When Tony Waltham asked me to write about the development of IT in Thailand for the 20th anniversary of the Database section of the Bangkok Post, I thought that this is not an easy job. It reminds me of William Blake's poem:
About 20 years ago a revolution began in ICT. No one realised it at the time, and certainly no one could see the long-term consequences, but that revolution has had a seismic impact on the industry, and in just the past few years has become the most significant trend in modern technology.
Licensing and regulatory issues for 3G in Thailand should be sorted out within the next couple of years, but the real disruptive force that will sweep across the Thai telecommunications industry is not 3G or any other technology, but rather innovative new Google-like business models and convergence, according to Gartner vice president for research Nick Ingelbrecht.
I remember the exact moment. I was dancing to Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, wondering if anything could ever be more thrilling than Bob Seger getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, when I walked over to the ringing phone and got the news.
Work began on updating Thailand's laws for the digital age in 1992, when the National IT Committee (NITC) started work on modernising Thailand's public sector bodies. In 1995, the NITC set up a sub-committee to study the drafting of IT laws. Back then, the NITC secretariat was Nectec, and it was Nectec deputy director Dr Chadamas Thuvasethakul who has worked on these cyber laws for the past 12 years.
In 1987, when the first issue of Database was being put together, Dr Kanchana Kanchanasut of the Asian Institute of Technology was busy registering a domain name with ARPA's then new and ground breaking ARPANET. But it was not just any domain name - it was the .TH top level domain.
NATASAK RODJANAPICHES
Thailand needs to quickly pass the Data Privacy Act if it is to avoid being left out of the world's IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) boom, according to Natasak Rodjanapiches, managing director of Oracle ASEAN.
DR ROM / FORMER SOFTWARE PARK DIRECTOR
The greatest milestone in Thailand's IT history over the past 20 years was the establishment of the ICT Ministry, but history will remember it as a disaster that may need to be dismantled, according to Dr Rom Hiranpruk, former director of Software Park Thailand.
For much of recent history, Nectec, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, has been the guiding light of Thailand's ICT industry. Yet back in 1987, the focus was very much on the electronics part of the equation, according to the latest director, Dr Pansak Sirichutapong.
'The past 20 years has seen Thailand set many milestones, but we have failed to achieve them."
PRAVIT CHATTLADA / ATCI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
It is only when you look back at the past 20 years with the benefit of hindsight do you see the real changes in attitudes towards IT, according to Pravit Chattlada, executive director of the Association of Thai ICT Industry.
SUPHAJEE SUTHUMPUN
IBM Thailand country general manager Suphajee Suthumpun joined IBM for her first job in Thailand 18 years ago and has seen first-hand the transformation of one of the world's most famous names of the 20th century from a hardware vendor into today's provider of business services.
Thailand needs policy stability and young blood in the system to have a chance of competing with its neighbours in the future, according to former ICT Minister Suvit Khunkitti.
SURAPONG SUEBWONGLEE / FORMER ICT MINISTER
Back in 1987, Thailand's first and arguably most successful ICT Minister was still a lecturer in medicine at Ramathibodi Hospital, ironically enough under the leadership of Professor Dr Athasit Vejjajiva, father of Democrat Party Leader Abhisit.
During the past five years, the consumer market has become the highest growth sector in IT. Tapping into that growth are an expanding range of IT retail centres, not just in Bangkok but in every major city in the country.
RETAIL / SHOPPING TRENDS
E-commerce has been around in Thailand for a long time, but online buying is still not popular among Thai consumers yet - they prefer to touch and test the products themselves. However one form of e-commerce that is growing is online services, particularly online printing and music downloads.
NET PIONEER / JOHN 'NUVO' RATTANAVEROJ
For the past decade, John "Nuvo" Rattanaveroj has been an IT evangelist, inspiring generations of children as to the wonders of the Internet and technology.
Any story about the remarkable evolution of the Internet must acknowledge the brilliant engineers who designed the enduring technology that underpins the billions of packets of data that traverse the Net's copper and fibre optic cables today.
OPEN THOUGHT
There seems to be a strange consensus in Thailand's IT industry. First, that the highlight of the past two decades was the Anand Panyarachun government's National IT Committee (NITC). The other that things went terribly wrong in 2002 with the establishment of the ICT Ministry.
The Government needs to take prompt and decisive action to stimulate and guide the growth of ICT in Thailand to ensure the long-term prosperity of the country - although the IT industry shouldn't collectively hold its breath and there are things that businesses can do to help as well.
TRIN TANTSETTHI / THAI-LANGUAGE PIONEER
If it was not for a small group of early Internet pioneers who happened to be on the right mailing list at the right time, the way the Thai language was incorporated into Unicode would have required a major change in the way Thai is typed on a keyboard, according to Trin Tantsetthi, an early Thai-language pioneer, better known for his later role as president and CEO of Thailand's first ISP, Internet Thailand.
SLOAN RANGER
Our little baby is 20 years old. Ahhhhh! It's so exciting and it's so sad to see them grow up.
HOME BUILDER
Before we start, I have a question: Why would you build a new web site and only make it IE compatible? The answer is that you shouldn't, especially as a business.
EXTENSIONS
My biggest switch in the time that the Post Database has been running was from the PC to Mac and that was initially finance driven. Since then OS X and its development have made the difference to how I go about my daily work - and brought about this eXtensions column.
DIGITIZING MANANGEMENT
Microsoft Vista has been officially released through the usual extravaganza marketing, using the same old "better, easier, safer" tune that accompanies many new products. For me, it's just another product launch that re-emphasises the fact that, when it comes to consumer software products, it is supply that drives demand. Ronald Reagan would have been proud.
COMPUTER CURRENTS
Despite comments to the contrary from the ICT Minister, open source and freeware software can be as good or better than some of the commercial applications. Consider the general area of anti-virus.
The Aspirers Group will hold Comworld Thailand 2007 on February 8-11 at the Royal Paragon Hall on the 5th Floor of Siam Paragon.
BETWEEN THE LINES
Last week I was fortunate to be in a place that provided fantastic preparation for writing a column for the 20th anniversary edition of Database - Malaysia's Muzium Telekom. If you ever want to see how far the telecom sector has come in a short space of time, then head to your local telecom museum (unfortunately the closest is probably Kuala Lumpur, as we don't have one here in Thailand).
INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
Linux for consumers got a boost like it never got before when a consortium of companies agreed to back the open source product; IBM, HP, Intel, Oracle, Novell and others said in effect: Don't buy Microsoft Windows Vista, download Linux for the desktop, a place rarely achieved by the otherwise popular operating system. Indonesia economist Faisal Basri said that if Indonesia weren't spending $2.5 billion a year on Microsoft software, it could spend all that money on poor people, hungry people, people in need; open source development would save exactly $2.5 billion, he reasoned.
HOME REVIEW
The cabinet reduced the Thaksin-era telecoms excise tax from 10 percent (mobile phones) and 2 percent (fixed-line phones) to zero; the zero-sum plan devised by Information and Communication Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom reverts to the previous state of things - with no bottom-line effect on operators or consumers - but leaves it open for another rise in the tax; the main effect is to slow all that liberalisation that was going on, bring into question the privatisation of your TOT and your CAT Telecom, and indicate that the state enterprises are regulators again.
APP SHOT
I found a new sound editor over the holidays, and the more I have tested WavePad, the more I have come to like it.
They are bloggers and video bloggers, podcasters, YouTube stars, Internet pundits and journalists, even a war correspondent - unlikely stars, perhaps, but they are all celebrities to the growing global online community and who make up Forbes magazine's Web Celeb 25.
LETTERS
I enjoyed the feature "The New Spam" by Wanda Sloan in Database on January 10. Spam, for me, is not too much of a problem - what bothers me more is the stuff I am getting from friends.
