Suryatin dreams of Bandung's Silicon Valley

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Bandung's alternative names, the City of Flowers and Parijs van Java, might not be appropriate for much longer, according to Suryatin Setiawan, director of the Bandung-based research and information technology division (Risti) of the state-owned telecommunications provider PT Telkom. He thinks Bandung has the potential to become the world's new software center.

With promising human resources and several related industries, Bandung has the potential to establish itself as a center of knowledge-based industry, complementing Silicon Valley in the United States and Bangalore in India.

"Bandung has so many plus points, including the well-known Institute of Technology (ITB), its polytechnic and several other educational establishments. Its human resources are very good. There are also some industries including (the state-owned telecommunications equipment maker) PT Inti and Risti," he said.

Suryatin, an ITB graduate, recently won a bronze medal in this year's Asian Innovation Awards for his invention of V-Internet (Voice Internet) which converts text from the Internet into digital speech, allowing poor and scattered rural communities to access the Web.

The contest was held by the Far Eastern Economic Review in collaboration with Du Pont,

Suryatin, 45, was one of nine winners (gold, silver and bronze each having three winners), out of a total of 33 nominations.

The Review said that each nomination was judged by an independent panel of judges on its own merits, rather than in competition with other entries. That was done to ensure that individuals, nonprofit-making organizations and small companies had just as much chance of winning as multinational corporations with giant research budgets.

This year's gold award winners came from India, Japan and Australia. Significantly there were winners from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, suggesting that the economic crisis hitting Southeast Asia had not dampened the spirit of innovation, said the Review.

Suryatin won the award because the software he invented, dubbed Rural Voice-rich Information Community, was considered as potentially very useful for areas where literacy is low and for languages where a keyboard is not very useful.

"The software is to reduce the increasing gap between people who are very well-informed in this information era and those who do not even know what the Internet is," he said.

"Many people in the world don't have the access to information, particularly the Internet, because they can't afford to have a computer or telephone line. The gap is getting wider. In Indonesia, there are so many people who don't even have keyboard skills, while life these days is full of keyboards such as in remote controls, telephones and computers," he said, adding that there must be a way to help the people.

"Some people may have already got information from television or radio. But in this information era, the trend is interactive," he said.

Symbol

He said there were three information technology (IT) groups in society. First, people living in suburbs who think they don't need to get access to information; second, those who need to get the access but can't afford it; and third, those who think they do not need and are unable to get the access.

"The third group is crucial. They must be helped to get the access to information. Therefore, we created the software and a special terminal for V-Internet," he said, adding that the prototype had been discussed since 1996.

He said the terminal, like a pay-phone with a hands-free facility, uses symbols instead of numbers or letters. "It's much easier to comprehended."

A pilot project in Ciwidey village in southern Bandung was considered a great success, so other devices were then installed in Tangerang, Ujungpandang and Denpasar, he said.

"In addition to accessing information, people there also learn how to use the device in Indonesian or their local language," he said.

The information obtained was about, for instance, how to process tempe (food made from fermented soybeans), how to nurture fish, how to handle pests and so on, he added.

He said that V-Internet software was an original idea developed by his team. "But it has the potential to proliferate all over the world."

"It's only a first step. The next one is how to connect it to a website, so Netscape or Internet Explorer can also be surfed through this voice-based software," he said.

Technically, the Internet browser uses hypertext markup language (HTML). This V-Internet uses a newly created language to be applicable with "voicetext markup language".

"When a standard language is available for this voicetext markup language is available, V-Internet will be applied worldwide," he said, adding that it would improve the quality of humanity.

He admitted there were some disadvantages: Users could not see interesting layouts or surf for a long time.

"There's also still a phonetic problem. The voice is too robotic. We are now working hand in hand with the University of Indonesia's literature department to develop a more realistic human speech."

He said the project had a social and a business aspect. "From the social point of view, we want to reduce the gap. From the business side, some people may think about profit from running this kind of service. When truly implemented, I hope there will be some V-Internet service providers," he said, adding that sponsors would also be considered to subsidize the third segment in the community.

He said the new generation of V-Internet would be completed by the third quarter of next year.

Enemy

Inventing and developing new devices is not new for Suryatin.

"But some of my devices have been killed. I have learnt and totally understand that the main enemy for the development and evolution of technology in Indonesia are human beings."

He said he was assigned by Inti in 1983, alongside colleagues from Japan and Britain, to develop the packet satellite network (Pacsatnet), an IT software project to support a satellite communications system.

"When it was completed, top officials said that Indonesia did not need such a device. It was neglected and my colleagues from Britain and Japan took the concept to their country and it was well developed. An expert from the United Nations Development Program, which funded the project, took it as a topic for his dissertation and got his Ph.D.," he recalled.

"It was a basic prototype of the current Internet Protocol (IP). If it was accepted, we would have been the world's pioneer in IP," he said.

He said there were some other instances when the nation's top officials and officers had neglected his ideas.

Humanity

After he graduated from ITB, he joined Inti and was assigned to develop and install small satellite earth stations to support the general election in 1982.

"That was the first time I learnt that technology is closely related to humanity. It's not only technology. I was assigned to develop an earth station in Siberut Island in northern Sumatra. It was a hard time. At that time, electricity and a toilet were considered luxurious. Getting mad, I protested to my boss that I hadn't became an engineer to get a job like that. On my return, he just told me. 'It's a reality, you have the choice, take it or leave it'," he recalled.

"I realize that it was a valuable experience. There are a lot of social problems in technology and I have to deal with that too," he said.

Suryatin, a father of three, has several times joined Indonesian official delegations in world forums, including the World Economic Development Conference, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), APEC Telecommunications Meeting and the Negotiation Group on Basic Telecommunications GATT/World Trade Organization (WTO).

Before winning the bronze in this year's Asian Innovation Awards, Suryatin was elected as the fourth Best Industry Executive in Telecom Asia Reader's Choice 1999 awards, whose other winners included chief executives officers of C&W HKT, Singtel, Telstra and Singtel Mobile.

Suryatin, who undertook a couple of years internships in Germany and Japan, said he wanted to see Indonesia became excellent in software and IT.

"I'm preparing for Risti to collaborate with the world's leading telecommunications players to enter the global market."