Techno-Venture Forum/Business Seminar Series

BuzzCity- NUS Digital Media Forum Series

Abstract of Dr Rohan Presentation: Based on the Teleuse@ Bottom of the Pyramid (T@BOP) research conducted by LIRNEasia in five South and South East Asian countries, the presentation will examine the potential for the take-up of "more-than-voice" applications among the fast growing user populations in Socio-Economic Categories (SEC) D&E.   It will demonstrate the extensive use of telephones (mobile, fixed and public) by people at the BOP; details of use by current owners and those who use other people's phones, and more specifically applications other than voice, the growth trends for owner-users and the possible projections that may be made of future use. Texting, payments, and voting are among some of these "more-than-voice" applications that have been researched.   Some of the policy and regulatory barriers that have to be addressed for greater take-up will also be discussed.

About Dr Rohan Samarajiva: He is an Executive Director of LIRNEasia, a regional ICT policy and regulation research and capacity building organization.  He is Chairman of the Lanka Software Foundation and serves as Senior Advisor to the Networking Grassroot Movement of Sarvodaya (Sri Lanka’s leading Community Based Organization) and on the ICT Subcommittee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. He also serves as policy advisor to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Bangladesh.  Samarajiva was Team Leader at the Ministry for Economic Reform, Science and Technology (2002-04) responsible for infrastructure reforms, including participation in the design of the e Sri Lanka Initiative.  He was Director General of Telecommunications in Sri Lanka (1998-99), a founder director of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (2003-05), Visiting Professor of Economics of Infrastructures at the Delft University of Technology (2000-03) and Associate Professor of Communication and Public Policy at the Ohio State University (1987-2000). He serves as a visiting faculty member at the TERI University in New Delhi and on the editorial boards of seven academic journals and writes an online business column. 

Abstract of Prof Sam Ge Presentation: “Historic Perspective on Content Generation, Publication, and Distribution”

In the new era, digital media is fast becoming the mainstream. At present, music, photos, videos and text are all sold and operated in digital format. The future e-books are published and sold online, archived virtually in every personal computer, read and enjoyed in everyone's home. With the help of small and mobile electronic gadgets, e-books will push forward the trend of paperless education and digital business.

About Prof Sam Ge: Prof Shuzhi Sam Ge is the Director of Edutainment Robotics Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director of Social Robotics Lab, Interactive Digital Media Institute, the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD degree and DIC from the Imperial College, London, and BSc degree from Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics. Dr Ge has received the highest accolades from his University, from Singapore, from China, and from USA. He was the recipient of the 1999 National Technology Award, Singapore; 2001 Young Research Award, NUS; 2002 inaugural Temasek Young Investigator Award, DSTA; 2004 NSF Outstanding Overseas Young Researcher Award, China; and 2006 IEEE Fellowship, USA. 

He serves on the Board of Governors, IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS), as elected member from 2007 to 2009, Chairman of the Technical Committee of Intelligent Control, IEEE CSS since 2005, Dr Ge served as Chairman of IEEE Singapore SMC Chapter (2003), and Chairman of IEEE Singapore R&A Chapter (2004, 2005).

He is the Chairman and founding Director of Personal E-Motion (PEM) Pte Ltd in delivering interactive digital multimedia authoring platforms and multimedia digital books generation and delivering systems for education and e-publishing.

Abstract of Ms Aileen Sim Presentation: “Development of the Virtual Space”. Virtual worlds are a market that is growing phenomenally and a new medium that is rapidly changing the business landscape. Operating in a new environment requires new business methods. In this session, we will look at how virtual worlds have impacted the way First Meta conducts business, and in turn, how First Meta is impacting the virtual world. First Meta Pte. Ltd. was co-founded in Singapore in 2007 by Aileen Sim and Douglas Abrams First Meta is the first real financial services provider for virtual economies.  The company’s first product, the MetaCardTM a Linden Dollar-denominated credit card was launched on 31-July 2007. 

About Ms Aileen Sim: In 2005, Aileen worked with serial entrepreneur-turned-investor, Josh Kopelman, at First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that invested in companies like del.icio.us, Riya.com, Pandora, IronPort and Traffic.com. Meanwhile, she also studied Technopreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania. For 3 years, Aileen was a Teaching Assistant for Technopreneurship courses at the NUS Entrepreneurship Center. During this time, she mentored many student teams to develop their business plans, many of which won prizes in business plan competitions around the world. Aileen has a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the National University of Singapore.

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We are pleased to invite you and your colleagues to attend the talk.

                              As there is limited number of seats available, please click here to register for the talk by 18 October 2007.

Please forward this invitation to your friends and colleagues who may be interested.

Thank You!

  Admission is FREE & we look forward to seeing you at the seminar.

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