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Friday, May 30

Seeing light on Malaysia's IT Plan...

Despite the many impressing/marketing efforts by various local government and private bodies to show the world that Malaysia is on the verge of fast-paced development on Information & Communication Technology (ICT), up to the conclusion of the 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) just recently in Kuala Lumpur [proclaimed by its organizers as the "biggest ever" congregation for the Congress' 30-year history], for many Malaysians to-date, there are still much to be hoped for in terms of actual IT infrastructure, specifically with regards to the broadband speed and coverage throughout the relatively small nation (slightly larger than the state of US New Mexico - CIA, 2008) and general IT culture/adoption among Malaysians. [1 (2005)], [2 (2007)] [3 (2006-2007)]

Heck, while newsprints, local media and many independent bloggers (many of whom are locals as Malaysia is growing to become a 'blogging nation') may have sung praises for WCIT as a major world's event [1] [2] [3], elsewhere in the world, many people may have never heard of the event or the organizing body itself, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Both the official website for WITSA and WCIT 2008 command very small web traffic with global ranking average exceeding 1.5M and 400K respectively [smaller numbers signify better ranking] for the past three months (according to Alexa with a third of the traffic to WITSA website comes from the United States and more than half to WCIT2008 website comes from Malaysia, its host nation) despite the big events held for at least three days and attended by at least 3000 "delegates" and perhaps over 50,000 exposition visitors.

Not so popular the event was, WITSA only gets a rather short article in the Wikipedia and there also lacks any dedicated article on "WCIT" --

A search on Wikipedia for "WCIT" only pulls a result of sixteen articles, many of which are unrelated, and the only related ones are MSC Malaysia (an "Multimedia Super Corridor" initiative by the local government, and marketed as one of the major organizer/sponsor for WCIT 2008) and Hannah Tan, a beautiful and talented personality who however failed to pull a significantly large bid for a set of dates with her during a WCIT Gala Dinner held on the second day of the 3-day event.

Even searching for related media on today's popular sharing sites like YouTube, Yahoo! Flickr and Google PicasaWeb would only return a handful of amateur collections from various individuals instead of major organizations.

Have there not been many facts to be permanently recorded for world's civilized history? Or was it because local journalists or international ones who attended the event are still not to comfortable with public crowdsourcing into world's major Web 2.0 productions?

After all, only Dato' Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairmen of Intel can be considered a major IT leader who made a presence at the event, while the over-hyped appearance by Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, was only in a not-that-entertaining holographic form -- After all, Intel has a major presence/investment in Malaysia while Microsoft has yet to make a significant base except a decent office at KLCC tower (although there has been an announcement during the WCIT week from Microsoft Malaysia for a sizable investment to establish Microsoft Innovation Centre).

[Another key personality, a popular author and Venture Capitalist Mr. Guy Kawasaki was in Kuala Lumpur too during WCIT week, but he was at a separate event called NetBash, organized by among others, the New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) and MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC), but also attended by key officials from the WCIT2008 organizing body, MDEC.]

In comparison, try googling for events like COMDEX/InterOp, CeBIT, CES 2008, Apple WWDC (June 9-13, 2008 - San Francisco) or Web2Expo (upcoming in New York, Berlin and Tokyo)! While the number of delegates who attended each of these events were smaller, they obviously commanded much bigger coverage in the "new media" platform and respective official websites tend to gain higher visits. After all, these events usually pull in much bigger sponsorships, higher delegation fees and more key personalities from the IT industry. Oh well, we can't compete with the US or Europe, can we? ;)

[Author has attended COMDEX (twice, before the show was discontinued in 2003), Web2Expo (the less exciting Tokyo instead of Berlin or SF) and WCIT and look forward to check out CeBIT, CES and WWDC in the near future now that he writes using a Mac Book Pro instead of a Windows laptop, and tune more to Apple TV/iTunes and MIRO instead of Astro TV, i.e. he's fan of latest digital gadgets and software!]

Still, the fact that our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi has been so upbeat on WCIT and the outlook for Malaysia's IT future, having joined a big delegation to WCIT 2006 (Austin) and later graced the entire WCIT 2008, despite a minor distraction in his own political party during its second day of running in Malaysia, do give us Malaysian folks some hope. Bravo also to MSC Malaysia crews along with folks from PIKOM etc. Or perhaps, to the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia instead, in conjunction with its Visit Malaysia 2007 campaign that somehow is supposed to run until Merdeka Day 2008, celebrating the country's 50 years of nationhood ;)

Anyway, we've been hearing and seeing some dramatic changes, and more are to come over the next few years in Malaysia:-

A day before the weekends when WCIT 2008 delegates were due to arrive, Malaysia's largest and government-linked company, Telekom Malaysia Berhad made a big announcement on Malaysia's Broadband Plan: RM15.2B (about US$5B) for a 10-year two-phases, three-zones infrastructure project to roll-out high-speed broadband (HSBB), powering about 1.3-million premises throughout the country [1][2], with metros like Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang (group under Zone 1) will get HSBB as fast as 1Gbps -- Half (50%) of the nation's six million households will get high-speed Internet in less than three years from now, from 18% or less penetration rate today. Impressive plan! One can argue though: wasn't this 50% penetration target already drafted/promised in the "National Broadband Plan (NBP - pdf)", approved nearly five years ago in 2004? OK... perhaps, we're just on (revised) target...
TM Bhd of course now also enjoys MSC Malaysia status for its headquarters tower building, renaming it from "Menara TM" to "TM CyberCentre Complex" - sounds like a huge hypermarket-size cybercafe ;) The same status was also award to RM2B-worth I-City development project in Shah Alam, which is one to watch, along with other ready MSC-status regional zones like those in Penang, Ipoh (Meru Raya CyberCentre - hmm, is there a dedicated website for this?) and Johor Bharu (Cyberport).
And as WCIT 2008 concluded, TM announced appointment of Jeremy Kung as the new CEO for its highly-watched Internet/Broadband-centric subsidiary, TM Net Sdn Bhd, replacing previous acting CEO, Pn Zainab Hashim -- the top-post of this company seems to follow Chief Minister of Sabah rotational scheme: Datuk Baharum Salleh (2002), Michael Lai (2005, later resigned), Zainab Hashim (acting CEO, late 2006) and now Jeremy Kung (2008). Fresh leadership, fresh spirit I suppose...
Satellite broadband technologies are quite ready. Introducing AIDAAS, one of the stars of WCIT 2008 (which also sponsored the Gala Dinner BTW!)...

[Author has met the young and ambitious CEO, and based on an email from her, you can find her on Facebook, soon, hopefully...]

The technology won't likely be deployed in Malaysia immediately though, perhaps due to an exclusive license awarded to satellite tv operator, Astro Plc/MEASAT ("ASTRO’s subsidiary, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, enjoys an exclusive licence till 2017 for satellite DTH transmission in Malaysia.", Astro website). But we'll be watching a Malaysian company boldly venturing everywhere else including in the Philippines in the near future.
We're getting help and attention:-

Nokia Siemens has put up plans for WiMAX
Intel investing in local WiMAX player, Green Packet Bhd (now helmed by Michael Lai, previously from TMNET - parent company of Packet One)
Long Term Evolution (LTE) will arrive (Ericssons, 2009) - up to 200Mbps for mobile broadband!
7.2Mbps HSDPA device has arrived: HTC etc.

Author however prefers to wait for Apple iPhone to arrive in Malaysia though, by late 2008 (as promised?), and hopefully to come with 3G (as rumored) and camera with higher resolution - is 5MP too much to ask?

And some Penang folks are enjoying amazing high-speed broadband speed already! Read more here: "Which 'city' is the BROADBAND CAPITAL of Malaysia?"

And more speedtest results here after a major upgrade at a local higher learning institution (post WCIT 2008):

Thanks to an upgrade/switch to OCE (PenangFon), the downstream speed has doubled for this particular Wi-Fi connection, which previously utilizes TM Net Streamyx connectivity.

The wired LAN which serves the greater campus of about 20,000 students and staff also seem to have doubled in speed both downstream and upstream directions. For uploading to a Penang-based server (outside USM) instead of uploading to a US city (some 15,000km away), a speed exceeding 20Mbps was recorded. Words from the school's officials is that they'll soon get a 1Gbps upgrade. Patient, patient, my good college boys and girls! No words however on whether the school will relax its ban on YouTube or other high-bandwidth traffic like via P2P software etc. on the campus network.

Bravo USM!

How big of a difference on 'going fibre' instead of sticking with mainstream DSL service? Consider that a 4 Mbps (maximum for TM Net Streamyx today) would take about 40-minute for Mac users to update their OS X Leopard 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 (released this week). With a 60Mbps downstream connection on the other hand, took less than 2 minute for a CD-size 400+ MB download!

Proud owner of the latest OS on the latest hardware but in 2-minute or 40-minute?

Now consider that you are to download a ~25/50 GB BluRay quality movie or a 4.4GB compressed version (legal version, of course, via iTunes/AppleTV etc) now that this HD format has become mainstream and adopted by practically all major movie studios today (except in countries like Malaysia which will be about five or more years late judging on its past migration from VCD to DVD), how many days/weeks would you have to turn your PC/Mac on, connected to a 4 Mbps or slower DSL line?

And would you be happy to wait for minutes to view those HD-quality movie trailers/teasers or fun clips like those on Apple iTunes etc, or prefer to view them immediately on mouse-click?

Until we get mega broadband to homes and offices for streaming HD movies, for now, enjoy the following low-res slideshow of snaps from WCIT 2008 (Community photos on Flickr, including several that were captured by author using his decent N95 camera phone):

Thursday, May 17

Unleash your creativity: Licensed to share -- copyright made easy

By SUZIEANA UDA NAGU

Sharing ideas within a borderless community:

As the idea of sharing creative work over the World Wide Web catches on, there is a pressing need to protect original creations in public domains from abuse. Youngsters are turning to Creative Commons as a quick and easy way to protect their products. LIKE all songwriters, rock music fan Sudev Bangah wants the whole world to listen to his music. But until recently, Sudev was wary of posting his songs online despite knowing that the Internet is an invaluable resource for performers wishing to be discovered.

"I don’t mind sharing my music but I don’t want (it) to be misused. That was why I never put any of my works online before," says the 26-year-old executive with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).

Last year, Sudev found a solution to this dilemma. He entered the Creative Commons competition organised by MDeC, the host institution for Creative Commons (or better known as CC), and protected his music under CC licences.

CC is a non-profit organisation devoted to expanding the range of creative output available for others to legally build on and share. Its main aim is to avoid complications in sharing of information resulting from current copyright laws.

"I understood more about CC after entering the contest. It is a great way for me to put out my work online and still have piece of mind," says the Damansara Jaya resident, who has since produced a five-song EP (extended play) album titled Influence which is available on MySpace Music, Dmusic (sudevbangah.dmusic.com) and Soundclick (www.soundclick.com/sudevbangah

Last year, MDeC organised the first CC competition as part of an effort to encourage the use of creative materials — from short films to songs — licensed under CC and available on the Internet, to produce new and original productions or those that are entirely independent yet original (see story on H3).

Awareness of the CC initiative is steadily growing since the project was introduced in Malaysia three years ago, says Dr Ng Alina, senior executive, cyberlaws, corporate development division at MDeC.

"It is definitely bigger than last year, thanks in part to the inaugural CC competition last year," adds Ng.

But she concurs that more must be done to spread the word on the benefits of CC, especially to Internet-savvy young Malaysians.

According to figures released by Internet market research firm comScore, approximately 90 million people — ranging from teenagers to 30-something-budding artistes and actors — used social-networking website MySpace in February to send quick messages to friends or share their original compositions with anyone willing to listen.

As the idea of sharing creative work over the World Wide Web catches on, there is a pressing need to protect original creations in these public domains from abuse.

With limited resources to hire agents and lawyers to look after their interests, these Internet artistes turn to CC as a quick and easy way to protect their craft. It is not surprising then that some 50 million CC-licensed works are online and ready to be used.

Anyone who is a content creator can choose to protect his work through several standardised CC licences — offering different degrees of restrictions for a wide range of creative works that are protected by copyright from photographs to music, drawings, blogs, websites, scripts and even lesson plans — available free of charge from the Creative Commons website (creativecommons.org).

CC licence does not apply to ideas, factual information or other things not protected by copyright.

There are four conditions — attribution, non-commercial use, no derivative works and share alike — to choose from (see CC Deed Icons). These licences can be used in combination and there are 11 combinations in total.

No matter which licence you choose, each one essentially allows anyone to distribute, display, copy and/or webcast creative work, provided you abide by the clauses set by the original authors.

Whilst copyright law makes it clear that no one besides the author has rights to a creative work, CC licence allows a limited use of an original product. Before CC licence, there was no mechanism to enable content creators to do so.

Sceptics have questioned the relevance of CC licences. They argue that copyright owners already have the freedom to accord some rights to others under the copyright law, thus rendering CC redundant.

But none of the other copyright licences are available free of charge or written in plain English that can be understood by lawyers, layman and even computers!

Each CC licence is attached with metadata (tech-speak for data about data) which allows popular search engines such as Yahoo! and Google to locate images, soundbytes or text found on the Internet with CC licences.

The benefits of CC licence are many, says Ng.

"You can co-author with someone you’ve never met (which can simply mean cropping a copyrighted picture found on the Internet for a school project) — all without asking for permission because permission has already been granted."

CC licences are designed for those "who understand that innovation and new ideas come from building on existing ones".

"For example, a musician composes music based on what he or she has heard before," says Ng, adding that culture is not isolated but "takes bits and pieces from everywhere".

The CC licence embodies the ideals of the Internet – the culture of sharing within a borderless community, which is the dream of CC founders.

Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, one of the founders of the CC initiative, posted his book The Code online and allowed people to download and evaluate it. Lessig eventually published a second edition of his book with the amendments suggested by readers.

"Many authors have put up their books online under CC licences and have generated revenues from sales of actual hard copies," says Ng.

Sudev too hopes to profit from his music one day.

"For the independent musician, the CC initiative promises to take him or her places. If commercialism is not your immediate goal, it is a fantastic platform to test the waters."

Sudev may not have won the top spot at the competition last year – he got second place in the music category — but he has benefited a lot from the exposure.

"At least 500 more people whom I don’t know have heard my music (since the contest). Someone from the United Kingdom left a comment on my blog to say ‘good stuff, great work’.

Opportunities are also slowly opening up for me. I get invited to indie musician workshops as well," he says.

Sudev is spreading the word about CC among his circle of friends.

"The guitarist who worked on the EP album with me is looking forward to entering the competition this year. I have a few friends in Australia whom I have worked on a few songs via the Internet. They are also looking to join the competition in Australia," he says.

Choosing the right licence

EVERY Creative Commons licence allows anyone to distribute, display, copy and webcast their work, provided they abide by certain clauses set by the original authors. There are four conditions to choose from:

* Attribution

This clause allows people to freely redistribute a creative work as long as they credit the original content creator. There is no need for anyone to contact the original person before republishing it, as long as he clearly lists the person’s name and links to his attribution licence.

Example: Jane publishes her photograph with an Attribution licence because she wants the world to use her pictures provided it gives her credit. Bob finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. Bob puts Jane’s picture on his site, and clearly indicates Jane’s authorship.

* Non-commercial Use

Allows the sharing of a creative product with anyone but prohibits others from making profit off it. If they intend to use it for commercial purposes, they must obtain permission from the original creator.

Example: Gus publishes his photograph on his website with a Non-commercial licence. Camille prints Gus’ photograph. Camille is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Gus’ permission.

* No Derivative Works

This allows others to copy and redistribute creative content without altering it. Choose this if you want your photos or text distributed in their complete, original state.

Example: Sara licenses a recording of her song with a No Derivative Works licence. Joe would like to cut Sara’s track and mix it with his own to produce an entirely new song. Joe cannot do this without Sara’s permission (unless his song amounts to fair use).

* Share Alike

This condition requires people who build or transform original work to make the resulting work available on the same terms given to them.

Example: Gus’ online photo is licensed under the Non-commercial and Share Alike terms. Camille is an amateur collage artist. She takes Gus’s photo and puts it into one of her collages.
This Share Alike language requires Camille to make her collage available on a Non-commercial plus Share Alike licence. It makes her offer her work back to the world on the same terms Gus gave her.

You can combine all the four options. There is a total of 11 combinations. You can also choose to release all control of your work to the public with no conditions.
You can use the Creative Commons website to dedicate your work to the public domain. This is different from a licence. It is a way of declaring No Rights Reserved.

For more examples, visit the Creative Commons Website

SOURCE: NST Online.

UPDATE (21 JUN 2006): MDeC is running a Creative Commons Malaysia Second Contest and is accepting submission until 31 JUL 2007. Get the full details from MDeC's Creative Multimedia Cluster or Creative Commons Malaysia.

Wednesday, May 16

All eyes are on MSC-IAP the 10th...

After a long hiatus since September 2005, this week (beginning today with a reception cocktail hosted by Dato Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation), Putrajaya (administrative capital of Malaysia) hosts a very important congregation, the10th MSC-IAP meeting, to be attended by over 30 members of an International Advisory Panel for the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia started with the creation of an entirely new city called Cyberjaya -- in response to the United States Silicon Valley, likely) -- a project that was meant to push Malaysia into becoming one of the leading nations in the era of knowledge economy.

All eyes are on this event, and we at Pajamanation Malaysia are very much offering a close watch for its outcomes. Will this be another talk but no walk, or will real innovative solutions came out of these meetings? Or will we be satisfied with just a good Tourism Malaysia marketing event? And will we stop "kow-towing" to foreign corporations just to get them to invest a little or to sell them some real estate pieces?

Read more about this supposedly very influential and productive meeting here:

MSC's IAP Portal @ IAP-portal.MSC.com.my
BERNAMA (15may07): This Week's MSC IAP Meeting Set To Further Enhance Msia's ICT Landscape
ZDNET (14may07): M'sian think-tank to discuss ICT policies
BERNAMA (24apr07): MDeC Expects MSC's Revenue To Grow Higher In 2007

Check out the latest figures supplied by MDeC as published at http://iap-portal.msc.com.my/facts-figures.html

Consider these concerns:

1700 MSC-status companies generated ~RM11B revenue last year; only RM11B?
MSC also contributed to 50,000 employments in the past ten years. (Only?)
How many of some 1300 local-based MSC-status companies are Bumiputera-owned (not at 30% ownership, but at 50+%)?
How much of these trades are business-to-consumer and business-to-business minus the trades involving business-to-government or government-to-government (through GLCs)?
How much of these revenue contributed by MSC-status (foreign) MNCs?
What's the status of telecommunications and broadband service throughout Malaysia today, more than 10 years after MSC?
How many micro and SMEs out of the 500,000 plus active businesses in Malaysia have been ensured to be ICT-literate today? What's the percentage that have actually done any trade at all through ICT-centric medium?
Who are the local leaders in Malaysia ICT industry? Why and How?
Are we critically lacking our own talents that we have to rely on foreign experts on how to mold our own culture and progress? Do we not understand who we ourselves are? Are we that blind? Or have been hearing from the wrong so-called experts?
Which are the most influential brands in Malaysia ICT industry today? Why?
How's ICT training in IPTA & IPTS? The employability of the graduates?
How does Web 2.0 affect MDEC in its MSC implementations?
Can we name any MSC-grown companies that successfully went truly global? (not just regionally)?

Any answers? We'll wait...

It's good to have a nice theme like: "Taking MSC Malaysia Global: Developing the Knowledge Infrastructure & Creating Talent" but how long would it take, and how much more money is needed to actually complete this task? And what would be the measurable milestones for this mission?

The MDec chief, Dato Badlisham Ghazali said the agenda has a specific topic on talent. "When we say talent, it is not about the educational system but on how to change the CULTURE and MINDSET when looking at the 21st century skills that are required for the country's knowledge-based economy." (BERNAMA Business, 15may07)

Our ponder is, whose cultures and mindsets? And who needs to adapt to whom? The government to reflect and to take advantage of the strengths of its citizens or the other way round, i.e. the people to do exactly as what the government told them to, like it or not...?

Thursday, May 3

MSC Malaysia Animation Competition 2007

The Creative Multimedia Department of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) is organizing a animation pitching competition. In this competition, companies or individuals will have to pitch their idea, pre-production of their animated characters, information of the story and eventual background.

OBJECTIVE:

•	To use this as a showcase of Malaysia talent in the content creation industries that can be showcased or marketed globally.
•	To encourage and nurture new talents in turning their Ideas into reality.
•	To attract animation content developers to come out with greater ideas and stories.

Professional: 3 winners from this category will be awarded RM 50,000 grant each,
Independent: 3 winners from this category will be awarded RM 40,000 grant each
to support their trailer or pilot episode.

Submission of proposals will be open until 28 June 2007. MDeC will be organizing workshops in the month of April, May and June 2007 for the benefit of interested participants. These workshops will help them to have a better understanding of the requirements needed to develop a trailer / pilot episode within the allocated budget. These workshops will also help participants to come up with strong proposals for the eventual pitch.

RULES & REGISTRATIONS:
|| Creative Multimedia Cluster + MDC ||
(http://cmc.msc.com.my/ipcc/IPCCAnimation.html)

Organized by:	Project Under:

UPDATE (9 JUL 07): Per announcement made by MDeC on 5 JUL 2007, the submission deadline for this contest has been extended until 12 JUL 2007. Refer MSC Creative Multimedia Cluster website for Events & Happenings listing.

Sunday, April 22

Broadband For All - Lim Kit Siang

The development of information and communication technology in Malaysia is full of contradictions, and setbacks.

Malaysia was the earliest among developing countries to have a government-sponsored plan for ICT development, namely the RM 5-billion Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project. But MSC has failed to live up to its expectation to become regional IT hub for R&D and other high value-added activities.

NOTE: Pajamanation Malaysia does not endorse or specifically sides with any particular political party. The following text of a public speech in parliament is posted due to its high relevance to the effort to improve micropreneurial environment in Malaysia, specifically in ICT field. To be fair, certain political-centric statements were removed from this posting.

Speech (3) by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and DAP MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang on the 2006 Budget in Parliament on Monday, 3rd October 2005:

Today, MSC/Cyberjaya has downgraded itself to serve the low-end of global IT value chain – shared services and outsourcing (SSO) activities. Let us not to fool ourselves anymore. While it is true that new investments and jobs accompanied MSC’s transformation into an international call centre, one should be reminded that such scenario has vastly deviated from MSC’s
original purpose as the engine to drive Malaysia into the high-end of the IT world.

The Government’s IT policy since mid-1990s is flawed because it only focuses on one area, not every corner of the country; and it only intended to serves the interests of multinational corporations (MNCs), not all ordinary Malaysians.

The government was only interested in land development in Cyberjaya and attracting investments from MNCs but failed to realize that it is the local talent pool that matters most. One notable example is that the success story of India’s Bangalore lies in its ubiquitous institutes of technology that train numerous capable English-speaking software
engineers. Very few key players in the industry relocated its regional headquarters to MSC despite generous incentive being dished out.

The Prime Minister now wanted to “re-examine the package of incentives that we offer to make the MSC a more compelling choice for investors” (NST 9/9/2005). Instead of showering potential investors with unrealistically generous packages, isn’t it better to look inwards at why MSC fails its mission. The lesson from the MSC failure would be useful for future ventures, such as the biotech sector – the government’s new favorite.

In 1997, I told this chamber that “the MSC may be the crown jewel of the National Information Infrastructure which Malaysia must build if we are to make the transition to the information society, but it is not the infrastructure.” I said, “In the ultimate analysis, the IT revolution must be about people….This is why any national IT policy, strategy and plan must be people-centred and not project-centred or MSC-centred” (Debate on Royal Address, 25/3/2997).

...

Sadly, MSC did not turn out to be what it should be and the overall ICT development in Malaysia is a disappointment. Eight years after MSC was launched, the government launched the second MSC in Bayan Lepas, Penang and Kulim, Kedah. Why is there a need for a second-tier MSCs? Shouldn’t the entire nation have access to facilities available in a MSC after so many years of government-initiated development in the IT sector?

Broadband for All

A key indicator of ICT development in a country is its broadband penetration rate. Compared to narrowband, broadband offers speedier download and better quality of transmission, which will allow more activities to be conducted via internet at a faster speed.

Sadly, more than five years after broadband was commercially available, the broadband penetration rate is still below 1 % of Malaysian population while other countries experienced quantum leap.

Energy, Water and Communications Minster Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik claimed that the government is open to proposals to boost penetration rate in broadband service to 30%-40% by 2008, despite the National Broadband Plan having a modest target of 10% of population. He said, “even if we cannot reach South Korea’s broadband penetration of more than 60%, languishing at 1% of the population is politically and socially unacceptable” (Telecom Asia Daily 6/7/2005).

I agree with Keng Yaik that Malaysia is “already ten years behind leaders such as South Korea.” Whether Malaysia reaches 10% or 40%, others will not wait for us. Korea will literally achieve “IT for All” and “Broadband for All” when broadband is rolled out to almost every household in the next two or three years.

But how did the “politically and socially unacceptable” below-1%-broadband penetration rate happen? The most important obstacle preventing the rise of broadband in Malaysia is TM’s delay in opening up the last mile, or local loop access to consumers. TM owns more than 90% of the last mile access.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) finally mandated TM to unbundle the local loop in June 2005. In August, Jaring signed a deal with TM, signaling the opening up of the last mile access. However, TM is obviously taking its sweet time to comply with MCMC’s Access List as it is not keen to open up the access to its competitors.

No holder of monopoly would let it go without a fight. It is the onus of the government and regulatory agency to enforce competition. There is no point to hope that WiFi or WiMax or any other wireless tools would have the magical power to increase Malaysia’s broadband penetration rate substantially.

The most realistic and inexpensive way to improve the lackluster performance of the broadband development is to increase competition among internet service providers (ISPs) and drive down the price.

...The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications and MCMC should ensure that TM will not be an obstacle to the development of a broad-based IT literacy and usage.

Open Source – “kow tow” to Microsoft?

Another example of the government putting corporate interest above the national goal of broad-based IT literacy is the shelving of a plan to experiment with open source operating system.

In April 2004, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis announced that Mimos Bhd was tasked with creating an operating system for computers using open source software. According to NST, it is “a move that when completed will make information communication technology cheaper and accessible to all” (29/4/2004).

Microsoft holds a monopoly on operating systems for personal computers and charges expensive royalty and fees usage and upgrade. Open-source is software for which the source code (the instructions for the software) is available for distribution and modification. The modifier retains the copyright for his work, but the source code is public domain.

Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and recently Peru, among others, have been actively moving toward the Linux operating system and other open-source alternatives that can mean millions of dollars in savings. Institute of Information Technology, a Brazilian government agency working to promote digital inclusion, estimated that Brazil spent USD 1.1 billion on royalties and licensing fees for imported software programmes in 2002. According to the same source, Brazilian government agencies that have adopted free software had their costs reduced to a mere three percent of what would have been paid for proprietary
programmes.

Datuk Jamaludin pointed out then that the Government wanted to look at ways to boost computer literacy among Malaysians without the burden of paying high fees. Malaysia spent about RM 7.86 billion on IT in 2003, of which RM 1.8 billion were on software. If the cost of using open-source software is 10% of Microsoft’s product, the RM 1.6 billion savings could
be utilized to reduce the gap between the “information haves” and “information haves-not”.

Less than two months after Jamaludin’s announcement, Micosoft’s boss Bill Gates visited Malaysia, met with the Prime Minister and other ministers, and donated RM 10 million to some schools.

Since then, the discussion on open source operating system vanishes from public discourse. It is time for the government to reexamine the potentials of open-source and stop “kow tow” to Microsoft. Therefore, the IT policy of Malaysia must be a policy that champions “IT for All”, not
favoring big corporations.

Let me put down some quick thoughts by a local IT specialist on several IT issues facing the country:

1. Allocation of RM29b for education. Hopefully, this is spent wisely in ICT training in the schools, universities and colleges. More often than not, the training in these schools do not prepare the student for proper ICT literacy but instead are specific to products from a single company, Microsoft. As a result, we're utilizing government/taxpayer funds to provide training services to a foreign MNC. Ideally the training should be focussed on the utilization of software tools and be centred around creating proper letters, documents, presentations and spreadsheet
calculations. This way the student will learn how to use the software productively instead of just user training on a specific product.

2. Expansion of the Malaysian Intellectual Property Office capacity. This is the body which regulates patent approval in the country and is tied to the software patent issue. . Software patents are instruments which cover abstract ideas and as a result many readily used concepts are patented by large corporations and patent houses in order to prevent others from
performing any innovation in that area. A simple example is the "one-click patent" from amazon.com where the company has patented the CONCEPT of a single web click and as a result has locked out others from utilizing the same idea even though they may have independently come up with the idea and independently written the software to implement it.

Software patents should not be confused with software copyrights which exist today. Software copyrights have been used by all as adequate and strong protection for software programs under WIPO and intellectual property laws. Software copyrights protect the source code (i.e. the blueprints) of a computer program and are the mainstay of software development.

Software patents go further than software copyrights in that they extend the lock in to generic and abstract ideas. The risk in this is that due to the frivolous nature of software patents, large MNCs who have a portfolio of software patents can cripple the Malaysian software industry. The only ones who would be able to survive in such a scenario would be the MNCs themselves, leading to the dissolution of local software companies and the goals of the MSC. Only nations with huge patent portfolios will benefit like the US and the UK.

The European Parliament has voted to reject software patents for these reasons.

3. Extension of period to carry forward absorbed losses/capital allowance during pioneer period (tax free period) of MSC companies is laudable and will further increase the benefits of companies under the MSC. However this initiative needs to be confined solely to local companies as they are the ones who're being sidelined in the MSC push today. Multinationals, including their Malaysian wholly owned subsidiaries, should not be allowed to enjoy this benefit as it would be counter productive to the government's aim to build a local technology-centric
industry.

4. Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation. Will this be the same as MDC ? what are the key performance indicators for this corporation and what are the checks and balances in the system? Will we see another MDC which continues to give excuses 10 years after the MSC was conceptualized ?

5.Improvement of basic amenities including housing and transport at cyberjaya is a good thing. A suggestion to increase frequency and reliability of bus services within Cyberjaya to the ERL station at Putrajaya in order to make it easier for commuters should be a high
priority.

6. What exactly will the ICT Development Institute be doing which is different from what is provided by our public and private universities? Wouldn't it be better to concentrate on producing more quality graduates and skill sets instead of having to set up another institute? Perhaps the funds spent for the institute may be better spent on redefining the curricula and teaching methodologies at our secondary schools and universities instead.

I asked another Malaysian IT pioneer, Bala Pillai, who operates from Australia, for his thoughts and assessment of the MSC and Malaysia’s IT plans and ambitions.

He gave a response which is so unconventional but original that I think it deserves the serious consideration of MPs and policy makers if we are serious in wanting to propel Malaysia into an information society, knowledge economy and IT superpower.

He encapsulated his thoughts with the title “Problems = Opportunities and No Problems = No Opportunities”.

This is what he has to say:

“The harder a problem, the greater the reward, the lesser the competition, and the more uncertain resourcing is.

“The corollary, the easier a problem, the lesser the reward, the greater the competition, and the more certain resourcing is.

“Low Hanging fruits lie in the sweetspot between ‘not too easy a problem such that competition makes the rewards so unworthwhile’ and ‘not too hard a problem such that resourcing is so uncertain’.

“Let us talk about the Low Hanging Fruits for Malaysia in ICT."

“But first let's remind ourselves of the bigger picture. The Malay Archipelago was a producer of quantum inventions up to about a thousand years ago. In fact, up to then, Southeast Asia together with China and India produced nearly every quantum invention in the world.

“By quantum invention, I mean a significant leap in order of problem-solving from cave man days up to now. Examples being taming of fire, domestication of rice and pepper, invention of paper, wheel, gunpowder, Minangkabau architecture, urban social systems, ocean-going vessels to Madagascar, printing press, electricity, TV, credit cards, the Internet – you get the picture.

“What happened? Why did we stop producing these quantum inventions and their near cousins?

“The government should engage the deepest and broadest thinkers available to narrow down the likely causes for this turn of events. Like thousands of streams flow into tributaries which flow into a few rivers onto the ocean, let's converge into a few clear schools of thought on why we
stopped producing quantum inventions.

“It is because of a switch from objective perception to subjective perception. A switch from expecting our world to be roses, thorns and in-betweens and finding it to be such to expecting our world to be roses and thus trained to spot thorns. When we all become thorn spotters, in time it becomes uncomfortable to spot our own thorns. In time, this breeds greater amounts of disagreements. These disagreements drastically reduce the social and trust capital that is required for inventiveness.

“If we want a proper solution rather than a quick-fix, we should address this underlying mental soil issue. Average seeds sown on great soil will grow but great seeds sown on stone won't. We have to find the inner strength to ask the tough questions, knowing full well that as painful as this might be, NOT asking these questions will have even more painful consequences.

“In determining Low Hanging Fruits, we would look at our strengths. Let me point towards some less emphasized aspects

1) Around 1400 AD, Malaysia or Malacca was the happening place in the world. The most adventurous brains, Arabs, Indians, Chinese wanted to be here. In global adventurousness terms, the Spice Trade and Malacca then was what Silicon Valley and ICT today is. Even Christopher Columbus if he had not lost his way, in his pursuit of spices might have ended up here.

Question: We didn't give any tax credits and yet they came like bees to honey. How come? I will not answer this, I would like you to reflect on it. I would like you to reflect on the energy that made us such an exciting buzz. And which attracted the best self-starters here and self-starters overseas with fires in their belly to make the world happen.

2) As the giants India and China rise up, today we are presented with another opportunity. Like that piece of sand in an oyster, without which a pearl cannot form, we can be the catalysts for India and China to rise levels above or faster in their ICT in social entrepreneurship aims.

“Some areas we can consider focusing on are:-

a) Microentrepreneur ecosystems – make it much easier for an eager Instant Messaging using high school student to step that adaptiveness towards online or Skype or convergence facilitated self-employment. Knowledge workers.

b) China and India have a large swell of people who want to be their own boss. It is as if on a personal level, many want to go back to how things were a 100 years ago when nearly all of us were self-employed. Let's consider leading this for ourselves, China and India. For example, organize frameworks and structures for tele-entrepreneur franchisees to
inhabit, grow and thrive.

c) India is well known for its movie industry and the Tamil and Hindi movie industries magnets of attention amongst our citizens. Many would love the chance to be models, actors, script-writers, producers. The weakness of these industries are in the capital raising, investments unitizing and distribution sides. The US has come a long way in organizing this. Let's flow US expertise with the passion of our entrepreneurs to streamline these aspects of these industries. In this ecosystem deepening process, the Malay movie industry will also benefit.

d) The biggest opportunity in Asia today is in Change Management in the many forms it takes. For example in identifying the best bang for the buck in change management. In making change fun. In accrediting trainers. I urge in depth look into these problem and opportunity areas.” I commend these and other thoughts of Pillai to MPs.

Wednesday, May 24

Outsourcing Malaysia: In Search of Excellence

By Dian Schaffhauser

Secret Service had finished its bomb sweep of the Hilton meeting room, which meant we could file back in to await the arrival of the Malaysian dignitaries, including the Prime Minister, the Hon. Dato’ Seri Abdulla Ahmad Badawi.

Across the street (guarded by a phalanx of Austin’s finest and their motorcycles) at the Austin Convention Center, the World Congress on Information Technology 2006 was in full swing. Keynoter Michael Dell had just finished taking questions from the crowd of a thousand on Dell’s stock price. Gray-suited businessmen, grinning like soap-box derby contenders, rolled around on demo Segues in the exhibit hall. And 300 delegates from Malaysia (including 74 government officials, 12 exhibitors and representatives from 70 private companies) were studying the details of the conference with an eye toward the country’s own hosting of the event in 2008 in Kuala Lumpur.

Back at the Hilton, we stood as the Prime Minister, a petite, smiling man, entered the room, surrounded by his security contingent. He shook hands as he was led to his seat at the front of the crowd. When the brief speeches -- including his own -- were over, he was invited to autograph an official proclamation. That’s when the music cranked up and we all watched as -- to the beat of disco -- the Prime Minster signed a plaque declaring the launch of "Outsourcing Malaysia."

Projections Look Positive

Outsourcing Malaysia is a new joint initiative by several groups -- the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (PIKOM), Multimedia Development Corp. (MDeC), and Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV) -- to position the country as an attractive location for shared services and outsourcing (SSO). (One participant recalled how, at an early meeting of the various organizations, guests from Mumbai looked around the room and were "astounded. They said, 'You know, I sat in the first NASCOMM meeting, and it looked just like this.’")

But Malaysia is hardly new to the business of global services. This small country of 24 million in Southeast Asia is already host to dozens of multinationals that have tapped expertise in the energy, finance and logistics industries, many through captive arrangements.

In both its 2004 and 2005 Global Services Location Indexes, consulting firm A.T. Kearney named Malaysia the top third location for shared services and outsourcing behind only India and China and just ahead of Singapore. The ranking analyzes the top 40 service locations worldwide against 40 measurements in three categories: cost, people skills and availability and business environment.

According to the report, "...Government promotion policies continue to pay off... Malaysia has augmented continued investment in world-class infrastructure along the Multimedia Super-Corridor, with further incentives for corporations choosing to locate in Malaysia and additional policies to open up the labor pool and deepen English language and technical skills throughout the population."

In its Global Institute Labor Supply Database McKinsey points out that although Malaysia has a "relatively small" pool of talent, its graduates have "significant international experience." That is a result of three decades of foreign investment in the country by global companies such as Shell, DHL and Dell.

Likewise, Frost & Sullivan, which shared the stage with the outsourcing consortium in Austin, also has identified the potential for major growth of SSO in Malaysia in survey work that is ongoing.

The advisory firm sizes the SSO market worldwide at $758 billion for 2005. Of that, offshoring accounts for about 6% -- $46.5 billion. While domestic SSO is expected to grow about 12% a year over the next three to four years, offshore is expected to grow between 20% and 30% annually over the same timeframe.

The finance industry is the biggest spender (accounting for 33% of the global SSO spend), while the energy industry is growing the fastest (with a compounded annual growth rate of 21.5%), said Aroop Zutshi, president and senior partner at Frost & Sullivan. The firm has identified logistics as the fastest growing vertical in the Asia Pacific region.

This positions Malaysia well for becoming a dominant player in the SSO arena. In the area of finance, said Zutshi, while India is the "clear favorite due to cost and skill of its human capital," and China is "ambitiously catching up by leveraging on human capital," Malaysia is "preferred due to its 'First World’ infrastructure."

In the energy sector, Frost & Sullivan points to Malaysia’s "prominence in the sector...due to clustering of industry players and a skilled talent pool."

In the area of logistics, said Zutshi, Malaysia has been identified as the "rookie of the year," by virtue of being a newcomer "thriving on a high concentration of supply chain management expertise and...completeness of infrastructure ecosystem."

Who’s Doing Business There

Momentum for doing business in Malaysia, according to Frost & Sullivan’s Zutshi, is coming from companies looking for specific domain expertise. "We hear of countries like India that have excelled in knowledge process outsourcing, China in the manufacturing side. What is interesting is that many, many companies today -- especially the Fortune 500, that spend millions of dollars on outsourcing issues -- are looking for pockets of excellence, countries -- regions within countries -- that can offer core competencies in certain areas to help on the process side..."

Companies are seeking "business processes that go beyond generic ones," said David Wong, co-chairman of Outsourcing Malaysia, "That’s why the industry is moving... not on the cost differential, but on the value you’re getting."

Outsourcing Malaysia’s job is to make sure the capabilities exist as well as the domain knowledge to be able to serve growing demand. He said the goal is to "achieve 60,000 knowledge workers by 2008" -- up from 40,000 currently -- to serve the supply side of talent requirements.

During the announcement, Rob Cayzer, director of Shared Services and Outsourcing for MDeC, which oversees the development of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, held up a brand new type of Motorola Nextel phone and said that it was "designed, researched, developed, tested, manufactured and shipped out from Malaysia. This is the kind of high end services you will find in Malaysia."

In the financial services realm, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC have set up global processing hubs in Cyberjaya, a hub location for ICT companies that is situated midway between Kuala Lumpur’s city center in the north and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the south. Citibank runs a regional trade processing center in Penang.

Royal Dutch Shell Group runs a global IT support center in Cyberjaya, offering desktop support as well as engineering and development services to Shell companies around the world.

DHL has located its regional IT hub there, responsible for operations in Asia Pacific. Known as DHL GIS Cyberjaya, it’s one of three global data centers run by DHL around the world.

HP is running a data center in Cyberjaya as well as Petaling Jaya outside of Kuala Lumpur. The company said part of its drive to open the newer center in Cyberjaya was to support local clients, including DHL and Western Digital.

Other companies with a presence in Malaysia include Microsoft, Intel (with 8,000 employees in Malaysia, including 1,500 in R&D), Ericsson, BMW and Nokia. On the service provider side, IBM, Fujitsu, EDS and CSC have all set up operations there. On May 9, 2006, ACS announced the opening of a new technical development center in Cyberjaya, which will employ 700 workers by 2007. From this facility ACS said it will provide clients with network and desktop engineering solutions, system engineering services, mainframe support, application management systems, customer care and human resources services.

Much of what has attracted this blue-chip roster of companies is a stable government, a highly skilled talent pool and competitive costs. The country enjoys low inflation, low staff attrition and high levels of returnees among its foreign graduates. Also, unlike many other nations aspiring to become a favorite pick in global sourcing portfolios, said MDeC’s Cayzer, "Malaysia is an affluent country."

At the same time a number of domestic service providers are also building growing businesses in Malaysia. These include BPO firm Scicom; IT service provider ea cap; Sapura, which has grown from being a telecomm provider to becoming an expert in fields such as ICT, energy, industrial and automotive; Vsource, which runs centers of excellence across Asia for banking and finance, insurance, transportation, manufacturing and technology; and ICT provider Kompakar, which became a national hero when it became CMMi Level 5-certified and earlier this year won a RM1.15 million deal with a hospital in China.

Malaysia Finds Its Groove

So why jump up and down (to a disco beat) and launch Outsourcing Malaysia when it’s been around for years anyway? Why take on hosting WCIT 2008? According to MDeC’s Cayzer, "When AT Kearney ranked Malaysia as number three in the world, it shocked a lot of people." He pointed out that it arrived in a time when confidence in the country was just coming out of a low point -- following on the Asia financial crisis of the turn of the century.

"This ranking is a potential," he said. "When this thing first started, we were considered very expensive compared to India. Now compared to Bangalore, in the high end IT space, we’re considered cheaper... We have 3,000 foreign investment projects in the country... It just keeps growing."

The country is already strong in captives. Outsourcing Malaysia’s goal, Cayzer said, is to start to "brand local companies." The strategy, he said, is "to redevelop the relationships we have with the [multinationals]. We don’t have to recreate them. We do have to enhance or capture more mindshare in the American services sector. That’s something we have to aggressively go for."

Concluded the Prime Minister before he took proclamation pen in hand and somebody found the volume knob on the speakers at the Hilton, "We believe we have many advantages we can share -- people who are truly multilingual and multicultural. I am here to say to you, come to Malaysia and you will see many countries of Asia. It’s a cosmopolitan country."

The recorded disco thumping continued as cameras flashed and he worked the crowd on his way out of the room, still smiling, still shaking hands. Malaysia is on the move.