The Internet in Asia

Singaporeans will soon be able to watch over 40 channels through their computers

As early as June this year, Singaporeans with high speed Internet connections will be able to watch up to 40 channels delivered live over the Internet. Subscribers will be able to watch these programs on their TV screens, at any time they like,  through  a set-top box that connects to their broadband modems instead of the cable TV point at home.  Currently, Singapore has only one licensed cable TV provider, Starhub so this move is expected to open up competition in the market.

India: Cyber betting on the rise

Over the last year and a half, more and more Indians are turning to the Internet to place their bets on cricket matches. The most popular of these events is the start of the Indo-Pak cricket series that have just started in full swing. These matches combine two of the many things that Indians are most passionate about - cricket, and patriotism (especially when Pakistan is included in the picture). According to an Internet expert, one of the main reasons contributing to the popularity of cyber betting is the anonymity offered by this medium.

Malaysia: 20% of civil servants surf the Internet during work

The Johor state government in Malaysia has discovered that Internet surfing during work hours may be an important factor in low levels of productivity among civil servants here. A specific example that was cited was the downloading of songs and pictures, playing computer games and surfing porn which have all resulted in  slowing down  the computer system, activities that 20% of the staff here engage in regularly.  The Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) is said to be looking into this issue, and will tackle the problem soon.

Google #1 in China

A survey of 1,200 Chinese net surfers showed they prefer Google above local rivals such as Baidu.com, Sohu.com's Sogou site, and Yahoo's Chinese site, which is run by its Chinese affiliate, Alibaba.com.

According to the survey, sixty-eight percent of the users calls Google a "high quality" search engine. Baidu and Alibaba/Yahoo (rebranded as Yahoo Search China last November) also got relatively high marks, with 61% ranking them as high quality search engines.

To read more about this survey, click here.

Learning about the Internet in Iraq

The availability of Internet has had one of the biggest impacts of Iraqi society since 2003. During Saddam's reign, there were only 10,000 Internet users in a country of over 24 million people. Internet content was also filtered then, blocking free e-mail services, forcing Iraqi's to use the government filtered and controlled email system instead.

Today, there are over 200,000 Internet users in Iraq (who mostly use dial-up) , and other Internet related services such as Internet cafes are also flourishing. In fact, many Internet cafe owners teach their customers how to use computers and the Internet as many Iraqi's didn't even know that the Internet existed or much about it as recently as three years ago. One of the most popular services among Iraqis are the numerous chat functions available on the Internet.

Blogging in Iran

In the blogosphere today, Farsi is the fourth-most frequently used language, even though Iran was the first country to take action against bloggers in 2003. There are currently over 64,000 Iranian's blogging which is an amazing number considering that there are only 50 Iraqis doing so.  The increasingly harsh measures used to punish bloggers here has resulted in more and more bloggers choosing to publish anonymously instead.

Iranians use blogs for a variety of reasons from bypassing strict state censorship to publish their work on-line; established journalists post uncensored reports on their blogs; expatriate Iranians worldwide use their blogs to communicate with those back home; ordinary citizens record their thoughts and deeds in daily journals; and student groups and NGOs utilize their blogs as a means of coordinating their activities.

Blogs and other similar on-line communities in Iran have allowed the tech-savvy younger generation (of which nearly all of them have access to the Internet through their schools), to evade existing cultural and political restrictions which are strictly enforced in the offline world, for example socializing between the sexes. Perhaps more importantly, the Internet has also provided pro-democracy advocates in Iran and avenue to express themselves and to communicate with one another.

Cyber-space con-artists are becoming smarter and smarter

Cyberspace con-artists have increased the ante by using popular Chinese surnames in the con-spam emails that they send out. In 2005, 5 Singaporeans fell reported that they had fallen for these schemes, and as a result losing between SGD 900 and SGD 300,000 each. According the SiRC Executive Director Randy Kluver, this number is likely to be much higher, as many more cases go unreported as the victims are embarrassed to make public their gullibility. Thus, it is not surprising that although such cases are increasing, only 20 people have been prosecuted in Singapore since 1997 for such activities because unless individuals are willing to report such cases, the authorities have their hands tied.

Two men charged for illegally uploading songs online in Singapore

Two Singaporean men will stand trial in February for illegally uploading more than 900  songs from Malaysian and Indonesian artists on a popular relay channel. They  were arrested by the Intellectual Property Rights Branch of the Singapore police who received the information from the Recording Industry Association of Singapore (RIAS). , a body that represents Sony and Warner music here. If found guilty, each man could be fined jailed up to five years and fined up to 100,000 Singapore dollars. This is the first case in Singapore of home users facing the music for not-for-profit copyright offenses.

Indonesian President is set to become more accessible to the public through 'live' Internet discussions

First, he invited Indonesians to send him text messages, now to increase his image as an approachable and accessible leader (unlike his predecessor Megawati Sukarno), the Indonesian President   (who is affectionately referred to as SBY) has asked his aids to set up a Presidential website that will be modeled on the US White House website. The bilingual website will contain information on his daily activities, disseminate information on policies and accept public complaints. The URL of the site has not yet been revealed.

Consultations on the Convening of the IGF

Mr. Nitin Desai, the Secretary-General's Special Advisor for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will hold consultations on the convening of the IGF in Geneva on 16-17 February. All stakeholders are invited to attend the meeting. 

The aim of the consultations is to develop a common understanding among all stakeholders on the nature and character of the IGF. The meeting will address the IGF's scope of work and substantive priorities as well as aspects related to its structure and functioning. More details on the consultations, including a draft agenda, are available on this website, which is still under construction.