E-commerce and Government

A number of authors are unhanded by the fact that they cannot fully manipulate electronic commerce sufficiently to satisfy the demands of both governments and consumers. It is an actuality for both parties. Eventually, there are suggestive solutions with it. However, it has not been fully completed in order to diminish such issue.
According to wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia, “Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.” The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. When President Estrada signed the e-commerce law, the Philippines became only the third country in Southeast Asia with legislation to promote and protect electronic transactions. This culminates a very long and tedious process that was started way back July 1st 1998, when Senator Juan M. Flavier filed the first of many bills that would eventually lead to the Philippine Electronic Commerce Act (R.A. 8792, an act providing for the recognition and use of electronic commercial and non- commercial transactions, penalties for the unlawful use thereof, and for other purposes). The E-Commerce law addresses the significant legal challenges facing Filipinos who wish to participate in this wealth-creating global phenomenon. First, it gives validity and legal recognition to electronic documents, electronic signatures and electronic transactions. Second, it facilitates the admission of electronic documents and electronic signature as evidence in cases of disputes. Third, it outlaws and penalizes unauthorized access to information and interference in communications systems (i.e., hacking, introduction of viruses and the like). Finally, it calls upon government to formulate and institute programs that are not only supportive of e-commerce but would actually get the government online. Many questions will be raised especially in the first months of the law’s implementation. This is an initial attempt to provide some answers to questions regarding to how the law was intended to mean. This will discuss many, not all, provisions of the law that we feel is the most important for the private as well as public sectors. As e-commerce develops ambiguities in the current tax code in which it may be exposed. It would not be regarded as too early to take premature steps for undertaking such a review at a time when detailed international legislation are going on to promulgate acceptable standards laws for imposition taxation in this regard. The Central Board of Revenue should take active part in promulgation of conducting research on this subject in hand and should propose any changes to tax law in the light of what emerges in development in e-business. In the meantime, Central board of Revenue will do two things: make sure that e-commerce taxation requirements are fully considered when recommending amendments are made to existing laws, and such changes should be made to national tax laws that are needed as unforeseen legal obstacles to the growth of e-commerce emerge to subject to tax revenue constraints. If there is a difficulty in fitting any of our existing tax legislation to e-commerce transactions, then CBR should look at these emerging legal problems connect with its execution and administration. Uncertainty is bad for business. Taxpayers should not be left in doubt as to the applicability of a particular provision of tax laws. This is not to say that all of the existing tax legislation should be made applicable to e-commerce. However, the fact remains that e-commerce is just another way of doing business and it should normally be subject to the same tax requirements as any other method of doing business. The development of e-commerce may require some fine tuning of our tax laws in consistent in international legislative trends. The integrity of electronic documents provides for prima facie presumptions relating to electronic signatures: that the electronic signature is that of the person to whom it correlates, and that the signature was affixed with the intention of signing or approving the electronic document. This means that when A’s signature is attached to a document, one may presume that it is A’s signature and that he was the one who signed it with the intention of signing or approving the same. The presumption is, of course merely prima facie, it may be rebutted with better evidence to the contrary. What constitutes Original Documents is also discussed in the law. This is important as it impacts on rules of evidence or court procedures where the concept of original is most vital to whether one’s piece of evidence is admitted or not. Presently, where the law requires information to be presented or retained in its original form, that requirement would be deemed met by an electronic data message or document if the integrity of the information is shown by evidence aliunde or otherwise and that it is capable of being displayed to the person to whom it is to be presented. This provision of law will be of great help to those who go to court presenting electronic evidence. While the old paradigms could only conceive of original document as just being generally singular, this paves the way for the existence of many “originals” as long as the provision’s criteria of integrity and reliability are met. Nothing represents the modern office more than filing cabinets. Offices have rooms full of filing cabinets largely because there are no other ways of keeping files that are required by government or by law. This Act may yet make filing cabinets obsolete. Under this law, the retention of documents in its original form is satisfied by retaining them in the form of an electronic data message or electronic document as long as the criteria of accessibility, integrity, and identification of person and time are assured. The person required to retain the forms may also do it by using the services of a third party. This may be applied where the government, say the BIR, requires the retention of receipts for at least three years, for audit purposes. This can free corporations from having to keep the required documents in paper form. Affidavits are dealt with under Sections 14 and 15. The requirements in Section 9 on integrity, and Section 12 on admissibility may be established by affidavit. This is useful as the requirements may prove to be too stringent and inflexible. Of course, as in any statement contained in affidavits and presented in courts, such are subject to the right of the person against whom the affidavit is executed, to test the accuracy and truth of the affidavit by cross-examination. This Law applies to any kind of information in the form of a data message used in the context of commercial activities. This Act shall apply to any kind of electronic data message and electronic document used in the context of commercial and noncommercial activities to include domestic and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, contracts and exchanges and storage of information.These Rules apply where electronic signatures are used in the context of commercial activities. They do not override any rule of law intended for the protection of consumers. Any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated with the electronic data message or any methodology or procedures employed by a person and executed or adopted by such person with the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic document. An electronic signature on the electronic document shall be equivalent to the signature of a person on a written document if the signature is an electronic signature and proved by showing that a prescribed procedure, not alterable by the parties interested in the electronic document, existed under which – a method is used to identify the party sought to be bound and to indicate said party’s access to the electronic document necessary for his consent or approval through the electronic signature; Said method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic document was generated or communicated, in the light of all circumstances, including any relevant agreement; It is necessary for the party sought to be bound, in order to proceed further with the transaction, to have executed or provided the electronic signature; and The other party is authorised and enabled to verify the electronic signature and to make the decision to proceed with the transaction authenticated by the same. Electronic documents shall have the legal effect, validity or enforceability as any other document or legal writing, and – where the law requires a document to be in writing, that requirement is met by an electronic document if the said electronic document maintains its integrity and reliability and can be authenticated so as to be usable for subsequent reference, in that – the electronic document has remained complete and unaltered, apart from the addition of any endorsement and any authorised change, or any change which arises in the normal course of communication, storage and display; and the electronic document is reliable in the light of the purpose for which it was generated and in the light of all relevant circumstances. Paragraph applies whether the requirement therein is in the form of an obligation or whether the law simply provides consequences for the document not being presented or retained in its original form. A foreign certificate shall be deemed to have the same effect as that given to a certificate issued under this Act provided that a trustworthy system which is no less reliable than the trustworthy system under this Act is issued in the issuance of such foreign certificate and that the issuance is in accordance with the rules and procedures prescribed by the Commission. An electronic signature created and supported by a foreign certificate under section 38 shall be deemed to have the same effect as that given to an electronic signature supported by a certificate under this Act. The Internet has transformed the way individuals and companies conduct economic activity. Its now possible for individual firms to sell their products on the other side of the world and for individuals to purchase desired products and services from around the world via computer transactions. The economic, legal, and privacy implications of this have come to the attention of government agencies as well as they grapple with the economic, financial, personal, and other implications of these developments. These governments are producing numerous resources on electronic commerce or ecommerce as it is often called. E-commerce law will regulate the procedure of a concluding of online retail contracts and ensure its legal equality with the other forms of transactions. The norms of the law on e-signature shall extend on civil contracts in electronic form, including but not limited to sale and purchase, distribution of the goods, service contract, commission, storage, carriage, transport freight forward etc. The norms of the Law shall not however extend to such contracts, which, in accordance with RA legislation have to be notarized and/or registered. The law should also limit the liability of intermediaries in accordance with the general principles of civil legislation of the countries.
Thus, electronic commerce is one of the most significant law in our country and in the whole world. Like every area of business these days, ecommerce is surrounded by a maze of red tape, rules and regulations. In fact, selling online tends to be worse because of the international dimension. And any slip-ups you make are there for the world to see so it's doubly important to be legal and decent. It should be taken care of on how to blemish such law. Finally, assuming that you are legal and decent, let the world know. Anything that adds to your credibility will help online.


Reference:
http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/articles_week/ecommerce_legislation_taxation.htm

http://synergy.media.am/Downloads/e-commerce-indicators-eng.htm

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Journey of Innovations

There are several substantial and significant upshots, happenings and events that occur from the early beginnings of man until now that bring forth the innovations of technology. This may include natural disaster, man-made catastrophes, international calamity and tragedy, cataclysm, worldwide warfare and some others. Eventually, innovations and excogitation of technology emanated from the necessity and essential of man.
One important event is the World War II because at this time countries that partake in this war have been developing eminent machineries and devices in order to win. According to Wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia, “World War II was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.” The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their complete economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. After the Treaty of Versailles the Western democracies were satiated powers and expected a general peace. Their political environment was one where the aim was disarmament. (In Britain there was the Ten Year Rule.) Consequently they conducted very little military R & D. On the hand Germany and the Soviet Union were dissatisfied powers that for different reasons cooperated with each other on military R & D. The Soviets offered Weimar Germany facilities deep inside the USSR for building and testing arms and for military training, well away from Treaty inspectors' eyes. In return, the Soviets asked for access to German technical developments, and for assistance in creating a Red Army General Staff. The first German officers went to the Soviet state for these purposes in March, 1922. One month later, Junkers began building aircraft at Fili, outside Moscow, in violation of Versailles. The great artillery manufacturer Krupp was soon active in the south of the USSR, near Rostov-on-Don. In 1925, a flying school was established at Vivupal, near Lipetsk, to train the first pilots for the future Luftwaffe. Since 1926, the Reichswehr had been able to use a tank school at Kazan (codenamed Kama) and a chemical weapons facility in Samara Oblast (codenamed Tomka). In turn, the Red Army gained access to these training facilities, as well as military technology and theory from Weimar Germany. In the late 1920s, Germany helped Soviet industry begin to modernize, and to assist in the establishment of tank production facilities at the Leningrad Bolshevik Factory and the Kharkov Locomotive Factory. This cooperation would break down when Hitler rose to power in 1933. The failure of the World Disarmament Conference marked the beginnings of the arms race leading to war. In France the lesson of World War I was translated into the Maginot Line which was supposed to hold a line at the border with Germany. The Maginot Line did achieve its political objective of ensuring that any German invasion had to go through Belgium ensuring that France would have Britain as a military ally. France had more, and much better, tanks than Germany as of the outbreak of their hostilities in 1940. As in World War I, the French generals expected that armour would mostly serve to help infantry break the static trench lines and storm machine gun nests. They thus spread the armour among their infantry divisions, ignoring the new German doctrine of blitzkrieg based on the fast movement using concentrated armour attacks, against which there was no effective defense but mobile anti-tank guns - infantry Antitank rifles not being effective against medium and heavy tanks. Air power was a major concern of Germany and Britain between the wars. Trade in aircraft engines continued, with Britain selling hundreds of its best to German firms - which used them in a first generation of aircraft, and then improved on them much for use in German aircraft. In fact, Mountain Bikes emerged from among a group of passionate bike riders who wanted the challenge of riding on Northern California mountian trails. They built clunkers for one another adapting old bike frames, experimenting with tires & breaks. As these prototypes grew more refined, one of their number saw a commercial opportunity & began to manufacture them. Radical innovators are deeply empathetic; they understand – and feel – the unvoiced needs of customers. They recognize needs that customers don’t even know they have yet. Or they solve some common frustration in a way that people could never have imagined – which is precisely why they are not articulating the need, or asking for a specific product, service, or business to address it. Unfortunately, most companies define themselves by what they do, rather than by what they know or what they own. Usually they find it difficult to see things like skills, processes, technologies, assets and values as distinct, stand-alone entities because they are completely embedded in the company’s current business model. But radical innovators have the ability to decouple particular skills and assets from the existing business, and then leverage them in new ways or new settings to generate growth opportunities. The fact is, radical innovators tend to think of the whole world as a LEGO kit of different competencies and strategic assets, owned by different companies, which can potentially be reconnected like building blocks or used in a new context to invent novel products, processes, services and business models. Actually, some of the biggest opportunities for innovation can come from bundling your company’s competencies and assets with those of other companies to produce radical new solutions. Innovation in generating deep change might come from Pull: the creation of active platforms that call together a newtork around an irresistable desire to create. draw needed resources, learn by acting, & so build know-how & shift expectations. Another excellent way to discover new opportunities for business innovation is by harnessing trends and “discontinuities”. What exactly is a “discontinuity”? It’s not just a single trend, invention, or technology. Rather, it’s a cluster of trends – for example, in technology, demographics, lifestyle, regulation, geopolitics and so forth – that has the power to substantially change the competitive rules, or the structure of an industry. Trends and “discontinuities” are often the launching pad for radical innovation. Orthodoxies tend to become embedded in the way we do business. After a while, they form the dominant logic about the “right” way to compete, price, organize, market, and develop products and services. Orthodoxies are not by definition “bad” or necessarily wrong. In fact, they are often essential for creating a common understanding across a dispersed organization, allowing teams to work smoothly and efficiently. The problem starts when orthodoxies start to stifle rather than foster progress – they are potentially limiting if you can’t see beyond or around them. If left unchallenged, they may blind you to the possibility of new industry rules, new offerings, and new competitive space. Time and again, the strategy innovations that radically change customer expectations or industry structures come from questioning beliefs that everyone else has taken for granted.
Eventually, technological escalation during World War II was more profound than any other period in human history. More new inventions, certainly as measured by such means as patent applications for dual-use technology and weapon contracts issued to private contractors, were deployed to the task of killing humans more effectively, and to a much lesser degree, avoiding being killed. Unlike technological escalation during World War I, it was generally believed that speed and firepower, not defenses or entrenchments, would bring the war to a quicker end. Military operations were also conducted in order to obtain intelligence on the enemy's technology e.g. the Bruneval Raid for German radar and Operation Most III for the German V-2. The introduction of new weapons was so much a feature of the war that German propaganda featured wonder weapons in the pipeline as a reason why Germany would eventually win the war. In that sense, technological advance prolonged the war. Depending on one's frame of reference, one can reasonably assert that World War II began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, or as late as the last declarations of war between the United States and Germany in December 1941. Quite a bit occurred during this time to escalate technological conflict, most notably the upgrading and deployment of aircraft carriers by the U.S. and Japan in the Pacific, and invention of carrier-type aircraft such as the Mitsubishi Zero, largely considered the best plane of its time. Horrifying city battles (Stalingrad, Berlin) and sieges (Leningrad, London) from ground and air.
Time does not mean it changes everything. However, this brought to us to where we now and where we should be in the near future. Innovations and technologies are essential things for us humans and other living.

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Being an IT Professional

As far as I can remember the past, I never really thought of becoming an IT student. Since in early grade school, I am only thinking of becoming an astronaut (as every child would be dreaming to be). Then, later I realized I want to become someone that can identify a certain stone (that would be a geologist, I suppose) and descried its properties and etc. However, when I enter high school, my mind have become much open and overt where there are broad possibilities of what will I become, so many knowledge and interesting things that are adding in my befuddlement upon my decisive decision. Then, senior year came where the real confusion started. In this stage, I really don’t have any idea what course I will take up. Nursing? Education? Engineering? ….blah blah blah! And then, I made up my final decision (I was wishing it could be final). I will become a chemical engineer. Well, I am really good in chemistry (I just thought I am). But, when I heard my classmates talking about IT, I kind of like to change my decision. Yes, the Information Technology course. Almost quarter of the class decided upon IT, so I just followed the flow of peer pressure. If I will lost my luck with my direction, I have an option. Then, the series of what-so-called unfortunate events happened. It started when I took the USEPAT (University of Southeastern Philippines – Admission Test). The entrance test was quite fine. I got a rating of High Average. The following event – the interview. Hmmm? I am not quite prepared for the interview but fortunately I turned out good in answering the questions. I was very nervous that time because I really am not used in being interviewed. The questions were casual and I answered casually but I was anxious and my hands were trembling. Finally, I ended up enrolling in the BSIT (Bachelor of Science in Information technology) course. At first, the college approach was a bit confusing to me and it seems that I have been having difficulties in adjusting. But as time pass by, I am getting used with it.
Now, I am a 4th year student and getting ready to face the real but cruel world. As of my state of knowledge, it is rather in the most basic stage. Apparently, since I am just starting, I am still learning. I know that after I graduate, the true and surreal beginning of my journey will just start. Am I ready or not? Yes I am. But I still lack of something. Something important that if I will not acquire of such, I will be nothing. I guess it is for me – but just me – to find it out.
If I would become a successful and productive IT professional (daydreaming…!), I am obliged to contribute in technology and for the innovation of it. The contribution should be to meliorate the quality of man’s living. Eventually, I cannot tell that I could really accomplish such obligation. As for now, I really cannot think clearly what I could possibly do. I am not that kind of person that could easily finish a task easily and flawlessly (on the process and in the application). I need to reciprocate fairly in order in massively attest this factual conception onto my very own self as if it had been made as a habit for within the ego of me.
In today’s trend, there have been a large number of innovations on technology. Scientists and technologists are striving their very best in order to contribute and share their knowledge and learning upon each noesis and cognitions. In lots of field, there are innovations, These includes agriculture, motor cars and automobile, computer hardwares (printers, CPUs, monitors), computer accessories, softwares (application and operating system), computer services, gadets and PDAs, medicine and health, bioscience, robotics, aeronautics, defense and security, engineering and innovations, and energy and environment. In recent months, the concept of ‘cloud computing’ was all the buzz. European researchers think about another name, the World Wide Grid, which could run on top of the Internet. In an article to appear soon, ICT Results will report about the g-Eclipse project. As the scientists said, ‘the g-Eclipse project aims to build an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. The framework will be built on top of the reliable eco-system of the Eclipse community to enable a sustainable development. As I mentioned above, there are plenty of ‘computing clouds’ these days. Once you’re working with one like Amazon, it’s not easy to interoperate with another one such as Google. Even if these ‘clouds’ merely exist in 2006, this was this lack of interoperability which created the need for the g-Eclipsea project. The Firefly mission is the second project under the new U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CubeSat program. The goal of this program is to provide a low cost access to space research. Firefly will be launched in 2010 or 2011 and will try to ’solve the mystery of the most powerful natural particle accelerator in Earth’s atmosphere: TGFs, or terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. TGFs are short, powerful bursts of gamma rays emitted into space from Earth’s upper atmosphere. The gamma rays are thought to be emitted by electrons traveling at or near the speed of light when they are slowed down by interaction with atoms in the upper atmosphere. These events may occur much more often than realized and may be associated with a significant fraction of the roughly 60 lightning strokes per second that occur worldwide. They could have a large effect on the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space, scientists say. U.S. researchers have developed an integrated blood barcode chip which can identify what’s in your blood in less than 10 minutes. Instead of going to a lab, having a shot, and waiting for results for a day or two, this new chip will allow physicians to practice sophisticated exams in their offices by using a single drop of your blood. And these tests will be very cheap compared to existing procedures. If this chip becomes widely available, you might one day enter your physician’s office and learn a few minutes after that you have a cancer. Of course, such blood chips are a good thing, but they also are frightening. This blood chip has been developed by Caltech chemistry professor James Heath and his colleagues, and by Leroy Hood, the president and founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Hood is already known for his participation of the invention of the high-speed DNA sequencer that made the Human Genome Project possible. wireless experts estimate that our personal networks will include about a thousand devices in 2017, including dozens of sensors checking our health and our home. This is why European researchers have launched in 2006 a networking project called ‘MAGNET Beyond.’ The name is an acronym for ‘ My personal adaptive Global NET and beyond.’ The article suggests that the researchers have in fact built the Smart Personal Network, which integrates the concepts of Personal Networks (PNs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs). But first, where does this number of a thousand devices in a personal network come from? “In reality, it is hard to know what kind of devices or technology might be around for sure, but one thing is certain… there will be a lot of them. The first satellites were launched about 50 years ago as a way to conquer space. Now, satellites are essential for our civilian and military communications. But they remain large and expensive, some of them costing several hundreds of millions of dollars. This is why researchers from the University of Florida are building small satellites able to work as a team to take multiple and distributed measurements or observations of weather phenomena for example. These small satellites should cost only about $100,000 to produce. The first one should be launched next year by a NASA rocket and should not be larger than a softball. The goal is to mass-produce these satellites to even reduce their costs. The northern lights are beautiful when you see them from the ground. But they can be dangerous for your life if you’re in a plane crossing an area where they are active. This is because your plane can lose radio contact for a long time when flying above the northern polar region. This is why a Norwegian professor of physics is about to launch a rocket to discover the mysteries of the northern lights. The 9-meter long rocket should be launched between November 28 and December 7, 2008. It should reach an altitude of 350 kilometers and its flying time will be only 10 minutes. Let’s hope that the embarked sensors function correctly. Canadian scientists have recreated a famous painting from Vermeer on the microscale by using a new protein patterning technique. In fact, they’ve used a new laser method to draw protein pictures. And to illustrate the precision of their protein patterning technique, the research team reproduced ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ a masterwork of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. The technology landscape may be going through a period of change at a pace not ever witnessed. The Internet’s expansion helped drive what we have called “a boom ! bust ! boom-let period for new-company creation and a boom-let ! bust ! boom period for wealth creation.” That said, the underlying trend of technology investment has remained relatively constant. The unrelenting stream of private investment may be one indisputable data point - not only has venture capital remained healthy throughout the past ten years, in the midst of the bubble bursting, technology actually increased as a total percentage of all venture capital investments and has remained above levels seen during the ncreased attention in the late 90’s. But the real goal of this work is to replicate the brain’s complex cellular environment. The research team said their new laser method is ‘a major discovery, since the new laser technology can encourage and guide the growth of finicky nerve cells.’ According to New Scientist, engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have modified an unmanned commercial civilian helicopter to fly fast and low while avoiding obstacles such as buildings, trees or power lines. The unmanned aerial vehicle from Yamaha has been adapted to integrate a sensing system able to see obstacles — and to avoid them. The article said that ‘the helicopter’s eye is a custom-built 3D laser scanner, which sweeps an oval path ahead of the 3.5-metre long craft. The scanner can detect objects as hard to see as power lines from 150 metres away.’ Imagine a nuclear reactor small enough to be carried by truck and buried in a garden… According to The Guardian, a U.S. company based in New Mexico, Hyperion Power Generation, has designed mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes. The company has already received firm orders and expects to deliver about 4,000 ‘individual’ plants between 2013 and 2023. It also said that it has a six-year waiting list. So if you want such a micro nuclear reactor, don’t expect to receive it by 2014. There are multiple other data points that suggest we are in the midst of a groundswell of technology innovation and growth. It is our intent to use these specific trends to identify some of the potential winners most impacted by these emerging trends.
My goal is to contribute but not to exploit. I will rather lose myself than exploiting each of these innovations. I merely cannot call myself worthy as an IT professional and should be suitable for it. It could be worse if my contribution turns out on endangering others. It is unforgivable. IT professional’s contribution should be for the better living of man’s course of life and not to hinder it.
But however, even though I can really achieved such goals and objectives, I am still fresh and preparing myself to face the true challenge in life. Still, it is an obligation as future IT professional, to contribute and introduce learning and knowledge for the betterment of tomorrow.

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