The Internet's 10 Most Influential Filipinos

Joel Disini

Profile.
Joel Disini used to work in Silicon Valley doing networking- and communications-related work. After 9 years in the US, he came to the Philippines in 1989 and is currently the President of the E-Mail Company, one of the first Internet Service Providers in the country.

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

He feels that his greatest contribution to the industry is reaching through the remote places in the country. "We even had Internet access from a Smart Cellphone at the foot of Mt. Kitanglad about 4 years back. Prior to that we were doing Internet access in remote locations via packet-radio. This was used in the early 90s for packet-radio to packet-satellite gateways," Disini says.

Disini is known for managing the PH domain. He pointed out, however, the disparity between having the "rights" and "responsibility". "Rights is something you have when you charge $50 year per domain and register 2M domains and go public, which is what NSI did. Responsibility is when you charge P900 lifetime per domain, run at a loss for 7 years, and have to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous nameservers."

Vision for the Net.
His dreams, for a start, concern getting the government to put their financial books online. "This way, the press and concerned citizens would be the watchdogs to ensure that a clean and honest government," Disini said.

"This sort of openness in finances is a logical evolution in governmental policy, and will probably be implemented first in the US or Europe."

He believes that technology will make the government system more efficient, making even online voting possible. "Good government is our birthright, and it should happen in our lifetime. In the last election, the uninformed masses elected a president primarily because of his on-screen persona. In the next millenium, informed special interest groups may be able to wield enough power to anoint the next president primarily on his inline platform."