Terengganu could well score a first among the 14 states in Malaysia with its plan to implement a comprehensive open source Get Linux or Windows Managed Hosting Services with Industry Leading Fanatical Support. Latest News about open source system as an enabling platform to enhance its operations, make more efficient the delivery of its services and empower citizens at all levels.
Spanish Region as Model
To achieve this, he said Terengganu will be using the experience of the Extremadura region in Spain as a model for reference and resources as well as the expertise of Mimos Berhad for guidance.
"We visited Extremadura in February last year to see the open source concept they have there. There are a lot of similarities between Terengganu and the region such as the population count which stands at about one million and similar economic activities," he said in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Idris added that the state will be embarking on programs based on the open source concept that are already being implemented in Extremadura.
Already Terengganu has set up 32 ICT centers called Bestari.com in various State Assembly areas geared to provide technology access and skills development to the local community. Multimedia Content
"We are also going to the schools. Using examples from Extremadura, we intend to start with one experimental elite school that will have a student-PC ratio of two-to-one in a month or two. The problem here is, we may not have the content, but we will push for it," Idris said.
To deal with the multimedia content issue, Terengganu is embarking on a project called Multimedia Farm (M2Farm) to train unemployed graduates in multimedia content development.
"We'll be training 600 of these people, 200 per batch, for multimedia content development," Idris said.
He added that the state government will deploy e-governance and that he expects the state to use the concept by year-end. Terengganu is currently working with a private company to achieve this goal.
"Hopefully, one or two years down the line, you will see a virtual state in Terengganu. That's what we are aiming at. As we saw in Extremadura, they are using ICT as a tool to run it into a progressive state," Idris said.
Investing in Stages
On allocation for the open source initiative this year, Idris said investments will be made in stages. "We'll spend around RM10 million to RM20 million (US$2.7 million to $5.4 million) on the school project by year-end. But that's just a portion of the whole initiative. It won't be a big investment as a whole as the primary idea here is the effectiveness of this effort in meeting our goals."
The Terengganu state government signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding with Extremadura and Mimos to facilitate the working relationship. The signing was held in conjunction with the recent 7th Asia Open Source Software Symposium.
The bi-annual event was co-organized by Mimos and the Center of International Cooperation for Computerization Japan with support from the Malaysian Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and the Malaysian Administration Modernization and Management Planning Unit.
Autor: Rozana Sani
Quelle: Linux Insider, 16.03.2006
