in Trieste, Italy. I took PhD studies in US. The Princeton Physics program is five years. I finished last year and applied for Postdoctorate positions—these are research positions in the university after getting your PhD. I applied in places. I chose to go to University of Chicago’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics. I will be staying there for three years. Very recently I joined a conference in Tokyo, Japan for two weeks. Philippines is near. So I decided to visit here and see everyone. And that bring us here.

It is my first time to be back in Ateneo since 2006. The difference is for the better. Beautiful. The contrast to the outside is very strong. Noise and smoke outside is very sharp. But when I went inside Ateneo by tricycle, it is very quiet. You need that for thinking for research. There is a new library. I spent a lot of time there in the Rizal Library.

Now for advertisements. I will have a talk later on Astronomy on how galaxies formed at Faura AVR. Now, I won’t talk about that. The purpose of my talk now is more for all of us physics majors. I wish to get to know each other. I shall share my extperiences in graduate school—how that works, what I studied, some research. I also want to hear from you—a free-flowing back and forth. If you have questions, please raise your hand, introduce yourself, and state your question. Then I shall answer.

1. What programs did you apply in the US?

I applied to Physics programs. I chose Astrophysics because someone made it interesting to me. I took Astrophysics and Cosmology in ICTP. In US physics department there, there is agroup working under cosmology. Some universities have strong astrophysics programs. You can apply to both . It is a separate department. I applied to all—in all eight places. I applied to Physics programs. Some astrophysics. At that time, I applied to high-energy physics cosmology. Partly because there are choices. In Princeton it is astrophysics. Ian Vega mentioned a friend there. I applied there and got in.

Did I answer your question?

2. Did you take the GRE before going the Italy?

I took it in Italy. In Milan. Ten hours. Trieste from North of Italy to Milan. It is only held twice a year. In time for the application deadline around January. GRE around August. Months before. Starndardized test. GRE. TOEFL. GRE physics is separate. Most good programs require GRE physics. Some optional.

3. Can’t we show a certificate of English Competency?

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes with the Physics Majors of Ateneo de Manila University

They dont consider us. Sad. It is geopolitical. In Trieste they accepted that letter. The medium of instruction in Ateneo is English. In US universities, they are very strict, unless you are still a colony. Now we are not a colony. We are under foreign country. They require the TOEFL. Even the nurses. It is a money-making business. But one of the things we can think about for those who are serious in applying. We can have a fund to support for the test. Someone vouches us for the tests. There is Adrian Serohijos. If you think this is possible, we can talk about it. If you are a graduate student, you have a stipend. You are like an employee of the university. You are a teaching assistant or a research assistant. You work for the university and in turn the university pays you decent salary. Actually, the difficult thing. Different. Structure. Financial structures. That is minimum wage. They pay you decent salary for living salary. Student subsidy. If you are not extravagant, you can save. One hundred dollars is just one textbook or five movies—I am converting now. We can talk about that.

4. That means that students can ask your your help?

Filipinos. They need help. Yes. Although we can band together, we need a mechanism. It is not possible to give freely. If there are people whom we can trust and there are people there who trust me, I can pitch for them. Then we can do something. It is not just me. I cannot afford 100 dollars times 8 times 5. But if if there are four of us, we can chip in.

Tuition is free. No living expenses. Paid for by the department for all the university in the US in the sciences. The stipend is based on merit. They care about financial. They don’t ask about your financial. The basis are the GRE, GRE physics, TOEFL. GRE physics. It matters. Top schools require 85 percent tile. For those in the 70 percentiles, what matters then is the statement of purpose where you say what you will do there. You must show promise for research and then if it fits the job of groups there. It can be found in the internet and in the department webpage. Look at ArXiv preprints. Papers essentially. Check if you research is related there. If you apply in one department, and nobody does the research you are interested, it won’t match. It doesn’t mean that you are not a good match. Find a good university that would be a good match for you. Recommendation letters matters. Assessment of someone of higher level, your higher supervisor. They will assess your work ethic and attitude.

In my case, what I think helped my recommendation is from professors from ICTP. I studied there. So some of them knew about ICTP. If you knew about Ian Vega, he is in Florida. A good match. They have a track record that Ateneo physics came there and did very well. We can trust that it is a good program. We are not known internationally. They are not aware of us. If there are more of us there, we can uplift our international image. The people here can uplift our reputation for the next generation.

5. How much did your year in ICTP help in your PhD?

Tremendously. I look at it as a stepping stone. One step and then to PhD. Just for the preparation. Just mental-like exposure to research. Hard to describe what it is. It will broaden your horizon. You go to the US. At the forefront. It is a different level. Practically, it mattered because of the recommendation letters. The professors there will help you. For example, you have your professors there and many friends. We asked our professors there. What departments in the US? If they have collaborators there, their recommendation letters will be valued, because they worked with them. It is a link of trust. In a way, it is a meritocracy. There is a network that is very valuable. Here you have network only. There is meritocracy there. You can work your way up to be part of the network.

It happened that a professor then in Trieste, ICTP came from Princeton Physics. And then he was there. But he did not became my professor. I was eyeing him as my supervisor. I applied in Princeton. They called this professor. And I was there. What he did he emailed me and talked to me. He asked my professors about me. They reported to Princeton. If they don’t know the person, it would be difficult. So that is what connects. Otherwise, I won’t make it to Princeton Astrophysics. It is the top three in the world. A matter of luck. In context, somewhere like top 15 programs without a connection. There are nuances. I am hoping there. The world is a complicated place. Many people come straight to the US programs from here. In my particular case, it took that matter of luck to get into an elite program. It is also a combination of attitude, hard work, and luck.

6. Was your family supportive of this?

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes gives a talk to the Ateneo Physics Majors in Room 318 of Faura Hall

I think all I could say they are not unsupportive. Give it all. Ok, the problem is my parents they are not aware—the society is not aware of the graduate school. Maybe in five years. They know some take masters and MBA. In Science, it is graduate school. Like law school or medical school where you have to study more of your field. Specialization like the doctors. But it is different. You have to explain to them. I wouldn’t get financial support. Family responsibilities. You have to work it out. Even the chinese students. I have no responsibilites. I can support myself. You will be away part of the time. Does that answer your question?

7. Parents usually ask for the money. Is physics not very financially conducive?

Why not we should talk about that? Here, industries are hiring. Solar cells. Hitachi. Sponsorships. It is just a matter of making them aware. In the case of graduate school, multiply by 40 dollars. States cost of living. It is enough. I get 30,000 dollars a year as a student. Like a salary of a pulic school teacher in the US. Some of our countrymen go abroad—that is what they get. In the postdoctorate, it is 60,000 dollars a year.

8. What do you do in graduate school that helps the world?

That is a very different question. First, change the world by changing yourself. Big part of it. Acquire skills. Focus. And then coursework components. You learn more advanced physics. The biggest component is research. You work on some problem that no one has worked on, particularly aspects that are unsolved, new knowledge that you can contribute. There are projects that are directly important, some indirect. For example, if your project is working on some things like battery to make it more efficient, they you contribute directly. There is part of this industry that you can directly apply. Anyone uses battery. Part of the bigger thing. Unless, of course, you have discovered a breakthrough that makes it possible to do things now than tomorrow. There are those who are like me who are trying to understand why galaxies look like this way or understand their formation. What changes the world is our view of our world and our place in the universe, though it may not be as practical as to feed the hungry. The fact that the universe are filled with planets, that every star has a planet, that there are thousands of planets orbiting other stars. This changes our view of ourselves. Being spread through the media, ordinary people will have an idea. We are not the only planet. That will change the way we view. There is perspective. Depending on your inclinations. Spend time on something practical.

9. Is it possible for you to come back here?

Of course, here. I am here. I am talking to people, some think tanks. More concretely, where I can be, the thing is, there are possibilites. One is to join the academe. There are other careers. Just to make it simple, the major ones are academe, join the faculty in the university. There are around 20 universities around the country that offers BS Physics. For PhD four only. We can grow there. Ateneo, La Salle, UP, UPLB, UP Manila, University of San Carlos, Mindanao State University. In the North there is one. Join the faculty, teach, do research, train students. And you have ties wit the industry. That is the academe.

There is industry. The industries here I think are growing. I want to know. There are companies that hire physics majors. Hitachi, HP—all in all they just have nine PhDs—which is very few. So I am sure they would be happy to hire more. It is just a matter of connecting. Talk to Dr. Greg Tangonan. And then the government needs more scientists. There is a total of 5 PhDs in government. PAGASA. PhiVolcs. Dr. Punongbayan is in Geophysics. Dr. Tangonan is in Senate Commission on Science and Technology with Senator Angara. There is definitely a need. It is just a matter of finding them.

10. What are your plans after your postdoctorate?

To be honest, this is the main purpose of this trip. I talk to people how much is the salary. I ask about grants and access to grants. There are encouraging things in DOST, CHED, and PCIERD. Government agencies are giving money for research in science. And there is money. We are not a poor country. Where does the money go? The administration is good. I hope it goes where it is suppose to go. To be honest, I am seriously thinking what to do.

In the US or international, I can do another postdoctorate. Take as many postdoctorates as you want. You will be floating. Until you apply for Asst. Professorships to be part of the academe and work your way up. My field it is less connected to the industry. Follow your personal inclination, what you want to do. Most people in my field when got into finance: Wall Street, programming, financial modelling. Recently, there are ethical issues. They cause recession. More went to the academe. If you want to be rich, go to finance.

11. You said in the sciences the tuition is free?

In engineering it is also free. Not in Humanities. There it is harder right now. Just think about it.

12. Do you do something else aside from Physics?

Josh Uy, President of Ateneo League of Physicists, and Dr. Reinabelle Reyes

I go to the movies. I follow basketball. I am a Spurs fan. I have a husband. That is one part of your life. I am on Facebook. I think of it as microblogging. I don’t share that “I am here” or “I am eating this”. If I see good ideas and if I want to share, I post it there. I am interested in society by virtue of growing up here and transplanted to a different world. I am only speaking my mind. I want to understand more broadly. I am interested in Economics, Astrology, and Psychology.

13. Would you have any words of wisdom for younger physiciststhat would interesting to look at in the future?

I don’t have a crystal ball. In terms of that, if you ask me, then I would not know I would be in Astrophysics. The best advice is: put your best. Lean in. Based on the possibilities, consider what is interesting to you, what you think can do and do that, and then put everything. And then trust things will work out and they will in due time. The world will notice. But on the practical side: learn Latex programming, Python, C, or Fortran. If you learn one programming language, you can go to another. It is all computers now. Simulations by big computers. You need special programming skills like parallel computing. But once you know the basics, it is all about learning. Be open to the idea that you can learn anything. For the basics, LaTeX is the language of typesetting. I am also happy that I learned LaTeX here. In the US all our laboratory reports are in LaTeX. I learned Unix, ls, and shell language. I learned how to vi—it is a text editor in the shell. You will deal with ls to organize your files.

14. Was there a point in your life when you chose physics because you fell in love with it and then you become disillusioned. And you realize that physics is not for you. How did you force yourself to move forward in physics?

It is not so dramatic for me. I am level-headed. It depends on the person. I am like that. I can relate. One time in Italy, I compared myself to my pears there from Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Brazilians are very good. They have a different training. Cubans also have very good level of mathematics. What am I doing here, I asked. I know I would go where I am good enough. For example, I did not go into theoretical high-energy physics, not because I don’t like math. I think you always have to massage reality, where you can always push yourself, what is more appropriate for your talents and skills. You are happy because you are doing well. Don’t force yourself. It goes both ways. Love something that would also love you back. And it would be a happy relationship. You always have a choice. Physics is vast. Even astrophysics. There are planets, galaxies, observations, data analysis, simulations. Within these are many problems. We always have a choice on what we want to do. It is a very rich world once you feel that you know and put yourself there. For example, join a faculty department and become a professor. It is a different work. In Princeton there are different professors doing different things. So they institutionalize research rotations for different semesters. Then you get the feel of the research topics before you commit to your thesis. You talk to people and ask what they do. Then you can decide. You can have more ideas. That is ok.

15. In reality, when you apply outside, there are Indians, Chinese, and other competitors. What is the edge of the Filipino?

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes with Dr. Nofel Lagrosas, Chair of the Department of Physics

The edge? I really don’t think so. I think there are very few who are applying. I think the advantage here is that you can speak English. English is our edge. We are fluent in English. Indians can also write in English. The Chinese have trouble. GRE and TOEFL—they perfect everything. They have centers for training. What happened is that they adjusted between different Chinese. In the Philippines you are not in that standard. So if you get good grades, it really correlates to your aptitude, especially if you can do research here and work on something independently. India and China have very good institutions, so there is different variance. In Ateneo you are among the best. Philippines is a big place. By the mere fact you are here, you are in the top five percent. You are the elite. Get the best training. So there is no reason you can’t prepare for it. Don’t think about them. They will be your friends when you get there.

16. Given our context right now in the country, how important do you think it is to bring into the consciousness of the people about research in physics and other sciences? What is the best way for us to go about?

Definitely. The question is how and how effective. For example, I think it is scientific knowledge is the always the way for development. That is how countries develop. And the number of PhDs correlate to economic development of a country. The question is implementation. For example, Mind Museum. There is a new science museum in Bonifacio Global City. It is a center for science education for everyone. I am going there to give a talk. In one night you have 200 seats filled up. This is only way to do it. You have a museum and then it is well run. They have interactions with people and mass media. I think that will happen. What really should happen in concrete is job creation, so that we can catch up with our ASEAN neighbors in growth. Part of it will be traced to science and technology. And then Physics is easy. F = ma. Start with your kids and cousins. Explain to them that this is important. That is how cellphones work. The GPS. Start with yourself. Blog. I do interview for rappeller.com.

17. You said you took your GRE in Italy, but GRE is the same. How did you study GRE?

I joined the forum online and get practice test. Two official practice tests. Very precious. Four practice tests. Then what I did is to review. You have a textbook. Serway, Young and Freedman. Essentially that is just all there is. What I did is, at the start, I took one test that is timed. It is important. It is a multiple choice test. Different techniques. Look at the choices first. You can plug it in, for example. Times simulate the test. Psychological. Silence. No. 2 pencil. Shade. One run. That will give you familiarity in the types of questions. Then you go back to Young and Freedman. After review, you take the simulated test again. Important is time management. There are different questions. You have to be smart. If you don’t know the answer, let it go. Test taking is a different skill than research. But that is whay is required. You have to maximize your chances by learning that skill. But you have 1/5 chance of getting it right if you do it randomly. To discourage that, they subtract your wrong answers. Five choices. You know three are wrong. These two you are not sure. You have 1 of 2 chances. Next time, if you don’t have any idea, don’t shade. This is GRE Math. Take some time to go through the questions. Simulating the test helped me a lot. It is not the first time I am doing it. Your mind is prepared for that. The questions are similar. Older tests are available online.

18. Is GRE Physics multiple choice?

GRE physics is multiple choice, because it is easier to check.

19. Do you consider applying to Europe?

No, but that is me. A lot of colleagues do. It is a different system. You get a scholarship. Experimental is easier. Same field. Depending on the funding of the professor. In the case of Germany, I don’t know. You have to talk to someone else.

20. How do you do your research method? What is your schedule?

I am not a good role model. You should be there at 9 a.m. No Facebook. I think it is important to focus. That is certain. You can do three hours of work when your mind is sharp. No Facebook. Email is just text. Do it. And I think that is flow. If you are into something so much, things just flow and you don’t care abou the time. That is when yhou do your best work. That is when your mind is sharp. On good days.

If you have other questions, feel free to approach me.

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes to give a talk at Manila Observatory: “Testing general relativity on cosmological scales”

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes

In connection with the Manila Observatory’s brown bag seminar series, please be informed that Ms. Reina Reyes of Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago will deliver a lecture as part of this series on Friday, 17 February at the Klima Conference Room of the Manila Observatory from 11:30am to 12:30pm.

Was Einstein wrong? Testing general relativity on cosmological scales using weak gravitational lensing and galaxy peculiar velocities

Abstract

Although general relativity (GR) underlies modern cosmology, its validity on cosmological length scales has yet to be stringently tested. Moreover, the breakdown of GR on large scales can provide an alternative explanation for the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe, which the current cosmological model attributes to the effect of a mysterious gravitationally-repulsive dark energy.

Fortunately, using cosmological observations from current and upcoming galaxy surveys, we have the power to detect modifications to GR on large scales. In this talk, I will present a robust and model-independent observational test using imaging and spectroscopy of ~70,000 luminous red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This test combines three different probes of the large-scale structure– weak gravitational lensing, redshift distortions, and galaxy clustering– to obtain a probe of gravity that is insensitive to uncertain astrophysical parameters. I will show that our results confirm the predictions of GR on scales of tens of megaparsecs (~108 light years), provide interesting constraints on modified theories of gravity, and serve as a proof of concept for upcoming galaxy surveys,
which are expected to yield more stringent constraints.

Ateneo physics student Michael Andrews joins the 1st Institute of Advanced Studies School of Particle Physics and Cosmology at Nanyang Technological University last 9-31 Jan 2012

Institute for Advanced Studies

by Michael Andrews

MS Physics Student, Ateneo de Manila University

The “1^st Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) School on Particle Physics and Cosmology with Implications for Technology supported by CERN” was 3-week long collection of lectures on the above subjects presented at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. It is patterned after the 1-3 week long winter and summer schools on particle physics hosted by various physics institutes in the US and Europe. The IAS is a division in NTU that chiefly organizes science-related workshops and conferences for researchers and students around Asia. The next one might be in 2014 still.

I learned about the School through the Ateneo Physics Department back in November 2011. The School was targeted at “advanced graduate students” and postdocs in Asia with a basic knowledge of particle physics. I didn’t have any formal classes in quantum field theory (QFT) but applied anyway. I was accepted with the USD 1,000 fee waiver in late December. The only reason I was accepted, in my opinion, was because I was working on a theoretical piece in classical field theory. As for the fee waiver, I would credit my DOST scholarship which I cited prevents me from employment.

Michael Andrews (first from right) and fellow students in Institute for Advanced Studies School on Particle Physics and Cosmology

There were roughly 50 participants and coming mostly from Asia, including India, China, the Middle East, and almost all countries from South East Asia ranging from high school students to postdocs. Many but not all students had taken QFT. Almost everyone was doing some kind of theoretical particle physics/cosmology-related research though not everyone had actually published. Everyone, though, was polite and friendly, and despite the disparity in cultural backgrounds, it was surprising to learn just how many habits we shared: collecting physics ebooks, facebook-ing, 9gag-ing, etc.

All the lectures slides are available online in the School’s website. The lectures were also recorded on video, the link to which should eventually be found in the same website. They included everything from abstract theory to experiment and instrumentation. Most were reviews/summaries on the state of affairs for certain sub-fields, but some current research was also presented. While an understanding of QFT study is needed to fully appreciate some of the lectures, the gist can always be gleaned—this shouldn’t deter students from applying. I’m sure not everyone understood every detail of every lecture. Particle physics is quite a wide field and some talks were just too specialized. The most interesting, for me, were those on Dark Matter, CP Violation (study of matter-antimmatter asymmetry) and Supersymmetry (SUSY). The one on accelerator applications was quite a surprise, too.

Many of the lecturers were senior scientists, both in accomplishment and age. The full list may be consulted in the IAS website but to mention some notable speakers, there was the present leader of the CERN Theory Division, who gave a string theory and phenomenology talk, and the past leader of the CERN Theory Division—also one of the most cited physicists in the literature—who spoke on the Standard Model and Supersymmetry. One of the co-founders of quark “color” theory, talked, no less, about quantum chromodynamics and his take on extending the SM. Also, there was a QFT book author and MIT professor, a member of the OPERA experiment (where alleged superluminal neutrinos were clocked), and member of the AMS experiment (the particle detector in space).

 There are a lot of very exciting prospects for discovery but with them many strong caveats. The forefront of high energy physics is very much a mixed human enterprise: there’s a lot of uncertainty and disagreement as to how to proceed; it’s nowhere near as buttoned-down as it appears on textbooks.

 As an example, there are compelling reasons the SM is still the incomplete picture. But in the absence of high energy data, a zoo of models proposing how the Standard Model (SM) might be extended has mushroomed. And one fear is that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—and any future collider—may not be able to probe the energies required to see deviations from the SM, leaving theorists to forever guess in the dark.

Michael Andrews (2nd from left) and fellow students in the Institute for Advanced Studies School on Particle Physics and Cosmology

But in the midst of it all, one gets to appreciate the diversity and rigor in science and scientists. I recall an incident where 2 physicists to my left at a lunch table politely asked a string theorist to my right, who had just given a talk with his wife right beside him, “May I ask you a physics question?” After hearing “Sure,” the two switched gears and began to bluntly interrogate his wisdom in pursuing certain non-falsifiable aspects of his talk. A heated exchange of highfalutin terms ensued, but which, to them sounded like basic English. Eventually, this string theorist, who had made little mention of experiment in his talk, conceded to saying that “If the LHC doesn’t find anything, then I will give it up.” But another string theorist in the School made it clear right at his talk that he holds little hope of string theory ever being tested experiment. Akin to a pure mathematician, he was content to show that string theory establishes connections within other mathematical structures or problems, physical or otherwise. And yet another string theorist, or rather string phenomenologist, the one from CERN, spent much of his talk explaining how signals consistent with string theory might be detected at the LHC. Such an emphasis on experimental detection was a trait many CERN physicists showed, including the theorists.

I’m told that there is quite strong demand for researchers to do phenomenology/data analysis at CERN. For those interested in a phenomenology/experimental PhD route, the best way is to apply to European universities which will typically have reserved slots at CERN or to the CERN Summer School, where you may thereafter be the given the option to complete a Masters jointly with a supervisor from CERN. The National Institute of Physics at the University of the Philippines, I’m told, already has access to some data for research. I don’t know if this is available to other schools.

For a PhD in theoretical particle physics, at least in UK and Germany, you will need to obtain a specialized Masters in high energy physics first; the local programs wont cut it. Institutes like the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy, and also the Perimeter Institute (directed by Neil Turok of Cambridge) in Canada offer these with fee waivers. In Asia, I hear the National University of Singapore (NUS) has a well-staffed high energy physics faculty.

There are number of other 1-3wk summer/winter schools in particle physics in Asia and abroad (e.g. ICTP), many of which offer fee waivers. I strongly recommend applying to these, if only for the exposure. Perhaps I can work with LeaPs (League of Physicists) to compile a list of these and Masters schools.

Michael Andrews (center near the bottom of the stairs) with other participants in the IAS-CERN school

Science Communication in the Worldviews and Cultures of Scientists by Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon

Editor’s note: This is an edited transcript of the lecture given by Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon   last Friday, 27 January 2012, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 pm at the Manila Observatory Basement Conference Room.  Inez Ponce de Leon is the Science and Risk Communication Specialist at  the Manila Observatory. She has undergraduate and masters degrees in  Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines, Diliman; and a PhD in Science Communication from Purdue  University. Her research interests include the nature of science and  scientific research; the sociology of the scientific discipline;  science and society; genetic engineering; and biotechnology.

Science Communication in the Worldviews and Cultures of Scientists

by Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon

Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon

I am a molecular biologist, and my PhD is in science communication. I have always loved communicating science, and perhaps more than working in the laboratory. But I know how both worlds operate, and I consider myself a scientist on both these fronts.

I have lots of friends, PhDs, scientists, who don’t get rewards for communicating with the public. They have no trophies, no points, no honorarium; to communicate, you often have to travel on your own, pay your own way, pay for your hotel. You still need to communicate, all while meeting academic demands that actually give you rewards.

A. The Problem of Science Communication

So my question is: why don’t scientists like to communicate, even when schools will ask them to? Of course, scientists from industry deal with proprietary information, and you have to know the limits of what you can talk about. But still, the face of science has already changed.

So I wanted to look at science communication from the perspective of science. There is a lot of research out there about audience perceptions, but there is also a lot of information that doesn’t get across from the scientific field. What makes a scientist communicate? How can this influence how they work with other professionals, such as mass media, students, and teachers? This can make the problem and the issue of science communication more 3-dimensional.

Science communication is not yet understood. How do researchers define science communication and risk communication? What are their worldviews and cultures? A worldview is how you see reality, your place in the world, and the interaction of different aspects of the world with each other. For example, here’s a table. In a positivist worldview, you believe that everyone will see, measure, and perceive the table in the exact same way. In a critical worldview, you believe that the table is there, but you can never see it exactly because you’ve been told how to see it. In a post-modernist worldview, you know there’s a table, but you also know that everyone else will see it, measure it, and perceive it in a different way. In a constructivist worldview, there is no table: your brain is just telling you that it’s there, and the label is there because you learned it.

A worldview can affect what researchers choose to do research on and how they do it. A worldview affects whether researchers believe that their science is affected by society, and to what extent they base their research on society’s needs. The worldview can also affect how researchers perceive the task of communication, and why they communicate at all. Are there boundaries that they set between themselves and the lay public? What is the culture of scientists?

My research was largely deductive. I interviewed scientists, and whatever they said in their interviews was the basis from which I extracted all my information. My research was very qualitative, and I decided not to use statistics because there are a lot of answers and information that I would have missed. My work was also a phenomenological study, which asked what it was like to be a scientist in a world that demanded that scientists communicate. I also used the post-positivist approach: I acknowledged that there is a reality, but I can “measure” it only with limited objectivity. I could not totally dissociate myself from the data.

I used four frameworks as a combination of lenses through which I could understand the interviews. I used the framework of culture, which defines people’s habits, what they hold in high regard, and what they think are punishments. I also looked at worldview, which includes the scientists’ perception of the nature of knowledge and valid methods for research. I also looked at a boundary setting framework, which looks at the boundaries that scientists set between themselves and the “people on the street”. And finally, the most important framework: science communication modelling.

B. Science Communication Modelling

There are actually many different forms of science communication. Dissemination is one that you might have heard of: a one way method of giving science communication. As a scientist, I have a knowledge, and no one else does, so I write and communicate myself, people will use my knowledge and they will be better for it. Dialogue models: I am a scientist, and I probably know nothing about what people want, so I’ll ask people what they want, go back to the lab, and give people what they want. Conversation models are harder. People know something, and I know something as a scientist, so we all need to sit down together and create things together.

These models are used for different kinds of knowledge. No model is better than the other. If you’re talking climate change or genetically modified organisms, which are very close to home, then you’ll need a conversation model. But if you talk about things like astronomy, which might not be easy to understand, then you might need a dissemination model. So in other words, the food you eat, the stuff you drink, the weather you experience, you see and feel all these directly. Conversation models might work for people who have direct experience with the products of science.

I also used another culture model, the Culture as Toolbox model by Swidler. This looks at culture as a toolbox from which to draw your tools to deal with life. For example, remember when we were young, and our parents told us: if you want to be rich, you have to work hard. Look at those poor people: they can’t be rich because they have no values. Actually, it’s not about the values, but there are actually parts of your culture that might provide you tools for dealing with society; conversely, you might not have cultural tools to help you succeed. For example, Filipinos are hardworking, we are sympathetic, we are not apathetic – and maybe these are tools that can help us move forward.

So I asked these questions. What are these differences in national culture in the two groups of scientists that I worked with? What is in their culture that is keeping science from moving forward, or what is it in their culture that helps them succeed in science?

C. Methodology: My Interview Protocol

Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon giving a talk at the Manila Observatory Basement

So, how did I answer all these questions?

I had a two-page long interview protocol, which I created, based on research. I carried out rigorous data analysis and formed generalizations from the data. I worked with researchers from two cultural settings: the Philippines and the U.S. – specifically Purdue, where I worked and earned my PhD. Therefore, this research has limitations. You can’t generalize it to bigger populations, or other populations.

So, the Philippines was a former Spanish, then American, then Japanese colony. We have an efflux of scientists. There are lots of science-related issues: we have disasters, genetically modified organisms, agricultural issues, and really rich biodiversity.

Purdue is the 18th among all US public universities. It has 400 research labs and 100 research centers. It is a few hours away from Chicago, but Purdue is in rural, agricultural Indiana. It is engaged in a a lot of science education and science communication. By our standards, they receive a lot of funding; but by their standards, they don’t. I know of many people who have lost their jobs because of funding problems. Purdue and the Philippines are on very different scales; no one is better than the other.  I interviewed a total of 40 bench scientists: 20 from the Philippines, and 20 from Purdue. There were more females compared to males in the Philippine sample, while the opposite was true with the Purdue sample. I interviewed all these scientists, took fields notes, printed them out, and carried out both deductive and inductive data analysis.

With 800+ pages on hand, I looked for passages and concepts that corresponded to worldview, culture, and the other aspects of my conceptual and theoretical framework. I marked all these places, looked for themes, and then recoded the data using the themes. I looked at all the themes, assembled them into generalizations, and then found quotes from the interviews to exemplify these generalizations. I also did inductive analysis on the data that hadn’t been coded, but that could be valuable to my research.

D. Results

I found that many of the scientists follow the dissemination model of science communication. That is, they believe they have all the information, and they simply need to hand it over to science communicators, who will give it to the people.

I also asked about the cultures against which the scientists operated. Filipinos said that they lacked funding, which made Filipinos resourceful. Filipinos named a lot of cultural constraints on science: crab mentality, ningas cogon mentality, secretiveness. On the other hand, the US scientists readily said that they were taught to be creative. It seemed that Filipinos easily thought of bad cultural traits that curtailed scientific progress.

On the other hand, I found several traits in the Filipinos’ discourse that showed how our culture was encouraging science. For instance, many of the scientists admitted that they were religious, which gave them moral grounding. They also believed that Filipinos did not live in too patriarchal a society, so females were given more freedom to pursue their careers.

In terms of science communication, the Filipino researchers believed that the public did not know anything, and it needed science communication to tell them the facts. All that the public needed was facts and then the public would change and everyone would be a scientist automatically.

In terms of scientific work, the Filipino researchers defined objectivity as completely stepping away from the data, going into it with no religion, no family. This would make science truthful, which is what the scientists believed was public perception. I also found that some scientists believed that Filipino science contained a lot of duplication and overlap because people didn’t like sharing data and talking to each other. This was a waste of money, when in fact, people could work together and move science forward together. The scientists believed that Filipino scientists are also easily discouraged, so they often can’t publish in their fields because of the massive edits they often have to make on their papers. And, as always, the scientists talked about the hard facts being on their side.

Now as for the Purdue scientists, as I mentioned earlier, the dissemination model of science communication still holds. However, the perception of the dissemination model is different. To the Purdue-based bench scientists, science does make mistakes and is imperfect; scientific knowledge changes. There is no such thing as a hard fact, so scientists have to be flexible in order to adapt to the changes in knowledge. The bench scientists acknowledged that politics played a large role in dictating what kind of science could be done. They also thought that the public did not trust scientists and were actually contemptuous of science in general.

The bench scientists thought that people did not understand that science is about asking big questions; that science is not about answers; that science is about methods, not results. They wanted the public to appreciate how science worked, and they wanted to share their experiences in science with the lay public. They recognized that the public in the US was already very anti-science.

In general a lot of the scientists hated the mass media because it compressed and oversimplified facts. They believed that the mass media was in a clash of cultures with scientists. As for the culture, the Purdue scientists thought that scientists weren’t all that special: they simply did their job, had a way of doing things, and were simply doing things the way they had been taught. They also believed that scientists always have to question dogma because it is the only way that science can move forward.

What is this culture like? The mass media might believe that knowledge is set in stone and will never be contradicted, but scientific knowledge does change. Let me give you an example. In the US, around August of 2010, research came out on how an excess of Vitamin E can cause breast cancer. The media were all over it. A few months later, research came out on how Vitamin E can actually prevent breast cancer. The public was confused and it resulted in a lack of trust in scientists. But that’s just the nature of science: findings will change because you’re not wrong, but your instrumentation could be limited.

The same clash can be found in school science, which often paints science as stable, absolute, and never-changing. In the real world, science is the exact opposite. Experiments today will be wrong tomorrow. It’s just the way that science is, and school often fails to deliver that message.

E. Conclusions

So what do these findings imply? I asked the participants in my study if they believed that scientists in different cultures are also different. Most of them said that the national culture doesn’t matter, and that all scientists are the same. However, this research shows that perhaps the opposite might be true. A lot of the beliefs that scientists hold arise from their cultural beliefs, or could even be in forced opposition to these cultural beliefs. This could form a good theoretical base for science communication, which is still largely poor in theoretical foundations. We as researchers might need to ask scientists about what they feel is important, why they are here, what their duties are, and perhaps we could find a better theoretical base on which to build our science communication. This could be more fruitful than asking an audience what colors they want on their brochure.

This could also be valuable for the mass media, which clashes a lot with the mass media. They might need to come to a discussion over what scientists say or want to say.

For the longest time, I studied ways of talking to people, of dialogue and conversation. But I never looked critically at how science actually influenced science communication. This leads me to the recommendations for more research: more Filipino scientists, perhaps look at the differences in beliefs between male and female scientists, and build more theoretical foundations for science communication.

I thought that by going into a PhD program in science communication, I’d go for something much easier than molecular biology. It was “just” communication, “just” mass media. Apparently, it also meant diving deep into philosophy and politics, into worldviews and culture. My program showed me that the world of science communication, like science itself, was full of questions. I hope that as scientists, you, too will ask more questions about the discipline, and how you influence other fields that work with yours.

Jaime Garchitorena of Spinweb Technologies explains the proposed new Ateneo de Manila University website based on the Drupal platform

by Quirino Sugon Jr.

Spinweb Technologies presentation for the Ateneo de Manila University website development

Last 28 Jan 2012, 9:30-11:00 a.m., representatives of various departments and offices gathered at the multipurpose hall on the ground floor of Faber Hall to hear the presentation of Spinweb Technologies, Inc., which bested other 50 companies in the bid to redesign the Ateneo website.  According to the University Communication and Public Relations Office (UCPRO), the Ateneo de Manila website was last redesigned in 1998 and 2005.  Now, it is 2012.  According to UCPRO, it is high time to revamp the website once again, because the website is “one of the university’s most important communication tools both within the community and with the outside world.”

Below is an edited transcript of Spinweb’s presentation divided into six parts:

1. Design Philosophy for the Ateneo Website
2. Drupal as Content Management System
3. Web Portal Design
4. Project Delivery
5. Content Generation
6. Content Management System

1. Design Philosophy for the Ateneo Website

by Jaime Garchitorena

I feel like I am doing a concert again. After this we have a karaoke module.  Then Vespers.

Good morning.  I am a fellow Ateneo alumnus, Jaime Garchitorena.  Strait through and through Jesuit boy. Quite horrible. Really.  I will explain more of that.  My father was an Atenean, a proud Atenean.

I am glad to meet great Ateneans and be part of this team.  Hopefully, all of us will do our jobs right.  We will launch the Ateneo not to the stratosphere of web excellence, for the web is constantly redefined.  But we will be the best. We wil be able to take the concept of what the Atenean is and does, and plugging in the community–you guys.  The website is great communication platform.  Through it we let the world know who we are, what we do, and how we think.  It is the Ateneo standard vision, a standard that surpasses the  infrastructure that we now have.

First questions. Why do I say managing? Is this just one website? In a sense this is.

The Ateneo website can be monolithic (The picture is the Old Rizal Library)

A website as large as Ateneo is usually contructed in a monolithic system. Most websites have a large site along a very monolithic platform. It is a building.  Imagine a generic building.  The only thing that defines you as a department or school is the name on the ground floor with the floor and what you do, as when a person sees the elevator and sees your number and name description. That is normally the way some people build websites. There are so many business units in Ateneo that have different audiences and business goals and cultures.  And it would be very difficult to achieve your business goals if we are going to use that same monolithic design.

If you look at the house model, the foundation is always them same–cement and metal. But how they are laid and constructed will depend on how the home owner or user or future user will be seen as using. You want open space planning with one or two bedroom and CR.   We think that is the Ateneo.

Drupal is an application platform . There will be separate domains if necessary. You won’t be known as slash slash of the main site.  Instead, you can be knownm as the Ateneo de Manila Grade School or High School, so that each one retains an individual identity and all control from the back-end where everyone’s content can be propagated in the entire system.

You feel that in your office, there is a sense of obscurity.  You keep coming out with stuff that you think is important to you and you wish that you could send out, but you are slash slash away–that will be a thing of the past. There will be a propagation  in the entire system. Content owners can send it to a specific place with the permission of the editorial body or create promotions on your own.

How is this is a great thing? It is a chance for units to be in control of their own destiny and content, and achieve higher amount of visibility not only to the Ateneo community, but also to people who have not been to Ateneo–people who only wants to know what is all about without intention to enrolling–all the way to people who long ago graduated. You will be in-charge. The system will allow you to take responsibility about elevating your business unit to a  more visible level . It would be searchable and interactive with the other business usnits.

Going back to the building model and to the buildings themselves.  The Ateneo community is laid out into distinct buildings with distinct programs, yet visible to the entire community. This is a powerful concept.

On the other hand, if I am not managing,  I could have the crappiest website in the entire community. So if your content was last updated months ago, people will ask: who is in charge of this?  There is no more hiding. In a sense, you can hide. But the stuff that matters is that most business units is outdated. If I am part of the grade school, and I encourage people to go to the grade school, but they will notice that your principal was already 10 years dead.  People will also see if your research is old. The website is not magic bullet . The website is just a channel to show off you stuff, and see you, and see the Ateneo as an entire institution. That is just the philosophy of building.  Structures take the time in the future to go to each business.  What do you need?  Everytime we build houses, we put on a lot of paint. All of this vision is backed up with corporate experience 6 years in the Nexus Group of Companies.   It is a 5 billlion company in the top 50 of the top 500 companies.

You will ask, “What kind of support will I get? Who is available for me if I have problems?” By introduction we are here for the long term. And not thank you for the happy times and leave you on your own. We are going to be here as long as the Ateneo feels that we are at the top, that we are a people who can help you with your questions and problems–that is part of who we are.

As part of the architecture, what is behind this?  It is not a new technology. Drupal version 7 is seventh iteration, which is a testimony to its support.  And deep the functionality goes. In saying that I would like to introduce our colleague, who will try to explain why Drupal is used, and he will walk you through the ability of Drupal in different types of content.

2.  Drupal–the Content Management Platform

by Renmin Victor Villanueva
Project Manager

Drupal logo

Good morning. I am here to tell you about the technnology platform,  Drupal. Before coming up with the name of Drupal, it was a Dorp like a drop of water. Drupal is an open source content management system. The licensing is free and supported supported by a large community of developers and contributors. Also support project for Linux and Database MySQL  in Drupal is so pervasive. MySQL altered its path to accommodate drupal projects.

There are several famous sites that have been built on Drupal. ABS-CBN, The Onion, Playboy Germay. It show cases a lot multimedia and image content. Can handle videos and images. Now The Public is very interesting in our case for crowd source news website. Anyone can contribute. Actually, now The Public is probably a bench mark of sorts if we come part of crowd-sourced Ateneo web portal . Other sites are adobe.com and the NASA website. The White house. There are other sites. A French local government unit. These sites show you can run high traffic sites, content rich sites with images, and multimedia complex content structure.

Earlier Jaime said building a web portal is like building a house.  Drupal is like that–composed of layers. You see here the lowest is the data, the nodes, next is modules. A layer blocks, users, and permissions at the  topmost face template.What does this mean for us? Basically when we design our project, we have to have a robust forward thinking for data structures or more. The next is the module is in place–the content that you guys would create. Then it would be in the database anyone in the future would be able to access it through the site.  Modules constitute functionality. It can be like content feed. A map layer that shows Ateneo campus and drill down to a building tour. So the module enables that data to be saved on the database. The next are the blocks are regions on the page.

This is an example of a Drupal page. The Onion is a spoof news site. The menu here the block. If you notice, it is a list of stories.  There is a way to categorize it.  It appears on this portion of the page. The next layer that you see  is the use of permission. We are viewing The Onion as anonymous viewee. We are just viewing it. We are not logged-in. Drupal recognizes  an anonymous. If you login in it would be able to … it can now present different layouts of the page depending who you are. Different user permissions.The last portion would be important for us.  It is the template which presents all the data to everyone else to the form of the page. The thing that you see are the color, the logo, the font six alternating green and white. That is the template. The power of the platform is that layouts like this come and go. What Drupal can do is to change the look of your page and present your existing data.

Here are examples of different templates. This is abscbnnews.com. This is their home page. If you move to TV patrol, it looks completely different. If you look at the left, you notice these videos.  These are the video content type.  Each one is content.  It is in unity to the rest of all the other stories. Now you view it through TV patrol. That feature video branded when you click the actual video. Scroll down. In the top part it has been branded as TV patrol. Now if we roll back to the home page and click one of the stories. When the story loads it is the same content because of the templating, it  branded it differently. It is going to be a simple business tool. I think what they have been able to do is simple business news. You have this ad which might be contextual. News content is.

Those are some of the features that we can use for the Ateneo.  Each of you stakeholders would have an identity on the web for you to have personality to be more relevant. For example, an application of it would be grade school web portal. A portion would be built to serve the parents to facilitate parent-teacher interation. Would have to have a server for the students themselves. We can have two templates and another one for the grade school kids so that the font is presented to them is more relevant to 3rd grade. We can work on this later.Now we go to the details of the web projects.  So we now go to the web portal design itself. I will turn you over to Jaime.

3.  Web Portal Design

by Jaime Garchitorena

The Ateneo web portal is like the gateway to the Science Education Complex

There is a little bit of nosebleed moments.

Identify if the existing sites that are linked to the website. Is that to work on the same way? Work. Like the Bandila. The other if there is a connection between the feeds in to your site. You can read into the database. Pull in information from there.Landing pages and storefront.  Say I belong to a certain school. The school has its own sites. Individuals there own their own sites as well which right now function as links to the main school site. Department of Economics doesn’t bring me to the site of the Economics.  I like that Economics would have its own identity. You will have your School of Economics homepage. Everyone will have to agree and what will be done.  An ateneo.edu homepage. Direct to the school of Economics. Ateneo as the university. They can visit ateneo.edu. And within those links these same for Economics site developed by somebody else.That is part of our mandate. The units are not too far inside. You have commercial space. If you put your store at the back, customers can’t find you. In outward facing pages, each storefront. As a team you can have everyone on the outside. Front visibility but too wide and shallow. In the same way you look at the more limited stores outside. Premium real estate. The deeper the less premium or it maybe a destination. Significant store. Come to my store.

The question now is the business goals of Ateneo de Manila . The need for visibility. For 2012, the goal is to beef up the curriculum and present the core programs, to create a behavior management in forming how far forward you want to put the Economics department or the revenue decision. I guess we could.Everthing in presentation.  There will be some people who will drive the content to the site. In theory but not ideally.  But it is possible to do nothing but pull content from other sites.  I can build a whole site and I don’t write a thing. In this area if have text coming from ABS-CBN. All I want from videos. I don’t know what to select what stuff appears on my site. You need to be able to get a single person devoted to that function of selecting content. And our website becomes very updated.  This is the advantage of a super-editorial team.Creating and validating your site.

At a certain point, you still need need your own editorial content. That is the problem  that we have been observing. That is not a unique problem. Generating the contennt. So that is somehting that we have to work on is a real concern. That there is content 6 months old or even older. It is a problem.Funneling the content. In the last year or so, there is what they call as crowdsourcing. People in the community contribute content. It is posted on the site. Part of the ideas that we would have is to present to you guys part of the site to be crowdsourced.  The official portion of the content would have longer lifespan. The department’s don’t change. The crowdsource depend on your vibrant community. Generated interest in the crowdsourcing production of the site.  It would be always updated and self-sustaining.

We just like to point out two references which which lead to our design proposal and led us to winning the bid as the lowest price.  The importance of this presentation.  Was the premise correct. It seems that we don’t have to bring this up today.   In generating individuality, the ranges may be broad or too wide and lost.  This is the purpose of the whole infrastructure design.This was the breakdown. The primary audience is young teens to early 20′s and mid-20′s. Clearly if you have someone in charge of the alumni. Also prospective students, friends, and visitors. The secondary audience are the faculty and staff, members of the internal Ateneo community, and the external community.These are the goals.  Relevant and timely information. Make it searchable.  Strong searchability.  Update your content.  Pool content.  It is possible to be dynamic without changing anything.

Encourage enrollment by highlighting the Ateneo achievements past and present. And that can be done in the very strong multimedia platform. Ateneo has a great basketball team.  That means you have to put highlights of your game.  Player profile is a sort of neglected area. You have a sports program, but you have not drilled down to the way o the individual player.  It ends there.  It is a pity because that would be a great way to know the athletes more.  Ecourage participation among the user groups. Address. Login. Theming can change once a person logs-in.  If the Ateneo high school, it is the high school theme.

We know that the current situation in the Philippines.  We don’t want our kid’s pictures in our website like in Facebook.  We don’t want it happening in Ateneo. It may happen you would like that functionality for contents.  All you see are few editorial posted but no details.  Especially even of our alumni once you are logged-in but only if it is allowed.  That is to encourage participation. But only by creating awareness between social media. Integration of Facebook and interaction into the site. Facebook has become a little to powerful on its own.  You think that is the truth, which is not necessarily the truth.  Facebook does allow you to do to reach audience with no traditional scope.  So by integrating Facebook but creating boundaries, we can leverage off the  the networking ability of Facebook and bring them to the Ateneo website.  This can be applied to a program in a department for campaigning promotion.So these are some of the characteristics.

If you look at the target market of those who enter the Ateneo site, the visitors can be alumni.  It is so broad to address all the needs of all these people.  And for the alumni, the font is a little bigger.  They need magnifying glass. I have an aunt, a dean in Maryknoll.  Before the magnifying glass function of Microsoft, she would use magnifiying glass to read websites. Unique audience has purpose to the Ateneo.  Bringing the audience in general and restrict information.  Being the child of government officials, I am conscious of security.  Not everyone should see everything. For certain conditions. This maybe the case .  The platform of selective viewability is that you know it encourages people to sing in or login in the community.How do you want to communicate to the students and parents?  The website will be designed to do that.

I spoke about this before.  We shall have separate page feel for internal and external stakeholders. We want to simply navigation. Clicking the page you know it is here somewhere. Separate page login for access and security.  We created this design.  It demonstrates to a small degree our design  capability.  When we build websites.  This trouble happens outside.  We lose bids.  The standard way for web projects is to get a group of web developers.  Show us what a website can look like.  Nice set of colors.  In Spinweb, we rather not assume what is most important to you.  The only thing is your data structure, how robust it will be.  In this case, we could design to accommodate standard information.  We can develop the design part.

You have your current website.  You have a cluttered way of presenting with all the buttons.  Instead, we shall have two navigation bars.  I can go exactly where I want to go.  Each of these separate websites.  This is just a design study.It is really just very simple.  Are you a parent, student, or alumni?  Of course, the usual stuff.  Social integration is there.  Shows that each site is different in look and feel.  And you negotiate fairly quickly .  There is the third navigation bars.  You are still part of Ateneo.  I could go to Grade School and  the look and feel of the Grade School can be very different.This then would be the alumni portal.  Decongested.  Moving around of categories tabs.  The website information architecture.  The top never disappears.  What is my biggest frustrations. Sometimes down two or three pages long to find information.  I have to mouse home to hit home.  Navigation like this, on the other hand, always stays on top.  In case you are just browsing Grade School, you scroll down and hit down this navgation bar and check out High School.  It is one keystroke saved.For the alumni, we have these things.  The question is whether we want to build in as many features as we can.

And yet whether in every project, we want more community building.  These blocks that you see are generic blocks, such as by advertising.  Blocks are anything on your site.  If a part of the ATeneo de Manila there is something going on to the Grade School, that  can go to the central content management for publication or at the main page.  The subeditor disapproves or overrides.  There is a main editorial board.  You don’t have to replicate your data.  Send it up for approval.  Someone  can grab it.Managing the alumni page.  I look at the available news. An alumni may be interested that his grandson is here, so we move the information around.  It is not a magic bullet.  We view all the news available.  We will do our best within the framework.  The supereditor group can implement that.

Physics is more humiliating for me.  In our family we have a  Summa Cum Laude from Holy Spirit.  We have a nuclear physicist.  When I went to High School, my moe is the teacher.  I flunked physics.  It is a lot painful.

Features of the site. There is actually a proposed feature that every school sign in and have the communication portal thread blogs are recorded.  That would require infrastructure support.  Permission from the school requires specific controls and managment password controls.  Enrollment system.  You can post attendance of Ateneo kids.

How interactive can it be?  You people can comment.  Is there some form of control editing?  Cyber bullying.  That depends on the permission.  Comments are from anonymous users.  Editorial board first.  If you want to be allowed buy you just login only if you doing homework. Time line.

I have another series of slides.  Build method and documents.  We shall start with the method and documents.  About the deadline, we were told to have the beta site up before July of this school year.  The intended major milestone: we hope for  a soft launch begining the school year, July 31.  That is 6 months.  Break it down.  Just to have a modular structure.  Go live without everyone on board.  There are back pages.  That means you are subject to cattle prodding by the supereditor staff.  It is possible to be left behind in the implementation.  That is the risk you take in  every site if we have to implement  all these at the same time.  Another is we can actually cut that out.  Not so good for thos who don’t update work on their site.  We can have concessions.  Planning media center.

The radio station.  That is a lot of hardware stuff.  Radio Veritas.  A lot of that is really back-end.  That is really a matter of infrastructure thing than anything else.  If you don’t mind advertisements, you can do live stream.  That is really an infrastructure.

How secure is the whole system if we are using payment methods?  Buy online.  Build your own applications.  This would be just a gateway to access your applications.  This is an online application process. Accept payments from foreign students online.  How secure would that process be?In our project charter for the Ateneo Store, that may not apply.  There are payment methods via Paypal or Mozcom or HSBC. You leave the Ateneo site. The security is theirs.  There is no real transaction.  You would pass on the third party provider.  Your login is completely controlled by that third party.If you go to the giving page of the Ateneo, you donate online.  You have the information instructions.  Done.  It brings to the payment.  BDO.  What you have to do is to talk with the Finance.  The web page just links to that.

The details and structures.  What you can have are all the forms.  Cost calculator. Cost per unity.  If I am a foreign student or a remote student, I click.  Sufficient data behind your availability.  Submit form for the application. Verification that all your courses are available.  The forms itself can be incorporated within the site.

4.  How to deliver the project

by Renmin Victor Villanueva

The Project Steering Committee’s infrastructure is ready.  Stakeholders and this committee.  The role of that is below us.  Part of our team on the Spinweb site.dev/QA teams.  We are composed of different developer specialty.  Each developer has a skillset in developing the web portal.  On the Ateneo side is the infrastructure and the servers.  There has to be an infrastructure resource person.  You guys.  You have to make sure that you are represented when we plan out content. There are other responsibilities of the different roles in the organizations.  Stakeholder representatives.  In this room are the stakeholders.  Put forward requirements.  Feedback testing.  Form the core team.  When we see the timeline, the core team would be responsible for alpha and beta.  We would have content in the site.

Our project major milestones.First we have to complete the information architecture.  Plan the content types, for example.  Someone said earlier, he plans for video and audio streaming.  Different levels of content according to each different department.  Come up with that plan.  We have to prove our design and prove infrastructure design.  This are the first three things.  After that, we go back to our site building.  During this phase you see us leading regular project updates.  The load for us is to build.  Once the site is built, then the user training and the alpha site.  You guys will now start loading content, which is like the running version of the site.  It will be visible to select group of people only inside Ateneo.  It can coexist with your current site.  Alpha would be one or two months.  Once Alpha is stable and ready for lunch, we shall have public Beta.  Everyone in the Ateneo can see it.  Outside, too. And it can coexist with your Ateneo site.  Sample beta.ateneo.edu.  Main site would still be ateneo.edu.  Then we remove the Beta and throw in the live site.

Key documents.  There are few stages in the project delivery.  Documents. Signoff.  The information design.  Design templates. For the rest of the Style Guide.  Images to make sure we won’t have stored, when you load images.  Formal factor.  Follow.  We want to avoid.  We are going to have standards for image form factor width and height.  Image resolution is 2 Mb. Slow page.  For your IT team, you have infrastructure specifications.  For your internal CMS team, you have admin and site building manual.  People from the Ateneo would be maintaining not us.

There will be a user  manual and skillset requirements.  Publishing in HTML and Wordprocessing.  Infrastructure.  Administration on LAMP (Linux Apache, MySQL, and Php).  Site building Php scripting and Drupal theming.  For your IT guys, LAMP.  Site builders. Drupal powers.Training courses. Half day.  We like to have multiple sessions.  Site maintenance and administration 1 day.  Site building 3 topics, with 3 days each topic.  Exclude theming.  But you can study online and do research in drupal.org.  Self study if you know how to read php.  Everything is in GPL public domain.  You can learn it.

Project document.  So this is our GANTT chart.  These are the months.  And our launch date.  If we look at the launch date, we would be done the week of July 11, 2012.  And this is where we kickoff information gathering.  We have planned it for the first week of January and we should be testing approval by now.  What we are going to strive to do is to design approval.  So we have some catching up to do.  We are planning to do site building by next week.  Some of the start of basic stuff that does not design.

5.  Content Generation

by Jaime Garchitorena

You need to to start gathering content for your website

If you look at the content, articles to images.  It might help to assume that we are all content owners.  Collecting content.  I am sure you are already doing it.  It would help that to know you should be looking for it now.  You wnat to archive for reference.  Someone’s computer.  Look for it already if you have them.  It might be a good habit doing now.  Because you will go when July 2 ocomes, we will have all to update stuff and little bit more.  Update your website.  Gathering the content.  Caveat.  It is to your benefit.  The alumni.  The sports.  There is that ability to pull.  You will be judged from the content you generate.  You must be relevant to your audience.  Who is your target audience?  Figure it out.  What do they like?  What do they prefer?  What do you think will bring home our storefront to accommodate these things when you are talking about parents.  Wear glasses. Visual. Big pictures.  They like to read.  The better we can tailor to specific site.  Unless there are any other questions.

You won’t lose any data.  The data is not tied to the front end of your website.  It will be there.  Documents. Style Guide. Normally, editorial discipline for the size of images.  The length aspect ratio.  Size of images.  Resize your images.  It should not be a 5 Mb picture.  Think editorial control.  You limit your title to four words.  Medium length abstract.  There is that module for resizing of images.  There will be a style guide.  Sometimes when the personnel change they lose that information.  You have that image resizing.  Don’t change pixels.  One more if there is awy articles copy word to tags.  We can impose that they automatically strip the tags.  The template will override whatever is there.  But the ones with tradeoffs.  Users will have less leeway to formalize their documents.

For prospective fee service for advertising. Filipino audience.  Bilingual if possible.  There will be a module.  Not too much work and for you guys to create the content.  Import twice over.

Will it also cover documents?  Can it be browsed online but not downloadable?  We plan to upload our brochures. Publish brochures for local and international students but not for download what we owould like to do. Pdf is not two face. Flipping. The magazine.

We can use JQuery. Carousel. Flipping a page. We are beiginning a site. Now, we’ll see how far we will go with that.  In the context of the site, infrastructure is involved.  There were featured that we planned from.  We have interactive campus map.  Google maps.  And then there is calendar news.  Social network plugins.  Navigation effects.  We’ll give a change to ask for navigation you might be thinking of it is feasible or not.  Some sort of similar effect.  Interactive campus map.  It will allow outside visitors to zoom in to campus landmarks.  What we have currently right now are 3D images.  Embed to CMS.

Is there are centralized image gallery in ateneo.edu.  Currently I think it can be done.  But in terms of that would be for Ateneo to decide.  I want to browse pictures.  The purpose is to present pictures. It would draw from everyone.

If you want to create login or just contact us, how much layout sitemap and look and feel this would entail.  This would be an internal question. Prescribed templates customize your own making a thousand websites.  We are limited to 15 themes.  The Style Guide would be global.

We’ll be giving out business cards.  You have to see.  The central group.  Transactions are recorded.  We don’t overstep the bounds of anything.  In the end, we are only just implementors.

6.  Drupal Content Management System Back-End

by Kaye Suarez

This is the standard drupal CMS back-end.  This is navigation. Content management.  Content list creates content.  Edit content.  Site building. Site configuration.  Store administration.  User management where you can choose the roles of the user.  Reports log entries. Site rules. If you have standard help forms.  Create edit content if you know CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or hire someone to update your content.  As you can see here, you have the option to place the data source podcasts.  Gallery and then there.  File. Quick upload. Body text.  Copy the article from the world.  Option to format the input.  There are some optionsif you are the main superuser, or you want the article to the alumni which you want to publish to grade school and also to the main page of Ateneo. Click the different department that you want to publish in and save.  Unless you want to edit the layout.

Dispell any fears.  You have predefined fields.  What you have decided getting to that page matters. Rolling the site or perhaps categories and subcategories.  Edit that particular page and click page and it is published.  Across web properties.  There will probably be an editorial layer that lets us go to the main site.  The grade school publish news.  You may have to ask permission from the site owner editorial board.  We don’t want stuff popping up, but what news appear there.  From the start, we can be top three.  It is easy to propagate content.

During the selection process, the features you show is on the live page.  You can mouse over a certain content.  There are administrative options that you can come out.  Add content.  All the features would be in the feature offering.  If it is required, you can upload only original content.  Videos from You Tube.  There is the branding point of view.  If only because you might have some control.  Type control editorial management.  Write them down and send us an email.  There will be a road show for the units.  We shall present to the entire schools.

Thank you very much.