Why I Love KIDANET (aka Fiji ISP Comparisons)

Ok...lets be straight here. First of all, I work with KIDANET as a client so anything I write here should be suspect. There's no way that I can be expected to be impartial when reviewing or commenting on Fiji's Internet service providers, after all. I'll always skew things in the direction of KIDANET. Right? Right. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, lets move on.

There have been a number of informative comparisons of Fiji's ISPs written since Unwired Fiji first came in and offered an alternative to the incumbent, Connect. Most of these comparisons are based on up/down speeds, bandwidth limits, installation costs, etc...those are important data points when making an informed decision but I'm still a HUGE believer that at the end of the day, network performance is the only thing that ultimately matters. That's correct. In Fiji, all that matters is performance and I haven't seen any service that performs as well or as consistently as KIDANET does.

During the past month or two, I've been relying heavily on my connection to keep abreast of the Philadelphia Phillies, my hometown major league baseball team. This season, I subscribed to MLB.TV, the league's online service offering LIVE audio and video feeds of games and a host of other high-bandwidth applications to keep me connected to my team. For the first time in six years, I can safely say that I have actually felt connected to the Phils, too. It's also just my luck that as I write this, the Phillies are on the verge of winning the World Series. One more game, baby...

But I digress...lets talk about our network service options in Fiji.

I am watching LIVE baseball games streamed full screen over my 512k home KIDANET connection. Is it perfect? No...at 512k, the 400k stream I'm watching is probably the minimum speed for which it becomes acceptable. For the World Series which began last week, however, I asked KIDANET to upgrade me to a 1MB connection. As Mark Twain might write, the difference for me is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Merck Donates. Fiji Complains. Media's Fault.

I have been really surprised at the local media's response to Merck Pharmaceutical's Gardasil donation to Fiji. It's entirely possible the real problem here is the media's own treatment of the story. All I seem to hear on the radio, for example, are experts arguing that Merck's donation has been dumped onto Fiji. It peaked in a dangerous piece appearing in Saturday's Fiji Times entitled "Are our girls guinea pigs?".

There have been some more balanced articles written but they all seem to carry an air of danger about them. Maybe it's just more interesting to imagine a boardroom of white executives in suits plotting to take advantage of a developing nation's young girls. No one seems to be asking what Merck would actually gain from that behavior, though.

My daughter is now 11 years old and is of vaccination age. When I first heard of the programme, I researched the vaccine on my own to learn a bit more before agreeing to let my daughter get her shots. I also spoke to a number of family members and friends back in the United States to see whether they had information about the vaccine. Everyone I spoke to confirmed that it was something which had become common and trusted back there. Although it was new, the success rate for the drug is very impressive.

Just because corporate social responsibility (CSR) is fairly non-existent from most businesses in Fiji (with a handful of exceptions, of course), doesn't mean that it doesn't exist elsewhere. Even if Merck has a massive supply of Gardasil nearing expiration, why wouldn't we want to take advantage of it?

This is not a new activity for Merck, either. They often donate their products to developing nations and that's something that I haven't seen referenced or reported locally at all. In fact, the donation is being reported as something which doesn't make any sense. (This line appears in the Fiji Village article: "So how did Fiji get the vaccine which is classified as very expensive, costing about NZ$600 a vial?")

House Plants Now Blogging

A pretty wild technology story coming out of Japan.

Scientists in Kamakura have developed a botanical interface which allows plants to post their "thoughts" online. Apparently, bioelectric currents traveling along the plant's leaves change depending upon what's happening around the plant. Temperature, humidity, vibrations, people nearby, etc. all impact how the plant is feeling. An algorithm was developed to translate those feelings into Japanese sentences.

The first blogging plant is named Midori-san. Visitors can give her a dose of fluorescent light (for which she will promptly thank you). A more complete description of the experiment can found here. Midori herself and her blog can be seen here.

No word yet when they'll turn the comments field on because I disagree with a lot of what Midori-san is writing (especially about greenhouse gases).

Via Kottke

Fiji Times Publishing @ fijitimes.com.fj

I've been supportive of the way the Fiji Times has managed their online environments for some time. I love the convenience of being able to get a preview of business stories, for example, at 10 p.m. (Fiji time) the night before the paper comes out. I like the convenience of browsing through the main stories at 6 a.m. (Fiji time) before I get into the office. 

Sadly, their publishing process is either broken or their management has mandated a change in scheduled publishing because no longer is the Fiji Times available the night before or, as far as I can tell, in the early morning. I first noticed the change about two or three weeks ago.

As I'm writing this on Sunday 12 October at just before 9 a.m, the Fiji Times website is still reflecting yesterday's news. Amazingly, even the Fiji Sun has published their Sunday newspaper by now.

Online newspaper publishing is about timeliness and accuracy. I hope the Fiji Times fixes whatever problem they're having so they can start again at giving their readers what they want. I'm probably not the only one who finds this change disappointing. A publishing schedule IS a website feature. Removing features that your customers/readers have become accustomed to is simply bad web business.

I hope the Fiji Times doesn't ruin what has become a top (and award-winning) news website in Fiji.

New project work : FINTEL

Fintel launched their new brand and vision on 2 October in Suva. As luck would have it, we had been working on a design refresh of their site so the timing was good on the launch. We had to juggle around some UI pieces over the past few weeks to incorporate some of their new corporate colours but it worked out in the end.

Although the site is not a complete revamp as far as content and structure go, the design has been entirely reworked. The site hadn't been changed in a few years so it was definitely a bit overdue.

I think FINTEL will have a very interesting year ahead of them as they morph from an organisation dedicated almost entirely to one service (and just about one client) to an organisation that targets a much larger customer base. I think their new brand (designed by Franklin Design) is a welcome update to a mark which showed some age. Although I never found the old logo unappealing, there is some definite logic behind the components used in the new one. Specifically, you can see the outline of FINTEL's Southern Cross Cable connection throughout the Pacific in the logo.

Branding emerges over time and with all of Fiji's telecommunications industry in a bit of a shake-up right now, it is definitely an interesting opportunity to watch the birth of a new one.

Mailife : MaiCountry

I recently started receiving some SPAM from the United States Democratic Party and although I continually unsubscribe from them, they keep coming. I don’t know how my email address ended on their list but it wasn’t welcome, not because of their message but simply because I didn’t need to be convinced that it was a better position than those of the Republican Party.

It was almost six years ago when I moved to Fiji from the United States. At the time, the culture of fear which gripped that country in the shadow of the September 11th attacks was pretty thick and the mobilisation for more violence was everywhere. I remember a disagreement with someone I used to work with concerning the war-mongering view America was taking to the rest of the world. His stated opinion was that we had no choice but to kill and destroy in order to show the world that America would not sit back and be attacked without severe consequences. Although I was as furious, shocked and distressed by the 9/11 attacks as anyone, something didn’t gel with me insofar as the direction the US was headed and I told him so. His response?

“If you’re not happy, you can leave.”

So that’s what I did.

Prisons Online

We do pro-bono work every now and then at Oceanic for organisations that we support. Today, we launched a project for the Fiji Prisons and Correctional Service which has been in the works for about six months. The site can be found at:

http://www.corrections.org.fj

In addition to working with staff from the Prisons Department, we also worked closely with one of the inmates who has been instrumental in developing content. There are still some content holes but the Prison Department now has a very functional foundation from which to build their online communications. It's an amazing organisation which is implementing some world-class programmes and we're really lucky to be involved. Keep your eye on the site to follow their progress.