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Thailand
"In Thailand, the ambitious SchoolNet experiment--an initiative that seeks to provide universal access to teachers and students in schools in that East Asian country -- also taps into the power of GNU/Linux. ' It has developed a Linux School Internet Server (Linux SIS) to be promoted and distributed to schools 'as a cheaper alternative to using an expensive server software'. 'Since its introduction, Linux-SIS has been very popular in Thailand due to its excellent documentation in the Thai language, its simple-to-install CD-ROM and web-based server management without the need to know UNIX commands,' says Dr Thaweesak 'Hugh' Koanantakool, director of Bangkok's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC). SIS training courses are always in constant demand from schools looking for a reliable Internet server at the 'lowest cost', says he. (More information on the Linux-SIS is available at http://www.nectec.or.th/linux-sis/) Some of the pages are in the Thai language." Source: Noronha, Frederick. "Open-Source Software Opens New Windows to Third-World". Linux Journal (3 May 2002). http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6049. Accessed 4 May 2002. "SchoolNet Thailand was launched by Bangkok's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) in 1995. Its goal: providing universal access to teachers and students. 'Or, more specifically, schools all over the country can access the network via a dial-up modem, using access number 1509, and pay only three baht [about $.07 US] per call,' says its promoters. ... 'When news spread out, schools outside Bangkok said they wanted to use it. But they couldn't afford even a week's cost of the telephone line. So we asked them to work with a university close by their schools. But that was not convenient. In 1998, we introduced (the King's) Golden Jubilee Network, for the citizen to access an Intranet within Thailand for a year, without charge,' he adds. Soon, this was scaled up to 1500, the maximum capacity of the access infrastructure, in 1999. That year, the Cabinet okayed expanding to 5000 schools. Under this plan, all secondary schools--except those without electricity or telephone lines--and over 1000 primary schools too, will have access to the Internet. Currently, there are some 4300 schools that are connected to SchoolNet, with approximately 1500 having their own web sites. ... Along the way, Thai computer scientists developed an easy-to-administer web-controlled GNU/Linux-based schools Internet server, he told this correspondent during a recent UNDP/APDIP workshop on using ICTs for development, held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. SchoolNet has developed a Linux School Internet Server (Linux SIS) to be promoted and distributed to schools 'as a cheaper alternative to using an expensive server software'. Since its introduction, Linux-SIS has been very popular in Thailand. Project implementors say this has been due to its 'excellent documentation in the Thai language, its simple-to-install CD-ROM and web-based server management' that allow one to manage it without the need to know any UNIX commands. 'SIS training courses are always in constant demand from schools looking for a reliable internet server at the lowest cost,' says Dr Koanantakool, who is director of Bangkok's electronics and computing centre NECTEC. (More info on the Linux-SIS at www.nectec.or.th/linux-sis/ 'Initially we used Windows NT on a straightforward PC. Then we developed the Linux schools internet server. We now have our own software, running GNU/Linux, which is managed via the Web, using the Thai language. That means, to run it the user hardly need to know anything of UNIX. This runs on just a PC. Compared to it, we could not afford a Sun Microsystem box and router for each school, for example,' says Koanantakool. ..." Source: Noronha, Frederick. "Thai Tales: Taking Computers to Schools". Linux Journal (25 April 2002). http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6026. Accessed 5 May 2002.
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