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Right: A performer at the Festival of Mongolia in New York's Central Park

What does a museum curator in Laos have in common with a choreographer in the Philippines? Probably quite a lot. They are both part of a vibrant arts and culture community in Asia and chances are their lives may have been touched in one way or another by the Asian Cultural Council (ACC). Through PAN's conferencing facility, they will soon be able to talk to each other regularly in their very own online Web Board conference.

In September 2001, PAN and ACC entered into a partnership to build an e-community of Asian artists, scholars and cultural experts, with focus on the Mekong region - Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Yunnan. ACC, which is an affiliate of the Rockefeller Foundation, USA, has contributed to the work and development of at least 3000 artists and cultural experts in Asia over the last four decades through fellowships and grants. Now, through the use of Internet technologies, ACC aims to connect with these past grantees online as well as enable them to network with one another. PAN will be assisting in providing the system framework and communication tools for such networking.

A pilot WebBoard conference site has been set up recently on the PAN server in Singapore to connect up about 30 members of the group, to test out Internet access and communications among them. Working closely with the ACC project coordinator, Mr Georg Kochi, who is based in Tokyo, PAN will facilitate the setting up the necessary hardware/software infrastructure among the users, as well as test and monitor the use of the conferencing system. Once they gain sufficient familiarity with communicating in a virtual environment, it is hoped that the users will move on to starting joint collaborative activities in their field. An online mentoring programme between past and present grantees is also planned.

The research and lessons learnt from this pilot project will be of immense value to all those interested in ICT development, not just the arts and culture community. For example, it will yield lessons on how members of an e-community communicate and interact with one another; what challenges there are in access and use of multimedia content in countries with slow access and low bandwidth, and what new frontiers are being discovered in the world of arts and culture.

2002-03-03

News 33 of 50