LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

 

LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

I have been managing Local Area Networks (LANs) since my days as a director of Management Information Systems (MIS) at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), as part of my duties as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO). Although LANs was just a new and emerging technology at that time, the division that I managed was able to build a LAN that covered the entire building using twisted pair cables, somewhat an amazing feat at that time.

Since we had no budget for a true server at that time, we were able to configure a relatively high-powered personal computer (PC) to function as a “server”, at least good enough to function as a file server and an email server. Also, because we did not have a budget for a true server, I was able to get a subscription to ATT Mail, and that is how the DFA was able to send and receive worldwide for the first time at that time.

When I became the Director General of the National Computer Center (NCC), true servers were already commonplace, and LANs were already more advanced, at that time already using fiber optic cables. It was during that time that I had the opportunity to serve as a consultant to the senators who sponsored the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000, namely Senator Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. and Senator Vicente Sotto III. I think these two senators did a good job in crafting the e-commerce law, but then, something went wrong in the interpretation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

Although the IRR itself was also well done, it was interpreted wrongly by many people, when it was generally understood that having a LAN and making information available through it is already considered as being “online”. Although that notion might be partially true, it is not entirely correct, because being “online” should only mean being available globally using the internet, and not being available only locally using a LAN.

Perhaps because of that misinterpretation, most of the software applications of the Local Government Units (LGUs) are available only via their own internal LANs. What that means is that only their own employees or tellers could use these software applications, and not the general public. That is also the reason why the public could not transact with the LGUs online, and that is why they are forced to go to the city halls and municipal halls to be able to transact face-to-face.

As I see it, it is not too late to properly interpret to mean only being “online” via the internet, and not via a LAN. That is the reason why I am developing software applications that will work “online”, meaning that these are browser based and are hosted in the cloud. Ideally, there should be a choice between website applications and mobile applications, but most software applications are now dual mode, meaning that website applications are now readable in mobile devices, using any browser. The common denominator of course is the internet, because it is the internet that makes everything “online”. IKE SENERES/09-13-2024

 

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