By STEVEN PATRICK
PUTRAJAYA: All government agencies will soon be required to use local software and solutions whenever possible.
The move is to give Malaysian ICT (information and communications technology) companies a chance to flourish in the local market and strengthen their products before pushing into global markets.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said a circular would be sent out, informing all government institutions to give preference to local software and solutions.
He was speaking after officiating at the 21st MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting (ICM) on Monday at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC).
“At the meeting, I made an emphasis for ministries and government agencies to adopt local ICT solutions, provided these products are cost competitive and of high quality,” Najib said.
The Prime Minister also called on the agencies to more extensively use electronic media to maintain contact with the public, such as e-mail, short message service, and even social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
“For example, SMSes could be sent to warn the people of floods and potential landslides,” he said.
Najib also said that Malaysia needs to work faster in creating an abundant supply of well-trained and multi-skilled ICT workers who are on par with their overseas counterparts.
Reactions
Pikom — the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia — welcomed the Prime Minister’s call.
C.J. Ang, Pikom president, told In.Tech that the move is a boost for local industry players. “This is also definitely a plus for our enterprise-software companies — the Government is giving them more business,” he said.
However, he cautioned that the “go local” plan if allowed to carry on for too long, could be construed by the foreign vendors as protectionism.
“It could also put local vendors in a comfort zone that keeps them from striving to better their products to compete internationally,” Ang said.
Microsoft Malaysia, local subsidiary of the US-based software giant, said the shift toward indigenous solutions will benefit its Malaysian partners.
“Such encouragement from the Government, we hope, will result in more Made-in-Malaysia solutions, helping the nation to realise its high-value-economy aspirations and to nurture a culture of innovation amongst Malaysians,” said a spokesman for Microsoft Malaysia.
He said the company has the largest ecosystem throughout the country — there are 5,000 partners nationwide, of which some 800 are independent software vendors.
“Microsoft hopes the local software solutions industry will one day grow to be as big as what the manufacturing sector is to the Malaysian economy.
“Along the way, we also hope that these Made-in-Malaysia solutions will elevate other existing economic sectors, such as agriculture, to a new level where the nation can compete even more efficiently with the rest of the world,” the spokesman said.
The other meeting
Tomorrow, the International Advisory Panel (IAP) will meet at the PICC. It will focus on how the MSC Malaysia initiative can assist the country’s economic recovery and create future prosperity via an innovation economy, develop world-class talents in Malaysians, and help attract investments.
The panel, which includes international captains or industry, IT experts and academicians, helps guide the MSC Malaysia initiative.
MSC Malaysia, conceptualised in 1996, is a government initiative to leapfrog the country’s knowledge-based economy and move the people into the Information Age.
Foreign and home grown companies, numbering more than 900, are part of the initiative and are operating in high-tech areas nationwide. These businesses are involved in R&D work, multimedia products and services, as well as information and communications technology (ICT).
Monday, November 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
NEWS: IAP meeting to be smaller but more focused
KUALA LUMPUR: The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), custodian of the MSC Malaysia initiative, has downsized this year’s International Advisory Panel (IAP) meeting.
The event, which starts Nov 10 is hosting less delegates and speakers than the one last year, which was on a grander scale because it coincided with the prestigious World Congress on Information Technology conference in the capital.
However, the speakers and attendees will still make up a comprehensive cross-section of IT experts, comprising technologists, academicians, futurists and social entrepreneurs.
MDeC decided to streamline the number of delegates to enable the discussions to move quicker, as well as to have the ability to dwell longer on the more interesting topics without creating a backlog in presentations.
“A smaller group will allow us to be more focused on what is needed to take the MSC Malaysia forward,” said Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, MDeC chief executive officer, at a press conference on the IAP meeting.
MSC Malaysia, conceptualised in 1996, is a government initiative to leapfrog the country’s knowledge-based economy and move the people into the Information Age.
Foreign and home grown companies, numbering more than 900, are part of the initiative and are operating in high-tech areas nationwide. These businesses are involved in R&D work, multimedia products and services, as well as information and communications technology (ICT).
Guest speakers
This year’s IAP meeting, themed Innovation Economy: Paving the Path to Prosperity, will be at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), located about 25km from Kuala Lumpur.
The topics of discussion include how to keep the MSC Malaysia at the forefront of assisting Malaysia’s economic recovery and creating future prosperity via an innovation-based economy.
Also up for discussion are the programmes that will be needed to create new jobs via ICT, develop world-class talent and, attract domestic and foreign investments.
Among the speakers will be Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which makes tiny loans for self-employment to some of the poorest people in that country.
He found that such micro-financing helped those people to survive, as well as created the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary for them to pull themselves out of poverty.
Also coming here is Brian Mefford, chief executive officer of the Connected Nation, an organisation that works in the trenches to bridge the “digital divide,” that gap between the technology haves and have-nots.
It also believes that states, communities, families and individuals can realise great economic and social advantages when nations accelerate broadband availability in underserved areas and increase broadband use in all areas, rural and urban.
Mefford and his team were responsible for helping make broadband available in the US state of Kentucky, under what was called the Connected Kentucky Initiative.
Both speakers will share their insights into how similar programmes can be just as useful in this country.
Other key issues
Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Fadillah Yusof, who officiated at the press conference, said the IAP meeting will also look at ways to accelerate the country toward a high-income, knowledge-based economy through innovation and the creativity of its people.
It will also deliberate on education, technology, entrepreneurship, robotics, content development and broadband utilisation — all of which will help generate a blueprint for the country to achieve its economic and development goals.
Badlisham said the IAP has been very useful in pointing Malaysia in the right direction and helping it to stay the path over the years. “It will continue to help us look at the areas where we should be focusing on,” he added.
This meeting, he said, will assist MDeC in bringing the MSC Malaysia into its third phase, which is set to kick off in 2011.
The third phase places priority on creating a demand for local IT services — inside and outside the country — that will drive various sectors of the Malaysian economy.
Badlisham said MDeC will also seek the advice of the IAP on which technology sectors would benefit from further stimulus. MDeC has already identified several but would like to focus some additional expertise on the matter.
The IAP meeting is an annual conference and this year’s is the 12th in the series.
Present and past
Another conference, the 21st MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting, will take place a day before the IAP meeting, at the PICC. The theme is MSC Malaysia 2.0: Contributing to Malaysia’s New Economic Model.
It will focus on ideas that will help reinforce MSC Malaysia’s relevance as the national ICT initiative to generate and sustain the economic-growth and wealth creation of the nation by transforming it into an innovation-led, knowledge-rich and progressive society.
Meanwhile, Malaysia was the first South-East Asian country to host the high-profile World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) last year. It beat India to host this prestigious event.
WCIT is a forum that brings together global leaders in business, government and academia to discuss policies and ideas on information technology. It is held every two years and has a 30-year history.
The event, which starts Nov 10 is hosting less delegates and speakers than the one last year, which was on a grander scale because it coincided with the prestigious World Congress on Information Technology conference in the capital.
However, the speakers and attendees will still make up a comprehensive cross-section of IT experts, comprising technologists, academicians, futurists and social entrepreneurs.
MDeC decided to streamline the number of delegates to enable the discussions to move quicker, as well as to have the ability to dwell longer on the more interesting topics without creating a backlog in presentations.
“A smaller group will allow us to be more focused on what is needed to take the MSC Malaysia forward,” said Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, MDeC chief executive officer, at a press conference on the IAP meeting.
MSC Malaysia, conceptualised in 1996, is a government initiative to leapfrog the country’s knowledge-based economy and move the people into the Information Age.
Foreign and home grown companies, numbering more than 900, are part of the initiative and are operating in high-tech areas nationwide. These businesses are involved in R&D work, multimedia products and services, as well as information and communications technology (ICT).
Guest speakers
This year’s IAP meeting, themed Innovation Economy: Paving the Path to Prosperity, will be at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC), located about 25km from Kuala Lumpur.
The topics of discussion include how to keep the MSC Malaysia at the forefront of assisting Malaysia’s economic recovery and creating future prosperity via an innovation-based economy.
Also up for discussion are the programmes that will be needed to create new jobs via ICT, develop world-class talent and, attract domestic and foreign investments.
Among the speakers will be Prof Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which makes tiny loans for self-employment to some of the poorest people in that country.
He found that such micro-financing helped those people to survive, as well as created the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary for them to pull themselves out of poverty.
Also coming here is Brian Mefford, chief executive officer of the Connected Nation, an organisation that works in the trenches to bridge the “digital divide,” that gap between the technology haves and have-nots.
It also believes that states, communities, families and individuals can realise great economic and social advantages when nations accelerate broadband availability in underserved areas and increase broadband use in all areas, rural and urban.
Mefford and his team were responsible for helping make broadband available in the US state of Kentucky, under what was called the Connected Kentucky Initiative.
Both speakers will share their insights into how similar programmes can be just as useful in this country.
Other key issues
Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Fadillah Yusof, who officiated at the press conference, said the IAP meeting will also look at ways to accelerate the country toward a high-income, knowledge-based economy through innovation and the creativity of its people.
It will also deliberate on education, technology, entrepreneurship, robotics, content development and broadband utilisation — all of which will help generate a blueprint for the country to achieve its economic and development goals.
Badlisham said the IAP has been very useful in pointing Malaysia in the right direction and helping it to stay the path over the years. “It will continue to help us look at the areas where we should be focusing on,” he added.
This meeting, he said, will assist MDeC in bringing the MSC Malaysia into its third phase, which is set to kick off in 2011.
The third phase places priority on creating a demand for local IT services — inside and outside the country — that will drive various sectors of the Malaysian economy.
Badlisham said MDeC will also seek the advice of the IAP on which technology sectors would benefit from further stimulus. MDeC has already identified several but would like to focus some additional expertise on the matter.
The IAP meeting is an annual conference and this year’s is the 12th in the series.
Present and past
Another conference, the 21st MSC Malaysia Implementation Council Meeting, will take place a day before the IAP meeting, at the PICC. The theme is MSC Malaysia 2.0: Contributing to Malaysia’s New Economic Model.
It will focus on ideas that will help reinforce MSC Malaysia’s relevance as the national ICT initiative to generate and sustain the economic-growth and wealth creation of the nation by transforming it into an innovation-led, knowledge-rich and progressive society.
Meanwhile, Malaysia was the first South-East Asian country to host the high-profile World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) last year. It beat India to host this prestigious event.
WCIT is a forum that brings together global leaders in business, government and academia to discuss policies and ideas on information technology. It is held every two years and has a 30-year history.
NEWS: Malaysians still big on online shopping
KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the weakened economy, Malaysians are entering into the festive spirit, with 6 in 10 shoppers expected to spend more or the same amount during the upcoming holiday season, as compared to last year.
According to the latest PayPal survey, the average festive spend amongst Malaysians this year is expected to be RM730, with Chinese New Year topping the spending charts and averaging RM954 per person.
PayPal is an online payment service owned by Internet auction giant eBay.
Malaysians also proved to be savvy online shoppers, with more than half intending to shop online and 44% of overall holiday expenditure expected to be spent online.
They cited time (75%), crowds (64%) and access to a wider range of products (51%) as the main reasons for avoiding the brick-and-mortar shops.
Two in five Malaysians prefer buying from online overseas merchants, citing product availability and choice, the offer of well-known brands and a more appealing website experience as the top reasons for shopping overseas.
Yet, overseas sellers should take note of buyer dislikes — high delivery fees, lengthy delivery times and lack of contact during a dispute were cited as the major disadvantages to shopping on overseas websites.
Shopping overseas
When it comes to online shopping, Malaysians are looking for a wider product range, assurance in payment security and product quality for the optimum online shopping experience.
“Many online merchants will be gearing up for the festive period and encouragingly it looks like spending is due to remain stable, if not rise in Malaysia,” said Mario Shiliashki, general manager of PayPal South-East Asia and India.
“Out of the four countries surveyed, Malaysia showed the strongest preference for overseas merchants online.”
The PayPal survey was conducted by BlackBox from Aug 17 to 30. There were a total of 1,203 participants — 300 respondents per country in India, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as 303 in Thailand.
Respondents were made up of online and non-online shoppers, and the major festive seasons polled were Christmas, Chinese New Year and Hari Raya.
To allow Asian merchants to connect with international online buyers and drive cross-border trade, PayPal recently launched an online Asia Mall at www.paypal-apac.com/apac-mall.
For more information on PayPal, go to www.paypal.com/my.
According to the latest PayPal survey, the average festive spend amongst Malaysians this year is expected to be RM730, with Chinese New Year topping the spending charts and averaging RM954 per person.
PayPal is an online payment service owned by Internet auction giant eBay.
Malaysians also proved to be savvy online shoppers, with more than half intending to shop online and 44% of overall holiday expenditure expected to be spent online.
They cited time (75%), crowds (64%) and access to a wider range of products (51%) as the main reasons for avoiding the brick-and-mortar shops.
Two in five Malaysians prefer buying from online overseas merchants, citing product availability and choice, the offer of well-known brands and a more appealing website experience as the top reasons for shopping overseas.
Yet, overseas sellers should take note of buyer dislikes — high delivery fees, lengthy delivery times and lack of contact during a dispute were cited as the major disadvantages to shopping on overseas websites.
Shopping overseas
When it comes to online shopping, Malaysians are looking for a wider product range, assurance in payment security and product quality for the optimum online shopping experience.
“Many online merchants will be gearing up for the festive period and encouragingly it looks like spending is due to remain stable, if not rise in Malaysia,” said Mario Shiliashki, general manager of PayPal South-East Asia and India.
“Out of the four countries surveyed, Malaysia showed the strongest preference for overseas merchants online.”
The PayPal survey was conducted by BlackBox from Aug 17 to 30. There were a total of 1,203 participants — 300 respondents per country in India, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as 303 in Thailand.
Respondents were made up of online and non-online shoppers, and the major festive seasons polled were Christmas, Chinese New Year and Hari Raya.
To allow Asian merchants to connect with international online buyers and drive cross-border trade, PayPal recently launched an online Asia Mall at www.paypal-apac.com/apac-mall.
For more information on PayPal, go to www.paypal.com/my.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
NEWS: ICANN okays Chinese, Hindi, other scripts for URL suffixes
SEOUL: The nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses approved Friday the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on the Latin alphabet in a decision that could make the Web dramatically more inclusive.
The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to allow such scripts in so-called domain names at the conclusion of a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea’s capital. The decision follows years of debate and testing.
The decision clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov 16.
Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.
“This is absolutely delightful news,” said Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, an Internet research and consulting firm in Beijing, emphasising that the Internet would become more accessible to users with lower incomes and education. Yu spoke ahead of the approval, which had been widely expected.
Domain names -- the Internet addresses that end in “.com” and other suffixes -- are the key monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post.
Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English (A-Z) as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.
That has meant Internet users with little or no knowledge of English might still have to type in Latin characters to access webpages in Chinese or Arabic. Although search engines can sometimes help users reach those sites, companies still need to include Latin characters on billboards and other advertisements.
Now, ICANN is allowing those same technical tricks to apply to the suffix as well, allowing the Internet to be truly multilingual.
Many of the estimated 1.5 billion people online use languages such as Chinese, Thai, Arabic and Japanese, which have writing systems entirely different from English, French, German, Indonesian, Swahili and others that use Latin characters. -- AP
The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to allow such scripts in so-called domain names at the conclusion of a week-long meeting in Seoul, South Korea’s capital. The decision follows years of debate and testing.
The decision clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov 16.
Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.
“This is absolutely delightful news,” said Edward Yu, CEO of Analysys International, an Internet research and consulting firm in Beijing, emphasising that the Internet would become more accessible to users with lower incomes and education. Yu spoke ahead of the approval, which had been widely expected.
Domain names -- the Internet addresses that end in “.com” and other suffixes -- are the key monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post.
Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English (A-Z) as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.
That has meant Internet users with little or no knowledge of English might still have to type in Latin characters to access webpages in Chinese or Arabic. Although search engines can sometimes help users reach those sites, companies still need to include Latin characters on billboards and other advertisements.
Now, ICANN is allowing those same technical tricks to apply to the suffix as well, allowing the Internet to be truly multilingual.
Many of the estimated 1.5 billion people online use languages such as Chinese, Thai, Arabic and Japanese, which have writing systems entirely different from English, French, German, Indonesian, Swahili and others that use Latin characters. -- AP
NEWS: L.A. okays plan to use Google Apps
LOS ANGELES: City Council members have tentatively approved a multimillion-dollar proposal to tap Google Inc for government e-mail and other Internet services.
This is seen as a boon for the Web giant as it seeks to wrest market share for office software from rival Microsoft Corp.
The Council voted unanimously for the US$7.2mil (RM25mil) deal with contractor Computer Sciences Corp to replace many city computer systems with the so-called Google Apps services.
An amendment added shortly before the vote makes the contract contingent on Computer Science agreeing to pay a preset penalty if a security breach occurs.
The contractor’s project manager David Barber said he believed such an agreement would be reached.
The city’s police officers’ union and privacy advocates had raised security concerns over the Google contract because it places data online rather than on individual computers under the city’s direct control.
Under the deal, Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to 30,000 city employees. — AP
This is seen as a boon for the Web giant as it seeks to wrest market share for office software from rival Microsoft Corp.
The Council voted unanimously for the US$7.2mil (RM25mil) deal with contractor Computer Sciences Corp to replace many city computer systems with the so-called Google Apps services.
An amendment added shortly before the vote makes the contract contingent on Computer Science agreeing to pay a preset penalty if a security breach occurs.
The contractor’s project manager David Barber said he believed such an agreement would be reached.
The city’s police officers’ union and privacy advocates had raised security concerns over the Google contract because it places data online rather than on individual computers under the city’s direct control.
Under the deal, Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to 30,000 city employees. — AP
NEWS: 2,000 smart schools by end of next year
WITH 15 rural schools recently added to the 88 smart schools in April this year, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) along with the Education Ministry is looking at increasing the number of smart schools 100-fold by the end of next year.
At a recent luncheon with the media, MDeC general manager Dr Norrizan Razali said, “We are very much on schedule in carrying this out, and by the end of 2010, we should have 10,000 smart schools in the country.”
She said that in order to achieve an exponential growth like this, current smart schools would have to be models to the other schools, and through a “buddy system,” teachers would be able to learn new teaching methods from those currently teaching in smart schools.
She added that the criteria for selection would be based on their academic readiness and location.
Since 2007, smart schools have been evaluated through a measurement tool implemented by the ministry and MDeC, which is called the Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS).
Teachers, students and administrators use the SSQS each year to run an evaluation of their performance, and from there, the ministry and MDeC would rate these schools.
“There are currently 69 schools out of the 88 that have a five-star rating, which means that these schools are in the advanced stage,” said Norrizan.
She added that out of the 10,000 smart schools next year, 500 were expected to get five-star rating while 2,000 were expected to get four-star status. “The minimum for smart schools is three-stars,” she said.
Norrizan said that the smart school concept would be applicable to all schools as it is not only meant for smaller classrooms, rather, “the smart school system is one that could be implemented into any classroom, big or small, because it is there to aid the current syllabus and make learning a wholesome one.” — By ALYCIA LIM
At a recent luncheon with the media, MDeC general manager Dr Norrizan Razali said, “We are very much on schedule in carrying this out, and by the end of 2010, we should have 10,000 smart schools in the country.”
She said that in order to achieve an exponential growth like this, current smart schools would have to be models to the other schools, and through a “buddy system,” teachers would be able to learn new teaching methods from those currently teaching in smart schools.
She added that the criteria for selection would be based on their academic readiness and location.
Since 2007, smart schools have been evaluated through a measurement tool implemented by the ministry and MDeC, which is called the Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS).
Teachers, students and administrators use the SSQS each year to run an evaluation of their performance, and from there, the ministry and MDeC would rate these schools.
“There are currently 69 schools out of the 88 that have a five-star rating, which means that these schools are in the advanced stage,” said Norrizan.
She added that out of the 10,000 smart schools next year, 500 were expected to get five-star rating while 2,000 were expected to get four-star status. “The minimum for smart schools is three-stars,” she said.
Norrizan said that the smart school concept would be applicable to all schools as it is not only meant for smaller classrooms, rather, “the smart school system is one that could be implemented into any classroom, big or small, because it is there to aid the current syllabus and make learning a wholesome one.” — By ALYCIA LIM
NEWS: University of Puthisastra delegation visit SEGi UC
(From left) Dato’ Dr. Patrick Teoh Seng Foo, Mr Sok Puthyvuth and his 2 delegates from Cambodia 29 October 2009
The Vice Chairman of University of Puthisastra, Cambodia, and his delegation visited SEGi University College today as a prelude to a possible collaboration between the University with SEGi.
Mr Sok Puthyvuth, Vice Chairman of Board of Directors of University of Puthisastra as well as CEO of Soma Group, were given a campus tour and met up with Dato’ Dr. Patrick Teoh Seng Foo, Executive Deputy Chairman/President of SEG International Berhad.
Mr Puthyvuth was very impressed with the grandeur of campus and its facilities. After the tour, he and his delegates had a constructive discussion with Professor Dr B.C. Tan, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of SEGi University College.
The University of Puthisastra is the first University in Cambodia to receive accreditation from Microsoft USA to be a Microsoft IT Academy and Prometric Testing Center for getting certification from Microsoft
The Vice Chairman of University of Puthisastra, Cambodia, and his delegation visited SEGi University College today as a prelude to a possible collaboration between the University with SEGi.
Mr Sok Puthyvuth, Vice Chairman of Board of Directors of University of Puthisastra as well as CEO of Soma Group, were given a campus tour and met up with Dato’ Dr. Patrick Teoh Seng Foo, Executive Deputy Chairman/President of SEG International Berhad.
Mr Puthyvuth was very impressed with the grandeur of campus and its facilities. After the tour, he and his delegates had a constructive discussion with Professor Dr B.C. Tan, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of SEGi University College.
The University of Puthisastra is the first University in Cambodia to receive accreditation from Microsoft USA to be a Microsoft IT Academy and Prometric Testing Center for getting certification from Microsoft
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