Program Titian Digital : Telecenter

Thursday, December 29, 2011

PTD PARTICIPATED AT ITU-UUM TRAINING WORKSHOP

Program Titian Digital Project Director, Project Manager and our Technical support team member participated at ITU-UUM Training Workshop held Melia Hotel Kuala Lumpur from 14-17 November 2011.

Some 44 participants from Asian countries participated in this training workshop sponsored by Australian government.

PTD Participated at ITU Expert Group Meeting on Telecentre Sustainability

                                         Date    : 18 and 19 November 2011 ,
                                         Place   :   Melia Hotel , Kuala Lumpur
   Organised by International Telecommunication Union
                                         Telecenter experts from 6 countries shared their experiences in creating
                                         and sustaining telecenters at their countries.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

PTD : Centralised Committee Meeting

Program Titian Digital Centralised Committee Meeting was held on 6th August 2011 at Klang Executive Club, Selangor.

Some 55 members comprise participating school headmasters , parent and teachers association Chairman, secretary and treasurer together with School ICT Coordinators participated.

The meeting was held in two session with first session chairman by PTD Steering Committee Chairman Mr K Gunasegaran while second part was chaired by Nexus IT Solution Managing Director Ir Dr M Saravanan.

During the first session , the meeting was briefed in details on
a) roles of each partners i.e School, PTD Steering Committee and donors.
b) PTD Lab as part of School
c) Retaining PTD ICT Tutors and package
d) Use of PTD Labs by local communities

The second session was more toward technical where problems and solutions associated with current PTD labs was discussed.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

DIGITAL DIVIDE TO NAIL MALAYSIAN INDIAN

Got attracted to a question post by Subba Rao Jaggaram, Selangor at Personal Webiste of Dato Sri' Najib Razak :

What are your ambitions as PM of Malaysia?

I wish to see all Malaysians enjoy a better quality of life in future with Malaysia’s economy on an established platform of growth. In more specific terms, this means Malaysia becoming a high-value, high-income and highly-skilled nation by 2020, with an emphasis on sustainability and inclusiveness.

In parallel with this vision is my hope to see enduring national unity in Malaysia, a continuous effort since we achieved independence 53 years ago. Without national unity there cannot be political stability, a foundation of all other things. Once our differences are celebrated as a source of strength, then I can say that my unity dream has been realised.

My comment to the post :

Mr PM , I refer to " I wish to see all Malaysians enjoy a better quality of life in future with Malaysia’s economy on an established platform of growth. In more specific terms, this means Malaysia becoming a high-value, high-income and highly-skilled nation by 2020, with an emphasis on sustainability and inclusiveness."

How can you achieve this when projects such as Pusat Internet Desa and other telecentres under National Broadband initiatives worth Billions of Dollar only focus in certain area. Your office may have overlook those residing in Plantations as study shows usage of ICT are lowest among this population compare to other rural site. Statistics may show good penetration rate but when compare intra rural statistics the result may indicate our concern. if you have time do review : http://titiandigital.blogspot.com

Take Note the following facts :

A ) Digital Divide can hinder the advancement of knowledge and limit the socio-economic development of society

B) World Economic Forum (WEF 2009/10) placed Malaysia at the 27^st position out of 133 countries in the world

c) Worst Still, Boardband penetration in the rural areas is less than 1%

d) Government formulated National Broadband Initiatives in 2010 with total investment of RM12 billion as part of strategy to increase ICT among it’s citizens

e) Rural ICT centres’ such as Pusat Internet Desa, Medan info Desa, Kedai.com, Smart.com, E- Community Centre , Community IT Selangor, EMosque Melaka, KETENGAH IT.

f) By end 2009 – Rural ICT telecenters are

a) 42 Rural Internet Centres,

b) 240 Community Broadband Centres

c) 11 Mini Community Broadband Centres

d) 58 Community Communications Development Programs

e) 7 Kampung WiFi Project

f) 110 Community Broadband Libraries

Expecting 100,000 new Jobs by 2017 under 10^th Malaysia Plan , New Economic Model , National Broadband Initiatives , HighSpeed Broadbrand(HSBB) .

Note: None of the Rural ICT telecentre located at any privately owned Plantations (ESTATES by SIMEDARBY or alike) . What will happen to those workers and their offspring?

To further support my concern check out following statistics extracted from Economic Bulletin Vol 10, 101-133,2009 Centre for Business Excellence, Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Malaysia.

GALS : Government Assisted Land Scheme

POP : Privately Operated Plantations

TAC : Traditional Agriculture Communities

FV : Fishing Village

Percentage of Internet Usage among four Communities : Only 5 % at POP (Privately Operated Plantations)

Another Interesting Finding :

People of Ethnic Indian Origin have the lowest use of ICT among the Three Ethnic Group. The percentage of Indians in rural areas that use the Internet is 4 percent, which is more then 300 percent Lower that that of Malays and Chinese.

We have done our part , by initiating Program Titian Digital . What's your contribution ? Are we going to blame the government or wait for another 50 years just to acknowledge Indians been nailed down.