The Mystical Geek

The DOST Book launching of “Information and Communication Technology in Philippine Art, Heritage and Religiion” was held this evening at the Renaissance Room of the Renaissance Hotel, Makati.  The turnout was good inspite of the bad weather. 

The book was edited by Prof Fortunato de la Pena (Undersecretary for Scientific and Technological Services of the DOST and administrator of the ICT4D Project) and Dr. Paz H Diaz (VP Academics of the Roosevelt College System).  The book is just the first of a series of other volumes on Information and Communication Technology in the Phillippines to be published under the ICT4D Project of the DOST.  The Project is supported by Canada’s International Development Research Center.

My particular contribution is in pp.  95–107 and entitled “Adventures in ICT and Religion:  A First Person Account.”  It is after all a report of how I have been integrating the web in my work as a friar of the Order of St. Augustine presented within a much greater context that has been created by Pope John Paul II’s declaration of the internet as the new agora of evangelization.  The editor’s choice for the article itself may have been influenced by an About.Com article about AgustinongPinoy that appeared on the web in 1999/2000.

There are ten other articles in the book on the areas of ICT and our Filipino Heritage, Filipino Arts and Religion.   And this is just the beginning.  Prof. de la Pena, during his speech at the beginning of the book launching spoke of topics dealing on the use of informations technology in business and entrepreneurship.