Category: Craig Smith

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Craig Smith

The IT Diaspora Factor and Democracy 2.0

by Craig Warren Smith

Absent from the enthusiastic press coverage of Egypt’s democratic revolution are two important trends that didn’t get mentioned: the IT Diaspora Factor and Democracy 2.0. Both notions are essential to strategies for closing the Digital Divide and for our agenda at Digital Divide Institute.

The best and brightest young techies from authoritarian nations like Egypt escape to America for a higher education; they stick around USA for a while to work for companies like Google. They often meet each other abroad, forming an “IT diaspora” of early adopters of new technologies from each country. But they are hardly revolutionaries in the Che Guevara mold. They are mostly just techies with a typical geeky disdain for politics, and a preference for open societies and open systems. Nonetheless, some eventually return home. When they do, they can have a disruptive effect that can change the world.

Consider Wsel Ghonim, a mild-mannered Egyptian, who was named Product and Marketing Manager for the Middle East for Google. After getting a finance degree from American University and spending some time at Mountain View CA Google headquarters, he returned to his home region (Dubai). His job was to promote the ArabNet conference and sell Google AdWords vouchers to small businesses in an effort to grow an incipient ecommerce economy, upon which Google’s profits demand. In Dubai, he was like so many others from many companies and countries who launched Arab-language websites. Their purpose was basic: to teach people how to search, chat and email.

Nothing particularly political about that, right?

Well, Ghonim got pissed after one of his Egyptian clients, Ali Khaled Said, published a web site that revealed photos documenting corruption by police. The police immediately hauled Khaled out of a Cairo internet café, beat and murdered him, while others in the internet café quietly snapped photos on their mobile phones.

Mr. Ghonim used those photos for a Facebook page he created called “We Are All Khaled Said.” That visual evidence undermined the official explanations for his death. The Facebook page immediately attracted some 500,000 members and, voila, the revolution had begun.

Mr. Ghonim’s story reminds me of an experience I had while lecturing at Google in 2003.. Looking out into the vast, multicolored young faces in my audience, it was obvious that they were just in the early phase of their careers. Chatting with some of them later, they explained they were just there to get the skills they need before they go back to their country – from Estonia to Mongolia — to bring the transformational impact of broadband (and Google) to the benefit of their people. Many of them admitted to feeling uneasy and even guilty at the luxury surrounding them at Google which seems more like a 5-star spa than a corporate headquarters.

This is an old story, as old as the digital economy. We first heard about it in the 90s from the young Irish who overcame decades of terrorism promulgated by their griping elders, to turn Ireland into a peaceful IT hub. In the next decade we heard from the “oversees Indians”, who left their posts at MIT, McKinsey & Co, Oracle and IBM to return to Banglore, and Hydrabad as whose 24/7 lifestyles, transformed and boosted the Indian domestic economy. Now we are seeing a different version of the same trend: A handful of brilliant “early adopters” from oppressed countries who use their skills to clear out the bad guys so that markets could be built. In the meantime, they go through a rite of passage. They grow up. They have stories to tell their grandparents, who mostly still live in rural villagers: Mr. Ghonim has bragging rights: “You see, grandpa, we Google-ites not just selfish yuppies. We are protectors of our homelands.” This is the sort of story that the mythologist Joseph Cambell, once called A Heroes Return.

This brings us back to the second trend, the democratizing effect of broadband, called Democracy 2.0. That revolution, postponed by George W. Bush, has just begun. Soon, many IT Egyptians will pour back to Cairo, establishing its digital economy.

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Craig Smith

Preparing for the NBTC

Like a lotus born in the mud, the new Thai regulator NBTC may arise like a beautiful flower after the 3G auction mess. It could do what NTC lacked the mandate to achieve: a distinct Thai model of digital convergence that could trigger the equitable growth economy which can bring the nation back together.

Sure, it will take some months for this flower to bloom, perhaps a year.  But that year is needed, because it buys time for researchers to present the new NBTC regulators on Day One with a plan to interlink the full power of all media for the benefit of all Thais.  It could correct the mistakes of Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore which each has leaped into ubiquitous broadband without asking themselves broadband’s true purpose.

Here are three reasons why NBTC do this, when NTC could not:

The B word (broadcasting): By adding broadcasting to telecommunications, the new regulator has the mandate to influence content as well as infrastructure.  It could be the author of a comprehensive broadband ecosystem could integrate the full power of multimedia to fulfill explicit national goals.

The P word (policy): At last, the regulatory agency has the benefit of being guided by an inter-ministerial National Broadband Committee.  At last, the PM, the Foreign Minister and the ICT Ministry are all on the same page.   Let them go behind closed doors and emerge a coherent framework for how public and private operators can combine their separate strengths to make broadband affordable, usable and empowering for all Thais.

The S word (sufficiency economy): NBTC is not limited to the conventional functions of regulation, such as “creating a competitive environment” or “extending access.”  Hidden deep in the legal language is a surprising phrase:   NBTC must further the King’s ethical concept of “sufficiency economy.”  Other than tiny Bhutan, Thailand will be the only telecommunications regulator which is driven by such an ethical mandate.  Once it is clear to NBTC that the purpose of broadband is to “unlock human development,” all other decisions can flow from that mandate.

To turn these three factors in a vibrant plan of regulatory innovation, researchers must look beyond competing interests to provide answer to these six questions:

1) What are the benefits – and the harm – that broadband can bring to the nation?   Thailand needs its own answer to this question, not one borrowed from South Korea or the World Bank.

2) What in fact is the optimal role for 3G, Wimax, Fiber and Satellites?  How should they complement each other?

3) How should spectrum and “universal service” taxation policies be altered to force mobile supply chains to innovate produce “data services” that bring wealth and learning (not just entertainment) to Thais who earn less than 12,000 baht per month?

4) How should NBTC and the government pool their efforts, combining “sticks” (of regulation) with “carrots” (of government subsidy) so markets empower Thai youth rather than addict them.

The answers to these questions are not readily available through any survey of “international best practices.”   They must come from the best thinking of the best Thai researchers drawing upon the best data.   Furthermore, all the answers cannot be found among the engineering and computer science faculties of Thai universities.   Researchers in non-technological disciplines (economics, management, anthropology, communications, political science, even philosophy) must join in. Also, the whole spectrum of cabinet ministries, ranging from agriculture to tourism, must join, drawing the Ministry of Science and Technology as their aggregator.  Once they find their core research questions, these researchers can engage and challenge the thinking of the so-called Thought Leaders who are conceiving next-generation technologies in the big international labs of the West, Japan, China and India.   With the help of these researchers, NBTC would able to anticipate and absorb worldwide innovations which will double bandwidth’s power every year through the 21st century.

Can this research campaign happen?  Yes!

Luckily the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), chaired by the Prime Minister, which oversees the research needs of the nation, has stepped forward at this crucial time.   NRCT will join with Chulalongkorn’s Digital Divide Institute and a coalition of other universities on October 29 to announce a research coalition that aims to prepare the NBTC for the tasks ahead.  They will offer the vision that may not only shape the direction of the new regulatory body, but the future of Thailand itself.

Craig Warren Smith is Senior Advisor at University of Washington Human Interface Technology Laboratory,  and Chairman, Digital Divide Institute of Chulalongkorn University (DigitalDivide.org). Prof Smith may be contacted atcraigwarrensmith@hotmail.com

 

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Craig Smith

Decision Time for Thailand’s Communication Future

Craig W. Smith

The decision to be made about how to license 3G in Thailand has huge consequences. Broadband has become the overall driver of social and economic change in Asia. Thailand’s pathway into broadband will help determine whether the economy will be competitive in the 21st century and whether its distinct culture can survive. This is the conclusion of the 127-page Chulalongkorn University report on “Meaningful Broadband” (see URL below). It has three implications for the 3G licensing process, as follows:

Let’s Do It: Any issues raised in this hearing should not hold back the immediate licensing. The NTC has overcome considerable hurdles to initiate licensing of 3.9G. Though Thailand is a latecomer to this 10-year-old technology, it has the latecomer’s advantage. All conditions are in place for Thai business and government to join into massive upgrading from 2G to 3G for 80% of the population. Moving ahead will support the government’s “national reconciliation” plan, showing that this economy is not rigged to the benefit of Bangkok elites.

Our report shows that the low-income population can increase their income by 22% by 2015 as a result of financial and educational services they receive through 3G-enabled devices. Yes, other modes of broadband eventually will be introduced. But none can match 3G to quickly benefit the mass population. Licensing of 3G opens the path for mobile data services for low-income mobile users. These apps need not be entertainment, but services that transmit wealth and learning to the low-income population. Such a campaign presents the cheapest, fastest and best opportunity for the government to reduce the gaps between rich and poor.

Cut the price: It is understandable that the government would want to generate maximum revenue from licensing. But the opening bid price of 10 billion baht is so high that it will cause market developers to focus on the same affluent Bangkok market as they have in the past. “Affordability” is the primary criterion for bringing the benefits of broadband to the nation. Yet the high price may have the unintended effect of causing local telecom operators to simply import apps designed for the global market. Thailand’s mass population would be excluded.

Our team recommends an opening price of 5 billion baht. That falls within the GSM Association’s benchmark and it fits our analysis of Thai demographics. It is low enough to bring 3G to 80% of the population by 2015, but high enough to provide the revenue needed for government to invest in R&D for meaningful broadband.

The 10-billion-baht price is based on two mistakes:

– The assumption that the national treasury will gain through imposing high licence fees on operators. In fact, the opposite outcome will occur. The overwhelming evidence from our 60-nation analysis is that, although the Thai government may gain as much at 60 billion baht in the short term from high-cost licensing, it will forego as much as 750 billion baht by 2015 in lost revenue and savings that would result a “broadband-stimulus” effect. The effect combines a virtuous circle of benefits to the government: a spike in consumption, new investments, cost savings through enhanced productivity of both business and government, and a 22% rise in the tax base.

– The well-intentioned argument of consumer advocates that the Thai public will be served by forcing the big telecom companies to pay high licence fees upfront. Wrong. International data show that low licence fees would drive operators to the 40% of Thais who live in rural villages, causing operators to innovate to serve the poor. The “carrot” of low licence fees should be combined with the “stick” of stiff taxation and more regulation. The government should not hesitate to send the message that, unless licensees use the gift of broadband to strengthen rural Thailand, they have no right to remain in business. However, if the companies show that they can help achieve a more equitable nation, they should be rewarded.

Licensing isn’t enough: We congratulate the NTC for including the provision that 80% of the entire population must be brought within range of 3G cell towers by 2015 – or licensees will face severe penalties. That is a brilliant move. But the NTC must go further to alter market forces so that rural 3G cell towers are fully used. It must assure that universities, government and the private sector are all incorporated into an R&D agenda that will generate demand for mobile services in the upcountry mass population.

The NTC can use innovative Universal Service Obligation (USO) and Wi-Max policies and public-private partnerships to reward and stimulate the private sector. As partners with Thai carriers, foreign multinationals such as Google and Facebook would innovate to serve the fundamental needs of Thais and strengthen Thai culture and Thailand could emerge as a global hub for such technologies.

The NTC, facing its sunset, is now stronger than ever, under the leadership of its chairman, Prof Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn and Dr Natee Sukolrat, who heads the 3G licensing process. It should use its strength to coax the Finance Ministry to integrate 3G deployment into its huge Stimulus II initiative.

The recent political crisis has created rare political will for a more equitable economy. At last, all sectors have the incentives to bring the benefits of the modern Thai economy to the poor. If it has to go out of business soon, the NTC could do so in a moment of glory.(The Chulalongkorn University report can be downloaded from: http://www.stc.arts.chula.ac.th/MBR2.0-broadband-Thailand-2015.pdf)

Prof Craig Warren Smith, a visiting professor and Director of the Digital Divide Institute at Chulalongkorn University, is the senior adviser of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory of the University of Washington and a former professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He has advised multinational corporations (Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Nokia), philanthropic institutions (Ford, Rockefeller and Kellogg Foundations), ministers of emerging markets (India, Indonesia, Thailand), and helped establish the United Nations ICT Task Force, for former UN secretary-general Kofi Anan. Email: craig.w@chula.ac.th


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Craig Smith

Meaningful Broadband Report

The full text of the “Meaningful Broadband Report” prepared by Craig Smith can be downloaded here.

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Craig Smith

Meaningful Broadband Forum

The Meaningful Broadband Forum is now rescheduled on November 26, 2009 from 8:30 am to 12 noon at the Sasin Business School, Chulalongkorn University. The public is cordiallyinvited. More details will be posted later.

 

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Craig Smith

Model of “Meaningful Broadband”

“Meaningful Broadband” Model Released Soon at Chulalongkorn Forum

By Wisit Stephens, special to Bangkok Post

Fed up with delay surrounding Thailand’s 3G and Wimax deployments, the secretariat of a powerful Chulalongkorn-based think tank will release a report October 28, presenting a model to vastly accelerate the nation’s broadband deployment.

Headlining the event, to be held at Sasin Graduate School of Business, 1-4 pm that afternoon, will be True Corp. CEO Supachai Chearavanont, in his role as Rotating Chairman of Chulalongkorn’s Meaningful Broadband Working Group.  The Forum will be October 28 at Sasin Graduate School of Business, 1-4 pm, sponsored by Cisco Systems.

“The report shows that broadband is a necessary condition for macroeconomic growth.  But Thailand ranks close to the bottom of all Asian nations in broadband deployment,” said Supachai. “The situation is reversible.  But unless the country’s leaders in government, academia, business act quickly, Thailand’s entire economy is at risk.”

The report,  A Model to Close Digital Divide, formulates a business model that would more than triple fixed and wireless broadband penetration in Thailand from the current predicted level of 17%  by 2015,  to more than 50%, a target called for by the ICT Minister Ranongrak Suwanchawee.

“The Forum, for the Chulalongkorn community, with some space available to the general public, will be opened by Dr. Charas Suwanwela, Chairman of the University Council. Individuals interested in attending the forum can register after Oct 20 at www.meaningfulbroadband.org.

Supachai recently replaced NTC commissioners as temporary leader of Meaningful Broadband Working Group, which includes the top executives of AIS, DTAC, TOT Telecom and CAT Telecom, as well as the government’s NTC.   After gaining public feedback, the report will be revised and formally presented for the consideration of the Working Group and to the Prime Minister within the next several weeks.

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Craig Smith

Thai Telcos Join With Regulators to Establish “Meaningful Broadband”

(Bangkok July 3)  Some of the nations most powerful telecommunications executives and the regulatory agency, Nation Telecommunications Union (NTC), met yesterday for the first time to formulate a plan for Meaningful Broadband.   The plan calls for interacting with Prime Minister, and a spectrum of Thai ministries to establish the role of broadband in achieving public-policy reforms in the Abhisit government.

The event, held at the Oriental Hotel, was the first meeting of the Meaningful Broadband Working Group, led by Craig Warren Smith, a visiting professor of Chulalongkorn University’s Center for Ethics of Science and Technology.  Sponsored by NTC,  the event released a white paper on Meaningful Broadband.

The report rejects the path to broadband favored by Singapore and other advanced nations which serves affluent citizens who can afford high speed internet.  Instead, it calls for a new “broadband ecosystem” for Thailand, that is focused primarily on the Middle of the Pyramid (MOP), a middle-income group of Thais who make from $2 to $7 dollars per day.  By bringing 28 million of these MOP Thais into subsidized meaningful mobile broadband applicatons,  Smith predicts a “wealth effect” that could bring equity and sustainability to the Thai economy.

Responding to the framework,  Khun Supachai called was one of several members of the group that advocated a follow up study that would prepare for a meeting with Prime Minister Abhsit along with ministers of Finance, Education, ICT and other relevant parties.  “We need to figure out the roles of government, the regulator and the telecomunications operators in establishing broadband that brings optimal benefits to Thailand.”  Supachai, agreed to be host and sponsor of further research in preparation of the next meeting of the Working Group to be held in September.

“Along with painting the big picture of how broadband could serve the nation, we should focus specifically how it can serve education and human resources development,” said Montchai Noosong,  Executive Vice President of TOT.

“Central to the ‘meaningful‘ idea is a new approach to Ethics, said Chulalongkorn University Soraj Hongladarom.  “We want Thailand to develop a way to help users choose broadband applications that will lead them to happiness not addiction,” he said.

For a copy of Meaningful Broadband:  A Manifesto for Thailand, sponsored by NTC, send a request to craigwarrensmith@hotmail.com

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What is the Meaningful Broadband Working Group?

What is meant by “Meaningful Broadband?”

Meaningful Broadband refers to an innovative framework of broadband deployment for emerging markets.  The term refers to the need for coordinated deployment of “broadband ecosystems” – encompassing backbone, Last Mile options, devices and content – which have meaningful impacts on users.

What is the Meaningful Broadband Working Group (MBWG) in Thailand?

It is a coalition between regulators and telecommunications operators in Thailand.   It is based at Chulalongkorn University and is joint venture between Center for Ethics of Science and Technology and Digital Divide Institute.

Is this coalition common in other countries?

No.  Normally at odds with each other, operators and regulators usually do not join voluntarily into a coalition of this type.  It may be the only such national coalition in the world.

Why is this needed?

Thai government, lagging in broadband deployment, urgently needs to accelerate high speed internet in order to enhance the productivity of government services, and achieve essential public policy reforms.1 The private sector urgently needs broadband for market growth.  But these goals cannot be reached without new forms of public private cooperation and cost sharing with the private sector.

Isn’t broadband, by its very nature, beneficial to society?

No.  Broadband is not a public good.  It is a powerful force for change that can bring benefit or harm to a society (or more likely a combination of both).  Still in its infancy, broadband is not just another medium of communications but a meta-medium which will soon encompass all other media.  Increasingly, broadband does not merely convey information but increasingly it will shape behavior of citizens. Given the consequences of broadband to society, it is essential that broadband be harnessed by leaders to achieve optimal benefits to society – and to anticipate and mitigate any harmful impacts.

What negative impacts could occur if broadband is deployed for no explicit purpose?

If guided by the unsound public and private policies and any ill-conceived regulatory mechanisms, broadband could accelerate gaps between rich and poor, undermine fundamental traditions and values, accelerate urban sprawl while undermining rural economies, and cause addictive behaviors, particularly among poorly educated young persons.

What meaningful impacts can be achieved through broadband?

Meaningful broadband properly deployed and funded, could bring equity to emerging markets, scale up microcredit and boost SME growth, creating a new middle class that could bring stability to fragile economies.  Broadband could shift the locus of economies towards human resources development via lifelong learning, workforce development, and SME growth.  It serves as a trigger for education reform as well as introducing informal interactive learning via edutainment. It could cause a reverse emigration from Bangkok back to rural villages and it could promote eco-tourism (e.g. through broadband enabled English language training) and introduce “smart infrastructures” through which countries can reduce their carbon footprint.   Broadband could enhance the productivity and accountability of government bureaucracies, reducing corruption while strengthening democracies process from the bottom up.  It could enhance the “creative economy” in Thailand, tapping the openness and creativity of Thais to enhance the competitiveness of the Thai economy.  It could enhance the quality of Thai higher education and teacher training as well as cause the academic sector to move towards online curriculum, furthering lifelong learning.  Broadband is essential for extending banking services to the unbanked and in that way to promote savings and creditworthiness among low income populations. Finally, broadband could communicate the ethics advocated by His Majesty the King (Sufficiency Economy.)

Can’t markets, left to themselves, produce these benefits?

No.   Private sector investment and market-development activities are essential but not sufficient to deliver the benefits of broadband.  Market forces must be reshaped through public policy, regulation, subsidy and voluntary practice to enhance benefits of broadband as well as to minimize harm. However, none of these positive changes made possible by broadband can emerge without the coordinated and skillful development of broadband ecosystem.  Perhaps more than any other industry, telecommunications industry is itself constructed as a “compact” between public and private sectors.  This compact needs to be re-drawn in the digital age?

So, is this something that has to be pushed on the private sector?

No. Support for meaningful broadband has come more from business than government. Though mobile supply chains have been able to achieve remarkable cell phone penetration without active assistance from government, they have not had corresponding success with inducing cell phone users to upgrade to internet.   To fulfill their own ambitious goals for broadband penetration, commercial forces must get help from government.   They cannot get this help without establishing broadband as a public good, e.g. Assuring governments that broadband will have meaningful impacts.  To successfully leapfrog into broadband,   the private sector needs to establish policies that move into close alignment with government reformers.

Is that the purpose of Meaningful Broadband Working Group in Thailand?

Yes.  The aim of Meaningful Broadband Working Group (MBWG) in Thailand is to accelerate broadband penetration.  It must do so in a way that fulfills commercial goals while also enabling specific public policy reforms sought by governments.

What outcome are the expected from MBWG?

Once MBWG understand how market forces are planning to introduce broadband to Thai citizens and institutions, MBWG may well consider new public-private partnerships that bring new money to the table in the form of public-private partnerships.   The ultimate outcome of MBWG is a genre of public private partnerships that could support the meaningfulness of broadband.

Who are members of MBWG?

Members currently consist of five major telecommunications operators, represented by their top executives (CEOs or chairmen) and the independent government regulatory agency, NTC, represented by two of their commissioners.

Why is membership so restrictive?

The six members of the Working Group, by themselves, are a core group of motivated stakeholders.  They can make quick decisions that are urgently needed within the time frame that Meaningful Broadband is achievable.  Given the breadth of private sector participation in MBWG, representing a 94% market share, it is unlikely that any single commercial bias could enter MBWG’s formulations.   Furthermore, all of MBWG’s deliberations will be transparent. They will be guided by Chulalongkorn University Secretariat.

What is the near term agenda of MBWG?

The agenda will be set by the first formal meeting of this group in July 2, 2008.  It may well consider spectrum policy reforms, market-development collaborations, technological innovations, and financial innovations, as well as the design of new public-private partnerships which would introduce subsidies into mobile supply chains.   One certain agenda item is to consider ways to alter the formula for universal services obligations, which has to be rethought for the broadband era.   Another agenda topic will be to achieve the economic analysis needed to precisely define the role of broadband in the model of economic stimulus being embraced by the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Thailand and how broadband becomes integrated into the planning of the National Economic and Social Development Board. To this end, MBWG members desire a substantive “sit down session” with the current Prime Minister to determine his vision for the Kingdom of Thailand.

Where and how did the Meaningful Broadband framework emerge?

After 15 years of deliberations and hundreds of conferences on the topic of “digital divide,” held all over the world,  the theme of broadband has emerged as the highest priority among governments,  think tanks, business associations,  intergovernmental agencies,  NGOs, and  leading corporations that have been involved in the discussion about how to harness digital technology for public benefit.  These leading institutions now agree that developing countries cannot compete effectively with advanced countries without an approach to broadband that is designed for their needs.

How did Indonesia set the stage for MBWG in Thailand?

The model we are using was originally formulated in Indonesia.   Republic of Indonesia’s Department of Information and Informatics (DepKominfo) asked an NGO called Investor Group Against Digital Divide (IGADD) to recommend an innovative broadband policy.   This policy, which has resulted from interactions with over three hundred leaders of Indonesia, is being presented in three stages, framework development, through a document called Meaningful Broadband Report, model construction, in which an economic model will address investor criteria for entering new public private partnerships, and implementation phase which will emphasize public/private partnerships.   IGADD is linked to the Meaningful Broadband Working Group through the Digital Divide Institute, and DigitalDivide.org, which is also the web site for MBWG.

How is Chulalongkorn University involved?

MBWG was created on February 23, 2009, in an event at the university hosted by the Chairman of the University Council Dr. Charas Suwanwela. At this event, various CEOs and regulators responded positively to the invitation to join the Working Group.   At the same time, the university’s Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, led by Prof Soraj Hongladarom, accepted the role of Secretariat for MBWG, which is directed by Prof Craig Warren Smith.

How is the Office of the Prime Minister involved?

MBWG has held meetings with the Office of the Prime Minister, and in these meetings MBWG has requested a holistic vision of how this current Kingdom of Thailand government can be served by broadband.  MBWG has formally requested a process of its interface with the Cabinet and the National Economic and Social Development Board.  MBWG wishes the government to clarify how its own goals could be served by broadband and, in this light, to clarify how the costs and risks of delivering these broadband-enabled benefits should be shared with broadband.

Who funds MBWG?

Funding for the launch activity for MBWG was provided by Nokia Siemens Network and Chulalongkorn University.  Next stage funding, for framework development, was provided by the National Telecommunications Commission.  A budget for ongoing operating support of MBWG will be presented for consideration to the members of MBWG in its July meeting.  Additional research funds are requested of NESDB and Crown Property Bureau.

What is MBWG’s international agenda?

A number of intergovernmental agencies with offices in Bangkok – World Bank, ADB, ITU, ASEAN, UNESCO, and EU – have each offered their services to MBWG to provide best practices.  ASEAN has invited MBWG to propose Meaningful Broadband as a framework for the regional cooperation and national capacity building to close Digital Divide in the nine Asian countries.

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Craig Smith

Vesak

Vesak:

Buddha’s Unfinished Business in Thailand

By Craig Warren Smith

On May 9 the moon over Bangkok will be bright and the streets empty.   Why?  Because in 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists arbitrarily decided that the moon’s fullest day in May would each year mark Buddha Day, what Thais call Visak.

So what does Visak mean for Thais this year?  It is tempting to answer: time to go shopping.

Hmmm.  Filling up one’s shopping cart at Siam Paragon may not be a good way to celebrate the legacy of the Sakya prince who for over 2500 years has inspired the civilized world to look beyond material pleasures to find the deeper meaning of their lives.

Instead, Beyond that Thais – particularly the country’s leaders — should consider three compelling factors that make Buddha Day relevant to Thailand today.

  1. EDUCATION:  Shedding its status as a religion, Buddhism is being reborn as a secular learning process called “mindfulness.” Mindfulness is an essential skill for every Thai, not just monks.  It could bring new life to Thailand’s antiquated educational system.

At a time when Asians get their values from the West, that are surprised to learn that Westerners increasingly get their values from Asia. America is Buddhism’s new Mecca.  It started about 40 years ago,  when Buddhist adepts from Southeast Asia, Korea, China and Tibet found San Francisco as their new watering hole. As these separate Asian cultural influences canceled out each other, Buddhism spread through US universities and emerged as a secular philosophy called “mindfulness,” a sophisticated way of training the mind which has replaced the West’s idiotic fixation on Freudian psychology as a way to cope with stress.   At least 1,000 peer-reviewed journals explain how health care systems can achieve their aims more quickly, less expensively and more ethically if they incorporate mindfulness into their therapies.

But stress-reduction is not all that mindfulness can do. Some of America’s most prestigious neuroscience labs have produced functional magnetic resonance images that prove how mindfulness can make the brain more pliable (they call it by the fancy word “neuroplasticity,”) and therefore a basis for interactive learning. “Learning how to learn” is a 21st century art, says the Dalai Lama. One of his students,  the best selling author Dan Goleman explained that mindfulness is the key to “emotional intelligence,” suggesting the more than cognitive skills are involved in learning.  Like Goldman, MIT Professor (and AmericanBuddhist) Peter Senge has sold millions of books proposing that educational systems be remade into mindfulness-inspired “learning organizations.”   He says mindfulness presents a shield against addictions.  Thais could use mindfulness to tackle alcohol, sex and smoking addictions.

  1. THE ECONOMY:  A Buddhist philosophy called “sufficiency economy” is not just an ethical plaything of the monarchy.  It could be the key to a distinctly Thai approval to economic stimulus:  mindfulness help revive GDP while at the same time halting mindless consumerism and lessen global warming.

It may be a good thing that that ASEAN Summit in Pattaya didn’t happen.  Thailand did not offer its own home-grown model of economic stimulus to offer to their ASEAN partners.   “Buddhist economics,”  a term introduced by EF Schumacher in 1973 refers to the notion that, after meeting basic needs,  economies need not be geared to endless consumerism but to the cultivation of fundamental human values.  His Majesty the King embraced this notion, renaming it Sufficiency Economy.  Thanks to the Crown Property Bureau, Sufficiency Economy is becoming part of the national education curriculum, but it could go further to become the basis of economic transformation.   The Thai National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) should take notice.

  1. DEMOCRACY:   Mindfulness is a key to strengthening citizen participation in Thailand and, by so doing,  solving the tug-of-war between red and yellow shirts.   Democracy could grow from the bottom-up.

Democracy isn’t just about “one man, one vote,”  a notion that can be corrupted through vote buying and debased through crass populism.  Democracy works when citizens participate, rather than wait for government to fix things. As noted by the Dalai Lama,  Buddhism is ultimately democratic in that it focuses on helping each citizen make his own free choice about how to find happiness.

Thai democracy has been high-jacked as a political slogans by red shirts and yellow shirts.  oriented and Yellow-shirted coalitions.  The Thai government should take a cue from Paiboon xx, the former deputy prime minister,  by

Again, the question of how to bring interactive learning to the village level through mindfulness practices should be a serious topic for the NESDB,  who could formulate an economy based on technology-assisted interactive learning in which mindfulness becomes a driving force.

WHERE TO START?

The Prime Minister should ask the Education Ministry’s Commission on Basic Education to bring mindfulness into the school curriculum.  He should ask the Science & Technology Ministry’s NECTEC into a design center for software based on  mindfulness principles. He should ask the National Telecommunications Commission for regulations  that cause Thailand’s mobile operators to bring mindfulness learning applications to cell phone users in Thailand.

To fulfill the meaning of Visak,  leaders of Thailand must offer an alternative to the vapid “lifestyle” concepts promoted to consumers.   The life choices of the Buddha lead not  to consumerism but to happiness.   Thus, Visak offer the course-correction that Thai society needs.  To be stewards of the Buddha’s own vision,  they must bring this lifestyle into the 21st century using all the tools at our command.

Craig Warren Smith, is the Director of the Meaningful Broadband Working Group at Chulalongkorn University. This month he is the resident meditation teacher in Amanjiwo,  a resort located near the ancient Buddhist temple Borobodur, Indonesia. www.amanjiwo.com.

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Return to authenticity

Eastern Buddhism may find some cures for technological and scientific materialism from Buddhism’s new homes in the Western world

Published: 31/03/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Outlook

http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisurescoop/14293/return-to-authenticity

At a time when many Thai Buddhists are feeling increasingly hopeless over clerical apathy, monks’ acts of misconduct and society’s fierce worship of materialism, contemporary Buddhism in the Western world may help to provide some innovative answers.

At least that is what Prof Craig Warren Smith believes. Currently in Thailand as a visiting lecturer at the Chulalongkorn University Centre for Ethics of Science and Technology, the former professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University says reformers in various professional fields in the West have drawn their inspirations from Buddhist mindfulness.

“In management, for example, Edward Deming drew from Zen monastic practices to formulate Total Quality Management in the 1980s,” he says. “More recently, MIT professors Peter Senge and Otto Sharma drew from Zen Buddhist principles to bring ideas about ‘learning organisations’ into management.”

Meanwhile, Robert K. Greenleaf helped to establish the field of corporate leadership through his book Servant Leadership which conveys principles of Mahayana Buddhism.”

Concurrently, the Shambhala Institute has been a gathering point for those who wish to link Buddhist meditation with management, while Daniel Goldman, a student of HH the Dalai Lama, introduced the concept of emotional intelligence that has had wide application in management and education, says Prof Smith.

In economics and development, His Majesty the King’s ‘sufficiency economy’ and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness can be traced back to E.F. Schumacher’s famous Small is Beautiful, which has a chapter on Buddhist economics.

Similarly, many of the “thought leaders” in the field of sustainable development are practising Buddhists or are influenced by Buddhist ideas, he says.

“Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom also drew heavily from the Buddhist kingdom of Ashoka to criticise the Lee Kuan Yew (Singaporean) doctrine of authoritarian economics that has been embraced by China and other Asian countries,” he adds.

In health care, Sogyal Rinpoche’s Tibetan Book of Living and Dying has greatly influenced health care professionals’ approach to the experience of death and dying.

“Many concepts of wellness and preventative medicine also involve mindfulness training,” he adds.

Among the pioneers in this field is Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Himself a meditation teacher, his introduction of stress-reduction techniques through mindfulness practices 20 years ago have now become widely accepted.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama’s interaction with leading neuroscientists has led to the formulation of a field called contemplative neuroscience that links neuroscience innovations with Buddhist practices, he explains. In the field of education, he names the Naropa Institute as a main driver of contemplative education in the West which was later welcomed by educators around the world.

Buddhism, he adds, has helped to shift the focus of educational reform from formal education to the shaping of informal learning processes and inner growth through mindfulness. Many thinkers have also drawn from Buddhism for their critiques of modern science for glorifying matters while disregarding the mind.

One of them was Francisco Varela, who passed away in 2001, he says. “He was an innovator in biology with a Harvard PhD who drew from Buddhist principles to criticise the scientific method.” Apart from setting up “first person science” based on Buddhist abhidharma and sutras as well as Western phenomenology, Varela also founded the Mind and Life Institute,which mixes Buddhist viewpoints with science.

Another leading critic of mainstream science is Alan Wallace. A former monk and translator for the Dalai Lama, his works help to deconstruct the sanctity of mainstream science by exposing “scientific materialism”. These pioneers are part of the contemporary Buddhist movement in the West that Prof Smith is also part of. An expert in the field of spiritual computing, he is working with the technology labs of many computer giants to bring Buddhism-inspired principles into the design of next-generation software to answer the spiritual needs of surfers.

All these reformist initiatives are a result of the West’s embrace of core Buddhist teachings and practices in the past century. When planted on Western soil, which does away with the cultural influences of the East, contemporary Buddhism is forced to return to the essence of its teachings and tradition to reveal and uproot materialism.

In modern times, such materialism is the union of technology/science/consumerism. Following in the footsteps of Buddhism’s age-old tradition, contemporary Buddhism in the West seeks to undo this union. Buddhism in the West has emerged not as a quiescent movement but has become a positive force and an instrument of reform, he says.

“It expresses itself in largely hidden ways through innovative ideas and methods that are transforming society. “These innovative ideas are now impacting Asia. And it is causing reformers to draw upon Asia’s Buddhist roots in new ways,” he adds.