The Internet's 10 Most Influential Filipinos

Jim Ayson

Profile.
Jim Ayson, Philippine Regional Directory for Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN), is one of the pioneers of the Philippine Internet industry. Ayson is the creator of PhilMusic.com, the biggest winner in the recently held Philippine Webby Awards, having been adjudged as Best Music Web Site and Web Site of the Year. He also spearheaded the largest and most active mailing list in the country, the Philippine Cyberspace Review (PH-Cyberview), which is slowly gaining ground as the prime medium of communication and exchange of news and ideas among Filipinos in the industry.

Ayson is back with W3 Business Communications, an independent consulting business, conducting seminars and speaking engagements in areas related to the Internet, which he has always been known for from the start.

Why he's influential.

The Internet's 10 Most Influential Filipinos     The Survey Manny Amador Jim Ayson Fernando Contreras Joel Disini Willy Gan Ken Ilio William Padolina William Torres Leandro Verceles Jr. Rodolfo Villarica

"I don't really view myself as a hard core techie. My main gift I think through the years was an effective communicator who understood enough about technology to demystify it for the everyman."

"I did a lot of writing and speaking on the subject along with a lot of the other early Net personalities. This early "evangelism" helped to raise awareness early on." For instance, one of the first attendees of a web orientation seminar he gave in 1994 was Mike Marasigan, who is now COO of Businessworld Online.

Vision for the Net.
He hopes for the Internet to be available not only among the upper classes, but to the masses as well. However. "I'm not part of an ISP, so I can't do anything about bringing down cost. But I'm interested in sharing my talents with NGOs and the government sector to see how we can develop web sites that can effect real change and development, and thus indirectly make the Internet beneficial and relevant to more people," Ayson added.

"For 1999 I am excited about developing two business-to-consumer e-commerce projects under the aegis of PhilMusic and WebMarket. These include PhilMusic Direct, which is a CD retail operation aimed for the overseas market - selling OPM CDs abroad - and CD Manila, which is for the Philippine market, taking orders for specialty imports and used CDs."

"Winning recognition in the Webby awards and being featured in this article is probably one of the best things to happen this year, especially in the light of the combined personal and professional crisis that affected me for the first half of 1998. It was a tremendous honor to be recognized, however it also brings with it a tremendous pressure to excel and go a step further because there is a lot of public scrutiny placed on my work. Hopefully, this will serve more as a challenge and incentive to do better, 'cooler' stuff," Ayson added.