Making the right connections

[Lite Beer]

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Making the right connections
Asina Pornwasin
The Nation

Thai Internet pioneer Kanchana Kanchanasut is inducted to the Internet Society's Hall of Fame

Twenty-five years ago, long before Thais discovered the power of the Internet, Kanchana Kanchanasut, a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), was working quietly to connect university researchers online.

Today of course, few Thais can imagine life without the Internet. Current data show that more than 26 million Thai residents have an Internet connection and almost 20 million of us spend varying degrees of time on the social networks.

Now Kanchana has been recognised for her pioneering skills by the Internet Society (ISOC), which has inducted her to the Internet Hall of Fame for bringing the Web to life. She is the only Thai and just the second Asian - the other is Japanese - to receive this honour.

ISOC, the only trusted independent source for Internet information and thought leadership, is holding the second edition of its award ceremonies on August 3 in Berlin, Germany where Kanchana will join 31 other innovators and global connectors for her induction to the "pioneers circle".

According to the Internet Society's chief executive Lynn St Amour, this year's inductees represent a group of people as diverse and dynamic as the Internet itself. As some of the world's leading thinkers, she says, these individuals have pushed the boundaries of technological and social innovation to connect the world and make it a better place.

"Whether they were instrumental in the Internet's early design, expanding its global reach, or creating new innovations, we all benefit today from their dedication and foresight," St Amour notes.

Kanchana's fascination with the cyber world started in 1988, when Thailand got its first connection and domain name - ait.th - via a dial-up network linked to the US and Australia before switching to the Internet connection model from "dial-up" to a leased line network.

"From 1988 to 1992, the Internet here was used at three universities - Chulalongkorn Prince of Songkhla and AIT - and only by researchers and academics," she recalls.

One of Kanchana's major contributions to the cyber world as we know it today was inchoosing to rely on ISOC's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) technology rather than the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s X25, an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet-switched wide area network (WAN) communication. The TCP/IP is now the norm.

She also set up the Thailand Network Information Centre (THNIC) and from 1988 onwards encouragedthe computer savvy to use the Internet both for website development and domain name registration. THINIC was awarded foundation status in 2007 and continues to promote information about domain names in Thailand.

The efforts of Kanchana and her team of Internet pioneers in Thailand led to the launch of the first commercial Internet in Thailand in 1995, opening the cyber doors to the Worldwide Web to users outside universities.

CAT Telecom was also quick to recognise the importance of the Internet and licensed the commercial service, joining up with private Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide access to all.

Four years later, in 1999, Kanchana was appointed to the first advisory committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private, non-profit corporation created in 1998 to assume responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP). Not only did she play a major role in IP development but she also designed the criteria for the members of the ICANN.

Internet access remained spotty in Thailand until the early 2000s when the Information and Communication Technology Ministry brought down the price of a broadband connection to an affordable level, thus opening the possibilities for everyone with a computer to be connected at home.

Today, the Internet is everywhere, allowing Thais to access it at anytime from anywhere, especially from their smart phones. While Kanchana is happy that such a wide section of society has access, she is concerned about the lack of Internet literacy. "So many people use the Internet without understanding how the Internet can be dangerous to them," she says,

"They are so innocent that they believe everything and everybody on the Net with all the inherent problems that brings. The lack of Internet literacy in Thai society needs to be addressed and requires the contributions of all stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem. It's vital that our society learns how to use Internet safely," she says.

Kanchana would also like to see government set up an agency dedicated to overseeing the development of Internet technology. No such organisation currently exists to take care of this task, which involves participation, discussion and meetings with other global Internet organizations.

"This organisation's mandate would not be to dictate policies on the use of Internet, but to remain in touch with the dynamic development of Internet technologies and assume a role as the country's representative on the global stage," she says.

Kanchana would also like to see more technical collaboration between ISPs, pointing out that the Internet, by its very nature, is collaborative and thus the ISPs should work together to develop innovative business models to attract users. "Collaboration on the technical side would serve to reduce duplicated investment in Internet infrastructure and technologies.

"That in turn would help reduce costs, making the Internet cheaper and faster too," she says.

The writer can be contacted at twitter.com/lekasina.

-- The Nation 2013-07-07

[noitom]

Congratulations to Kantana. It would be really neat if more than a few THai university students actually used the Internet for learning and research rather than games, photos, and chat.

[timber]

Congratulations hopefully with a little PR from this event she can become a role model

[IMA_FARANG]

I'm old enough to remember very well the "old days" of the dinosaur age.

Before email

before the web

and before cellphones.

Today, many people take such stuff for granted, They even get annoyed and angry when they can't get a "signal" on the cellphone when they turn it on.

if they only knew how much technology and work it took to build it and still takes to maintain it, they would be more appreciative.

But, like I said, I'm a dinosaur.

Edited July 7, 2013 by IMA_FARANG

[chrisinth]

I'm old enough to remember very well the "old days" of the dinosaur age.

Before email

before the web

and before cellphones.

Today, many people take such stuff for granted, They even get annoyed and angry when they can't get a "signal" on the cellphone when they turn it on.

if they only knew how much technology and work it took to build it and still takes to maintain it, they would be more appreciative.

But, like I said, I'm a dinosaur.

I also remember that age, when the only way to get on the net was by 'hacking' into the university connections.

And as you say later in your post, the amount of people who don't recognize the technology required, even to open their facebook page, is amazing even today.

Still, if the connection is there, communication established, usage considered the norm, it is a success even if taken for granted. Also nice to see people being given credit for their development in their fields.

[Garry]

I'm old enough to remember very well the "old days" of the dinosaur age.

Before email

before the web

and before cellphones.

Today, many people take such stuff for granted, They even get annoyed and angry when they can't get a "signal" on the cellphone when they turn it on.

if they only knew how much technology and work it took to build it and still takes to maintain it, they would be more appreciative.

But, like I said, I'm a dinosaur.

I also remember that age, when the only way to get on the net was by 'hacking' into the university connections.

And as you say later in your post, the amount of people who don't recognize the technology required, even to open their facebook page, is amazing even today.

Still, if the connection is there, communication established, usage considered the norm, it is a success even if taken for granted. Also nice to see people being given credit for their development in their fields.

I recall from the early 80's taking a taxi and the driver seemed like a professor type. I struck up a conversation and as it turns out he was a professor at the local university and doing taxi work on the side. He was bragging how they had just gotten an upgraded memory database at the university of 500mb (no typo) at a cost of around $500,000 (no typo) . Times have changesd eh.!?

[otherstuff1957]

I still remember the first time that I logged onto the internet. It was about 20 years ago and my boss showed me how to log onto his computer (remember AOL!) so that I could send an email to a customer. After sending the email I tried a random search: I typed in the word 'weather' and the first hit took me to real time information from a weather station in Turkey! The idea that I could virtually go anywhere in the world was just fascinating. I've been hooked ever since.

Edited July 7, 2013 by otherstuff1957

[bigbamboo]

What a shame she wasn't involved with 3G.

[MaxLee]

The point is, Internet in Thailand even in Bangkok is STILL STILL STILL going on and off and on and off and on and off, no matter the provider. While every other country has at least 4G and higher, Thailand has a FAKE 3G which is as slow as hell and gradually expensive for the slow speed it performs...

Congratulations, Khun Kanchana, for NOT REALLY improving the Internet infrastructure standards to modern world standards, and on top of that INSULTING the people's intelligence as if they were 4 year old kids.... referring to your recent comment:

"So many people use the Internet without understanding how the Internet can be dangerous to them, they are so innocent that they believe everything and everybody on the Net with all the inherent problems that brings. The lack of Internet literacy in Thai society needs to be addressed and requires the contributions of all stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem. It's vital that our society learns how to use Internet safely,"

I mean seriously,.... even a toddler knows how to send an email BETTER than a Thaksin or Yingluck crony nowadays..., and IMO Internet educates BETTER than schools and university curricular that only teach CRAP and NONSENSE.

Kanchana would also like to see government set up an agency dedicated to overseeing the development of Internet technology. No such organisation currently exists to take care of this task, which involves participation, discussion and meetings with other global Internet organizations.

More parenting and police state procedures, hell yeah I get it...

you really don't know what people are searching for in the Internet,... WELCOME TO THE 22nd century, OLD WOMAN...,

The demand for Internet is higher thanever, but the supply is low for today's standards

Edited July 7, 2013 by MaxLee

[JulesMad]

I am an IT professional and I love internet, but I have very good and fond memories of the pre-internet days. It was the time that people wrote letters to each other

What is the last time YOU wrote/received a (handwritten) letter?!?

[khunken]

CAT Telecom was also quick to recognise the importance of the Internet and licensed the commercial service, joining up with private Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide access to all.

Congrats to the lady but the above sentence is only a half-truth.

CAT ripped off almost every dial-up ISP by forcing them to give CAT a 35% share of their business for free. The only one I know that managed to avoid the 35% was CS Internet (later becoming CS Loxinfo). Guess which family owned CS?

[MaxLee]

CAT Telecom was also quick to recognise the importance of the Internet and licensed the commercial service, joining up with private Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide access to all.

Congrats to the lady but the above sentence is only a half-truth.

CAT ripped off almost every dial-up ISP by forcing them to give CAT a 35% share of their business for free. The only one I know that managed to avoid the 35% was CS Internet (later becoming CS Loxinfo). Guess which family owned CS?

OOPS, internet just went from ON to OFF, and 5 minutes later from OFF to ON again,.... the only question is, when does the Internet connection go OFF again ...

No matter who the provider is, whether CAT, 3B, TOT or TRUE, they are ALL CRAP and overly expensive for the inconsistent service they provide...

Edited July 7, 2013 by MaxLee

[Mudcrab]

I am an IT professional and I love internet, but I have very good and fond memories of the pre-internet days. It was the time that people wrote letters to each other

What is the last time YOU wrote/received a (handwritten) letter?!?

When was the last time (if ever) you received a blue, folded in 4 places , typed , something or other? ha-ha I can't remember what it was called a typogram? Aerogram?? maybe.. but my mum use to send them to me in Oz...wafer thin and typed.

[Mudcrab]

I am an IT professional and I love internet, but I have very good and fond memories of the pre-internet days. It was the time that people wrote letters to each other

What is the last time YOU wrote/received a (handwritten) letter?!?

When was the last time (if ever) you received a blue, folded in 4 places , typed , something or other? ha-ha I can't remember what it was called a typogram? Aerogram?? maybe.. but my mum use to send them to me in Oz...wafer thin and typed.

While we are it.......who remembers getting the phone "put on" hahaha

[MaxLee]

Internet in Thailand is joke, ... period

[kkerry]

Internet in Thailand is joke, ... period

but despite all that you still managed to post three times in this thread and have over 1,000 posts on Thai Visa...

[belg]

i think 75% of posters here

still remember the introduction of the telephone

5555

[MaxLee]

I'm old enough to remember very well the "old days" of the dinosaur age.

Before email

before the web

and before cellphones.

Today, many people take such stuff for granted, They even get annoyed and angry when they can't get a "signal" on the cellphone when they turn it on.

if they only knew how much technology and work it took to build it and still takes to maintain it, they would be more appreciative.

But, like I said, I'm a dinosaur.

Long, loooong, looooooong ago, before Thailand, before any CAT, TRUE, 3B, AIS or etc..., there was the 100th Century with 100G and Megafast Highspeed Internet

Edited July 8, 2013 by MaxLee