First Annual MAI Conference Papers: Abstracts
Session 1: Panel - The Myth of the Lazy Native Revisited
Professor Syed Hussain Alatas
Institute of the Malay World and Civilization (ATMA), Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
43600 Bangi, Malaysia
Tel: +60-3-89213699
Fax: +60-3-89254698
Website: www.malaycivilization.com
The Myth of the Lazy Native and the Labyrinths of History
During my research preparing for my book on the Myth of the Lazy Native, I came across certain paths inviting reflections on aspects of history still left abandoned in the shelves of recorded memory. One such path of reflection is the change in the Eurocentric perception of the colonizers in each different period and field of interest. The term Eurocentric is here not used in the pejorative sense but only in the cultural-anthropological sense. It has the same connotation as Java centric, Sino centric, Andocentric, or any other such term indicating perceptions conditioned by the cultural background. The component of centricity is of interest in the study of colonial domination. The area goes beyond politics, economics, and administrative procedures. It includes perceptions of art, geography, social-life, food, sex and marriage, man and society, music and people's character. Hence the need to expand the sociology and cultural-anthropology of colonialism.
Professor Shamsul A.B.
Director, Institute
of the Malay World & Civilization (ATMA) &
Institute of Occidental Studies (IKON), Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM)
43600 Bangi, Malaysia
email:shamab@ukm.my
Tel:+60-3-89250929
Fax:+60-3-89254698
Website:www.malaycivilization.com
Resisting the Myth of the Lazy Native: An Organizational Response
Alatas's 'The Myth of the Lazy Native' (1977) is a textual academic rebuttal of a form of 'colonial knowledge' and its influence that are expressed and disseminated in the form of Dutch and British 'textual empire' which, in turn, became the basis of the construction of a corpus of knowledge called 'Malay studies' and the creation of the 'Departments of Malay Studies' in the public universities in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. The establishment of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization, or ATMA, and, subsequently, The Institute of Occidental Studies (IKON) are organizational attempts not only to rebut 'The Myth of the Lazy Native' but also the artificialness of the colonial knowledge that underpins such state-sponsored bureaucratic projects. This paper traces the epistemological, ontological and methodological origins and implications of these efforts.
Session 2: Panel - IT and Connectivity
Dr Sugata Mitra
National Institute of Information
Technology (NIIT )
New Delhi, India
Minimally Invasive Education: Pedagogy for development in a connected World
Development in the 21st century will be determined, to a large extent, by the thought, action and imagination of young people. We report on the current status and findings of our experiments with unsupervised Internet access by village and urban slum children of India. Several new experimental projects are described and the initial findings reported. The original hypotheses and their subsequent verification are described. A new hypothesis is proposed. Finally, a preliminary statement for a new pedagogy is made. Plans for further work are described. The paper goes on to describe the results of several experiments conducted in the area of self-instruction. Based on observations from these experiments as well as from constructivist theory, an approach named Minimally Invasive Education is proposed and the process described. The analogy and role of self-organising systems in future education are mentioned.
Mr Rajesh Jain
Netcore Solutions, Mumbai
Mr Atanu Dey
Deeshaa Rural Development
Tel: +91 22 5662 8000
Fax: +91 22 5662 8134
Website: http://www.deeshaa.org
or http://www.deeshaa.com
ABC: The Mediated Marketplace Model
Basic to solving the problem of mass poverty is the understanding that poor are poor because their incomes are low. The poor, like the non-poor, have the potential to produce but that potential is not realized because of two principal factors: they lack access to capital and access to markets. These are internally related. Limited access to markets limits the price which they can obtain for their production, which in turn leads to lack of capital for consumption and investment in productive capacity.
Advances in information and communications technologies hold the promise of enlarging market access for the agricultural and non-agricultural outputs of rural populations where the poor are over-represented. ICT tools reduce the information imperfections which impede the efficient functioning of markets for rural output. However, the use of ICT tools in the rural context face two hurdles. First, inadequate infrastructure such as power and telecommunications which is characteristic of rural areas. Second, low human capital in terms of low levels of literacy, especially ICT literacy. Therefore ICT solutions have to be tailored to suit these rural realities.
In this paper, we present a model for increasing rural incomes using ICT tools for enlarging the market for rural output which we call the "ABC -- the Mediated Marketplace Model."
Session 3: Panel - IT and Rural Poverty
Dr Sirpa Tenhunan
Research Fellow, Social and
Cultural Anthropology
P.O.Box 59, 000140 University of
Helsinki, Finland
email: Sirpa.tenhunen@helsinki.fi
Tel: 358 505240241
Fax: 358-9-19123006
Social change and the prospects of the use of IT technology in rural West Bengal
This paper examines the recent social and cultural changes in rural West Bengal assessing their impact for the prospects of the use of IT technology in the region. The paper is based on anthropological fieldwork in Janta, a village in West Bengal (Bankura district) in 1999-2000 and 2003.I will describe the changes brought about by the ìgreen revolutionî as well as the land reforms in the state in an endeavour to illustrate that those avenues of change have been exhausted. Increasingly, the children of small farmers and laboring families have to find jobs outside agriculture because of the rising cost of farming and the fragmentation of land holdings. Simultaneously, the new prosperity brought on by a decade of rapid economic growth has generated new forms of economic activity in the region. There is a need for an enhanced communication system to serve the labour market of this most densely populated state in India. The kinship system along with village exogamy is the second major incentive for the enhancement of communication. Natal families continue to be the major source of help for women if they were to be mistreated in their in-lawsí house, fall ill or face starvation. Women have increasingly voiced their interests and demands during the past decade not only as panchayat (village council) representatives but also through forging new ideas of womanhood in their everyday life. One aspect of the emerging ideas of womanhood deals with communication: women prefer to get married to villages with good road connection and bus services because the ability to stay in touch with oneís natal family and other relatives contributes to their welfare and feelings of self- worth. I suggest that the most viable new means of communication would be mobile phones since widespread illiteracy in the poorest strata precludes the use of the internet. Regarded within the context of the majority of the rural peopleís low incomes, the cost of such mobile phones should be shared so that the mobile phone owner would generate income from his/her phone by selling calling time to fellow villagers.
Dr
D Parthasarathy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076,
India
e-mail: dp@hss.iitb.ac.in
, ben.dp@iitb.ac.in
Tel: 91 22 25767372
Fax: 91 22 25723480,
25767350
Information Technology, Business Models, and Rural Development: Lessons from the Warana Wired Village Project
The Warana Wired Village Project was launched by the Information Technology Task Force of the Prime Ministerís Office (India) in 1998 to demonstrate the use of IT infrastructure for accelerating socioeconomic development. The Warana complex in Maharashtra includes cooperative societies for the production of sugar and dairy products, poultry, and credit and covers a cluster of seventy villages. One of the few ICT based rural development projects in India taken up and completely maintained by cooperatives, it has as its major objectives - utilization of IT to increase the efficiency and productivity of cooperative societies, providing greater transparency in the working of these societies, and enabling access to agricultural, medical and educational information to rural people by establishing networked telecentres. An impact study revealed that despite several shortcomings, a simple office / business management software adapted to local conditions helped to reduce transaction costs, improve efficiency and reduce corruption in sugarcane and dairy sectors of the local economy, benefiting all sections participating in these sectors irrespective of scale. A notable finding pertained to trust. For the Indian rural poor, long used to exploitation and discrimination, any technology that generates transparency and de-personalizes operations, induces trust. The study showed that the poor, women, and landless especially flock to those cooperative societies which promise greater profits, efficiency and transparency. Critiquing conventional debates over government versus private entrepreneurship models of IT in rural development, the paper argues that the conventional ëurban/industrialí approach of introducing IT as part of existing economic activities is applicable in rural areas as well, due to fewer barriers to technology adoption and diffusion. The Warana model of linking telecentres to an ongoing business activity in which a majority of local people are involved seems to be one worth emulating in terms of financial sustainability, social acceptability, and enhancing peopleís direct benefits from it. Considering the hierarchical nature of Indian rural society, commerce can be a better social integrator than just information access and education.
Professor Marika Vicziany
Director,
Monash Asia Institute
Building 11, Monash University,
Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: Marika.Vicziany@adm.monash.edu.au
Tel: +61 3 9905 2124
Fax: +61 3 9905 5370
ICT technology works but can it create jobs for the ultra poor?
Fieldwork in India during the last three years has shown that ICT technology in remote towns and villages can make an important difference to the lives of people by warning them of dangerous weather, giving them timely information about the market value of their crops and labour, allowing them to access data about pensions and other entitlements and encouraging young people to learn about the world through ëminimally invasive educationí. What has not yet been demonstrated is whether and how ICT can increase the number of jobs for the ultra poor. This paper reports on the potential of ICT to improve daily life and also the things that constrain the ability of the poor to access job opportunities and create self-employment.
Professor
Marika Vicziany
Director, Monash Asia Institute
Building 11, Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: Marika.Vicziany@adm.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 2124
Fax: 61 3 9905 5370
Dr Pradeep Kanta Ray
School of International
Business
University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
email: Pradeep Kanta Ray pray@unsw.edu.au
Tel: 61-2-9385-5848
Fax: 61-2-9313-6775
The integration of civilisations: how colonialism, EU / US farm subsidies and Asian migration into Europe are creating a new Europe
This paper is a direct challenge to Huntingtonís ëClash of Civilisationsí by suggesting that the long-term impact of many negative historical and economic forces is generating a new Europe and a new ëintegrationí of world cultures in a positive way. The paper begins by exploring the negative impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism on Asia, in particular how EU and US farm subsidies are creating enormous pressure on employment and living standards in Asia. It is well known that the average EU subsidy for a cow is US 25 cents higher than the World Bankís poverty line of US $2.00 per person per day. In fact, the majority of the worldís poor live on less than US $1 per person per day. In Asia, this means that the worldís most efficient farmers who reside in Asia cannot make a decent living because EU / US farm subsidies have tilted the stakes against them in the arena of global exports. This scenario has set up pressure points inside Asia that begin with the rural poor being driven into Asian cities. The Asian cities, in turn, are spilling people into the cities of Europe as people search for new jobs and opportunities in the western metropoli that refuse to accommodate Asian needs in other ways. The result is that EU cities from Berlin to Prato have growing Asian populations. In the short run, this has also fuelled European racism but on the positive side of the balance sheet EU cities have become multicultural spaces within which the Asian populations are making enormous contributions to the thinking and habits of Europeans. Could it be that the historic mission of colonialism and neocolonialism has been to bring about an ëintegration of civilisationsí?
Session 4: Panel - Poverty and Policies
Dr Ramanie Samaratunge
Professor Chris Nyland
Department of Management
PO Box 11E, Monash University,
Victoria 3800 Australia
email: ramanie.samaratunge@BusEco.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 3586
Fax: 61 3 9905 5412
Globalisation and Social Protection in Sri Lanka:
Experience of a Developing Country Welfare State
The explosive social and economic consequences of the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s forced governments and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to reconsider the role of social protection regimes in the process of globalisation. Intergovernmental Organisations, the IMF in particular, were severely criticised because many concluded their conditional financial assistance increased the gravity of social and economic problems in these countries. This painful experience emphasises the timeliness of developing social protection regimes that can effectively link global business activity, social protection and the needs of developing economies. In this paper the manner by which the globalisation process has interacted with the social protection regime established in Sri Lanka after independence has been explored by utilising the framework developed by Esping-Anderson as modified by Gough. The study found that the capacity of Sri Lanka to sustain its welfare first program was weakened by shifts in the global terms of trade and by pressure exerted by donor countries and the IFIs. The Esping-Andersen/Gough framework has survived well the test provided by this exploration of the history of the Sri Lankan social protection regime. It has found the state, labour market and family are all important elements of this regime even if the last is not always a factor incorporated into social protection debates. The historical development path and level of democracy have also been shown to have been important and as predicted the greater significance of IFIs, NGOs and global market pressures have been found to have greater significance than in the OECD nations. Countries may employ divergent approaches to social policy according to local requirements but it is clear the provision of effective social protection is a critical element for successful integration into the global economy. The experience of Sri Lanka adds testament to this observation.
Dr Mohshin Habib
Dr Sharif As-Saber
Dr Charmine Hartel
Department of Management, Monash University,
Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
email: Mohshin.habib@BusEco.monash.edu.au
Tel: +61-3-99059768
Fax: +61-3-99055421
Poverty Alleviation and Human Resource Management: Experience of Grameen, ASA and Other Micro Credit Models in the Philippines
The collateral requirement of traditional credit available through banks and other loan providers is counterproductive as it drives those who do not have security to loan sharks and very often into business failures even among viable enterprises. This could be the very reason why traditional financial institutions are accused of being responsible for further creating poverty among the poor. If the landless poor, the urban and rural poor have to be helped, there is an urgent need to redesign the traditional financial institutions and their practices. In recent years the global interest in micro-credit to address poverty has become extensive. Of fifteen million micro-credit clients in the world, only half a million are from the Philippines. However, the growing acceptance of micro-credit in the Philippines is promising. Nevertheless, there are several operational problems that are posing serious challenges to the future evolution of this alternative to conventional banking credit in the Philippines. The pressure for access, cost-efficiency and sustainability together with issues of quality control and equity have been found to be the major threats to this new strategy. This study compares the poverty alleviation effectiveness of the Grameen Bank, ASA and other NGOs engaged in micro-credit in the Philippines. The study's assumption is that the marginal poor can uplift themselves through micro-credit and the entrepreneurial training opportunities that make this possible. Moreover, the way in which microcredit works can be shown to aid basic literacy and related skills- the very keys to sustained socio-economic development and ultimately poverty alleviation. This study focuses on those strategies needed for the improvement of HR practices within individual NGOs . The paper aims at formulating a policy framework with the view addressing various HR problems within the micro-credit alternative.
DrSharif
As-Saber
Dr Quamrul Alam
Dr Ramanie Samaratunge
Professor Chris Nyland
Department of Management,
Monash University
PO Box 11E Monash University, Vic 3800,
Australia.
email: Sharif.As-Saber@BusEco.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 999058176
Fax: 61 3 99055421
Globalisation, Social Protection and International Business: A Thematic Framework
An extensive literature has arisen about the relationship between globalisation and social protection. The latter term refers to the policies, regulations and programs adopted by communities to ensure that individuals are protected against natural and social risk by providing legal, cultural and economic guarantees that ensure human wellbeing is not merely a function of market power. The key institutions of social protection are the family, the community, and the state though other agents may also be providers of social risk insurance. Researchers associated with the globalisation-social protection debate focus on whether globalisation is inducing a ìrace to the bottomî as nations compete to attract investment and assist their exporters. Related issues include whether the social protection regimes of nations tend to converge in form as they globalise, and whether nations should construct social safety nets that can cope with the periodic international crises that appear to be a feature of globalisation. Recent empirical research suggests that while the developed nations are not reducing the proportion of the national income they allot to social protection there has been a marked decline in the share of GDP apportioned to this area within the developing world. In this paper we seek to determine if the shock associated with the Asian financial crisis has impacted on the way South Asian governments seek to confront questions about globalisation and social protection. Focusing on the fiscal policies of the governments of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka and on the public documents produced by these governments we seek to determine how, if at all, the Asian crisis shaped their approach to global social risk, if the impact has been sustained, and whether there are any discernable regional patterns that can be explained utilising international business theory.
Session 5: Panel - Corporate Social Responsibility
Professor David Kinley
Director, Castan Centre
for Human Rights, Law Faculty
P.O. Box 12, Monash University
3800, Victoria, Australia
email: David.Kinley@law.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 3327
Fax: 61 3 9905 5305
Corporate Social Responsibility, International Human Rights Law and Economic Development
This paper addresses the twin concerns of the impact of the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR), particularly within the context of economically developing countries and the prospects and potential effects of CSR-related initiatives in international human rights law. The question of the degree to which corporations should and can be held responsible for the social as well as economic consequences of their actions is a matter of mounting concern for corporations, governments and communities alike. The CSR movement encompasses many forms, stretching across so-called ësoft lawí initiatives such as international, industry and individual corporations codes of conduct, and ëhard lawí incidences, such as domestic laws that cover labour relations, workplace health and safety, and anti-discrimination, and peculiar extraterritorial laws, like the US ís Alien Torts Claims Act under which corporations may be sued in US courts in respect of their actions overseas. However, it is on a front of international human rights law (both ësoftí and ëhardí varieties) that perhaps the newest and most significant developments for CSR are occurring. This is due to the fact that the driving force behind the CSR movement has been the concern with the scope of the activities of trans-national corporations (TNCs) - which are, by definition, international. Further, the fact that it is in developing countries that this concern is greatest adds to the urgency of developments at the level of international law. International law initiatives such as the UNís draft treaty on Human Rights Norms for Corporations that will be considered by the Commission on Human Rights in April 2004 and the present facility for CEOs of corporations to be tried before the International Criminal Court, as well as more fledgling developments within the legal regimes of the WTO and World Bank, offer some prospect of covering gaps otherwise left by a reliance solely on domestic law and non-legal international initiatives. In this way, international law might provide a framework within which a more equitable resolution of legitimate, but often competing, interests of corporate commercial enterprise; economic development; the regulatory regimes governing TNCs of home and host states; CSR and human rights protection, might be established. The paper will assess the prospects of these potentialities being transformed into policy, practice and law and will consider the implications to the extent that such transformation occurs.
Ms
Julie Mills Taylor
School of Geography and Environmental
Science
Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia
email: Julie@sam-group.com
Tel: 61 3 95988785
The Globalisation of Corporate Ethics
In the last decade there has been an increasing focus by civil society on the role and responsibilities of multinational and transnational corporations to the societies in which they operate. Such responsibilities are generally defined as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Civil society generally sees that such corporations operate with little government regulation and overwhelming power in the developing world. Much of the focus of the anti globalisation movement in the last five years has been on this issue of rising corporate power. However multinational corporations which operate in the developing world argue that they take with them to the host nations, western standards of labour relations, environmental management and corporate governance, and are therefore able to raise the overall standard of workplace behaviour in the developing world. They argue that they often implement these standards where none currently are required or have internal corporate benchmarks far beyond that required of them by government regulation in such countries. Using a recognised set of indicators, this research examines this argument and compares the experience of two multinational corporations operating in Australia and India, in order to determine whether they are able to apply the same standards in environmental, social and governance criteria in their operations in both countries.
Ms Marika Mcadam
Castan Centre
for Human Rights
Law Faculty, Monash University, Vic
3800, Australia
email: marika_mcadam@yahoo.com.au
Tel: 0414 327 121
Fax: (03) 9887 3514
Linking Human Rights and Human Development in
Asia: Facilitating sustainable human development through a rights-based
approach to the regulation of tourism
The exchanges that take place as a result of tourism have been acknowledged as a potential driving-force for the development of host communities. But like all causes and effects of globalisation, if left unchecked tourism can undermine peoplesí human rights and their capacity to develop. While environmental and economic approaches to the regulation of tourism are unquestionably useful, they do not address the full spectrum of issues that tourism raises. This paper investigates the claim that a human rights approach to tourism is necessary to encompass the civil, political, social and cultural dimensions not presently addressed by existing models. A rights-based model is premised on the inextricability of human rights and human development, where human development is a process of expanding the freedoms that people enjoy, and rights are seen both as a means and an end of that process. The base question this paper seeks to address therefore, is whether this conceptualisation can be applied to the economic, social and cultural exchanges that take place through tourism, so as to facilitate human development. Specifically, the interplay between tourism, culture and technology will be explored. Does a host communityís appropriation of the technologies introduced in response to tourist demands, facilitate or debilitate their human development? Why is culture the comparative advantage of one community and a necessary expenditure in another? These issues will be examined in order to ascertain whether a rights-based approach to human development can adapt to the changing dynamics of culture and technology, to give a community more choices than that between its culture and its economic prosperity. The paper concludes that tourism can only be rendered a vehicle for human development, if human rights are afforded to the individual who stands at the forefront of the process as its intended beneficiary and principal participant. This is because a rights-based approach to tourism transforms affected individuals from mere subjects of change, to agents empowered to choose if and how their cultures bend with the forces of globalisation.
Session 6: Panel - Green Chemistry and Industry
Dr Patrick Perlmutter
The Perlmutter Research
Group, Centre for Green Chemistry
Monash University,
Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: Patrick.Perlmutter@sci.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 4522
Fax: 61 3 9905 4597
Direct Methods in Chemical Synthesis as a Green Strategy
Much attention in green chemistry has been focussed on the reduction of waste and pollution through the avoidance of use of toxic materials, reduction in solvent use, more benign methods and the like. In this presentation I will focus on the somewhat neglected area of developing better strategies for the design and synthesis of complex molecules (ìdirect methodsî). New approaches, ie those that significantly reduce the number of transformations required to prepare chemicals, will be of great importance in reducing waste, pollution and energy. They are also much more cost-effective.
Dr Janet L. Scott
Deputy Director, Centre for
Green Chemistry, School of Chemistry
PO Box 23, Monash
University, Vic 3800, Australia
email: janet.scott@sci.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61-3-9905 4600; Fax: 61-3-99054597
Greener Reaction Media - Cleaner, Greener, Cheaper?
In pursuit of the goal of cleaner, greener chemistry, amenable to uptake by industry, we have focused on the development and use of alternative reaction media. Traditional organic solvents may be replaced by solvent-free conditions, water or other innocuous solvents and more exotic reaction media such as molten salts (ionic liquids), or distillable ionic liquids. These often provide for exciting new chemistry, or new ways of carrying out well-established chemistry, but it is also important to evaluate the environmental impact and occupational health and safety issues associated with non-traditional media and thus choose the medium that offers the greenest overall synthetic route and method. Examples of the use of solvent-free conditions, molten salts and distillable ionic liquids as potential greener reaction media will be presented, and advantages and disadvantages, from the point of view of the green chemist, discussed.
QUOTATION
Green or Sustainable Chemistry is "applying fundamental knowledge of chemical processes and products to achieve elegant solutions with the ultimate goal of hazard-free, waste-free, energy efficient synthesis of non-toxic products without sacrificing efficacy of function" or, more succinctly phrased, "chemistry that is benign by design"
Professor Keijin Uchino
Director, Technological
Strategy and Planning Division, Japan Chemical Innovation Institute,
Fuzambo Bldg.,2F,1-3-5 Kanda-Jimbocho,Chiyoda-ku, Tokyou 101-0051,Japan
email: k.uchino@jcii.or.jp
Tel: +81-3-5282-7270
Fax: +81-3-5282-0250
Green & Sustainable Chemistry in Japan
Green & Sustainable Chemistry (GSC) is defined as Chemical Technologies to realize the ìHealth and Safety for Mankind and the Environment, and minimize the consumption of depletive energy and resources , through innovations and improvements in product and process design, feedstock formulations and applications, and resource recyclingî. An outline of recent GSC activities in Japan will be reviewed.
DrJaved
Iqbal, Saibal Kumar Das, K. Anantha Reddy and Joyita Roy
Discovery Chemistry, Dr. Reddy Laboratories Ltd., Discovery Research
Bollaram Road, Miyapur, Hyderabad 500 050, India
email: nagalakshmi@drreddys.com
'Greener' Pharmaceutical Synthesis in India
Organic chemistry has played a vital role in the development of diverse molecules that are used in medicines, agro-chemicals and polymers. Most of the industrial scale synthesis of these organic molecules pays very little attention to avoiding the release of harmful chemicals in the atmosphere. This talk will discuss the basic principles of green chemistry incorporating the use of green reagents, green catalysts, phase transfer catalysis, green synthesis using microwave and ultrasound and biocatalysis in detail. Special reference will be made as to how pharmaceutical industries can adapt to these 'greener' techniques.
Professor M M Sharma
Emeritus
Professor of Eminence
Mumbai University Institute of
Chemical Technology
Cleaner and Greener is Smarter
The history of the Chemical Industry (CI) is replete with penchant for Green Technology (GT) and pro-active manoeuvres. Homogeneous acid catalysts like p-toluene sulphonic acid are used for alkylation reactions and this creates bad effluent problems and many processes, notably alkylation of phenol with higher olefins, are now conducted with cationic ion exchange resins as a catalyst as a neat process. The reduction of aromatic nitro compounds, such as p-nitrocumene, with stoichiometric reductant, such as Na2S, has been replaced by catalytic hydrogenation. Substitution chlorination resulting in HCl and ethylene dichloride cracking to vinyl chloride saw oxychlorination route. Substitution chlorination based HCl has been used to make chlorosulphonic acid. Many nitric acid based oxidation reactions release NOx and this has been valorized, in a number of locations, to give value-added sodium-nitrite, required for diazotization of aromatic amines for dyes and pigments. It is instructive to quote the example of the recovery of H2S from hydrodesulphurization processes. Here the absorption process has been perfected to give H2S at less than 1 ppm in the treated gas and the Claus process converts H2S to sulphur; even here advances in catalysis resulting in lower temperature operation has reduced emissions drastically. A large refinery in India produces more than 1200 tonnes per day of recovered sulphur of high quality; India requires more than 7000 tpd of sulfur.
The valorization of unavoidable wastestreams into value-added products has ethos of its own. A classic example is the utilization of off-gases in making superphosphate / phosphoric acid to synthetic cryolite, required in making aluminium. The recovery of maleic anhydride from off-gas of the pathalic anhydride plants is carried out in an innovative way as fumaric acid. Aqueous wastestreams containing sparingly soluble organic solutes like benzene/toluene/ nitroaromatics/EDC/epichlorohydrin, etc. have been economically recovered via stream stripping, quite apart from solving a pollution problem of high COD of refractory compounds. A variety of amines, such as pyridine, 2-aminobutanol, tert-butylamine, etc., which are difficult to treat in the wastestreams, have been recovered and recycled.
Nanofiltration (NF) is allowing recovery of organic solutes with mol. wt . grater than 250 even in highly polar medium of methanol/DMF/acetonitrile etc., quite apart from aqueous solutions. The combination of different membrane separations from microfiltration to ultrafiltration to RO to NF can solve a variety of problems in a cost-effective way. NF can even separate monovalent ions from divalent ions. Dyestuff, Textiles and Pharmaceutical industries in India are utilizing NF. Total recycle of waster (zero effluents) is practiced in some landlocked locations. Catalysis has played a crucial role in providing cleaner processes and will continue to play a pivotal role. Diphenyl oxide is usually made by Ullmann reaction involving chlorobenzene and sodium phenate, catalyzed by dissolved copper salt, which is polluting and this has been replaced by a neat vapour phase catalytic dehydration of phenol. ìEternalî plants are now possible due to the availability of superior materials of construction like titanium, tantalum, hastealloy, inconel etc. and these are used in several plants in India. Cleaner & Greener Technologies are indeed rewarding from academic as well as business points of view.
Session 7: Panel - IT and Education
DrJan Miller
Prof Brian Corbett
School of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Monash
University, Australia
900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East,
Victoria 3145, Australia.
email: Jan.miller@csse.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9903 2700
Fax: +61 3 9903 1077
School of Information Systems
Deakin University,
Australia.
bcorbitt@deakin.edu.au
Adoption of Technology and Innovation in Thai University Culture
The aim of this research is to investigate computer science education in Thai public universities to determine the adoption and diffusion of technological and educational innovations and ideas in the Thai academic programs. The World Bank and an AusAID project, the Thailand-Australia Science and Engineering Assistance Project (TASEAP), provided assistance to the Royal Thai Government (RTG) to increase the number and quality of undergraduate science and engineering students in Thai public universities. The support involved the provision of equipment for Science and Engineering faculties and a program of assistance to improve the quality of the academic programs. This paper describes a pilot study that was conducted to determine the success of TASEAP in achieving its outcomes and objectives and the extent to which the educational technology (including the use of the Internet), ideas and innovations had diffused amongst or was adopted by the Thai academics. The pilot study involved case studies of two universities that were participants in the Computer Science Subprogram of TASEAP. Relevant success factors and diffusion theory were used to evaluate the systems under investigation, and to determine the issues relevant to a more extensive future investigation across Thailand. The findings of the study reveal that generally TASEAP was perceived as being successful and the information that was provided was relevant and useful, although there were misgivings about the level of delivery of the information. Academics have used the technology and the information to make changes to their curriculum, teaching and research. The implicit and explicit affects of the Thai university culture and the Thai culture generally on the adoption of these innovations is also discussed. Conclusions from the research indicate the need to adequately consider the recipient culture when determining assistance policies for Asian and Third World countries, particularly, as in this case, when promoting the use of modern technologies in educational programs.
DrSaratha
Sithamparam
Dr Moses Samuel
Faculty of Education,
University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
email: ssithamparam@yahoo.com ,moses54my@yahoo.com
Spiderman a web of texts and multiliteracies: Developing curriculum for a rural-urban classroom
Globalization, technological development, and mass consumerist practices are transforming literacy environments of several developing countries like Malaysia. Social and cultural practices in these societies are increasingly being mediated through new forms of text and textual practices involving a mixture of modalities, symbol systems and languages. In the literacies of these ënew timesí even in settings where vernacular literacies are prevalent, English increasingly features. One question that educators must grapple with is how schooling can effectively prepare learners so that they can participate fluently, effectively and critically in various text-based events in domains such as education, the workplace and leisure. This paper draws on a multiliteracies curriculum project in a community transitioning from an agricultural to a small and medium scale industrial base, so that both the urban and the rural featured in the locale. It highlights a module of the project focusing on adolescent learnersí engagement with popular culture texts. In urbanizing communities the imaginative pursuits of youth are often shaped by popular culture. We developed a multiliteracies curriculum module based on the iconic superhero Spiderman who had gained an adolescent following through the movie and the accompanying ëwebí of texts, toys, gadgets and games. The module comprised a portfolio of texts and activities designed to facilitate the understanding, analysis and interrogation of textual structures and meanings to help students become informed and critical literacy practicers. While the project was informed by larger macro-level developments, the curriculum design process involved an ethnographic analysis of the teaching-learning context so that classroom pedagogy was locally situated and responsive to students. This paper will discuss the researching, designing and trialing of the multiliteracies module.
Ms Cathi
Lewis
School of Political and Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts
Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
3800, Australia
email: Cathi.Lewis@arts.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 5891
Fax: 61 3 9583 9573
Putting IT in its Place (in the Classroom)
Educationalists, governments and powerful global corporations are collaborating in the biggest experiment in education since the development of mass schooling. Underpinning what for many educators would in the recent past have been seen as an unholy alliance, has been the construction of a conceptual nexus wherein information communication technologies (ICTs) in the classroom are coupled with the 21st century version of progress, in all its unexamined Enlightenment illusions. The central outcomes promulgated by the triumvirate turn on rationalist, even Fordist, notions around 'efficiencies' and effectiveness in teaching and learning which they consider will revolutionise the classroom, the level of student engagement, and therefore learning outcomes.
This paper argues that educating the next generation for successful adulthood involves the nurturing of knowledge, skills and values relating to personal relationships, citizenship and work in the contemporary world, and as such is complex and contextually-bound if it is to be most effective. I will examine a case study of a highly successful school in Queensland that has introduced philosophy into primary education at all levels and throughout the curriculum. As an inner-city school with a modest budget, basic amenities, and student population principally from less privileged backgrounds, it has managed to score on national and international tests well above the average across all key learning areas. With a maximum of four to five PCs in each classroom (of 22-25 children), computers and the Internet are used (with great skill!) as part of a variety of tools and resources available to students in their learning tasks, and as such are neither the dominant nor the most sought-after equipment in this 'community of inquirers'.
Session 8: Panel - Work, Leisure, Culture and Technology
Dr Wendy Smith
Director, Centre for Malaysian
Studies Monash Asia Institute &
Department
of Management, Monash University, VIC
3800, Australia
email: wendy.smith@buseco.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61-3-9905-9250
Fax: 61-3-9905-5412
Industrial production technologies and culture in a Malaysian workplace: when Japanese management software encounters Islam
This paper examines the interaction between the software technology of management systems, imported by foreign managers under the process of direct foreign investment, and the values and practices derived from the pre-industrial cultural traditions of local managers and employees in Malaysia. More specifically it analyzes the cultural tension between Islamic beliefs and rituals and the performance of work under a corporate culture based on a modern human resource management system, by looking at work and non-work activities and attitudes of Muslim employees in a large Japanese enterprise in Malaysia. In doing so, it focuses on the boundaries between organizational affiliation and family/community affiliation, and between work, leisure and private time. The New Economic Policy of 1971-1990, in its industrial component, relied heavily for its labour force on first-generation industrial wage workers and also on first-generation professional technical and administrative managers who emerged as a consequence of the secondary and tertiary education policy instruments of the NEP. The fact that the large proportion of these were Malay Muslims meant that many individuals employed in the new export-oriented manufacturing sector experienced the clash of industrial workplace regimes and bureaucratic relationships with the slower village lifestyles centred around Islamic daily religious observances and annual cycles, and also the challenge of managing their relationships simultaneously in the two spheres. Rapid industrialization was accompanied by rapid urbanization and also the growth of a globalized consumer culture, aided by the cash wages of the new working and new middle classes. This paper will use data from a longitudinal study of Malay Muslim managers and employees in a Japanese multinational in Malaysia to explore the effects of their participation in its highly technical manufacturing process and in the software technology of the Japanese human resource management system on the maintenance of their pre-existing Islamic and community values, by discussing their work ethics, patterns of socializing and consumption.
Dr Helen Johnson
School of Social Science
ñ Anthropology
The University of Queensland, St Lucia,
Queensland 4067, Australia
email: h.johnson@uq.edu.au
(Ap)Praising Technology: Gender and Internet Use in Singapore
In what ways do new innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) challenge and change womenís status and socioeconomic opportunities? Do innovative ICTs embody the key characteristics required to provide women with effective opportunities to participate in mainstream economic activities in Asian societies? Or, are ICTs yet another tool of masculinised social, economic and political power that is merely perpetuating gender differentiation? How are women themselves appraising the benefits of information and communication technologies?
Singapore is one of the worldís most technologically developed nations, holds a leading position in the ICT arena, and is a site for technology industries and practices that add significantly to its economy, society, and culture. ëGenderí is one of the major ways that humans organise their lives (Chodorow 1989; Connell 1987; Lorber 1994; Moore 1988). In this paper I link ICTs to the analytical prism of ëgenderí. I explore the ways in which Chinese women in Singapore ëreadí technology in terms of Internet use and personal benefit. I use a case study derived from field research with a commercial organisation in Singapore to focus on the following key questions: 1. what work practices involving the Internet are required by the employing company?; 2. in what ways do Singaporean-Chinese women use the Internet for non-work related issues in the workplace?; 3. in what ways do they use the Internet for work and non-work related issues at home?; 4. do they perceive their work status to have benefited by knowledge about and use of the Internet? If so, how and why? The paper will add detail to the social practices that imbricate ICT usage, examine the ways these may be shaped by gendered and cross-cultural difference, and assess the potential for marginalisation of some social groups via ICT innovation. The paper should add to current debates in South and Southeast Asia surrounding the development of social policies that address issues of social marginalisation caused by ICT.
Dr Annette Van Den Bosch
Lecturer in International
Art history and Theory
Arts Faculty, Monash University,
Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: Annette.vandenBosch@arts.monash.edu.au
The Potential of Art as Work in Vietnam
Vietnam has three long established University Faculties of Fine Arts and a number of Colleges of Design. The French Colonial Government provided the model of a Beaux Arts traditional education that was expanded to include traditional forms such as Lacquer Painting. However, Vietnamese painting and sculpture is still predominantly modernist due to the centrality placed on formal aesthetics and techniques in all departments of Fine Art and Design and the legacy of the French education system. Since 1964 there have been few resources available in the Fine Arts Faculty or the Art Museum to enable expansion and change. Although Vietnamese artists, faculties and colleges had access to international art and design magazines and very occasionally visiting artists and art critics after 1986, lack of English language skills severely hindered access to contemporary art and design theory, or critical debates in other third world countries. What is at stake is the future of Art as work in Vietnam. Vietnam has many talented artists and one of the strongest visual culture traditions in South East Asia. The Faculties of Art and Design need not only the financial resources to improve their buildings and equipment they are looking for assistance to develop new curricula for both artists and designers. Existing programs do not provide artists with professional practice information and skills to establish viable careers in their own country in the 21st century or to compete in an increasingly globalised art market. The Art World is defined as including artists, gallery directors and dealers, curators and museum professionals, art writers and publishers, art collectors and audiences. At present, the artworld in Vietnam lacks both professional skills and finance. Hong Kong dealers are signing up Vietnamese artists on contracts that require them to deliver their full output for one year. The problem is that Vietnamese artists are very vulnerable to unfair contract arrangements as there are no legal or contractual regulations or training for artist or their Vietnamese dealers.
This paper is published in Conference Proceedings but will not be presented in Mumbai
Dr Chris
Baker
The National Key Centre for Australian Studies
Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email:
Chris.Baker@arts.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61+3 9905 5233
Fax: 61+3 9905 5238
The New Workplace: lifelong learning and technology in Australia and Singapore
The rapid emergence of new attitudes to paid work and the workplace in technologically sophisticated societies such as Australia and Singapore is both shaping the way work is organised and the work experience and career outcomes for the citizens and residents of these societies. In particular, the impact of the ëinformation economyí with its emphasis on ëlifelong learningí and continual retraining has been profound and pervasive. This phenomena is reconfiguring the very nature of the educational experience, associated learning environments and the workplace itself. The impact of such trends is also being felt in the ways in which tertiary education is organised and delivered to students both within conventional campus contexts and in off-campus contexts. Whilst government policy formulation in these societies provides a framework for the restructuring of workplace and educational cultures throughout the region, including such areas as the leisure and tourism industries, there are clearly other forces at work driving the lifelong learning phenomena. It is arguable that the global nature of communication technology itself is a major driver and shaper of new attitudes to work and leisure at a regional level. The continued economic growth and enhanced distribution of income and wealth are important macro considerations for these societies and others in the region. It is the interaction between these various processes and the existing social contexts, including such aspects as the workplace, leisure activities and associated systems of production and consumption that is emerging as a major avenue for qualitative research and policy revision throughout the region.
Session 9: Panel - Medicine, Culture and Technology
Professor Merilyn Liddell
Pro Vice Chancellor,
Monash University Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Family Medicine: Communication Skills versus Medical Technology
In developing countries, much emphasis is placed on development of health services. However there is a need for careful use of scarce resources, as not everything can be achieved in the short term. There is a tendency to focus on tertiary medicine, hospital inpatient care, and high tech solutions that catch the imagination of government, whereas it has been shown that high quality primary care is a more efficient use of scarce health dollars in promoting the health of a countryís citizens. Family medicine is a discipline in its own right, with a holistic focus looking at the bio-psycho-social issues affecting a person in the context of his or her family and community. Communication skills are an integral and necessary component of the skill base of the Family Practitioner. Medical education doesnít always recognize this concept, and will often focus on providing more and more facts to the students, producing graduates who understand illness and disease, but who donít understand people. This paper will present some research showing the very significant effects of psychological factors in the aetiology and treatment of important diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, and argue for a much greater focus on communication skills rather than technology in medical education.
Ms Azizah Omar
Asia Pacific Health and Nutrition
Centre, Monash Asia Institute
Building 11, Monash University,
Clayton, Victoria, Australia, 3800
email: Azizah.Omar@med.monash.edu.au
Self assessment of health status through web based programs
Physical inactivity and poor eating habits are associated with the development of many chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes. Promoting appropriate holistic approaches to a 'wellness lifestyle' can therefore play an important role in health and well-being. The advent of newer information, communication and technology (ICT) such as the Internet, and the Web, mobile phones and various "smart phones" with facilities for information transfer can bring about changed behaviour and provide opportunities to enhance the health and wellness of individuals both inside and outside the health care system and across different cultures. This study focuses on how the Internet can influence behavioural change through the delivery of a 6 week web based program called "Wellness Online Program" or WOLP, that will assist individuals to perform their self-assessment of health status as well as managing their own wellness. The holistic approach of WOLP monitors the six dimensions of wellness (i.e. Physical, Nutrition, Social, Emotional, Intellectual, and Spiritual) that are believed to have enormous potential not only to enhance the better quality of life and health outcomes but also to reduce health care costs through the effective and innovative use of health information.
Dr David
Mitchell
Monash Medical Centre/Department of Anthropology
Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
Email: David.Mitchell@med.monash.edu.au
Curing Koro: The Shrinking Penis
Disease
Technologies of healing are becoming
increasingly elaborate and expensive but sometimes the simplest low-tech
solutions are the most effective. Koro, the shrinking penis disease,
is usually treated by traditional healers and can easily be misunderstood
by medical practitioners encountering such patients for the first
time. Culturally appropriate methods yield excellent success rates
but the boundaries of cultural appropriateness need to be negotiated
with care. The practices of such four traditional healers from Macassar,
Ende and Waingapu in eastern Indonesia will be described and the
secrets of their success will be revealed.
Dr Gayle Savige
Asia Pacific Health and Nutrition
Centre
Monash Asia Institute, Building 11 Monash University
Clayton Victoria 3800 Australia
email: Gayle.Savige@adm.monash.edu.au
ICT - the 21st century medium for engaging students in food and nutrition promotion
Food habits are usually established in childhood and, since many current health-related problems have a nutritional basis, the role of food and nutrition promotion in children is growing rapidly in importance. Children are very excited and highly motivated when it comes to using web-based technology and this model has been shown to improve learner outcomes. The kidsfoodclub.org (located at http://www.kidsfoodclub.org and funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia) is an innovative food and nutrition website that incorporates a range of learning activities to accommodate the needs of future learners which include the skills to solve problems, think critically, become more aware about being connected to the outside world and apply food and nutrition knowledge to their own situation. The website and approach is informed by the cultural environment of both rural and urban Australia, but the concept has wider applicability to other cultural contexts beyond Australia. The paper also discusses the attitudes, knowledge and food habits of a representative sample of primary school children from the state of Victoria, in Australia.
Session 10: Panel - Asia's New IT Cultures
Assoc Prof Alison Tokita
Director, Centre for
Japanese Studies, Monash Asia Institute &
School
of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics
Monash University,
Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: Alison.Tokita@arts.monash.edu.au
Tel: + 61 3 9905 2275
Internet café cultures of Asia
Various studies have documented the rapid rise of the Internet in Asia. The new emerging Internet culture is very diverse in its capacities and users. This paper aims to look at one aspect of this culture - the Internet café. It begins by establishing the criteria that can be used for comparing the various Internet café cultures and then goes on to describe the essential characteristics of three distinct cultural groups that overlap with geographical and political boundaries: the Japanese, the Chinese and the South Asian.
Dr Carol Upadhya
National Institute of Advanced
Studies
166 RMV Extension, 8thB Main, 3rd Cross, Bangalore-560
080, India
email:
cupadhya@vsnl.com
Tel: 080-3618541
fax : 080-3618542
cell: 98451-24920
A New Middle Class in a New Economy: Corporate Strategy, Corporate Culture, and Brand Building in the Indian IT Industry
The software exporting industry is unique in India not only in its spectacular success since the 1990s and the degree of its integration with the global economy, but also in its social location within the middle class. The workforce, managerial staff, as well as IT entrepreneurs consist primarily of well-educated and technically qualified professionals who come from middle and lower middle class backgrounds. Corporate culture and strategy in the IT industry reflect this social configuration, and IT companies draw upon it in brand building exercises that extol ëmiddle classí values of integrity, frugality, and dedication to the nation, in contrast to the ëgreedí and ëcorruptioní that characterise ëold economyí companies. The production of an imagery of software companies as global, professional, and ethical is closely linked to the increasingly hegemonic notion that a new liberalised and internationalised middle class, together with the growth of global industries such as software outsourcing, will be the vanguard of Indiaís development in the 21st century, especially through its knowledge of, and control over, information technology. The paper explores the connections among IT corporate culture, the transformation of Indian middle class culture, and the fetishisation of IT in public discourses, drawing on ethnographic research on the Bangalore software industry.
Prof Arun Kumar
Department of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
India's black economy and the role of IT policing
DrSharif As-Saber
Dr Peter Holland
Assoc Prof Julian Teicher
Department of
Management
Monash University, PO Box 11E, Monash University,
Vic 3800, Australia
email: Sharif.As-Saber@BusEco.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 999058176
Fax: 61 3 99055421
The HR Management in Indian-Based Call Centres: A Conceptual Framework
A call centre is a technology-oriented business tool that enhances the firmís capacity to quickly and systematically manage both outbound and inbound information flows. Together with the efficient use of human resources, call centres are capable of promoting and delivering flexible service offerings, and responding to customer demands and queries. In recent years, many global firms have established call centres in overseas locations. Developing countries in Asia are the popular destinations of such activities. Among them, India hosts the largest number of call centres that are working for numerous Western companies. Over one million people are employed in this emerging Indian industry. There are several HR related problems that are posing serious challenges to the call centre industry in India. The pressures for cost-efficiency together with quality control and customer service focus have been contributing to such problems. High attrition/turnover rate and absenteeism triggered by low pay, minimal training, unhealthy work environment, lack of incentives and extensive use of contingent labour denying long-term career progression are some of the problems faced by Indian call centres. This paper focuses on the current state of HR environment in India and its impact on individual call centres. It also addresses the firm-level HR practices carried out by these centres. The paper aims at formulating a conceptual framework with a view to provide the researchers and HR practitioners with a better understanding of the intricate HR issues within the Indian call centres and to recommend some future directions to mange these issues more efficiently.
Professor Ross Mouer
Megan Esson, PhD
student
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Building 11, Monash University, Vic 3800, Australia
email: ross.mouer@arts.monash.edu.au ,meganesson@hotmail.com
Tel: +61 - 3 - 9905 2271
Fax: +61-
3 - 9905 5437
Internet Security Issues in
Japan and Australia: A Case Study Examining the Control of Hacking
in Japan and Australia
The paper investigates the problems posed by hacking and explores several methods for dealing with hacking. Japan and Australia are considered as case studies. Because the Internet creates a borderless world, it is difficult to regulate or to control the behaviour of those who use this medium. The research considers two main methods to control hacking: (i) state/national legislation, and (ii) technology. International cooperation is considered as a support mechanism in enforcing legislation and in diffusing information. Insurance is seen as a back-up where technology and legislation are inadequate. While the Internet poses a number of challenges to states trying to regulate conduct in cyberspace, and to law enforcement trying to investigate and prosecute cybercriminals, many states, including Japan and Australia, have not been deterred from enacting legislation to criminalise hacking. Attempts are made to assess the success of the anti-hacking legislation in both Japan and Australia; however, the problem of under-reporting has meant it is difficult to rely on statistics with any confidence. The transborder nature of crimes occurring in cyberspace raises the imperative of international cooperation when carrying out investigations into hacking incidents. Based on Lessig and Boyle's proposition that the software and hardware of the Internet can be used to regulate behaviour within cyberspace, the use of security technology to control hacking is also examined with special attention to the role of government in Japan and Australia.
This paper is published in Conference Proceedings but will not be presented in Mumbai
Dr Jim Breen
Honorary Senior Research
Fellow, School of Computer Science & Software Engineering,
Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
email: jwb@csse.monash.edu.au
Assoc Prof Alison Tokita
School of
Languages, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University 3800
email: Alison.Tokita@arts.monash.edu.au
Tel: 61 3 9905 2275
The WWW in Japan: a threat to cultural identity or a thoroughly domesticated system?
The dominance of English-speaking countries in research and development in communications and information technology has led to English being the default language for many technologies. e.g. most computer languages use English constructs, commands, etc. This has often led to problems and extra challenges when these technologies are introduced into non-English speaking countries, and particularly in countries where non-alphabetic scripts are used. This has been evident in Japan, which has generally been an early adopter of such technologies, but which uses a writing system which was at first considered difficult or impossible to handle effectively with computers. The introduction of the World-Wide Web in the mid-1990s occurred at a time when many of the problems associated with computerized Japanese text processing had been solved, and thus there was the potential for the development of the WWW in Japan without the constraints associated with following other language models. This paper reports on a study of the WWW in Japan which investigated: (a) the structure of the e underlying Internet in Japan and the extent to which it differs from models employed elsewhere; (b) the relative size of the WWW in Japan compared with other countries and languages in East Asia; (c) the levels to which the WWW uses non-Japanese orthography, e.g. English or romanized Japanese, and the applications of such text; (d) the nature of the use of the WWW in terms organizations, individuals, etc. and the levels of language employed in the WWW pages. The conclusions reached in the study include: (a) the attempts to break away from the strictly alphabetic WWW addresses have been largely unsuccessful, probably as a result of limited software support; (b) the penetration of Japanese WWW pages has been very high, to the extent that it is clearly one of the most represented languages on the WWW on a per-capita basis;(c) there is no evidence that English or romanized Japanese is used to a significant extent, except in expected contexts such as educational material and pages developed for tourism, promotion, etc.; (d) there is a rich variety of Japanese language being employed in WWW pages, including significant use of colloquial language forms, which has the potential to provide source material for research into this level language.
Refereed conference proceedings
The Conference Proceedings will be fully refereed in strict compliance with the best international standards.
Important Dates
| Receipt of Abstracts | 10 October 2003 |
| Notification of Abstracts | 15 October 2003 |
| Receipt of final manuscripts | 15 November 2003 |
| Acceptance of papers notified | 1 December 2003 |
| Registration for conference - last day | 15 December 2003 |