eBicol Development of a Bicol Online Portal

Abstract

The Bicol Region is one of the key drivers of the country’s economic growth. To further strengthen the role of the region in nation-building, it has to recognize the vital function of information and communication technology. To date, Bicol Region maintains islands of databases whose contents do not support dynamic features and often times state and obsolete. This makes it difficult for information-seeker to come up with appropriate regional information and thus, greatly affects investments generation, policy and decision-making, and information dissemination.

It is in this intent that a project was conceptualized to create a regional one-stop information portal for Bicol government instrumentalities that will centralize online presence initiatives, provide public access, data banking of information, and establish connectivity with other sectors.

The Bicol Online Portal will integrate government websites, databases and relevant information into one stop portal. The content management system (CMS) feature of the portal will encourage content generation and updating even for people with little knowledge on web development. It will also present dynamic features for user interaction.

The project followed the principles of exploratory research. Project objectives were attained by studying the problem are and focusing on specific areas through discussion with information sources and others who are knowledgeable on the subject matter. It was developed using Joomla! Content Management System, PHP, MySQL, HTML, XML and other open-source tools especially Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) which improve the system and the development process. The project used open standards to ensure the stability and integrity of code, interoperability and maintainability of systems and support for future expansion. System development was done through prototyping with close coordination between the systems analyst and information sources/web users.

User testing was done in coordination with information sources, potential users, and through the Regional Information Technology and E-Commerce Committee (RITECC V) to assess the functionality, technicality, content and usage of the project. Monitoring and evaluation were done to verify that the project met the targets and deliverables on the specified time through the PERT Chart.

The output of the project will serve as a template and framework for the project of the same title which will be presented to the Regional Development Council V for funding requirements, as detailed in the ICT Resolution No. 1-05, Series of 2006, “Requesting the Regional Development Council (RDC V) to approve the Proposal for the Establishment and Maintenance of a “Bicol Portal” which was passed during the 1st Bicol ICT Congress help in Legazpi City on 23-24 November 2006.

Upon completion of this Information System project, the author learned the following: web development using content management system and open-source tools, systems analysis and design, system deployment, systems documentation and project management.