Tag: information technology

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meaningful broadband

Article on Meaningful Broadband

‘Meaningful’ broadband policy sought
By Asina Pornwasin
The Nation

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Digital Divide Institute of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Arts have jointly proposed guidelines for the creation of a broadband policy which they say should have a meaningful impact on Thai society.

The proposal is a result of two years’ work by the university’s Meaningful Broadband Working Group to develop a framework, or research agenda, from which a broadband roadmap can be developed. It has proposed the creation of innovations in five domains and integrating them into a coherent model.

NTC chairman Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn said broadband policy was an outcome of integrating governmental policy with industry policy, a regulatory framework and public-private partnerships in rolling out meaningful applications and services for broadband.

“After years of postponement, Thai policy-makers are now rapidly formulating plans for bringing broadband to all Thais. Mobile broadband is a strategically important solution, in addition to implementing broadband access in the form of fixed optical fibre to the home. Now, 3G is finally on its way [with a licence auction later this month]. The challenge is to leverage the licensing of broadband to make sure all Thais benefit from it,” Prasit said.

To make national broadband policy effective, innovative elements are required from five “domains”, labelled governmental, technology, management, ethics and financial, Prasit said. Then, these innovative elements must be integrated into a coherent model.

He said the governmental innovation should find the right link between the regulatory policies of the NTC and the public policies of the Cabinet. The government must also consider how to use instruments such as tax abatement, public-private partnerships, public-private actions and state-owned enterprises to lessen risks and increase rewards for companies that introduce useful broadband services.

In the technology domain, the government should find technologies, including software, devices and last-mile solutions, to activate broadband demands in Thailand.

“The government should encourage academic talent to develop software and solutions to make broadband services usable and affordable for all Thai people,” he said.

However, collaboration between the government and academics is not enough. The government should invite private-sector organisations to bring broadband access to the masses, especially upcountry. To effectively execute these things, a management model is required, and private-sector companies are expert in these matters, he said.

The Meaningful Broadband Working Group has also suggested that the government should be concerned about the downside of broadband.

Prasit said Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Ethics in Science and Technology was currently formulating a research tool called a “meaningful technologies index”. It is an attempt to measure the difference between “good” and “bad” impacts of broadband.

“The government should not only focus on the social and economic benefits of broadband, but also the harm that broadband technologies bring, such as the risk of online-game addiction. This is one problem that could result if broadband deployment is not meaningful,” he said.

Finally, the government should initiate studies to determine the best financial model for making broadband access meaningful for all stakeholders.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/09/07/technology/-Meaningful-broadband-policy-sought-30137441.html

Categories
conference

มิติทางสังคมและจริยธรรมของเทคโนโลยีสารสนเทศ

การประชุมวิชาการ “มิติทางสังคมและจริยธรรมของเทคโนโลยีสารสนเทศ”
ห้อง 105 อาคารมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

15 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
******************************

กำหนดการ

8:45 – 9:00     พิธีเปิด
9:00 – 9:45     “พระพุทธศาสนากับเทคโนโลยีสารสนเทศ”
ศ. ดร. สมภาร พรมทา

9:45 – 10:15    พัก

10:15 – 11:00     “Blogging and Thai Society: Unleashing Potentials and Perils in a Troubling Democracy”
ผศ. ดร. พิรงรอง รณะนันทน์

11:00 – 11:45    “Impacts of the Social Network in Thai Society”
ผศ. ดร. ภัทรสินี ภัทรโกศล

11:45 – 12:30    “The Philosophy of Creative Commons and Open Source Movement”
รศ. ดร. โสรัจจ์ หงศ์ลดารมภ์

12:30 – 13:30     อาหารกลางวัน

13:30 – 14:15     “Information Technology and the Threat towards a Surveillance Society in European Countries: Some Lessons for Thailand?”
ผศ. ดร. กฤษณา กิติยาดิศัย

14:15 – 15:00     “การรู้เท่าทันสังคมใหม่ในโลกอินเทอร์เน็ต”
ผศ. ดร. ดวงกมล ชาติประเสริฐ

15:00 – 15:30     “How Data Can Survive Over the Internet World”
นายวศิน สุทธฉายา

15:30 – 16:00     พัก

16:00 – 16:30     “Web 2.0 กับการสื่อสารทางการเมือง : จากแนวคิดสู่หลักฐานเชิงประจักษ์”
นางสาวพิมลพรรณ ไชยนันท์

16:30 – 17:15     อภิปรายทั่วไป

*ไม่เก็บค่าลงทะเบียน*

การบรรยายทั้งหมดเป็นภาษาไทย

รายละเอียดจะแจ้งให้ทราบเป็นระยะๆ

Categories
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.

Categories
conference

Social and Ethical Dimensions of Information Technology

การประชุมวิชาการ “มิติทางสังคมและจริยธรรมของเทคโนโลยีสารสนเทศ”
ห้อง 105 อาคารมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

15 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552

******************************************************************

กำหนดการ

8:45 – 9:00 พิธีเปิด

9:00 – 9:45 “Buddhism and Information Technology”
ศ. ดร. สมภาร พรมทา

9:45 – 10:15 พัก

10:15 – 11:00 “Blogging and Thai Society: Unleashing Potentials and Perils in a Troubling Democracy”
ผศ. ดร. พิรงรอง รณะนันทน์

11:00 – 11:45 “Impacts of the Social Network in Thai Society” ผศ. ดร. ภัทรสินี ภัทรโกศล

11:45 – 12:30 “The Philosophy of Creative Commons and Open Source Movement” รศ. ดร. โสรัจจ์ หงศ์ลดารมภ์

12:30 – 13:30 อาหารกลางวัน

13:30 – 14:15 “Information Technology and the Threat towards a Surveillance Society in European Countries: Some Lessons for Thailand?”
ผศ. ดร. กฤษณา กิติยาดิศัย

14:15 – 15:00 หัวข้อจะประกาศภายหลัง
ผศ. ดร. ดวงกมล ชาติประเสริฐ

15:00 – 15:30 “How Data Can Survive Over the Internet World”
นายวศิน สุทธฉายา

15:30 – 16:00 พัก

16:00 – 16:30 หัวข้อจะประกาศภายหลัง
นางสาวพิมลพรรณ ไชยนันท์

16:30 – 17:15 อภิปรายทั่วไป

Categories
Craig Smith public policy

Mobile Musing

MOBILE MUSINGS

By Craig Warren Smith

craigwarrensmith@hotmail.com

Founder of the international movement to close the Digital Divide and a former Harvard University professor,  Prof Craig Warren Smith is now in residence at Chulalongkorn University’s Center for Ethics in Science and Technology.  His column Mobile Musings is a regular feature of Database.

Obama Shows How Broadband Could Stimulate the Thai Economy

After using the internet to install himself as US president,  Obama’s  next step is to show how the internet can empower the rest of us.  The Kingdom of Thailand should take notice.

Soon,  ASEAN nations will announce regional economic revival plans under His Majesty’s shadow in Huahin.  As host, Thailand could bring the  transformational exuberance of Obama’s First Hundred Days to Southeast Asia.  After eight disasterous year of declining US influence, it is ok to learn from America again.

As soon as Obama was elected,  the hordes of rowdy, grassrootsy, internet-savvy Americans who were responsible for Obama’s election,  immediately went to work formulating a “New New Deal”  The term refers to a revival of President Roosevelt New Deal work relief progam of the 1930s. Just as the old New Deal built highways,  the new approach put the 21st century superhighway (broadband) into a starring role in the US stimulus package.

Of course,  the Obama broadband promoters have a lot of competition.  They must compete with fear mongers.  Like Arnold Schartzenegger,  who in movies is a bold action star but in real life he is a wimp who says California will sink into oblivion unless the feds bail them out with big bucks.  He and 19 other USA state governors ask for a $1 trillion from the feds. The US steel industry’s moguls are also holding out a tin cup, requesting another $1 trillion.  Since the too-big-to-fail argument worked so well for the auto industry,  all the other pooped-out industries are standing in line.

In contrast to the fear mongers,  the broadband-promoters rely on hope. See http://www.barackobama.com/technology.   They fit directly into the inspiring “yes we can” optimism that Obama’a  expressed in his presidential campaign,  and my guess is that they will be the voices that will be heard by US Congress who actually must approve the budget.

How Broadband Fits into American Revival

As the bailout crowd seeks to avoid the bad karma that resulted from bad policies of the past,  the broadband advocates are trying to create good karma that will ripen in the future.

They say that broadband is the precondition for a massive plan for retraining displaced workers,  re-establishing a competitive national work force, creating a new wave of entrepreneurship and milions of new jobs — reversing those wiped out by George W’s disasterous polices.  At least a dozen plans for broadband-promotion have been advanced.  Some of them involve direct subsidies to the telecommunications industry itself,  such as $40 bilion for Internet Service Providers.  Others are clearly anti-industry and seek to fund nonprofit community networks,  support plans for shifting to less carbon intensive workforce,  or simply try to get more broadband-enabled services beamed into schools, hospitals and rural health clinics.

The most persuasive and expensive plan has been put forward in a report by a group called EDUCAUSE.   It argues for putting about $100 billion into “fat” broadband infrastructures that will beam 24/7 distanced learning into every household.  “The total cost of broadband-enabled economic renewal could be paid for just 19 days of what we spend on the Iraqi war,” says the author of the report, John Windhausen.

The Thai government should take note of four aspects of the way broadband has been integrated into economic revival in the US:

DEMOCRACY 2.0 Prime minister Abhisit should not just concentrate on communicating with the Thai public through one-way SMS messaging,  but turn himself into an expression of Democracy 2.0, a term that refers to the way in which the internet era can foster citizen participation. Just as Obama is turning his campaign web site into a web constituency for formulating and implementing of his policies,  so should the new PM.  His party may not have been elected with the majority, but now that he is their leader he can engage Thai citizens in the solutions for low-income Thais and, in that way, steal the thunder from Thaksin and, perhaps, win the heart of the people.

HR COULD DRIVE ECONOMIC REVIVAL:  In fact, the clear focus of the broadband approach to revival is educational.  Note that the US approach does not  assume that investments in human resources development is a luxury that will pay off in the next generation.  Rather,  the American broadband advocates “crunch the numbers” to show that investments made now in broadband-assisted education and job-creation would be the least expensive and quickest path to US economic renewal.  The same would be true for Thailand. This is the can-do approach that, so far, is missing from Prime Minister Abhisit’s stimulus package which does not get to the heart of how to generate a competitive workforce.

TAPPING THE PRIVATE SECTOR:  In the US, the private sector is a full partner in the stimulus package.  All the broadband proposals involve giving the private sector the incentives to devote its talents and resources to economic revival, including the creation of jobs that lighten the earth’s carbon footprint.   In a similar way,  could bargain with the private sector.  For example, rather than concentrate on excluding offensive web sites, the new Thai ICT ministry could create a sophisticated mix of incentives, subsidies and tax credits that encourage web applications that positively support His Majesty the King’s ethical principles of sufficiency economy and gross national happiness.  In fact,  rather than pour finds into a black hole of educational subsidies, the new government could get a “bigger bang for the baht” by challenging Thai ICT industries to work through their own commercial channels to generate the skills need for low-income Thais to create millions of new jobs.

GOING GLOBAL:  The next factor has to do with the spillover from domestic into international perspectives.  Obama had to bow to protectionist sentiments during his election campaign, but as US Senator last year he authored a bill that increases the impact of US international development assistance via public private partnerships,  entrepreneurships and small business development.  This is the approach to international affairs that the Thai government itself should advance.   As an open society surrounded by more authoritarian Asian governments (including some well-represented as ASEAN),  the Kingdom of Thailand could promote HR-driven bottoms-up economic development in its foreign policy,  and turn Thailand itself into a showcase for this approach.

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Craig Warren Smith, PhD Senior Advisor Human Interface Technology Laboratory Craigwarrensmith.com Hitl.washington.edu DigitalDivide.org SpiritualComputing.org USA mobile phone: 206 245 9970