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Bits Issue 7

By admin Sep 29th, 2008 Category: i.BITS Newsletter

In this months issue,

Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society

The Move to Fusionopolis$18m boost for IDM projectsInternational Experts Impressed with IDM EffortsKooBits and PGK Media Wins the InfoComm Singapore Awards 2008Developments of GAMBIT

Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society

The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS) was established inApril 2007 to study the far-reaching social, ethical, legal and regulatory implications of arapidly growing Interactive Digital Media (IDM) sector and to make recommendations to the

Government on how these issues should be managed while keeping pace with thedevelopment of IDM in Singapore.

For the first AIMS report, AIMS has decided to deal with four time-sensitive issues: e-engagement (or how the Government can use new media to better interact with the public),the regulation of online political content, the protection of minors, and intermediaryimmunity for online defamation.

Read onAIMS consultation paper - Engaging new media, challenging old assumptionsVisit the website at www.aims.org.sg

The Move to Fusionopolis

IDMPO, hosted by MDA, has moved to its new home at Fusionopolis this month. With room

to grow in the new and spacious building, the IDMPO can expand its operations to play itscatalytic role in developing the interactive digital media sector here.

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We are also excited about the Singapore Media Fusion (SMF) Centre, which will occupyLevel 11 in one of the towers, Symbiosis. The centre will provide a physical environmentthat brings together the key players in the IDM sector through multitude of collaborativeactivities. It also will also showcase capabilities of local interactive digital mediatechnologies. Fusionopolis is going to be the central place for digital media, with enoughcritical mass to generate innovation as a result of its focus on R&D.

$18m boost for IDM projects

13 projects from local Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) will be given a total of $18 millionto do R&D in interactive digital media (IDM). It marks the second round of grants handedout by IDMPO to IHLs. Fourteen projects were selected in the first round last year, andabout $22 million was given out.

A panel of international scholars and industry experts was invited to pick the winners out of85 applicants.

It was very difficult to reject projects because they were so good, said one of the

panelists, DrJose Encarnacao, a computer science expert from Germany. We could have easilyaccepted twice as many, he said.

The funding, which typically goes towards projects with potential for commercial spin-offs,has been a boon for some local researchers. Last year, National University of Singaporeresearcher Chua Tat Seng received funding for a project that aimed to make video andpicture searches more accurate and efficient. The technology has since been picked up byComcast Corporation, the United States largest cable TV provider and one of its largestInternet providers.

International Experts Impressed with IDM Efforts

Overall, the panel concluded that the progress made in the last year was very substantialand exciting. The IRP were impressed by the companies and startups they saw, such asKoobits, Morange, Garena, Fresbo and thought that they had potential to become globalplayers. The Chairman/IRP Dr John Seely Brown said, I am stunned by your youngentrepreneurs. I felt that I could have the exact same conversations in Silicon Valley. I amamazed that Singapore could make that transition within the last two years.

More related news18M Boost for IDM Projects

KooBits and PGK Media Wins the InfoComm Singapore Awards 2008

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KooBits, an innovative ICT authoring platform developed by Personal e-Motion Pte Ltd, andPGK Media was awarded with the Infocomm Singapore Awards 2008 at the awardsceremony held on Friday night at the National Library penthouse in Singapore.

Personal e-Motion emerged as winner in the competitive e-Education category, earning thecredit and recognition for its effort in developing an innovative authoring platform forstudents and teachers to easily create interactive animated e-books and other multimediacontent.

PGK Media emerged as winner in the competitive Research & Development category,earning the credit and recognition for its effort in developing various innovative and world-first products and applications.

Both winners are companies funded by IDM R&D Programme Office (IDMPO)

We would like to thanks the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation for theaccreditation and the Media Development Authority of Singapore and Interactive Digital

Media Project Office for their extensive support which was pivotal in bringing to reality manycutting edge projects. said Mr Giulio Dorrucci, Chairman & CEO of PGK Media.

Mr Stanley Han, General Manager and Co-Founder of Personal e-Motion also thanked theMedia Development Authority of Singapore and Interactive Digital Media Project Office,for their extensive support which was pivotal in bringing to reality many cutting edgeprojects.

Personal e-Motion, PGK Media, together with other SITF awarded companies andinstitutes, will represent Singapore in the international Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awardswhich will be held in Jakarta in November 2008, and bring recognition to Singapore as one

of the leading provider for interactive digital media, ICT tools and platform.

Developments of GAMBIT

The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Games Lab, one of our Institutes of Higher Learning,produced its second batch of students from the recent 2008 Summer InternshipProgramme. 45 students from the local Institutes of Higher Learning interned at MIT for 9weeks to produce a total of seven games. Practical hands-on experience learnt throughoutthe course of the internship helped nurture creative thinking among Singaporean youthsand build talent capacity for the local gaming industry.

Students who participated in GAMBIT showcased their projects in a media briefing held on9 Sept and the Games Convention Asia 2008.

Read more about Singapores Strengths in Games

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