Dr Aser Javier, IDMG Director, tries Eminima in the faculty Lounge

Eminima, a package of ICT tools for grassroots institutional empowerment initiated at the Institute of Development Management and Governance (IDMG), won the ICT/Education-Government category of the Luzon Inventors' Exhibit Cum Contest held at Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and hosted by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) on October 12-14, 2005. Eminima will now be an official entry in the National Inventors' Exhibit scheduled November 2005 at the Philippine Trade and Training Center, Manila.

Eminima came out of IDMG's vision of bringing low-cost interactive Internet technology to the grassroots. For Local Government Units (LGUs), Eminima enables institutional administrative simplification, customer-focused frontline services enhancement, and 24/7 support for local constituents' concerns. For educational institutions, Eminima enables teacher's efficient course content delivery and student learning reinforcement. Eminima is a pioneering work of IDMG faculty Dr Rufino S. Mananghaya. Its development can be traced back to IDMG's hosting of egovernance initiatives that commenced in the First Egovernance Conference held at UPLB in March 2004.

Eminima as a low-cost elearning solution was already presented and discussed in the August 2005 national Elearning Conference of the Philippine Elearning Society (PeLS). At the College of Public Affairs, PhD student Ms Laury Arca has already used Eminima for teaching Values Education to fourth year students of Pedro Guevara Memorial National High School Annex. Another PhD student, Ms Rowena dela Cruz, has introduced Eminima to teachers at Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa (PLMun) and student council officers of Pedro E Diaz High School, also of Muntinlupa City. IDMG is looking forward to packaging a program, which includes Eminima, in Governance Capacity Building for Local School Boards for its partner LGUs.