Barangays of IT

In broad strokes this article adumbrates some issues in Filipino virtual communities and social interactions mediated by information technology (IT). Problems and prospects are explored with the optic of the barangay, a social unit that evolved from the pre-Spanish `boat community' ( barangay) to its present dominant geo-political form. While IT tends to be instrumental in Western hegemonic encroachment into the Filipino lifeworld, some of its libertarian potentials are gaining ground in emerging cyber-barangays which require new `focal things and practices'. The emerging Filipino communities mediated by IT are spheres of localization amid globalization and questions of nationhood. The article also proposes to `Filipinize' IT - that is, to creatively and critically appropriate IT into practices congenial to Filipino culture.