[hang nadim] Malaysians have most Facebook friends

Wednesday October 13, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians have the most number of friends on social networking websites like Facebook. They also spend the most hours per week on such sites.

According to a survey conducted by international firm TNS, a Malaysian has an average of 233 friends in their social network, followed by 231 in Brazil and 217 in Norway. Japanese users had the least number of friends, averaging 29.

The survey was based on recent interviews of 50,000 consumers in 46 countries.

“Surprisingly, Chinese consumers only have an average of 68 friends in their networks despite being heavy users of social networking sites,” the survey said.

In terms of hours spent on social sites, Malaysians spent nine hours weekly.

Next were the Russians, with an average of 8.1 hours per week online while those in Turkey spent 7.7 hours a week.

The survey also found that rather than using email, consumers were now spending more time on social networking sites.

Commenting on the survey, Tourism Ministry international relations department secretary Mohd Halimi Ibrahim said that social media sites would be a cost-effective way to promote Malaysia.

“Instead of spending billions on expensive advertisements, social media sites allow us to do it for free and quite possibly, reach a larger audience,” he said yesterday.

Halimi added that it also showed that Malaysia was more than capable of holding its own in matters of technology.

“This study also shows that some Malaysians spend far too much time on the Internet, whiling away hours that could be put to much better use,” he said.

Wednesday October 13, 2010
Rais lodges report against bloggers
By M. KUMAR
kumar@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: A police report has been made against three bloggers over allegations that a son of Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim is one of the beneficiaries of the ministry’s RM1bil project to improve broadband access nationwide.

Rais lodged the report at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters here yesterday morning.

It is learnt the minister had targeted Datuk Ahirudin Attan, who blogs as Rockybru, and blog sites Taikors and Taikuns (TnT) and bigdogdotcom.

Dr Rais’s press secretary, Norazli Noh, said the minister’s report claimed false accusations and information about his son.

On Sept 27, TnT and bigdogdotcom had alleged that the telecommunication company of Rais’ son was one of nine companies that had benefited from the government grant to develop broadband connectivity access in Malaysia.

This was followed by Rockybru’s blog post, Who gets Santa Rais’ RM1bil handout? on Oct 9.

“There should be a sense of responsibility by people when they write certain things,” said Norazli.

Ahirudin said he would go to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) headquarters in Cyberjaya today regarding the matter.

Wednesday October 13, 2010

ICT now a teaching tool
By ALYCIA LIM
educate@thestar.com.my

PUTRAJAYA: The education policy in the country has taken a new leap forward and it is set to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as the main tool for teaching, said Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The policy aims to use ICT as a vehicle to encourage creativity, collaborative learning, critical thinking and problem solving skills.

“The teaching and learning process is no longer a teacher centric or one-way process. A teacher is now a classroom facilitator, who is equipped with ICT knowledge,’’ Muhyiddin said, adding that the new approach would uplift the quality of education in the country.

“Through this policy, all ICT programmes in the ministry will work towards the same goal, which is to increase student achievements and to ensure that every student has access to quality education.”

At the launch of the new ICT policy in education yesterday, Muhyiddin, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said that education ICT practices in developed countries would be used as a benchmark to ensure that the ICT component in Malaysian schools are of international standards.

The policy, which was developed by the ministry in collaboration with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), was a continuous effort from the Smart School initiative launched in July 1997.

The policy will focus on eight main fields, which include a structural realignment of ICT management, education administration and management, technology infrastructure, teaching and learning, and community involvement, amongst others.

He added that there would be four supporting components – third party outsourcing, collaboration with the community of practice, public and private partnership, and involvement of the extended community to ensure the policy’s effectiveness.

“The ICT policy in education will also go through a Central Management Programme which will be responsible in organising all the ICT initiatives in education, in order to increase administrative efficiency and to save resources.”

Muhyiddin hoped the policy would align the quality of Malaysian education to the vision of making Malaysia an excellent education hub, in line with the status of an advanced nation by the year 2020