< Vol.18 >
To be envious or to worry about
I was surprised three times.
I went to Singapore and Malaysia the end of this year.
Then,I was surprised and happy that there was a personal computer shop
in Singapore Air Port as one of the duty-free shop.
And I also was happy that I could enjoy dinner at real(Do you know
that there is a "Canal City", in Japan, too?) Canal City.
Along the canal, there were many kinds of restaurant, Chinese, Indian,
Thai, Italian, and Japanese food at the Bout Key in front of the tall
buildings.
And I was surprised three times. When I was walking with joy, there
was a building wrote the Web page address itself. So I went there to
see, and I found that it was the Internet cafe. Though it was about
23 p.m., there were several visitor in the cafe.
Abbreviation
"Well, Singapore seems to be trying hard.", I thought. Next day, I
called on NCB ( National Computer Board). NCB mainly push forward with
the information infrastructure construction. Some of the member of it
visited Oita for study three years ago. Besides others attended Hyper
Network Beppu Bay Conference.
It is famous that the Information High Way Plan of America based on
the idea of Singapore. The plan called IT2000( Information Technology
2000), which is the information infrastructure construction vision to
2000, was very shocking one.
This time, I was interested in the concrete way of pushing forward
with the vision. And I heard that they pushed forward with Singapore
ONE(One Network for Everyone) as a concrete example on IT2000. Well,
who thought out these abbreviation which come out one after another?
Their way sounded like Oita way.
The more I heard about their way the more it sounded like Oita. As
they are the area which had already had the network, they try to step
up from their present condition. In other word, first, they promote the
spread of the Internet with ISDN(integrated services digital network)
and so on. To step up the network , they willingly adopt new technique
like CATV,ADSL(Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) on trial. And they
are going to construct information infrastructure. Based on these
situation, they are going to recommend contents business.
The Internet really spread in this country enough to be accepted
one of the application form of the permission to government by E-mail.
As English is spoken in Singapore, the Internet seemed to spread more
than Japan.
City State
Mr.Ueda, from Fukuoka, is the head of the KDD Singapore, and has been
a member of the COARA since he was young. Now, he is going to try new
business to run the company itself in Singapore. He said " I would like
to be the Internet provider to Japanese nationals in Singapore." The
Internet is ordinary tool enough to be thought him so.
But there is a big difference between Japan and Singapore. The
provider of the Internet needs permission of government, and now, there
are only three providers. This time, I called on the Pacific Internet,
the second provider in this country. Though it started the service the
year before last October, it has already gathered 50 thousand of
members. How envious!.
Then, in fact, Singapore government lets these three providers set the
computers which control the access and prohibit the user from
connecting with excessive pornography forcibly. I'm afraid that there
is a great risk spoiling freedom of expression. That's just like the
city state, Singapore. To be envious of this trading surplus country's
positive information infrastructure construction, or to worry about the
future of this country? I' m troubled about it.
written by Tooru Ono, the chief of the NEW COARA secretariat
|