Iskandar benefits SMEs

JOHOR BARU: Development in Iskandar Malaysia will bring economic opportunities and benefits not only to the big companies and investors but also to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda) chief executive officer Ismail Ibrahim said Irda had never sidelined the SMEs under its Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), which runs from 2006 to 2025, to transform Iskandar into an international metropolis.

“We welcome all investors regardless of their size, what's important is that Iskandar and its residents will benefit from their presence in the long run,'' he told StarBizWeek.

Ismail said many multinational corporations (MNCs) and SMEs from Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have shown strong interest in investing in Iskandar.

He added that local SMEs would definitely benefit as they could work closely with their foreign counterparts in term of technology transfer and exploring new export markets.

There are more than 26,000 SMEs in Johor at the end of 2008 and 65% of them are located in Iskandar.

“Local SMEs should not regard the presence of the MNCs and foreign SMEs in Iskandar as a threat to them but more like opening windows of opportunities,'' said Ismail.

He said the SMEs supplying parts and components for the MNCs under the vendor system would benefit as manufacturing was one of the main economic activities in Iskandar.

SMEs would remain at the backbone of the country's economy as they have been around for years, supporting the big companies and MNCs, according to Ismail.

He noted that several of the public-listed companies from Johor started as SMEs and through perseverance and hard work had now emerged as multi-million dollar entities.

He said the SMEs should utilise the Iskandar Malaysia Service Centre located at the Irda headquarters in Danga Bay here to get a better insight on the business opportunities available for them in the growth corridor.

Johor executive chairman for Unity, Human Resources, Science, Technology and Innovation M. Asojan said more than 55,000 new jobs were created since the inception of Iskandar Malaysia on Nov 4, 2006.

“More job opportunities will be created in the coming years based on the momentum taking place in Iskandar Malaysia and the progress it made in the last five years,'' he said.

Asojan said there were plenty of choices for job seekers from the nine clusters in Iskandar Malaysia and candidates must know what was good for them based on their academic qualification, skills and knowledge.

The economic clusters are electrical and electronics, petrochemical and oleochemical, food and agro processing, logistics and related services, tourism, health services, educational services, financial services and ICT & Creative Industries.

He said the newly opened Johor Premium Outlets in Kulaijaya had created 3,000 job opportunities while Legoland Theme Park which was set to open by the end of 2012 would require thousands of workers as well.

“Iskandar Malaysia needs about 250,000 high-skilled workers within the next 10 to 15 years, bringing the numbers to 850,000 from 600,000 presently,'' added Asojan.

Meanwhile, Gromutual Bhd did not see being a medium-sized property developer was a hindrance for the company in benefitting from the development of Iskandar Malaysia.

Executive director Teo Yu Hong said if too much focus was given by developers in Iskanar Malaysia on high-end residential properties, it could lead to a property overhang.


Source : The Star

World's poor drive growth in global cellphone use

By Frank Jordans, Associated Press

GENEVA — Six in 10 people around the world now have cellphone subscriptions, signaling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries, according to a U.N. report published Monday.

By the end of last year there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said.

Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace to 1.27 billion from about 1 billion over the same period.

"There has been a clear shift to mobile cellular telephony," the agency said, noting that developing countries now account for about two-thirds of cellphones in use. In 2002, less than half of mobile subscriptions globally were in the developing world, it said.

Internet use more than doubled. An estimated 23% of people on the planet used the Internet last year, up from 11% in 2002. Poor countries still lag far behind on Internet access, with only one in 20 people in Africa going online in 2007 — the most recent year for which firm figures were available.

Fixed broadband increased to almost 20% in rich countries, while globally just over one in 20 had access to fast Internet connections at home.

The Geneva-based agency recorded the sharpest rise in mobile broadband subscriptions. The technology, which allows users to access the Web at high speed with mobile devices, was available to 3% of people worldwide, increasing to 14% in developed countries.

The 106-page report also ranked countries according to how advanced their use of information and communications technology, or ICT, is. Sweden came first, followed by South Korea, which had high ratings despite lower per capita income than most of its peers.

"The (South Korean) government has pursued a very active ICT-focused policy, making the ICT sector one of its priorities," said Susan Teltscher, who leads the agency's statistics division.

Denmark came third, ahead of the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway.

Small, densely populated countries such as Luxembourg (7) and Hong Kong (11) also did well, while large developing countries like China (73) and India (118) were hampered by the size of their populations. The United States was 17th out of 154.

Myanmar was the only country where access and use indicators dropped in absolute terms. Internet bandwidth in the Southeast Asian country dropped 90% during the five-year period.

Myanmar's military government has cracked down on Internet use by dissident groups, temporarily shutting down international connections and jailing bloggers.

The so-called "digital divide" between rich and poor countries remained unchanged between 2002 and 2007.

"Despite significant improvements in the developing world, the gap between the ICT haves and have-notes remains," the report found.

Teltscher said the global economic recession would likely affect the development of telecommunications technology around the world.

"In terms of consumer demand and uptake, there will probably be a little bit of slowdown in the growth, but we are not expecting any decline," she said. "People who have a mobile phone are unlikely to give up on it."

Source : USA Today

Diablo III : How to game a virtual economy and make a living playing video games?

Shouting in strange, digital languages at baleful, hyper-intelligent dragons is fun. So is clawing for a tactical edge in real-time, chess-like strategic melees. But it doesn’t make you money.
It is the one thing that has always eluded the underpaid nerds around the world, who suffer stoically at tedious jobs while dreaming of their computers at home — how to make a living on their obsession with gaming.
In parts of Asia, though, creative businessmen have begun to figure it out. In China and Vietnam, for instance, companies known as “gold farms” to Western gamers are employing real-life laborers in ever-growing numbers. They sit at computers and mine for digital gold in popular multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft (or WoW to those in the know), which the companies then sell to, mainly, Western players.
These transactions are done over Paypal and once a player has handed over the real money, someone approaches the character in-game and hands over the fake gold.
 
More from GlobalPost: Video games are a big business. And getting bigger.
While paying actual dollars for digital currency may seem absurd, many serious gamers find paying for gold to be much less costly than spending the substantial number of hours it requires to accumulate the digital currency in the way the game’s developers intended, like, say, by vanquishing an endless parade of foes.
For countries like Vietnam, these digital economies are yielding substantial real-world rewards. According to a World Bank report released in April, selling digital goods for real dollars is proving so lucrative in some developing countries that it could pay for much-needed infrastructure projects.
The third-party gaming services industry, as it is known, accounts for $3 billion in revenue worldwide, most of which remained inside the countries where the services were rendered. To put that in perspective, coffee production in the entire developing world accounts for about $70 billion in revenues, but only $5.5 billion of that remained in the domestic economies.
It seems that World of Warcraft gold you just paid $20 for is fair trade. So enjoy guilt-free gaming.

The makers of WoW have always stood against this practice, banning the accounts of players and farmers who participate in it. The game’s designers say that just as printing money drives up inflation, farming digital gold can ruin an in-game economy and eventually drive players away.
For a game that survives on a $15 a month subscription, that’s something that WoW’s developers, the Blizzard Corporation — the Starbucks of the electronic entertainment industry — says it can’t afford.
 
More from GlobalPost: Vietnam releases it's own version of Call of Duty
But as any young, street-corner libertarian will tell you (over and over and over again), legalizing drugs or prostitution saves you money and raises tax revenues. That message may have resonated with Blizzard.
So now, instead of trying to police millions of gamers, the Blizzard Corporation is trying a new strategy, one that would embrace the digital free market and help it make some extra cash in return.
For their blockbuster 2012 release of the third installment of the wildly popular Diablo series, Blizzard will include a venue for selling in-game weapons and gear for real money, a move that could significantly expand the market for digital gold farmers in the developing world, and even in the West. The gaming community is abuzz with fantasies of moving out of their cubicles to sell digital demon-slaying equipment full-time from wherever they please.
In exchange, Blizzard will take a “nominal” commission for the sale of these items.
Not everyone, of course, has embraced the change. While the scope and profitability of the Diablo III marketplace is as yet unknown, some gamers, a wily and rarely satisfied bunch, worry that the priorities of developers will shift from creating an engaging, entertaining experience into creating profitable game scenarios — all the while collecting money from your average Vietnamese loot farmer.
In an August interview, Blizzard Corporation's vice president of game development, Rob Pardo, assured the community that the company was being honest about the real-money marketplace.
"The way we're trying to do the transactions, there's not really an obvious example of how we can design the game differently or manipulate the game that would somehow turn into more revenue on the auction house. I want to protect us or the player base from those possibilities,” he said.
While it remains to be seen if Diablo III’s economy will yield the same demand for digital goods as World of Warcraft and thus further expand the third-party gaming services industry in the developing world, incorporating real dollars into digital ones will almost certainly change the face of gaming.
So be on the lookout this holiday season for sales on demon-slaying rune swords and enchanted plate mail. It might be the perfect gift for the gamer in your life.

Author : Jeb Boone
Source : Global Post

Has the internet become the interest group?

ATLANTA, Georgia — When protesters first took to the streets in Tunisia more than a year ago, few expected the vast pro-democracy movement that followed. But even fewer expected hackers to have anything to do with it.
Anonymous, the global hacker collective, targeted government websites in support of uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Born from the amoral chaos of 4chan, an image board frequented by those associated with Anonymous, the collective managed to coalesce around a belief that, at the very least, people should not have to live under the rule of tyrants.

More from GlobalPost: In response to SOPA, Anonymous hackers target US government
These altruistic hacks took place amid other, more questionable, breaches that some members of the collective said were done simply “for the lulz” (the laughs). But one thing is now clear: online activism has grown up over the past year, as people with ideals and technical expertise joined a global revolution against power, greed and economic inequality.
Web activism is now capturing the imagination of mainstream internet users, and is organizing for a new reason — to stand up for itself.
A case in point is the recent online rally against the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, currenly being debated by a Congressional committee. Opponents say the bill would dramatically diminish internet freedom, online privacy, and the free and fair use of copyrighted material.
Anonymous quickly leaped into the breach, threatening to attack the US government if the bill passed. But while Anonymous gears up for a potential cyber war, mainstream users are working to kill the legislation through more traditional organizing and legal actions.
Politicians, in return, are increasingly turning to online communities for support. The internet, it seems, has become it’s own interest group.

Last week, on the popular social news website Reddit, users began calling for direct action against lawmakers who have come out in support of SOPA, as well as PIPA, the sister-legislation in the Senate.

More: Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit.com, talks about his opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Instead of calling for illegal hacks against politicians, the Reddit community decided to use its power to organize large numbers of people — as a labor union or minority group might — to punish those they deem to be pro-censorship lawmakers — doing everything they can, including digging up unsavory secrets and funding opposition candidates — to threaten their coming reelection bids.

More from GlobalPost: How to make money playing video games
Redditors, as they are known, first targeted Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina in what was dubbed “Operation Graham Cracker.” After an online discussion, however, Redditors decided to shift their focus to Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, who is up for reelection in November and who activists say has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from SOPA supporters.
“Operation Pull Ryan,” those involved with it say, seeks to force the congressman to make clear his opposition to the legislation or suffer the consequences.
“Either Congressman Paul Ryan pledges to vote no on SOPA/PIPA or he is replaced by a[n] anti-SOPA/PIPA candidate,” the activists say.
In a three pronged attack, Reddit users seeking to undo Ryan are now working to catalogue the congressman’s “failures” in Wisconsin, pressuring his donors (using legal, political tools) into pulling their funding, and compelling Rackspace.com, a company that hosts Paul Ryan’s website and has publicly expressed its opposition to SOPA, to remove his domain from their servers.
One of the founders of Reddit’s Operation Pull Ryan, who also started pullryan.com, Reddit user EquanimousMind, who refused to give a real name, said that Reddit and other websites are becoming a new political force that are now beginning to assert themselves.

More from GlobalPost: Iowa caucus results are as clear as mud
“What you’re seeing with Operation Pull Ryan (OPR) is something new. Bills like SOPA / PIPA are forcing the evolution of the Reddit hivemind into something more focused, organized and dangerous. I think this is just the start,” EquanimousMind told GlobalPost in a message on Reddit, adding that users can speak only for themselves and not the entire Reddit community, which has millions of participants from all over the world discussing everything from My Little Pony to world politics.
EquanimousMind said that Operation Pull Ryan had been making progress after only a few days of looking into the congressman’s voting record.
“To be honest I'm a little shocked at what's not a secret, there is such a clear correlation between the tax loop holes he tries to pass and his corporate sponsor list. I don't think we even need to find skeletons to get him out of office based on his public record. Still, when you have over 2,000 people doing nothing but search for secrets on you, something might just pop up,” EquanimousMind said.
Reddit activists have also raised more than $15,000 in a fundraising drive to support the operation and plan to donate the money to Ryan’s 2012 election opponent, Rob Zerban, a staunch anti-SOPA Wisconsin Democrat.
With his ear to the internet, Zerban participated in a question and answer session on Reddit, where he explained his position against SOPA and other censorship legislation being debated in the US House of Representatives. His participation in the session endeared him to the Reddit community.
The power of the online activist community, in the same way a labor union wields power, is in its numbers and ability to organize. Increasingly, this is taking place around the world — from Cairo to Sanaa to Washington to London — through Facebook, Twitter and, now, forums like Reddit. And political campaigns are beginning to take notice.

Author : Jeb Boone

Source : Global Post

19th International Conference on Telecommunications

Jounieh, Lebanon | 23-25 April 2012

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: GROWING A CONNECTED WORLD

There is a growing interest in a pervasive and always connected world. The emerging generation of wireless networks, heterogeneous access technologies, ad-hoc and sensor networks, and new Internet technologies will be part of this new world.
While the radio cell size shrinks, there is a need for new, green, increasingly robust, secure, self-organizing, and context-aware networking protocols and techniques that challenge our designs for upcoming technologies, in a world that has become strongly dependent on those communication means. ICT'2012 will reflect on such trends.

The nineteenth International Conference on Telecommunications ICT'2012 will be held under the patronage of His Excellency M. Nicolas Sehnaoui, Minister of Telecommunications in Lebanon.

The annual ICT conference was initiated by the Centre for Telecommunications Research, King's College London.
Based on the initial success of Dubai in 1994, ICT has been held in:
Bali, Indonesia (1995)
Istanbul, Turkey (1996)
Melbourne, Australia (1997)
Chalkidiki, Greece (1998)
Jeju, Korea (1999)
Acapulco, Mexico (2000)
Bucharest, Romania (2001)
Beijing, China (2002)
Tahiti, French Polynesia (2003)
Fortaleza, Brazil (2004)
Cape Town, South Africa (2005)
Funchal, Portugal (2006)
Penang, Malaysia (2007)
St. Petersburg, Russia (2008)
Marrakech, Morocco (2009)
Doha, Qatar (2010)
Ayia Napa, Cyprus (2011) The 19th International Conference on Telecommunications ICT'2012 will be held in Jounieh, Lebanon.
The conference will feature technical presentations and tutorials.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Wireless Communications
• Ad-Hoc and Multi-Sensor Communications
• Multi-antenna systems - Multi-Carrier systems - Multi-user systems
• Cognitive Radio - Radio Resource Management - Game theory in communication systems
• Cooperative Communications - Peer-to-peer communications - Green Communications
• Cross Layer Design - Heterogeneous Networks
• Localization and Navigation - Satellite Communications
• Radio Frequency and Antenna design
• Optical communications and devices
• Signal Processing techniques for Communications
• Information theory - Channel coding - Joint source-channel coding
• Network coding - Compressed sensing
• Bio-inspired signal processing techniques
• Video Compression - Distributed video coding
• Multimedia Signal Pocessing - Audio signal processing - Video signal processing
• Virtual reality - Camera array processing
• Network theory and technologies - Routing techniques - Wireless IP – Voice and Video over IP
• Cryptography and Network Security - Computer and Communication Networks
• Distributed Algorithms - Cloud and Grid computing - Pervasive Computing
• Reconfigurable Architectures and design techniques for signal processing and communications
• Software and Simulation Tools

Source : http://www.ict2012.org/

Online shopping lets US export consumer lifestyle worldwide

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - As gift-buying frenzy mounts in the days before Christmas, United States (US) retailers are exporting the country's shopping culture along with once hard-to-get goods to locales around the world.
Spending at US 'e-commerce' websites climbed 15 per cent from the previous year by the start of December, and online sales on the 'Cyber Monday' after Thanksgiving set a new record high of US$1.25 billion (S$1.62 billion), according to comScore.
The international share of the Cyber Monday shopping tally climbed to nearly seven per cent, the industry tracker reported.
'Black Friday and Cyber Monday are definitely American exports,' said Michael DeSimone, chief executive of New York-based FiftyOne, which specialises in helping US store websites handle international transactions.

Source : The Straits Times

 

Private sector vital to ICT, literate generation by 2020, says assemblyman

Date : December 5,2011

By : Vanes Devindran

KUCHING: The private sector plays an important role when it comes to training trainers in the field of information-communication technology (ICT).

Demak Laut assemblyman Dr Hazland Abang Hipni said since there were only eight years to 2020 when Malaysia becomes a developed nation, the private sector would help expedite training and enable trainers to create an ICT-proficient generation.
“We are fast approaching 2020 and it is clear that if we want an ICT literate society, we need to have teachers who are well-trained and equipped to pass on their knowledge.

ICT savvy: Dr Hazland (fourth left), Eduspec Holdings Berhad chief executive officer Lim Een Hong (left), Prof Mohd Fadzil (sixth left) and some of the winners of the 19th Dynabook National ICT Competition.

“These teachers need to have global mindsets and skilful too so that we are assured that we have a generation well-versed in ICT.
“These teachers are mostly in the private sector, which is why this sector is vital to our ICT development,” he said when closing the 19th Dynabook National ICT Competition at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) .
He was representing Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah.
Dr Hazland said it was not too late for Malaysia to achieve its goal towards having an ICT proficient society if the government had the support of the private sector.
As such, he said, the government always gave additional allocation for ICT education.
“We shouldn’t be easily satisfied. We need to constantly raise the bar because the world is getting more and more competitive. If we want to keep up, we need the keep on improving ourselves,” he said.
Earlier on, Unimas Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman said competition like this should be held frequently since not only does it promote ICT, it would even unearth talented individuals.
“Who knows, we might find the next Steve Jobs (Apple co-founder). After all the late Steve Jobs started in his backyard and so did Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder). If these two great minds can make it, I don’t see why our children can’t do so too,” he said.
The event had 650 students from 61 primary schools nationwide participating and the competition encompasses computer drawing at the junior and senior levels, general knowledge and typing skill.
The winners are namely Lee Jia Yu from SJK (C) Yuk Kwan, Perak (general knowledge), Ching Jia Sing from Kong Min Pusat, Penang (junior drawing), Nigel Leong Zheng Hao from SJK (C) Chung Hwa, Sabah (senior drawing) and Oh Coyun from SJK (C) Chong Hwa Setapak KL (typing).
The event was held by Dynabook, a subsidiary of Eduspec Holdings Berhad, Unimas and the Federation of Kuching and the Youth Section of Samarahan Division Chinese Associations.
The 20th Dynabook National ICT Competition will be held in Malacca.

Source :  The Star Online

 

Microsoft upbeat on IT growth in Malaysia

Date : December 6,2011



Information technology (IT) will be among the strongest catalyst in assisting Malaysia achieve a per capita income of US$15,000 by 2020, says Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd's managing director, Ananth Lazarus.

"We are very excited with the growth of IT in Malaysia, and see vast opportunities for it to grow even more, in the coming years," he told reporters after Microsoft's second annual Accelerating Asia Pacific Summit today.

He also said Microsoft Malaysia is confident that the contribution of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP) will rise to 41 per cent by 2020 from the current 32 per cent.

"Microsoft is very committed to its growth here in Malaysia, and to date, we have built an ecosystem of 5,000 partners.

"According to the International Data Corporation, for every US$1 that Microsoft earns in revenue in Malaysia, US$13.39 is generated for the local ICT industry," he added.

Ananth said Microsoft Malaysia has established two Microsoft Innovation Centres in the country, namely in the Malaysian Institute Of Microelectronic Systems Bhd (MIMOS) and Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC), to help Malaysian technopreneurs accelerate technology commercialisation.

"Furthermore, our BizSpark programme supports over 120 companies by giving them free software for the first two years as they start their businesses.

"The BizSpark programme also helps build capacity in growth amongst the Malaysian technopreneurs," he added. -- Bernama

Source : Business Times

 

Alternative to textbooks

 Date : June 1,2009

THE Terengganu State Government, Top IT Industries Sdn Bhd and Intel Malaysia launched the Projek Buku Elektronik recently, providing 25,000 Intel-powered Classmate personal computers or eBooks to Standard Five pupils in the State's schools.

A brainchild of the Terengganu State Government , Projek Buku Elekronik represents the first step towards  harnessing the benefits of technology to make education more efficient by delivering the school curriculum in a digitised format, as an alternative to heavy textbooks.
The project is also part of the State government's ongoing effort to enhance the quality of education through direct ownership of portable PC devices and IT-based learning, thus injecting renewed enthusiasm for learning  in the classroom and at home.
"Projek Buku Elektronik is a bold first step the State Government is taking, and it will be the catalyst for a new chapter in Malaysia's education curriculum.
We strongly believe ICT plays a very important role in supporting the development of human capital and we are optimistic that the use of Intelpowered Classmate PCs in the classroom will have a positive impact on the critical thinking, communication and digital literacy skills of students," said Datuk Ahmad Said, Menteri Besar of Terengganu.
With the partnership between the State Government, Top IT Industries Sdn Bhd and Intel Malaysia becoming official in December 2008, the first shipment of eBooks arrived from Taiwan three weeks ago and were distributed to the first batch of pupils at the end of May.  

Source : Malay Mail                                          

Make full use of ICT while adapting to changes

Date : November 10,2011

By : Calvin Yeo

KUCHING: Graduates must make full use of the information communication technology to improve themselves while adapting to the changing environment.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said this would enable the creation of an excellent, quality and knowledgeable human capital that could help in realising the country’s vision of becoming an industrialised nation by 2020.
“The technology, economy and social development plays an important role in the country’s transformation.
“The graduates should feel blessed with the government policies, which have created many job and education opportunities,” he said at the 14th convocation of Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) and International College of Advanced Technology Sarawak (ICATS).
The text of his speech was read by Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah.
Taib said as the country progressed, the government had come up with many strategies to meet the demand for more job opportunities.
He said skilled graduates were much sought after now as the country needed more skilled workers to achieve industrialised nation status.
“The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), which comprises various sectors, intends to attract foreign investment and to develop the state’s economy.
“It has attracted RM26.4bil of investment and so far, four international companies have sited their operations in SCORE,” he said, adding that SCORE had changed its surrounding landscape to one with ample infrastructure facilities.
He said SCORE would create more than one million job opportunities by 2030.
More than 400 graduates received their scrolls during the ceremony yesterday.

 Source : The Star Online
                                                                                                                                                 

 

Melaka gets RM50 million to develop ICT

Date : November 14,2011

MELAKA: The state government received an allocation of RM50 million from the federal government to develop information, communication and technology (ICT) for a period of four years, from 2007 until March this year.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said through the allocation, four projects were implemented, namely broadband infrastructure in all the districts, an integrated network pilot project, a project to narrow the digital divide and fiber optic broadband infrastructure.

"The state government also allocated RM2.7 million for the projects to ensure ICT keeps advancing every year," he said in reply to Ab Rahaman Ab Karim (BN-Pantai Kundor) during the state assembly here today.

He said the progress of ICT in the state was measured in the aspects of skills, infrastructure and content in the form of basic computer training encompassing computer usage, internet surfing and social media usage.

Mohd Ali said as at Sept 2011, 94 training programmes had been organised, involving 3,165 participants.

He said 715 locations were proposed in 2011 for the installation of WiFi at hotspots dan hotzones for residents.

According to data issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), as at the second quarter of this year, 706 hotspots had been installed in the state.

He said the state government had also appointed Melaka ICT Holdings (MITCH) as a one-stop centre in the installation of the integrated telecommunication tower in the state.

Mohd Ali said there are 733 TM WiFi coverage areas throughout the state, most of which are located in Bandar Hilir with 294, and Ayer Keroh, with 166.

"The main criteria for the installation is supermarkets, business complexes, higher education institutions, tourist spots and transport centres," he said in reply to Chua Keng Hwa (BN-Bemban).

Mohd Ali said the consumer targets are professionals, officers, managers, business people, higher education students and domestic and foreign tourists. --BERNAMA


Sources : 
News Straits Times Online

What is Information Technology?

Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review, in which authors Leavitt and Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT). "Some of the modern and emerging fields of Information technology are next generation web technologies, bioinformatics, cloud computing, global information systems, large scale knowledgebases, etc.




Source : Wikipedia