The Internet in Asia

Online insult results in offline murder

An argument over an insult made on an on-line English forum aimed at helping students improve their English in Vietnam, led to an offline confrontation, and ultimately murder in Vietnam. Police are now searching for Nguyen Van Xuan an English student at Hanoi Open University who confronted Nguyen Minh Ngoc for calling his girlfriend 'crazy' on the forum. When the victim refused to apologize, he took a knife out of his bag and stabbed him. The forum has been temporarily disabled. This is yet another incident in a series of such cases where on-line remarks and behaviors have resulted in severe drastic offline consequences.

China launches fresh crackdown on spam

China has joined the fight against spam - The Ministry of Information Industry of China announced that a new regulation on email servers specifically targeting junk mail and a center for receiving complaints on junk mail has been established. Among other things, the regulation specifies that advertising e-mails cannot be sent without the receivers permission, and that violators will be prosecuted. According to a survey by the China Internet Association, 60% of email received between August 2004 and April 2005 in China was classified as junk mail.

US troops taught Iraqi gestures through games

The US military has funded a computer game, aimed at teaching US troops based overseas (particularly Iraq) to be more culturally sensitive.  To win the game, troops need to build relationships with locals through gestures and verbal communication. The game also teaches players Arabic skills.

One of the creators of the game, Tactical Iraq, Hannes Vilhjalmsson from the University of Southern California said that it has been a success so far. The team is also working on other versions of the game: Tactical Pashto, which trains troops in communication specific to Afghanistan; and Tactical Levantine, which teaches them Arabic language and gestures specific to Lebanon and other surrounding areas

Chinese Government bans teenagers from Internet cafés

Teenagers in China are banned from frequenting Internet cafes as part of the governments campaign to curb their exposure to 'immoral and harmful content'. The ban which also includes discos and karaoke bars will take effect from March 1. Last year, the Chinese government attempted to restrict the amount of time teenagers spent playing games on-line to three hours, for the same reasons.

Pakistan: Petition made to Security Council to block blasphemous sites

A constitutional petition was filed in the Supreme Court to order the Telecommunication Ministry and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to stop Internet service providers from publishing, transmitting and advertising  blasphemous content, specifically sites depicting Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The federation of Pakistan, the Ministry of Telecommunication, PEMRA, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Yahoo Incorporation USA and 1&1 Co, have been named respondents.

The petition asked the court to order 1&1.com to remove the cartoons from sites that it hosts and to suspend licences of all broadband transmission companies providing Internet services in spite of the presence of the cartoons on the web.

It also cites a case in which the French Supreme Court prosecuted Yahoo for publishing offensive material on the grounds that it had caused disturbances in France,  and that this decision was later upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Thailands latest anti-corruption, 'watchdog' website

Nearly 50,000 people have logged on to Thailand's latest anti-corruption website set up last month, even though it still isn't functioning. Hosted by Thai Dream, the site functions with two different URLs-one for Thais, and the other for overseas users. The site was set up by some of country's  most active anti corruption such as Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka, Veera Somkwamkid and Sangsidh Piriyarangsan and is aimed at providing a public forum for lodging complaints and exchanging information about corruption. This website is also one of the few that follow up on line grievances with offline investigations. The Thai government has denied any involvement that may have led to the disfunctional nature of the site.

This is not the first 'watchdog' site that has been set up in Thailand, as many have appeared over the last few years as the general public started doubting information provided in the mainstream press that is government controlled.  Many of these websites post newspaper articles relating to corruption or any government irregularities, and analyses of the situation by foreigners. Most also have a forum for members to freely express their views.

Other popular Thai websites with similar aims include - The Foundation for a Clean and Transparent Thailand (FaCT) and Thai Solidarity.

Gaming market in Malaysia booming

Although still nascent in comparison to the mature markets in Hong Kong and Singapore, the Malaysian on line and mobile gaming market was estimated to have grown by 46% (an increase of USD 2.5 m)  in 2005 from 2004 according to a report released by IDC. Taking advantage of this new trend are some of Malaysia's largest operators expanding their presence in the on line and mobile gaming industries in Malaysia  and the region.For example, DIGI Telecommunications has formed a partnership with Nokia Pte Ltd to provide the world’s first mobile massively multiplayer on line game (MMMOG), which enables cross-platform on line gaming between users of mobile phones and personal computers.

Bruneian civil servants attend course on cyber crime

Over 20 police officers and personnel from the Internal Security Department and Legal Department of Brunet attended a 2 day course on dealing with cyber crime recently. This was the first course of its kind to be held in Brunei, conducted by Lt Eric Fradin, French Regional Police Attache, Embassy of France to Singapore and aims to equip course participants with the necessary tools to fight cyber crime.

Culture and the use of communication technologies

Intel's People and Practices research team focused on understanding how different information communication technologies are being used across different cultures as they are adapted to fit within the existing environment. Inside Asia is one part of the overall project that focuses on how cultural practices here are influencing perceptions and use of ICTs here.

Headed by Dr Genevieve Bell , the project uses multi-sited ethnographic techniques and theory and has fieldwork conducted in 19 different cities in fieldwork in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Korea and Australia over two years.  One of the most interesting findings of their study is the differences in the way Westerners and Asians view the sharing of technologies - for example, many families (including those that can afford it) choose to share a PC, without having separate login identities. The research team attributed this to different ideas of identity and privacy across cultures.

More results are published here.

Vietnamese grapefruit producer asked to change name of potential website

The Vietnamese authorities have rejected a request by a grapefruit wholesaler to register the website,   www.buoi.com.vn , as without the proper Vietnamese tone and vowel markings the word "buoi" (grapefruit) might be confused with "buoi" (penis). Currently, Vietnam's Internet firewall blocks more than 2,000 websites with pornography and political content.

"In written Vietnamese, the two words are distinct, with the citrus fruit using a rising-falling tone, while the part of the male anatomy has different "u" and "o" and a falling tone." However, in the Western alphabet most commonly used for Vietnamese web sites, the two words are indistinguishable. With its 12 vowels, six tones and more than three dozen vowel-combination dipthongs, Vietnamese language is devilishly difficult for foreigners to learn - and also ripe for puns.

This is yet another problem that may become more common in cyberspace as more non-English speakers choose to make their mark in the cyber-world that is largely English dominated.