Singapore launches internet extravaganza

By Jonathan Head in Singapore

The government of Singapore has just kicked off a five-week e-festival to promote use of the internet among its citizens.

The festival opened with what is been billed as Asia's largest internet exhibition, a show-case of the latest innovations and businesses in the booming high-tech industry.

Until now most of the growth in the industry has taken place in the United States and Europe but e-business is expanding rapidly in Asia, with new companies starting every day.

Overtaking the US

Asia contains about half of the world's population and internet use in the continent is expected to overtake the US within a few years.

The extravaganza is all part of what the Singapore government is describing as an e-festival, a celebration of all things digital intended to push the city state's already technically proficient citizens into ever greater feats of computer wizardry so they can compete with the corporate giants of America.

There is no shortage of willing disciples.

Holding centre-stage at the Internet 2000 exhibition is 40-year-old Nicholas Eng, a computer engineer who founded a company called Wave New World.

It is only two months old and employs just a handful of people but Mr Eng is convinced that his idea of keeping people on the move connected to the internet via radio waves is a sure-fire winner.

Smell via the internet

"We are sixty-four days old. We already spend about half-a-million dollars. If you give me another sixty-four more days and another $5m, imagine how far we can go," he said. The question is not whether it is do-able but how fast and how big. It's a bit scary."

The internet and new media explosion have brought us e-mail, e-commerce, DVD movies and interactive games. But something is missing - the sense of smell.

But this exhibition is showing off some astounding technological innovations.

The new US company Digiscents does exactly what its name suggests - turns smells into digital information so you can send them over the internet.

Co-founder Joel Bellenson says it is not as strange an idea as it sounds.

"You're communicating with someone and scent is a part of the experience. So you can imagine wanting to have aromatherapy-type smells while you're listening to relaxing music," he says.

"Or for a movie. Let's say you're playing a DVD on your PC - having the smells of the movie makes you feel like you're really there and engages you.

"And I think the whole next phase of the internet is all about creating a sense of place, moving from just being a catalogue for commerce, something where you just read, for something that you interact and you really feel like you've been transported to another place.

Instant translations

Asia's potential is hugely attractive to big business. The snag, though, is that a large part of the Asian population cannot speak English, the main language on the net.

Never mind, even this formidable obstacle is being tackled by the latest technology.

Dakai Wu has designed a programme which can instantaneously translate any website into Chinese.

"I think language is really still the key here," says Mr Wu.

"I mean, there is a tremendous imbalance from the point of view of globalisation of the internet right now, where 95% of the material being in English - the latest, most up-to-date, most in depth information, most valuable information - and that's something that really needs to be remedied."

The seemingly boundless possibilities offered by the internet have whipped much of Asia into a lather of excitement over the new medium.

Inevitably many of the companies now promising a brave new world to the starry-eyed participants at the Singapore exhibition will be swept away by the harsh realities of economics.

But there is little doubt that many other Asian enterprises are moving fast to close the digital gap between them and their rivals in the West.