When we talk about elegance, usually we refer to designs: product, web, programme, etc. But, while we’re in it, we can discuss about elegance in life: how to set the maximal simplicity to our way of life, while maintaining the highest performance possible in it.
Life is beautiful, right?
Gamelan is a suite of musical instruments from Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. While some neighboring countries are currently using gamelan as one of the icons to attract prospective tourists to visit the regions in Southeast Asia, and there is no doubt that any reginal cultures result from mutual influence of the neighbouring ethnics, it has been admitted by international communities that the musical orchestra suite called gamelan is indeed a culture of Indonesia.
Javanese gamelan was once performed in the U.S. in the 19th century. Also to European countries at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the composer Claude Debussy was so enthralled. “Compared to this Javanese music, the European music is really decadent,” he implied. Then we could see many works of Debussy referring to the style of gamelan. Previously, the young Debussy was heard complained, “All the beautiful tones have been written by Wagner. What could be left for our generation?” But then who would have thought that, in addition to atonal music style, he also fled to the gamelan?
In Indonesia, we could see the Javanese gamelan that is gentle and philosophical, Balinese gamelan that is very dynamic, Sundanese calung, and other variations.
I spent my childhood in Malang city in Java. As in many other places, local cultures were included to the formal education. At school we were taught how to play the gamelan, how to sing Javanese tembang, how to write old Java script (aksara Jawa), etc. Our teacher was an expert who has a great passion in traditional art. He recognized that I plays gamelan quite well, technically. But he also said that I do not have the artistic soul. Particularly, I know he hated it when I tried to play rock and roll with the kendang when the the auditorium was still quiet. But, when conducting a performance in front of students parents, he appointed me in the position of kendang, which according to him was not equivalent to the drums or timpani, but more like a conductor: to lead the rhythm.
I must recognize that in fact I’m not a real fans of Javanese culture. I love universal culture. What’s the point of having Ronggowarsito in Java, when we also had Marx or Nietzsche in the same era. But gamelan is different. It remains as my interest. A few years later, after graduating from Coventry, I got a feeling that I missed gamelan. So I volunteered to join the traditional art ensemble in Bandung to play gamelan. That was not simple: I had to spend 2 nights per week to improve my play, with people who were as tired as I was, after office hour.
At that time we managed to perform The Legend of Ande Ande Lumut in the form of Wayang Orang, with full gamelan orchestration. I held an instrument called Bonang Penerus. This position was quite stressful, visually. At the other instrument players could look at the stage, my position required me to look at the audience. I could not play while viewing what’s on stage, but continued to see the expression of the audience.There were some other small events when we casually play the gamelan, including accompanying a wedding ceremony of the son of our R&D Division’s boss. It was surprising. The brides parents actually invited us, and wondered why many of our team did not appear to come. After finishing playing, we greeted the family. The boss stunned as he realised that some of the guests he expected were really playing the gamelan orchestra for the ceremony.
OK, the last picture here is not a real performance. Last week I had to provide a presentation about Mobile Blogging at the Telkom Building in South Jakarta. In the hall, I saw a quite complete set of a gamelan instruments. After my presentation, just before the lunch, I spent a couple minutes to play the Bonang Barung instrument, very-very softly. And the prominent blogger Priyadi took my picture.
This year the IEEE carried out the annual ICC conference in Kyoto, Japan. As usual, this greatest infocomm conference is accompanied by a couple of technical and organizational meetings, held by the IEEE or IEEE Comsoc. Representing the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter, I had to be present in Comsoc AP-RCCC. I got the invitation on April, so I had enough time to renew my passport, prepared the visa, airline tickets, hotels, etc. However, these are also the busiest month here at Multimedia Division of Telkom. I could not find enough spare time to relearn hiragana, katakana, kanji, and basic Japanese expressions, or to prepare the social visits.
I got the most affordable airline. It took me from Jakarta to Tokyo via Kualalumpur, and landed at Haneda Airport around midnight. I took the first Shinkanzen super-express train from Shinagawa to Kyoto. I reached Kyoto on June 8th at 9 o’clock. After reporting my attendance to the organiser, I took a couple hours to explore Kyoto.
ICC and the other meetings were held at KICC, a quite vast resort in north-east end of Kyoto. Apparently this place is well prepared to carried out international scale conferences and summits. I did not attend any ICC sessions more than some workshop sessions. But the AP-RCCC I attended was held in the same place.
Last March we had conducted the IEEE Region 10 Meeting in Yogyakarta, which was the highest annual organizational meeting of the IEEE in the Asia Pacific region. IEEE Comsoc AP-RCCC is the annual organizational conference of the IEEE Communications Society in the region. Focusing on the issues in Asia Pacific region, the meeting was attended by President of the IEEE Communications Society, the VPs and directors, a representative of both North America and South America, and the chairmen or other representatives of the Asia-Pacific Comsoc chapters.
Comsoc President, Byeong Gi Lee, keynoted by describing the current challenges in the field of communications field. The convergence has been passing some stages in the digital information, and now we are in the middle of the convergence of digital services and management. The convergence is not just among the fields of communications and computing, but extends also to consumer electronics, media, and other areas. Comsoc has anticipated this with various approaches: educational approach and content, industrial approach, and the standardization approach. This is also trailed by restructuring the organization of IEEE Comsoc. Various aspects relating to further convergence has sparked fairly interesting discussions.
Then, some VPs and directors presented some reports and guidances. And each chapters presented their reports, plan activities, and other things. The first chapter to deliver the report is Indonesia. From Indonesia, I delivered a report, exploring the chapter’s activities that are still focused on technical and organizational campaigns, including our supports in the formation of the first four IEEE student branches in Indonesia, serial roadshows, and other approaches. Our plan ahead includes the preparation of a larger conference (more than the current form of thematic seminars or lecturing). However, it would require assistance and support from the Region 10 and neighbouring chapters. Also presented are the preparation of TENCON in Bali in November 2011, and our request for distinguished lecturer & distinguished speakers on recent progress in the field of infocomm. Some officers expressed their support for IEEE Comsoc activities in Indonesia.
After the conference, I returned to the Kyoto centre by the MRT with Prof. Hsiao-Hwa Chen of IEEE Comsoc Tainan Chapter. I know this gentlemen even before the conference. Last year we made some correspondence to arrange a seminar in Singapore. But in MRT, he showed his other side: an avid culture observer. After talking about chapter management and infocom platform management, we spent the time to talk about the history of Japan, Kyoto, etc. He suggested me to spend more days to explore Japanese cities and cultural centres.
So the next day I spent my time to pay a visit to historic areas: Nara (the first capital of Japan as an emerging imperial), Kyoto (the capital of Japanese Imperial for 1000 years), before finally returned to Tokyo (the capital of Japan since the Meiji Restoration). In Kyoto, I got the opportunity to visit the Imperial Palace for about 1 hour. An excellent palace, I must admit. Also I visited Tokugawa shogunate palace.
I know I should now spend more time to report my cultural journeys. Indeed I have written them in my travelling blog, koen.cc, but only in Indonesian. I guess I will someday translate them and put them here.
TENCON is an annual international technical conference of IEEE, Region 10 (Asia Pacific), which comprising of 56 Sections, 5 Councils, 8 Sub-sections, 334 Chapters and 491 Student Branches. Held annually since 1980, TENCON provides an important forum for researchers and engineers from the industries, and professors as well as graduate students from the academia to network and to discuss new ideas and developments in the converging technology of electrical and electronics engineering, computer science and related topics.
The prospective authors are invited to submit their papers in standard IEEE proceedings format as instructed in the on-line Paper Submission column. TENCON 2011 topics include but are not limited to:
Paper Submission : A final manuscript of not more than 5 pages including abstracts, figures, tables and references with letter sized page, single spaced, Times Roman of font size 10, two columns format. Paper must be submitted electronically in PDF form and accepted papers should be submitted using the IEEE Xplore-compatible PDF via the website. All papers will be peer reviewed. At least one author of each aqccepted paper must register for the conference for the paper tobe included in the program. for
paper submission please visit the website :
IMPORTANT DATES
CONFERENCE DATE: 21-24 November 2011
CONFERENCE VENUE: BALI, Indonesia
Organizer: IEEE Indonesia Section
Sponsor: IEEE Region 10
Co-Sponsor: University of Indonesia, Women In Engineering Affinity Group
Bali is a well-known paradise for tourists. Its climate is warm and humid, around 27-32ºC. It offers a beautiful white sand beaches and safe to explore seaside. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, silver metal-working and traditional Balinese music.
Apparently, our campaign last year (in Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines) in proposing Yogyakarta as the host of IEEE Region 10 Annual General Meeting this year, had been a success. So, last week (March 5th – 6th), Indonesia hosted the Region 10 AGM, with a venue in Sheraton Hotel, Yogyakarta, only some kilometres from the peak of Mt Merapi, that suddenly flew the hot lava those days :).
This annual meeting presented the President-Elect of the IEEE, Gordon Day; Director of Region 10, Lawrence Wong; the leaders of divisions, councils, sections, and chapters, and other representatives from almost all countries in Asia Pacific, including Indonesia. Indonesia representatives were led by IEEE Indonesia Section Chair, Muhammad Ary Murti. I myself represented the IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter.
The meeting was held in accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order, which is widely used in the parliaments of many countries. Chairman Lawrence Wong commenced the meeting with a Call to Order, followed by Roll Call and some reports. Was interesting to see that the sequence of these activities can be done on time by the minute. Regardless of their position, all presenters could give only a 5-10 minute presentation. In his report, Gordon Day recalled the transformation that is still continuing within the IEEE. Expanding from the world of electrical engineering, IEEE now includes the fields of aeronautical, biomedical, electrical, electronic, computer, information technology, mathematics, physics, telecommunication, automotive and biological engineering. The number of members has reached 407 thousand. However, this number is only less than 10% of the engineers working in the fields of the IEEE. In the US, only 7.5% engineers in these fields are members of the IEEE. In Indonesia, only 0.5%.
Using a new tagline advancing technology for humanity, the approaches taken by IEEE are to strengthen the organisation to serve the new generations of engineers, particularly in new fields that will further improve the human life. IEEE is also directed to become more global, embracing the technological widespread throughout the world, and enhance its role and leadership. Economic, social, and cultural changes that are happening more quickly at this moment motivate the organisation to strategically improve the use of technology to support a better human life, individually and socially. The engineers must always be reminded that they still have a professional responsibility to support better life in the following centuries. Lawrence Wong continued by showing the uniqueness of the Asia Pacific region: this is the region with the largest number of members in the IEEE, and with the highest growth, especially among students and young engineers. This reflects the characteristics of this region which is the world’s most dynamic area of technology. What to do in this region is to increase the synergy between regions, especially with the Internet.
VP of MGA Howard E. Michel detailed that rather than taking care of membership, the IEEE will put more focus on its members: how to Inspire, Enable, Empower and Engage the members of the IEEE. One example is to use the IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE) to build members’ leadership. VP of Educational Activities Tariq Durrani explained several initiatives to develop engineering education before the university stage, for example with TISP, TryNano, TryEngineering, as well as other approaches such as accreditation, certification, WiE (women in engineering), etc. The meeting also discussed the report TENCON 2010 in Fukuoka, TENCON 2011 that will be held this year in Sanur (presented by TENCON 2011 Chairman Dr Wahidin Wahab), and TENCON 2012 plan in Cebu. And … hmm … many many more :).
The participants, which reached around 150 people, were also invited to visit Prambanan Temple and Yogyakarta Sultan’s Palace (Kraton), to understand deeper the local culture. Dinner was also served in the Sultan’s Palace. In addition, some participants independently took visits to other interesting places, such as Borobudur Temple, and Malioboro Street. Yogyakarta was really successful as a host to the IEEE Asia Pacific. Thank you, Yogya:)
Related:
On the final days of 2010, Internetworking Indonesia Journal was again published. It is the Vol 2 No 2 edition (Fall / Winter 2010). The current edition contains papers with free theme, written by the researchers or graduate students from Indonesia and other countries. As a bilingual journal, some papers here use Indonesian language, while others use English. Indeed, one of the purposes of this journal is to enhance the ability of scientific and technical paper writing in English and Indonesian.
Papers in this issue:
The complete edition can be obtained at the following link: IIJ Vol 2 No 2
Representing the scientific and engineering societies in our even-onward republic, I would like to express our deep gratitude … haha … allright, allright. Thanks to the researchers and academics who have taken various resources for preparing the papers above, and also to the reviewers who have contributed their expertise to do the revision and editing the paper.
The next edition of IIJ will be published in mid-2011, focused on social aspects of the Internet in Indonesia. Researchers, activists, observers, etc in dynamic digital media and social networking in Indonesia might be interested to contribute their papers. CFP will soon be delivered by the Guest Editors: Prof. Merlyna Lim and Dr. Yanuar Nugroho.
Learning iPhone Programming, by Alasdair Allan: a definitive book to learn native iPhone programming. Recommended for those who understand Apple, C, OOP, and wish to create high-performance full-featured applications for iPhone.
I’m an old-school coder and I would not claim myself mastering a platform before writing my own application in that platform. But there are different approaches to write our code in iPhone. The easy (and old) way is using web application with HTML-CSS-JavaScript suite. But to make the apps integrated with iPhone’s feature (camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer), we have to choose the native code: with Cocoa and Objective C. This Learning iPhone Programming book, published by O’Reilly, is a definitive book that guide us in designing such apps.
This book explores in detail the steps to take in design real iPhone apps. First it guides us to enroll in the iPhone Developer Program, to make sure our codes will be approved to run on a real device (instead of a simulator). The development environment (the Xcode) and iPhone SDK must be installed. Then, while preparing and designing our first iPhone app, we would learn the terms and tools in iPhone apps designing.
The following chapters will dig deeper in Objective-C language, design aspects, and essential features to be mastered; including network connection, data handling, sensor, geolocation and mapping, and the integration of the applications. We would also learn the distribution of our application in Appstore. The last chapter mentions the other aspects to learn further to enrich our app.
I consider this is one of the best books available to guide us designing a full featured iPhone app. I found it easy to learn (partially because I knew a bit about C, OOP, and Xcode — but you don’t really need to master them to start learning this book). I like how fast we can learn iPhone programming, guided by this compact book.
Head First WordPress, by Jeff Siarto: An excellent book to explore the important features of WordPress as blogging platform and CMS, and to manage a well organized blog.
A couple years ago I wrote a booklet about WordPress, aimed to educate teachers and students to start blogging. The book was almost purely for novice, to use WordPress.com, to install WordPress.org, and to understand blogging world (feed, aggregator, communities, etc). This year I found that O’Reilly has published a book discussing WordPress: Head First WordPress.
As other Head First books from O’Reilly, it is rich with illustration, and clever metaphors to make it easy to understand the concept of WordPress. This is an O’Reilly, not a “For Dummies” book, so you could not expect a verbose explanation here. In brief but clear language and illustration, it discusses the concept of website and blogging, the installation of WordPress from the scratch, changing the blog’s look and feel, editing the themes. Things like webhosting selection, cloud computing, and Google Analytics are also explored. Then it explores some relatively advanced topics, including the use of plugins, multimedia services (podcast, video, etc), organizing, optimizing, and securing the site.
However, as the name implied, this is a book for starter: it does not review all features of WordPress. Features of WordPress Multiuser and Buddypress are out-of-scope. For seasoned WordPress users (or plugin developers), there are not so many new ideas to dig here. I will suggest this book for a new blogger or web designer who want to boost his/her blogging experience in short time.
One other thing: I think O’Reilly must publish the Kindle version. The current e-Book version is only in PDF format, and less enjoyable to read in Kindle.
This week I got a request to give another presentation at an international forum. The event was titled Carrier Ethernet World, which is the official conference of the Metro Ethernet Forum. It took place in Hong Kong from 1-3 December 2010.
Carrier Ethernet is a family of network technology, developed for telecommunication operators and Internet providers to transport higher bandwidth traffic. Since the network convergence implemented more than 10 years ago, various information networks (telephony, data communication, media and TV) have switched to IP. At the user level, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3 family of standards) has become general standard for wired communications networks. At the carrier level, it is considered more effective to deploy the networks that are high-speed packet-based; instead of the old TDM systems (such as SDH / SONET and ATM). Some examples include MPLS and CET. And beyond the core network, we should also talk about access network, the Metro Ethernet network.
The conference presents major forerunners in this technology. Its main sponsor are Juniper — which is known as an old player in the field of high-speed packet data transport, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson. So of course I was not expected to compete with them telling those cutting-edge technology developments.
I delivered my on the afternoon session of the First Day. It was at the stream A, which discusses innovation. My presentation was directed to discuss innovations that will support business development and the technology of Carrier Ethernet, including the regulatory side. Imagine how many layers I should dig.
I started with simple things: introducing the telematics world in Indonesia, the user-centric approach to system architecture, the comparison between the vertical architecture and the horizontal one. Since we are still in migration period, the transition between the architectures has not found the final form. Then I compare several schemes, including the SDP, and how various types of applications (network-domains, IT-domain, Internet 2.0) will be placed in it. With NGN fortified with SDP, the network is expected to be a platform not only to meet the necessity of information infrastructure, but also as the platform for developing technology, application, content, and the business in those fields. These things are aggressively growing in Indonesia. Approach to the regulator, thus, should not start from the classical things like tariffs, and the easily biased desire for liberalization; but instead about common interest to foster the economic development of the digital ecosystem, which includes innovation, production, commercialisation, and lifestyle. It would create the contexts to develop NGN with a more optimal architecture.
After my presentation, I was asked to be involved in a panel session. Here, we discussed widely about the projected necessities of innovations in the next 5 years, related to the opportunities of business development and network expansion. There were quite a lot of interests here about the ideas of Indonesia. I did not feel in vain to come to Hong Kong then :).
This was, however, my premier visit to Hong Kong. But last July I gave another presentation in 4G (Mobile) International Forum in Taipei. Enchanting that I could convey ideas in two major forums in both wired and wireless technology. Weird, wired, and wireless :). Hong Kong greeted me with a comfortable weather for walks. Hilly landscape with a fairly spectacular views, contrasted with the strait, bay, seaside, and skyscrapers. Unluckily, an unending thin fog made it difficult to take landscape photographs.
Quite a lot of articles, or even books, have been discussing various strategies for corporate approaches to social media. I will not call myself an expert in this field. I observe social networks as an engineer who needs to prove some interesting natural laws, haha. But let’s skip this part. Let’s spend a couple minutes for a discussion about social media for corporates.
First, about Web 2.0, or Internet 2.0, or even Culture 2.0. The stories about this always start from a shift in the role of previously assumed passive users that now become active contributors. I prefer to simply call it a shift, from information and communication, to conversations. And an important aspect in the conversations, of course, is equality. The role of info centers should terminate. Now everyone is an equal member who shares. No more providers and customers, and no more terms such as ‘customer education’ ;). It has been replaced by lively discussions: to listen to each other, to enrich common discourses, and to help each other actualising the passions.
The corporates: the old companies live since the era of centralised power and information, and the new companies that are greedy to find revenue as fast as possible, often stuck to classical things: making social media as a mouthpiece of the campaign. Various channel are synergised, or more precisely conspired, to blow information and more information, that in the end only to point to dullness: products without uniqueness, an unattractive services, and an awareness of mediocre programs.
Now then. The communication problem is only secondary. The primary one is what we really want to communicate. Companies neglect their tasks to create create unique products, improved services, intriguing information, inspiring ideas, etc. The shallowness are then shouted, possibly effectively. Effective to show the shallowness. OK, this is the main problem, which should be resolved prior to any entry into social media. Or, OK, it could be solved with the support of social media, because: the primary advice to social media is this: start by listening, then conversation, then sharing :).
The other problem, coincidentally, is just exposed at the end of the previous paragraph. The order of entering the public forum is not (1) introduction, (2) hit the scene, then (3) shouting. Instead, it should start with listening and observing, then commencing a sympathetic conversation, continued by sharing. This applies not only to the individuals, but also for large companies.
Another essential thing to do is to use the corporate icons. Imagine a Mr Z who suddenly delivered an interesting info from Company X. Everyone will figure out: Ah, Z is just a cheap marketer, who sends his message as his job as an employee, and earn from it. No one would blame or get angry, but the communication remains ineffective. The more interesting way is to encourage our employees to engage actively in various forums and social media according to their own passions. They might be an expert in photography, a geek in cutting-edge science and technology, an avid music lover, a diva in game consultancy, etc. You can imagine it. Scattered, but not too far from the mid-term corporate strategy. And all should use their own real name and the identity as an employee of Company X. They would become the icons or the ambassadors of Company X. Then one day they would discuss about new music products, game distribution, e-commerce, the future of mobile technology, etc. Now the public would listen, because the same Mr Z now voices his passion, his acknowledged expertise, to his close friends or communities. No more marketing sound, but an intelligent and fair opinion of a friend, a respected member of communities, who discuss things that enrich our life better, because the passions.
I guess it would not be easy for any company to accomplish those simple things :). Many are still dizzily occupied by affairs such as revenue, opex, capex, and short-term targets. Though, there is a solution for that. But not now. I have to make some preparations for my presentation in Hong Kong this week.
© 2024 Kuncoro
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑
