Our Creator wants people who will serve others in the name of and the manner in which He has served us. Why? Because people more easily duplicate what other people are doing than what God has always been doing. Times and procedures change but general principals do not. In the 1950's South Korea was in physical and spiritual shambles. People of faith lifted them up. Today many South Koreans are rich and some of them are using those riches to lift up people physically and spiritually in places like Indonesia. In the 1950's only a few good milk cows and a lot of loving instructions about the dairy industry were given to a few South Koreans. That is now a multi-million dollar per year business providing some funds for aid in other countries. Indonesian tsunami/earthquake disaster areas are in shambles. You can do the same for Indonesia that others did for S Korea. All kinds of help are needed and appreciated. We especially need people who can help us build the computer and communications infrastructure. Our favorite tools are Linux and Python. Both are free. We cannot help people in poverty by teaching them how to use software they cannot afford. Doing so only makes them want to steal what they cannot afford. But if you or victims develop using paid software we can convert web pages, Java programs etc to run under Linux, python, Open Office or other free software. BTW python and Open Office are available for free under windows courtesy of Linux programmers because many linuxers have a spirit of turn the other cheek and give to whoever asks you.

Help that multiplies

The goal of the Doctor Stovall Foundation is to help people in the name of Christ in cooperation with all religions in such a way that victims will want to help others. The Doctor Stovall Foundation for Education, Practical Application and Social Development is an Indonesian non-profit organization primarily involved in relief services to encourage people to cooperate with others and to help people to help themselves then others.

Anyone with a solid background in psychology or Christianity knows that one way to help people with problems is to help them think about helping others. We are on the leading edge of doing this via the Internet. We desperately need volunteers who will help us. We need travel and other expenses for volunteers. Expense funds for under-employed victims is especially needed, perhaps you can help them find funding to do this. It is much better to teach someone to fish than to just give them a fish. But when they are starving and their home has been destroyed an all expenses paid educational fishing trip is the best way to help them. In reality there are a limited number of fishing jobs unless you can provide expensive boats and other equipment. There are numerous jobs which the Indonesian tsunami/earthquake victims don't have much chance of getting unless we help them. The type of help we can give which has the lowest cost but the highest long term potential return is to open up the gates of knowledge so that these people can learn for themselves via the Internet and local servers. The victims are often in places where there the infrastructure can't handle the Internet. We want to place the best of what they need from the Internet on local servers so they can learn how to learn for themselves with our help. If you want to use and expand your computer skills to help us over the Internet, we can give you a project consistent with your skills if you will send us eMail. If you can do this as a form of distance education and you later want to experience helping victims face to face, we will try to help you do that also. Please send eMail with information about your capabilities to IWantToVolunteer@DrStovallFoundation.com

One lady beyond this bridge supported 7 children by carrying rubber from the trees to the road before the tsunami destroyed the road. Other relief organizations will feed her for awhile. But she and many others have no future unless we teach them and give them the tools to continue to learn how to be productive in a rapidly changing world.

The contrast between Indonesia and South Korea in terms of wealth and spiritual growth cannot be separated.

Indonesia is so much larger than S Korea that there are probably more people calling themselves Christians in Indonesia than in S. Korea. Numerous S Korean churches are strong but not so in Indonesia. Christianity is a taught religion. The Indonesian government provides us the opportunity to teach the Bible in the public schools. We would be especially encouraged to do that in Nias where the majority of the population says they are "Christian" and the Church of Christ is stronger than anywhere else in Indonesia. Look at the conditions of communication and education below. The Indonesian government wants to encourage education and computer skills. Both education and computer/Internet skills are excellent tools for expanding the gospel beyond the four walls that protect the church from the outside on Sunday morning. The Doctor Stovall Foundation has always been as active as available finances permit in teaching the Bible in the public schools and in encouraging the use of good information outside of the church building. Without good information people remain ignorant and therefore unable to effectively teach the good news to their neighbors or to even earn a suitable living for themselves. The tsunami and earthquakes that actually tilted the island and destroyed over 80% of the homes highlights the problem. The infrastructure that allowed them to earn at the poverty level by tapping rubber trees is gone. We must give them the knowledge infrastructure to earn more and not be dependent upon on only one means of livelihood if the Church of our Lord is going to continue to grow spiritually and numerically. When almost all of the church of Christ members still go to witch doctors something is dreadfully wrong with our undue emphasis on what happens inside the church building to the neglect of everything else necessary for life in Christ. Unfortunately without expenses there is little that I can do outside the four walls of the church except teach people personally and I cannot do enough of that to make a difference.

For more information please eMail to  IWantToVolunteer@DrStovallFoundation.com

Thank you for your interest in the above. The volunteers in the Doctor Stovall Foundation.

The remainder is from this web site. I could not get the site directly but only via the Google cache. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:NNcvsNG2XqYJ:www.bogor.net/idkf/onno/raw-data/orbicom/DD-TUNIS-CHAPTER5-ASIA.doc+starone+cdma+indonesia+problem&hl=en

CHAPTER 5.3 Monitoring and Evaluating Infostates in Asia

Coordinator: Ramachandran Ramasamy, MIMOS

This section monitors Infostate developments in selected Asian countries over the 1995-2003 period, as well as assesses and evaluates factors contributing to their evolution. It starts with a brief overview of important recent developments, and continues with detailed country reports.

Chart 5.1 displays the Infostates of the selected countries. Clearly, South Korea has the highest Infostate and its growth peaked from 1998 to 2000. As a result, not only its Infostate is much higher than the global average of Hypothetica, but the gap between the two has widened. Malaysia’s Infostate is comparable to the global average, whereas those of the other countries are significantly below. All countries experienced significant Infostate growth over the period, albeit to varying degrees....

Indonesia

Onno W. Purbo

Networks: Examining the competition between fixed and mobile telephony, the experience of Indonesia is similar to other populous countries like China, India and the Philippines: fixed lines were on an upward trend despite facing stiff competition from mobile phones. In particular, the number of mainlines increased from 3.3 million in 1995 to 8.5 million by 2003, registering an average annual growth rate of 11.8%.

In order to provide services in unserved areas, cellular telephony is open to the private sector, and there are a dozen operators in Indonesia. Consequently, cell phones are becoming a precious alternative for the public to get telephone access, and now they represent a much larger subscriber base than fixed lines. Mobile phone subscriptions grew at a rate almost three times that of fixed lines (30.5%), from 210,000 in 1995 to 18.8 million in 2003. It is estimated that growth has been even higher over the last couple of years and there are well over 20 million subscribers today. This increase is attributed to a combination of lower prices and several other advantages, such as: low activation cost of Rp. 15,000-25,000 (US$2-3); easy to get re-fill vouchers; more variety of services (SMS, MMS, caller-ID); wider coverage of the mobile network (which started with limited mobility under CDMA1X technology by Indonesian Telkom in December 2002, but was joined by the Mobile 8 and Star One operators later).

Factors impeding higher growth in fixed lines include: high activation cost at Rp. 300,000-500,000 (US$35-55) plus Rp. 200,000-300,000 (US$25-35) per additional telephone that should be added, especially in remote villages where no telephone poles are available; the non-availability of pre-paid services, and; the absence until recently of value-added services ( SMS, called-ID etc.).

Among the key factors that hindered the development of telephony in Indonesia has been the lack of investors in this sector. Their low number, especially in the 1997-98 period, was due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis that caused the closure of many enterprises. Another key factor that influences developments is a move from a monopoly market structure to a duopoly, where Indosat and Telkom were the key providers of basic voice services.

Skills: Most of the Internet operators have duly acknowledged that people’s education level is the most crucial parameter for Internet growth. Lack of adequate knowledge among Indonesian communities will pose a significant barrier to the expansion of the market. Interestingly, many ISPs, telecom providers and volunteers are willing, and are currently working hard, to help educational institutions get connected to the Internet. The most popular initiatives are the Sekolah 2000 project that started in 1999 by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association and the“Internet Goes To School” project that started in 2004 by Telekomunikasi Indonesia. Both projects aim to increase Internet penetration in schools, and in turn bring about an increase in the education level of the society. Out of a total of 220,000 Indonesian schools, currently only 5,000 have Internet access - mostly through self-financing schemes. The policy support for the project from the Indonesian government is limited. A simple project accounting showed that Internet connection cost only about US$2-5 per student per month due to economies of scale. However, the major stumbling block facing the implementation of the project is the mindset of teachers and headmasters who are reluctant to adopt the technology. If the school projects succeed, 38 million Indonesian students will have access to the Internet, thus increasing the overall level of skills in the country.

Provision of distance education and e-learning through the formal education system has not really gained footage in Indonesia due to inadequate regulation. Moreover, arrangements of transfer of credit have not been fully accepted by higher learning institutions. This poses a great difficulty in promoting and nurturing distance learning services. Despite these challenges, currently there are two major distance education initiatives, namely the Indonesian Open University and IBUTeledukasi. The Indonesian Open University is the formal open university run by the government. Besides that, plans are underway at the ministry of education towards setting up distance learning programs in some public universities. The IBUTeledukasi program is a new comer, which initiated its distance learning business in 2002. This programme promotes distance education through collaboration with many institutions outside the country like the University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) in Malaysia. One such course arranged with UNITAR is an IT course.

Besides organized modes and distance education, skills are also acquired through informal e-learning processes that require no certification or accreditation or permit. The adoption rate of such informal e-learning activities is very encouraging among Indonesian online communities, as the learning is mostly centered around real life elements. Transfer of knowledge occurs mainly through e-mail discussions and websites, each of which represents a virtual community providing an informal platform for the exchange of knowledge in a rapid manner. Knowledge exchanged through virtual communities is very current, practical and targeted to meet specific community interests. No such knowledge can be sufficiently obtained through the formal education system, which is very much controlled by the conventional top-down national curriculum.2

Info-use: The number of PCs reported in 1995 was 980,000, which grew to 2.7 million by 2003. In 1995, the number of Internet users was estimated at 50,000, but increased to exceed 8 million by the end of 2003. The latest statistics indicate that the number of Internet users is around 10 million at the time of the writing. The difference in PC ownership and Internet users is due to the fact that most Indonesians have Internet access through cyber cafés, schools and neighborhood networks. One of the major reasons for the low PC ownership in Indonesia is the cost of a PC, which is beyond the reach of the average individual. The low Internet access is attributed to the weak provision of connectivity at the last mile.

In order to promote better access, after more than 12 years of struggle, many data radio installation for low cost wireless Internet access, in January 2005 the government signed an Act that no longer requires licensing and fees for deploying any WiFi (in the 2.4GHz band) infrastructure. The introduction of the new regulatory measures is expected to bring about a surge in WiFi installations. Indeed, the Indonesians are looking forward to more than 1,000 new WiFi outdoor installations, though the price could range between US$300-600 per node. The Internet industry is projecting around US$300,000-600,000 in investment, monthly. Upon reaching the installation rate number of 20,000-30,000 per month, Indonesians are actually exploring the possibility of building their own WiFi industry.

In summary, an excellent foundation is currently being built to move Indonesia towards a democratic and knowledge-based society. It is not an easy task as corruption and low levels of education are still dominant in country. It may take years to accomplish this task, but many believe that the process is in a positive direction.

South Korea

Jong-Sung Hwang

In summary, two key factors that have contributed to the high level of skills in South Korea are the high value placed on education by the Korean society and the strong commitment by the government in transforming the country into an information and knowledge-driven society....

PC uptake began to rise sharply since the mid 1990s, from nearly 5 million in 1995 to almost 27 million in 2003, registering an annual growth of 50%8. The steady increase in PC usage among Korean households was driven by an increase in Internet subscriptions. In addition to the government's proactive approach in transforming Korea into an information-driven society, several key initiatives have led to these developments, including funding for the development of ICT infrastructure, innovation and ICT literacy. Among the specific initiatives, the following are included:

The development of low-priced PCs suitable for basic Internet usage, in particularly targeting PC ownership among poor families....