You might already aware of many pessimistic views about internet penetration in Indonesia, compared to Malaysia, Filipina or even small country like Singapore, somehow underestimated. You might also find that most Indonesian preferred into mobile primitive features like SMS and insignificant ring back tones than the border-less world wide web. It also took more than 5 years for big boy like Yahoo to eventually decided to explore more opportunities to go deep with millions of its Indonesian users by established more partnership with local players. With Indonesia current market development of mobile connectivity competition and local infrastructure availability, shall turn those pessimistic views.

SInce the end of 2007, the mobile industry had reached 100 million subscribers via various MNO (Mobile Network Operator) and FWA (Fixed Wireless Access). However it believed that the number doesn’t respectfully correspond to the usage of today’s technology (HSDPA, mobile web), until a leading mobile browser maker, Opera, released reports that SouthEast Asia is leading in mobile web usage and growth.

It reported that Indonesia ranks first in SouthEast Asia (and second worldwide) in usage with almost 330% user growth and 827% page view growth in 2008. Followed by Malaysia with 462.6%  user growth and 474.5% page view growth. Obviously, more Indonesian mobile subscribers are using their phone to go online today.

In many of Southeast Asian countries the mobile Web exists not because it complements existing means of access, but rather because it replaces them. Page view growth and pages per user are an interesting metric to see how much people use Opera Mini to browse the Web. It is interesting to note that page views per user in Indonesia and the Philippines are significantly higher than the worldwide numbers. In fact page views grew more than 1120% in the Philippines this year.

The report geographic focus is on Southeast Asia, where we see Google as the dominant player in the search engine space and Friendster as the premier social-networking site, with hi5 coming in second. Nokia is dominant in the region, with brands like Sony Ericsson and Huawei competing for a distant second place. Here’s the highlight.

• Indonesia and Malaysia lead the way for mobile Web adoption, followed by Thailand and Brunei.
• Indonesia leads the top 9 countries in page views, with each user browsing 358 pages on average in October 2008, well above the global average.
• Growth rates are soaring: Malaysia leads the top 9 with 462.6% growth in users this year, followed by the Philippines (396.4% growth) and Indonesia (329.5% growth.
• In Southeast Asia, among mobile Web users, Google is the dominant player in the search engine space, with Yahoo and Live Search vying for second place.
• Friendster is the premier social-networking site in the region, with hi5 coming in second.
• Nokia is dominant in the region, with brands like Sony Ericsson and Huawei competing for a distant second place.

On top sites rank by Indonesian unique users, Facebook made a big jump entering the list this month. The report also predicted about Facebook beat Friendster in the near future, “It will be interesting to see if Facebook will affect the dominance of Friendster in Indonesia”. Here’s the complete top sites viewed via  mobile:

1. friendster.com
2. google.com
3. gamejump.com (back on the list)
4. facebook.com (new)
5. yahoo.com (back on the list)
6. waptrick.com (new)
7. peperonity.com (down from 4)
8. wikipedia.org (down from 5)
9. getjar.com (back on the list)
10. gratisindo.com (down from 6)

and here is the top handsets for October 2008 (which use the Opera Browser):

1. Nokia 6600
2. Nokia N70
3. Nokia 3230
4. Nokia 7610
5. Nokia N73
6. Nokia 6300
7. Sony Ericsson W200i
8. Nokia 5310
9. Sony Ericsson K750i
10. Sony Ericsson K510i

It seems (Indonesia) mobile industry really helps bridging the gap of internet infrastructure thus accelerates nation-wide internet penetration (at least Opera enjoys it). I wonder if Blackberry will be listed in top handsets list by the end of 2008, noted that all major GSM operators offers Blackberry with affordable monthly plan connection package.

These development gave new insight of opportunities in mobile web, conventional web and mobile application. Simply develop “m” as your subdomain will extend your audience to mobile web users. You don’t even have to develop a special java application to comply the web communication model, most recognized format for mobile web is XHTML which took an article of web standards. Have you xhtml-ized your site?

For me, I prefer desktop/notebook view, using Sony Ericsson G502 as modem (traveling) or  view directly via NetFront Browser (pre-installed) with HSDPA connection. Quite fast!

First of all, let’s take a look back as to what ICT is. According to Wikibooks, a collection of open-content textbooks in the Net, ICT stands for “information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.”

By this definition, it is largely supposed that a lot of what ALL companies do must involve ICT in whatever degree. From simple filing systems to sophisticated e-commerce implementations, no business can afford to ignore ICT if they are to exist at all in today’s world.

—————————–

Reading TechCrunch post today, it is a bit frightening that in ICT field alone, there are about 18,885 layoffs in the world this week. This is closely related to the ongoing global financial crisis that is happening. It is saddening, – especially for us ICT professionals, because although it may sound morbid, yet the fact remains and cannot be denied : we are in a crisis.

One question begs to be answered, though. Should you, – as a business owner, blindly cut back your ICT spending and erased it from your next financial year’s budget projecting ? By all means no. This was clearly argued by Sol. E. Solomon of ZDNet Asia in his piece titled “Global Crisis Hits Asian Finance Tech”. Drawing on authoritative sources like Ben Watson ( managing director of project management company, PTS Consulting ) and Malcolm Lister (CA’s Asia-Pacific and Japan vice president of alliances and industry solutions ); it’s hard to ignore his systematic arguments.

————————————————————–

Lister clearly made the point when he stated that what the crisis means is that the global financial sector is heading into an increasingly regulated climate. Banks will be battling with a number of key issues, including issues related to governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). According to PTS Consulting’s Watson, three common traits will be heightened in terms of governance, risk management and compliance: – need for information to be shared in a transparent fashion; – need to manage information flows; and – need to provide an audit trail of information flow, and any subsequent approval or rejection of that information.

Further, “Ensuring the correct technology is in place to facilitate these requirements will be key, and IT departments’ interaction with the overall business will need to be as close as ever to understand these changing requirements and deliver upon them,” he said.

Granted, this may have some limited applications to banks and financial institutions only. But the lessons are clear : ICT has become an inseparable and indispensable part of whatever business you are in. You owe it to yourself to bear this fact in mind.

What you can do is maybe striking out any large-scale IT projects for immediate cost-savings. Yet you cannot just leave it altogether because ICT is a platform where your business must stand to rise itself above the crisis tide. To do otherwise is simply unwise.

When I fired up my feed reader for today, one particular post from Mashable captivated me. There, Stan Schroder wrote that Google.org has donated USD 14 million “in various grants to partners in Southeast Asia and Africa to help predict and prevent the next pandemic.”

—————————–

First of all, ( I am aware that I am slow on this one ), – it’s refreshing to note that Google has its very own philanthropic arm. From its site, I learnt that in 2004, when Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote to prospective shareholders about their vision for the company, they outlined a commitment to contribute significant resources, including 1% of Google’s equity and profits in some form, as well as employee time, to address some of the world’s most urgent problems. That commitment became Google.org.

Now, it aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease. For this, I think they deserve some applause. When it comes to philanthropy and charity acts, a commitment fulfilled tells us that this world still has some hope. My hats off for them.

—————————-

About the news itself, apparently their Predict and Prevent initiative is supporting efforts to identify hot spots where diseases may emerge, detect new pathogens circulating in animal and human populations, and respond to outbreaks before they become global crises. Further, “Business as usual won’t prevent the next AIDS or SARS. The teams we’re funding today are on the frontiers of digital and genetic early detection technology. We hope that their work, with partners across environmental, animal, and human health boundaries, will help solve centuries-old problems and save millions of lives,” said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org.

I am not terribly well-versed in scientific or health-related issues, so for details, I encourage you to visit the project page itself, and of course, the Mashable post I told you about.

———————–

Among the terrible crises that is looming globally over our economy, this particular news has cracked a smile on my face today..

or should I say: I consider…

• Microsoft Surface is best thing happened (not available in local store yet) this year on User Interface.
• Google Grand Central for next telco services platform and Android for the next mobile (handset) platform
• Macbook Air , Apple TV and iTunes made step for the term social devices. Yes they believe that each device is a social unit, but manageable
• Most of corporate IT div were lost. Traditional marketers (you) are no better. Technology entrepreneurs are leading, riding the bull somewhere.
• Indonesian government doesn’t have, even a tiny bit idea of what’s going on with technology for people today… nor for themself. And more…
• hate Indonesian cartels, ignorant, and selfish narrow-minded who ask us present the web development
• Using Drupal more
• Building OpenSocial and Facebook Application sample
• To earn money when you ask for what’s worth days research. Who’s paying? It is yours to resolve.
• Animals are trustworthy, however they probably slow in understanding human language.
• Indonesian will waste so much bandwidth this year due to incapability of the government and the laziness of the telco cartel.

Well… few said

My concern today:

10yearsfromnow.com
- finish the basic concept of 10yearsfromnow.com
- establish framework for operational-development
- establish business plan for 10yearsfromnow.com

ibudananak.com
- operation today! Need another program before 2.0
- build ibudananak 2.0 concept
- establish business plan for ibudananak.com

on project bases
- establish sales cycle and project management framework
- establish outsourcing model, resources database and build partnership
- establish sales force and customer relationship model
- establish standard legal and administrative works for projects
- establish NET generic platform for website service (product)

on financial and business strategy
- consolidate and RUPS
- business strategy creation: capitalize and form alliances
- establish NET business plan (projections)
- find alternative funds
- go low — cut off budget

on ongoing projects
- deliver and close fast –>> create deadline
- consolidate profit-loss for every project

on Bapeda
- leadership! Bayu promotion
- stay low but control

on others web 2.0 initiative
- create photo album service
- create a web-store service
- create a recipr.com (local and worldwide)
- create a discount info service

Thing that irritates me all the time is that our production seems can not produce such application until next two year. Because of these and that…
Project lah… ini lah… itu lah…