14:00 - 15:30 Session 1 : "Bringing About a Better Understanding of Communication in the Local, Regional, or Virtual Communities."
 Session Chair : Dr. Faridah Noor Mohd Noor, University Malaya.

 1. Yong-Moo Kwon, Korea Institute of Science and Technology. "Tangible Sports in Virtual World"
Abstract :

This paper introduces the recent trends of virtual world. This paper also addresses international activities on how to interface between virtual world and real world. This paper introduces current our research on tangible baseball in virtual world.

 2. Yumiko Mori, NPO Pangaea, President. "Youth Mediated Communication Model : New Challenge to Bring Youths for Better World. Phase I Agriculture"
 Abstract :

 World Bank and many developed countries spent billions of dollars to striving developing countries to improve quality of their lives and challenge to solve many difficult problems resulting from poverties. Working as youth ICT intercultural collaboration program to bridge children around the world, NPO Pangaea President saw a great new possibility to improve quality of lives in developing nations. Under the current situations, various funds are going into bringing agriculture experts to poor farming lands, building facilities to provide utilities or educations, educators to provide necessary public health care knowledge and so on. In those attempts, ICT use is still limited and facing the critical problems as many developing nations adults literacy rate is still low in poor area, and using PCs will be a difficult task.
 This presentation will propose new approach to tackle this issue. Model is called Youth Mediated Communication Model. It is designed to deliver useful information to improve their farming ( agriculture ), public hygiene ( health care ), or environment by creating programs targeted to youths to learn in enjoyable wats and bring them back to their homes and communities.

 3. Toshiyuki Takasaki, Kyoto University. "Multilingual community site for NGO volunteers powered by machine translation and human support."

 Abstract :
 Though the Internet technology benefits a lot to human beings, it also accelerates the globalization so that cultural diversity has been under threat with increasing speed. People cannot help using English in international communication via digital media in most cases. However in NGO (Non-government Organization ) field, a language barrier is a big issue especially in Asian countries. In order to solve the issue, a multulingual community site system was prototyped. It is designed for international NGO volunteers to communicate each other, and it has been practically used. It uses a Language Grid technology, which is a semantic Web Service to connect language resources such as machine translators and community dictionaries. It also allows human users to modify the machine translation result. Details of the system and use cases are introduced.

 4. Norizan Abdul Razak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. "Empowering the Rural Communities with ICT : Telecenter Transformation Process."
 Abstract :

 A research was conducted from January 2008 till June 2009 to analyze the effectiveness of e-community projects implemented by various agencies in bridging digital divide. A total of 27 telecenters ( internet access centers at rural communities ) with more than 800 telecenter users were observed to be more sustainable and able to function as one stop center for all e-activities for the rural community. Even though it will be ideal if the telecenters can be self-sustaining financially and central agency involvement and funding can be reduced, the main objectives to increase the ICT literacy among the rural communities and the Internet access for all should not be sidelined. This paper will highlight the challenges in developing a sustainable model for Malaysian telecenters which include the infrastructure and infrostructure, training of the telecenters' managers, management, programs and community involvement. The paper will also document the process involved in transforming these telecenters.

 16:00 - 17:30 Session 2 : "Commitment to Equal Opportunity"
 Session Chair : Dr Yoshinori Sato, Tohoku Gakuin University

 1. Ho Koon Wei ( Sign Language Interpreter Ms. Lucy Lim ) "ELAN software for sign language research."

 Abstract :

 The study of sign languages was initiated around 1960's when William Stokoe did a research on the American Sign Language. This has generated interest and proven to be useful among academia and linguists from many countries who are interested in studying sign language of their country. These studies have made an impact of the deaf education and livelihoods among the Deaf Community in many western countries but still at it's infancy in Asian countries. Besides William Stokoe's notation system, a few other new notation systems have been developed to gloss signs.

 Deaf Malaysians are becoming more aware of their Malaysian Sign Language ( MySL ) heritage. There are varieties of signs for the same meaning due to different locations such as local dialects and names of places. The promotion of Sign Language used in this country has led to an interests in the research of MySL. The University of Malaya MySL Research Project which started in year 2007 aims to establish MySL as a language with its own unique formal structure and functional conventions.

 Until recently there have been limited tools and software programmes in Sign language research. However a substantial body of research on sign language is now available, including the development of e-LAN software for the analysis of sign language. This paper will illustrate the data collection and analysis stage through the use of the E-LAN ( the Eudico Linguistic Annotator ) developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijimegen, the Netherlands for the Malaysians SIgn Language Research project, provide a brief description of e-LAN software and its application to an e-LAN project on Malaysian Sign Language research.

 2. Jalaludin Abdul Malik, Norizan Abdul Razak, and Zaharah Hasson. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. "Towards developing networking ecenomy : E-entrepreneurship program for Malaysia women."

 Abstract :

 In ensuring that the objectives of National Framework on Bridging Digital Divide can be met, 1945 telecenters in all states in Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak have been built to provide access to the Internet and to ensure that the communities' ICT literacy level can be increased. Various programs are being developed and offered to various groups and communities to increase e-participation especially in the e-government services, e-commerce and online activities and to empower the rural and marginalized communities socially and economically via the use of ICT. In line with those said objectives E-Community Research Center, UKM has developed an E-entrepreneurship training program together with various parties such as .Domain Registry, Mdec, and SIRIM to assist Malaysian women entrepreneurs. The training program involves the training on the use of Internet, web design and development, e-catalogues, e-business and uploading and downloading contents for individual women entrepreneurs. The program aims to assist the women entrepreneurs to have the online presence and also to be actively involved in the e-business and network with other entrepreneurs. This paper will discuss the development of that program and the challenges to develop the women entrepreneurs to be e-entrepreneurs.

 3. Faridah Noor Mohd Noor, University of Malaya. "Promoting eCulture Among ASEAN Youths."

 Abstract :

 The need to preserve our cultural heritage has triggered ASEAN to initiate an eculture awareness campaign for youths. Two workshops in Brunei Darussalam were conducted in the months of March and June 2009. We hope to share the experience of facilitating these workshops that demonstrate how eculture can be an infectious way of engaging youths in archving and preserving culture. Youths, in short, find eculture as more challenging and appealing to their creative minds. This way the present generation can tap into their resources to assist us in digitizing our present culture for the future.

 4. Yu Hsin Charles Chuang, Culturemondo Asia-Pacific / TELDAP. "Culturemondo Network X APAN eCulture WG"