by James Fahn
IT's been a while since we took a
look at what's going on in Thai net
circles, so today's column will focus
on, well, local goings-on.
The biggest news by far is of course
the attempt by certain individuals,
most notably the chief Thai
representative of the Internet Society,
to pass a controversial new Internet
law.
Officially known as the Internet
Promotion Act, but more commonly
dubbed the Internet Control Act, it
has raised a lot of hackles among
Internet users.
Critics claim it has been modelled
after an actual Internet Control Act
passed in Singapore, hardly a
bastion of free speech.
The original draft of the Thai bill
seemed aimed at censoring many
topics of discussion, and although
revisions have been made following
several public hearings, the bill still
looks set to give an awful lot of power
to a new Internet Promotion
Committee.
You can take a look at the current
draft Internet Promotion Bill -- in
English, too -- at Isoc's Thai website
located at http://www.isoc-th.org/.
From information on the site, it
appears that this is actually just one
of many new laws related to
computers and digital
communications being considered in
Thailand.
While there is no doubt that Thailand
needs to promote the Internet and
revamp relevant legislation, it is
always best to separate the
responsibilities of promotion and
regulation. This bill, however, seems
determined to combine the two duties
in a single all-powerful institution
-- a
depressingly familiar instinct among
Thai bureaucrats.
Given all the commotion the draft law
has provoked, the current bill seems
virtually beyond repair. It is probably
better to just scrap the whole thing
and start over.
ON a lighter note, there seems to be
a popular new web site in town, and
it's got a name you can't help but
notice: Sanook.com.
Log on to the site at
http://www.sanook.com/
and you'll
see it has a masthead that seems to
have been copied from Yahoo. But
while there is a Thai search engine
on the site, there's also a lot more.
Basically, it seems to be another site
dedicated to entertaining young,
computer-savvy Thais. It has a
chatroom, an online magazine with
movie reviews and sports stories, and
popular programmes you can
download. There is also currently a
Valentine's Day page.
Perhaps the most innovative feature
is an online paging service. If you're
online and don't want to get off to
ring
a friend, you can page them by
simply typing in their number and the
message you want to send.
This means that if you still have
enough money to travel abroad
somewhere, and desperately need to
get in touch with people in Thailand,
you can save the cost of a
long-distance by simply paging them
through the Internet. Will wonders
never cease?
Asked for a review of http://www.Sanook.com,
a
friend and avid NetJunkie simply
said, ''It's very Thai''. Now you know.
By the way, several people have
written to ask how to read websites
written in Thai, so here's a reminder
about how to install Thai fonts: If
you're using Netscape, click on
Options, and then on General
Preferences; when it asks you to
Choose Fonts, simply select a Thai
font like Angsana or Jasmine. And
voila, the Thai script will appear
before your eyes.
Another site with some local flavour
is
Escati at http://www.escati.com/.
Based in a small village outside Hat
Yai, it has a lot of different links
relating to various aspects of Thai
culture.
It was introduced to me by Andrew
Taylor, presumably its founder, and
contains a veritable grab bag of
goodies, with pages on Miss
Thailand World, Thai spices, Thai
tigers, Thai history, and so on. The
Magic TV and Magic Radio links also
let you watch and listen to Thai video
and audio clips, but you'll need to
download a RealPlayer application
first.
If you're a photographer or a website
designer, you can also submit your
work to some on-line contests. And of
course, there's lots of information
available about the Internet.
All in all, it's a pretty good digital
introduction to Thailand. Just one
question, Andrew, what does Escati
mean?
Have any suggestions? Complaints?
Picks? Pans? Utterly random
thoughts you'd like to share? Please
send e-mail to
jfahn@nation.nationgroup.com