The Real Winner of Pilpres 2014 is IT

We all know the result of this year's election stated officially by Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) is won by Jokowi - JK. The official result you can see on this website: http://www.kpu.go.id/index.php/post/read/2014/3433/KPU-Tetapkan-Hasil-Pemilu-Presiden-dan-Wakil-Presiden-2014

I'm not gonna bother with the result and stuff because that's been done and hey we all agreed on the result announced by KPU. What I'm gonna try to discuss on this piece I'm writing is another perspective on what else won during this election process. 

Since the beginning of the Pilpres campaign  the people of Indonesia wanted a transparent, clean, and honest Pilpres process. Both parties were always saying "kawal suara kita" or guard our voice. Then for quite some time I thought to myself how could we actually help to guard our voice on the choice we've made on the ballot. You know what, actually I wasn't the only thinking about it. It turns out thousands, maybe tens of thousands people and hey maybe even millions of us were thinking the same about it. Then they started this movement called crowd-sourcing. I wasn't familiar with it at first but then I started reading a couple of articles of crowd-sourcing that were shared by a couple of my friends and lecturers on facebook (http://www.techinasia.com/kawal-pemilu-indonesia-presidential-election-fighters/). You can google about crowdsourcing but in short, it's an activity where tasks are done or delegated to a large group of people called community through an open invitation (correct me on this if I'm wrong).

Then comes the question, how can the people be involved in this crowd-sourcing activity to guard the election? Well the answer is through information technology. The election commission or KPU have given us the right to see the results on each of the voting places that occurred in Indonesia. And yes that means over 450,000 TPS or local voting place. We can see the results that have been uploaded by KPU on its website. Then a couple of people started making webapps that can count the results with the help of the uploaded results of each TPS. The websites that did this 'real count' are as listed below:

1. Kawal Pemilu (http://www.kawalpemilu.org/#0)

2. Herokuapp (http://rekapda1.herokuapp.com/locations/index)

3. Kawal Suara (http://kawal-suara.appspot.com/)

4. etc....

What each of these websites did was used the data provided by KPU to put in the number votes for each parties from each local voting place and count the results. This is not an impossible job to do, but yes it will take quite a lot of time if done by just 1 or 2 people. So that's when comes the role of crowd-sourcing goes to help. When the input process was done by let's say by hundreds of volunteers it could be done by only 3 days. And through this kawalpemilu and friends, we could then compare the actual and official result done by the election commissions. If the results from KPU were different from the crowdsourcing websites, we have a real problem then! But as it turns out, the final results from KPU are actually the same as Kawal Pemilu. See for yourself if you're still not sure. Compare this http://www.kpu.go.id/index.php/post/read/2014/3433/KPU-Tetapkan-Hasil-Pemilu-Presiden-dan-Wakil-Presiden-2014 and http://www.kawalpemilu.org/#0

Back to the focus and point I was trying to point out. IT has become a big thing here in Indonesia and it's growing fast. Recently the national higher education selection was done, and I was a bit shocked when I heard that IT has become the most favorite field of study (science major) selected by the students. This is something that we IT students should be proud of, that each year, more and more high school students are more attracted to continue their study with IT. Hey, IT even passed the most popular major in the country "Pendidikan Dokter" :p

(Taken from Kemendikbud facebook page)

Not to mention there are a couple of IT related stuff also mentioned during the Pilpres campaign, such as e-procurement and e-government mentioned in the President candidate debate. Which means that the new president would continue to implement IT systems to help government's operations. And how can we left out the statement by Jokowi when he said "Panggil programmer, 2 minggu jadi". I know a bunch of you disagree with his statement that it's not that easy to develop IT Systems and it can't be finished within two weeks of development time. But let us all appreciate Pak Jokowi's effort in introducing to the people that IT can play a big role in the new government and behind the development there are those great programmers working their butt off to create such systems. I'm telling you, Indonesian programmers have never been that popular since that statement.

I've studied in the IT field for about 4 years now. From the courses that I've taken, all points out that IT will help people and business in particular. As an example, enterprise systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other information systems will make business more effective and efficient. 

From this Pilpres, it's a proof that when IT is put to a good use it will give people and organizations tons of benefits. Well from this Pilpres two things that IT has helped:

1. Through the open data that KPU provided for us that was uploaded in their website so we can access and monitor each of the results from each of the local voting place (transparent)

2. The kawal pemilu website that people have been developed in order to do the 'real count' done by the crowds-ourcing community so we can guard the voters voice until the official results announced by KPU (guard the votes).

I am touched in the last couple of days until now, people with small or no IT background at all have been posting on the good use of IT, helping the election process through open data by the KPU and kawal pemilu by the crowd-sourcing community. 

As a result, the expectation from the Indonesian people that we can have a transparent, clean, and honest election has been helped by the good use of IT.

Remembering 9/11

Yesterday was September 11! Yes you read it right, September 11.

Most of you probably don't care about the date, while others know what the date means to them. It changed their life, it even changed the world.

Yes, yesterday was the date of the 911 tragedy when 2 planes (yes you read right, 2 planes!) crashed the World Trade Center in New York. If you really don't know what happened you can search it on google or see yourself the video on youtube, I'm not putting on my blog because it hurts when I see it all over again.

I'm gonna tell you my experience when the tragedy occured 12 years ago. I'm also going to actually give a bit of my perspectives on what happened after the tragedy.

I was 9 at the time having just arrived in the states for about 3 weeks. My family and I, we lived in the state of Florida. I couldn't speak English (just numbers, colors, and how are you). Woked up like any usual day and went to school. The clocked showed around 9 in the morning and there was an announcement from the principal that we had to got to the Cafeteria. So everyone lined up and went straight to the cafeteria just like how the principal instructed. There was 2 TVs in the front of the cafeteria and both were showing the same thing.

(taken from: http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/08/911-using-poetry-to-cope-with-tragedy.html)

As I watched the TV, I saw an airplane crashed a skyscraper. I first thought it was just like a kids program like Ultraman. But then I noticed that everybody was shocked especially the teachers. They started reaching their cellphones and reacted weird. We were told to go home by the principal. I still didn't know what was going on back then. So I was happy to go home early from school.

When I went back home, my big sister was already there. I turned on the TV and every channel was showing the same thing, but this time it as 2 airplanes that crashed into to bulidings.

Mom arrived about 15 minutes after I arrived home, and then she started explaining everything in Bahasa. I started to know what the heck was going on but to be honest I didn't know what it all meant. the next day was a bit different at school because we had to create some cards for something I really don't know about. I realized what it was for the next year.

So I then saw the news and knew that America was going to war with some countries in the middle east. I still didn't know what they wanted in the war at that time. Then came 2003 when I started to know my surroundings and what happened to America after the tragedy. Some people died during the war and there were people from the town where I lived. There were signs everywhere about the soldiers that died in the war. I started respecting soldiers when I meet them (in wal-mart, publix, and so on) and smiled to them too.

I was totally against the war, but I felt what the Americans felt after the 911. It was anger, hatred and they needed to make a point that they are against terrorism and would do anything to stop it. I hated the idea that going to war was the answer to terrorism, but hey who am I just an 11 year old boy at the time.

Many Indonesians hate America because they went to war after the 911, but they didn't know what it felt like losing your LOVED ONES at a tragedy like that. What happens when that happens to Indonesia? Will we not hate the people who does that to us? Think about it!

(taken from: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/09/08/an-ipad-app-to-commenorate-the-911-tragedy/)

I'm writing this to also show my deep condolences to my friends who lost their families during the 911 and during the war. I personally will never forget what happened 12 years ago. I learned a lot, I experienced a lot and it definitely gave me a lot perspectives on things that I would never think of. 

We will never forget the day! 

(taken from: Lebron's James facebook acount)

Up for New Challenges Ahead!

As I promised in my previous post that I'd like to share something about what I'll be doing for my last year of college. Well, here goes the story:

For the last couple of months, I've been doing my internship in a big company, one of the subsidiary of a multinational company. I enjoyed my time working there and of course I got a lot of new lessons, experience, and most of all I felt just like any working person going to work everyday. It opened my eyes for a lot of things and perspectives. One of the first thing I realized is that I needed more challenges, it's not that the company that I worked for my internship has no challenges, oh yes I can definitely find tons of them, but it just seems different solving them.

So after thinking over and over again to myself, what is really my passion? To be honest, I can't really say right now. All I know is, since I was in elementary school, I like making money. Well I like making money from just anything really. In elementary, I used to sell pencils and pen my mom bought from the train and sell them for almost like 4 times the price. But then I gave back the money I profited from selling the pencils and pen to mom so she can gas for her to cook. In middle school, when I was in Gainesville I didn't have anything to sell, so I only have my time and I liked playing with kids so I started to babysit and also teach kids to write, learn their ABCs, count and many more. Of course the money would go to mom so every weekend we could eat out as a family and I was proud of it. I did continue to teach until now but not as often as in the past. I love making money, especially from things I do best at. It maybe God's gift or I just love making money. 

So, at the beginning of the semester I talked to a couple of my nearest friend to start a business of our own. We haven't quite decide yet what the business would be, or where it would leads to. But we believed IT is the future to almost anything so we're gonna start something in the IT field. We also want to contribute to the country bu actually create jobs opening (in the future after the business is established).

I knew that it would take a lot energy, mind, and also time. But I always believed that if you want to achieve something big, you need to work extra hard on it! I have a year left to really work my butt off and hopefully it'll succeed. 

I'm gonna close the post with a really nice saying that hit me, it was one of the team member who shared it to us: Life is short! Build stuff THAT MATTERS!

(taken from: http://jarederickson.com/page/8/)

 I'll be posting again soon!

Enjoy your day :D

Enjoying the IT Case Solution Competition Victory!

Well, it's been a while huh since I last time wrote on this blog.

This time I'm gonna be writing about a competition I won recently (about  3 months ago..hehe). I didn't have the time to write after winning it, so now I'll be telling you all the experience and the feeling I felt throughout the competition.

So the background to the story is, Binus University they held a yearly event (is yearly even a word?) from their Himpunan Mahasiswa of Information Systems (Himsisfo) called Himsisfo Competition and one of the category for the competition is: ITCASO (IT Case Solution) where we have to give solutions/recommendations based on the case given on a company. Last year my team and I we made it through the Final (Top 6) but we didn't manage to be in the top 3. It was okay since we were the youngest team who made it through. All of the finals were either in their junior and mostly are in their senior year. It was such an honor to be even in the Final last year (2012)

Well, this year my team and I, we joined the competition once again with the target of actually winning it. We were going for the gold! We were a bit confident because we were a year more mature, more knowledge, more skills, and most definitely we were more committed than before.
Even though our preparation for the competition was a much shorter than last year, we had one year of gaining experience and knowledge we would be used a lot during the competition. So the team was still the same, it was me of course, Adrian Nuradiansyah, and Aldyra Dhien Swavira. We named the team: Nusantara Consulting. well there's a bit of the philosophy of the name. In a short explanation, the team comes from different tribe(suku) all around Indonesia (Nusantara), and we wanted to the team BIG just like Nusantara in the past (as a Kingdom), in the present now (Indonesia now), and in the future (something great)

So after registering the competition we were given a pre-case for us to solve. We were given about 6 days to give our solution to the case of a Company named ExerciseApp, a mobile app startup who wanted to develop a mobile application on sports. Well the case clearly stated want the problem and what we needed to solve, so we managed to solve the case.
The announcement for the final were made about 3 days after the precase submission, and thankfully Nusantara Consulting made it to the final, which means 2 finals in a row.
The final took place in Binus Square where we were quarantined for 1 full day where we needed to solve another case given. This time the case was a bit hard, it was about a company called Telerik, a software house in Eastern Europe who are commited with Agile Development Process. At first we didn't find any flaw on the company nor any opportunity for the company to grab on. But in the end, we found on the case that the company is facing difficulty in its new employees adapting to agile development especially when it is on expansion. We solved the case until 11::00 pm and started rehearsing until midnight then we decided to call it a day and went straight to sleep.
The next morning, we practiced a couple of times to give our presentation in ftont of the judges. We were picked randomly to go second, and were only asked to deliver the presentation in 15minutes. we gave our presentation in full english and also answer the questions given in English also. We were a bit nervous at first, but we managed to stay calm and once the presentation was going to handled it pretty nice actually. We confident, we gave the answers to what we have prepared, and mostly we managed to impress some of the judges with our solution and recommendation to the case.

The announcement for the competition took place in Binus also but it was 2 weeks after the final was held. Well, since Adrian and Aldyra could not come to the announcement, I had to represent the team. It was a nervous moment for me because we had big expectation for the result.
Well this is the result:

We came in first place and we got several prices. We were very proud of it and couldn't believe we finally achieved what we hoped for.

We want to thank everyone who made this happen, Pak Jonathan Sofian (our coach and mentor), Pa Rifki Shihab (also our mentor), and also Christian Regensius (our mentor and coach), the Lab E-gov of Fasilkom for letting us borrow the room for us to discuss. We hoped you are all also proud of what we have accomplished.

I also want to give a lot of credit to this incredible team we formed a couple of years ago. Some people might doubted us what we can do, well we proved them wrong I guess. I want to introduce the members of the team:

1. Adrian Nuradiansyah, Information System 2010. This guy has it all! He's brilliant, he's willing to work hard. He's got millions of ideas that you can take from him. If there's anyone you'd like in the team, well he's the one you want! He's the brain of the team.

2. Aldyra Dhien Swavira, Information System 2010. She may be calm, man she can work hard and tirelessly. She's a very detailed person, the one always looking for the details needed. She's the heart of the team! She is also the person you would want it your team!

Well that's about it. I'll be writing really soon about something I'm starting on my final year in College.

See you soon!

Memories of Gainesville

It's been a while since I've written my last post on this blog. And I've done a lot of things but haven't had the time to write it all on this blog.

But, for the last couple of days, I've been thinking a lot about  Gainesville, my childhood town.

I lived in Gainesville from the year 2001 until 2005 because my mom took her Ph. D in the University of Florida which happens to be in Gainesville.
A long 4 years and I might say, with those 4 years, I grew up to be what I am now.

Well not a lot of you know Gainesville, so I'll be describing the city which I love so much.

Gainesville is located in the state of America.
Gainesville is not a big city like Chicago, Miami, or Atlanta. It's not too small but it's not big either.
With the population of around 125,000 people it's not too crowded either.

(taken from: http://www.usleaseoption.com)

The city of Gainesville

(taken from: http://www.centralfloridaforsalebyowner.com)

Gainesville is the home of University of Florida, a dream university of mine.

University of Florida

(http://coolspotters.com/schools/university-of-florida)

Well that's the brief description of Gainesville, Florida. If you want to know more about it, you can just simply google it on the internet :p

My next few posts will be all about the memories of what I had while living in Gainesville.

Maybe some of you will think that I'm still living in the past and I can't get over it. Well, it's wrong.

I am what I am today is from what I went through living in Gainesville and I'm so proud to have that experience!

So, be sure to check back on my blog once in  a while to get the picture of what I had while I was in Gainesville.

Seminar Computer Festival 2012

I'm gonna let this picture speak for itself!

So, what are you waiting for? Join and register to be a BIG part of IT development in INDONESIA!

Apa arti Natal bagiku?

Pertama-tama post kali ini saya tulis dengan menggunakan bahasa formal karena siapa tahu ada orang lain selain anak2 muda yang membacanya :D. Langsung dimulai aja ya.

Ketika saya kecil, saya memang sekedar merayakan Natal menyambut kedatangan Yesus bersama teman-teman-teman yang lain, bukan hanya merayakan kedatangan Yesus saya juga biasanya menantikan kado-kado yang berdatangan dari keluarga, dan juga tentunya baju baru. Ketika ada ibadah Natal untuk para anak-anak biasanya ada juga Sinter Klas yang ikut memeriahkan acaranya. Namun banyak sekali pandangan yang berubah dan makna Natal bagi saya ketika saya sudah besar dan khususnya saat ini.

Seperti yang kita semua ketahui, bahwa Natal adalah hari dimana kita memperingati kelahiran Yesus, Tuhan dan Juruselamat dunia. Semua umat Kristiani merayakannya dengan berbagai macam cara dan budaya yang berbeda-beda. Ketika saya dulu tinggal di Amerika ketika umur 9-13 (bukan ingin pamer, tapi ingin berbagi cerita), Natal begitu terasa suasananya. Pohon Natal dimana-mana, lagu-lagu Natal dimainkan di setiap toko yang dikunjungi selama sebulan penuh, belum lagi setiap rumah didekorasikan dengan lampu2 Natal yang begitu meriah. Saya masih ingat ketika Christmas Eve, setelah pulang dari Gereja kami sekeluarga biasanya mengelilingi kota Gainesville (kota kami tinggal selama 4 tahun disana) dan masuk ke komplek-komplek perumahan elit untuk melihat dekorasi setiap rumah yang sungguh menarik perhatian dengan hiasan lampu Natal yang dipasang di jendela ataupun di teras rumah mereka. Pada intinya, Natal di Amerika terasa benar nuansa Natalnya.

Ketika saya kembali ke Indonesia, Natal agak sedikit berbeda karena jujur nuansa Natalnya tidak kental namun tetap terasa. Namun, yang saya senang dari Natal di Indonesia adalah saya bisa merayakannya dengan KELUARGA BESAR, dan mendapat rasa kekeluargaan yang sangat saya rindukan ketika saya di Amerika.

Itu sedikit cerita tentang kehidupan Natal saya ketika saya kecil. Lalu masuk sebuah pertanyaan yang seharusnya semua umat Kristiani tanyakan ke diri masing-masing: “Apa arti Natal bagi diriku?”

Mungkin ada banyak versi jawaban dari tiap umat, dan saya pun mempunyai pandangan saya sendiri. Inilah yang saya mau share-kan disini. Inilah pandangan Natal bagi saya.

Natal / Christmas diambil dari kata CHRIST yang bearti mengutamakan peringatan akan Tuhan Yesus Kristus yang datang ke dunia untuk menyelamatkan setiap orang yang percaya kepada-Nya. Berarti saya merayakan Natal untuk menyambut kedatanganNya ke dunia ini.

Lalu saya teringat oleh suatu pertanyaan yang juga seharusnya direnungkan oleh semua umat Kristiani di seluruh dunia, “ketika Yesus sudah lahir dan sudah menebus dosa manusia, dan kita pun sudah mengaku percaya akan itu, tapi apakah “Arti Yesus bagi kita?””

Lalu saya juga teringat akan pertama kalinya saya percaya dengan sungguh bahwa Yesus lah Tuhan dan Juruselamat. Ceritanya begini:

Saat itu saya berumur 9 tahun dan ikut pergi ke Amerika mengikuti keluarga karena mama mengambil S3 disana selama 4 tahun. Ketika sampai disana, saya masih belum bisa berbahasa Inggris, sebenarnya bisa namun hanya yang umum-umum saja, seperti “how are you? Fine, thank you,”, dll. Saya belum mempunyai  teman, mama saya sibuk belajar, papa saya sibuk bekerja, kakak saya (perempuan) punya kegiatan yang berbeda dengan saya, adik saya (perempuan juga) 4 tahun berbeda dan masih kecil (5 tahun). Di sekolah, saya tidak bisa ngomong apa-apa karena tidak bisa bahasa inggris, dan belum punya teman. Teman saya hanyalah sebuah TV yang berbahasa inggris semua dan juga sebuah komputer yang untungnya sudah ada internetnya. Saya sering nonton dan main-main dengan program pain pada saat itu untuk menggambar.

Suatu hari, saya jenuh dengan rutinitas saya dan sebenarnya ingin balik ke Indonesia dan kembali bermain bersama teman-teman dan keluarga (sepupu). Saya bagaikan hidup di planet yang berbeda dan tidak mengerti apa-apa. Ketika itu, saya memang sedang kesal dan langsung complaint dan marah-marah ke Tuhan, tidak melalui doa, tetapi langsung dari hati saya berbicara ke Tuhan. Kurang lebih, inilah yang saya ucapkan ke Tuhan: “ Tuhan, mengapa saya disini? Saya merasa sendirian dan tidak punya teman. Saya inginnya balik lagi ke indonesia.”

Setelah itu, ada sebuah Alkitab terletak di atas meja ruang keluarga. Saya langsung membukanya dan menemukan sebuah pembatas buku yang berjudul: “Jejak Kaki”. Saya langsung membacanya dan saya menemukan suatu perasaan yang berbeda seperti saya telah disegarkan. Beginilah cerita jejak kaki tersebut:

Deep in his slumber, one night a man had a very real, yet surreal dream. He dreamt that he was walking along the beach with God. As he looked up at the sky, he saw all the scenes of his life flash by along with two sets of footprints: one set for himself, and another for God.

After all the scenes had flashed before him, he looked back at those footprints and noticed something quite disturbing: At the most difficult times in his life, he saw only one set of footprints.

This deeply troubled the man, so he turned and said to God: "You said that if I followed you, then you would always walk with me through thick and thin. In looking back, I see that during the most painful times there is only one set of footprints. Why did you leave me when I needed you the most?"

"I love you and would never leave. It was during those times when you suffered the most that I carried you."

Saat itu juga saya langsung berdoa dan meminta maaf kepada Tuhan karena tidak merasa kuasaNya ketika saya sedang jatuh. Saya berjanji akan tetap setia kepadaNya dan meminta agar Tuhan Yesus senantiasa menyertai saya di sepanjang hidup saya. Saya berdoa juga agar saya dituntun untuk menghadapi kehidupan saya disana. Saat itu juga saya merasa sangat diperbaharui secara rohani. Sejak itu, semuanya berjalan seperti janji Tuhan bahwa dia senantiasa BERJALAN BERSAMA KITA. Saya mendapat banyak teman, satu persatu ingin berkenalan dengan saya, saya mulai lancar untuk berbahasa Inggris. Mendapat banyak teman juga di Gereja, dan sejak itu saya jarang mengeluh dan setiap pergumulan yang saya hadapi pintunya dibukakan oleh Tuhan.

Singkat cerita saya mengaku percaya dan saya benar-benar merasakan bahwa, Yesus adalah Tuhan dan Juruselamat yang tidak akan pernah meninggalkan kita. Dia senantiasa beserta kita seperti yang tertulis di Matius 1:23: Imanuel – yang berarti: Allah menyertai kita.

Itu pun nama saya “Imanuel” yang memang diberikan oleh orang tua saya, dan saya benar-benar bersyukur mempunyai nama seperti itu, namun juga berat tanggung jawabnya. Saya benar2 memaknai arti nama saya sesungguhnya dan benar saya mengalaminya sendiri.

Kembali lagi ke pertanyaan sebelumnya:

Apa arti Yesus bagi hidupku?

Bagiku Yesus adalah:

-         Tuhan & Juruselamat: jalan kebenaran

-         Teman: senantiasa menemaniku

-         Tempat curhat: segala masalah yang kuhadapi, kuceritakannya padaNya.

-         Panutan: segala yang kuperbuat, seharusnya seturut dengan kehendak-Nya

-         Guru: mengajariku banyak hal tentang hidup.

-         Gembala: aku ini domba yang lemah dan butuh gembala seperti Yesus.

Ya, kita boleh merayakan Natal dengan berbagai macam cara dan tradisi, namun Natal yang sesungguhnya ada dalam Yesus. Tujuan Natal sesungguhnya adalah kita memperingati bukan sekedar merayakan kedatangan Yesus. Jadi Natal bukan hanya sekedar perayaan mewah, baju baru, atau sekedar berkumpul bersama keluarga. Namun, Natal yang sejati ada di hati setiap orang percaya.

Mari kita renungkan bersama, Apa arti Natal bagi-mu?

Dan tanyakan ke hati masing-masing: Apa arti Yesus bagi hidup-ku?

Itu adalah 2 pertanyaan yang kita harus sama-sama renungkan di Natal tahun ini, agar Natal yang sesungguhnya bisa kita rasakan dan sungguh menetap di hati tiap umat Kristiani.

Semoga damai & sukacita Natal bisa menetap di setiap hati masing-masing, dan aku akan berdoa agar setiap orang boleh merasakan kehadiran Yesus di hidupnya.

Have a blessed and merry Christmas!

Tuhan Yesus memberkati kita semua.

“Akulah terang dunia; barangsiapa mengikut Aku, ia tidak akan berjalan dalam kegelapan, melainkan ia akan mempunyai terang hidup” (Yoh 8:12)

-Jesus Christ-