It’s interesting how the coverage of the Napoles story is spread nowadays. We don’t have to wait for the evening news anymore, we get them in real time.

I can imagine, it’s becoming very hard to cover-up a story, when it’s very easy to make news and spread it. The moment a news break out, less than 5 mins, it’s probably on major channels already. Major channels, being Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Even Rappler and Inquirer are building influence in their own channels.

Looking at this, a major disruptive opportunity for a startup/technopreneur, is the mission to give Internet access to Filipinos. The more people who can go online, the more will be aware of what’s happening.

It’s not only financially interesting, but also, there’s a big opportunity to make a good social impact in the country.

Now, i’m not talking about PLDT and Globe, they’re already there, perhaps a different kind of innovation, like a new mobile phone, that’s cheap? Maybe Cherry Mobile, or maybe make it more easy for people to buy it; or perhaps build a franchise of Internet Cafe’s all over the provinces? Or, make it easy for them to build Internet Cafes? OR, make it easy for non-technical people to go online or access Facebook?

Now imagine if a lot more Filipinos are reachable online, then the next step is to focus on transparency.

If there’s a website, that sort of list or profile government projects, or publish their progress/output, then it can be a nice vehicle for promoting transparency.

I think Rappler is a good start. I can imagine something like Rappler, more focused on government and public welfare stuffs. It can also focus on consumer complaints, like monopolistic and/or near monopolistic companies, doing unfair business practices.

I think Rappler’s business model makes sense, and their approach to spreading the news is very nice. It’s a place where they can socially curate/build up the news, and use the social community as a “sounding board” about which news item will potentially be explosive.

All the while, making it a financially sound business, so it can remain independent and in control of its mission and values. Imagine the amount of traffic they get now, from all those Napoles articles? They can slice and dice all kinds of stories there, and their market will just take them, in a jiffy. Giving them a good amount of traffic for those advertising revenues.

Hmm, so i wonder, any startup crazies out there, who has the balls, time and conviction to take on this one?