Making Computer Ultimately More Useful

One major ambition of Bill Gates in establishing Microsoft research laboratory in China in 1992 was “to lead the world in making computers interactive, entertaining, and ultimately more useful.” [Robert Buderi and Gregory T. Huang, Guanxi: The Art of Relationships, (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 7.] I would like to underscore the last item of that goal which is to make computers ultimately more useful.

On the other hand, there is a rise of intersections which may result to innovation and creativity. Intersection happens only when we associate concept from one field of discipline, cultures, and or domains with concepts in another. Intersection therefore, is a place for wildly different ideas to bump into and build upon each other. [Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect: What Elephants & Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation, (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2006), 16.]

Behind these intersections are 3 major forces such as movement of people, convergence of science, and leap of computation.[Ibid., 22-32] One concrete example for leap in computation is the production of microchips. The microchip has paved the way for e-mail, mobile phones, satellite phones, television, and cheaper phone calls. For instance, modern technology such as e-mail and cell phone makes it easier now for climbers of Mount Everest to communicate with far away people, including rescue squads.

The Department of Computer Studies at Bacolod Christian College was created with the aforesaid reasons in mind. We aim at making computers more useful to all of us. The computer technology can best serve us as a tool for arriving at intersections in innovation, as well.

Starting school year 2009-2010, the Department of Computer Studies will offer a course on Information and Communications Technology with TESDA. The 16-Hour Computer Literacy Program we will be conducting beginning tomorrow for four (4) Saturdays is a jumpstart for the ensuing course offerings here at BCC. This initial offering is the College’s way of partnering with the Bacolod City Police in their services to all peoples, particularly the Bacolodnons. We hope the knowledge and skills that the Police officers could learn from this course of studies will enable them to render services which are not only effective and efficient but more importantly transformational for all humanity and for the glory of God.

God bless us all!

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(Rationale for ICT program delivered by Rev. Dr. Sergio A. Rojo, Jr., President of Bacolod Christian College of Negros, during the Opening Program of the Computer Literacy Program for Bacolod City Police Officers on December 5, 2008 at Bacolod Christian College.)