Daengbo's Journal: My feelings on Thai's ICT

That these words come out of the Minister of IT (a relatively new position created under former PM Taksin) deeply saddens me. Anyone who followed my postings or blogs while I was in Thailand knows that I was a big supporter of FLOSS there. The former ICT Ministers saw FLOSS (and Linux in particular) as a great way to develop the IT talent in Thailand and limit the country's dependence on foreign software while making software more useful to the average Thai. I guess that's all gone now.

http://opentle.org/, run by the government, used to be incredibly busy and promoted everywhere, but looking at their development forum, there are only four posts newer than 18 weeks old. My god! The project is virtually dead.

Translated from Taz's blog at the website (my Thai is not as good as it used to be, so I hope I got everything right):

Today, I overheard the guys at my lab talking about some news that some minister of some ministry. I asked what it was about, and they told me that I should go read about it in Blogone for myself.
Lab . blognone

So I went to read and found a good article at http://www.blognone.com/node/3355 and they had me go and read further at many newspapers such as Thai Rat and The Bangkok Post. Also, today it was posted on Slashdot. The whole deal is strange because he just got the position at the Ministry of ICT but immediately came out and said that Open Source is wrong and he sees Open Source as having no value for the country.
http://www.blognone.com/node/3355 Bangkok Post SlashDot . ICT opensource opensource

--Extended quote from the minister which is as reported in TFA--
" . "

I also saw reported in the interview that he doesn't like e-books, either, because they hurt his eyes and give him a headache. Oh Jord! (ed. No idea who Jord is) The Minister of ICT of Thailand reads hard-copy books instead of acting like a modern head of the ICT of Thailand should!
e-book . ICT head ICT

I've included the quote here for you "As for the next six months to a year, will there be a strategy for e-government? The minister answered 'We're really pushing for it because it has to happen' As for electronic transactions, the minister offer the opinion that the current law (bill?) is fine as it stands and he expects that it will pass the senate soon. Turning to e-society, he said that it's not really important, adding that he doesn't really like e-books because they ruin your eyesight and don't feel like a real book."
" 6 1 - . - - "

Will our little department home makeit? My colleagues on Blogone commented that they want to write an open letter to the minister. It should be out soon.
IT blognone comment .