The library is not just a place for reading books. It also for learning and experiencing different types of learning – and that’s why Singapore’s Tampines Regional Library reopened in August 2017 with a new concept and redesigned to facilitate and encourage users to interact with the library itself.

Recently, Asean journalists visited the Tampines Regional Library to see how to implement a new-era library and to apply Singapore’s national approach of helping lead an inclusive and informed digital Asean.

The library has five floors, very long floors the length of a football field, and is part of Tampines Hub, the first of its kind in Singapore. It is the integrated services hub for the island nation’s citizen, providing different facilities for residents, as well as providing a hub for government agency offices. In addition to the library, there are also a swimming pool, local football club, community centre, food centre and supermarket.

Tampines Regional Library serves about 3,500 people on weekdays, and double that on weekends. It is one of 26 national libraries in Singapore, serving as a regional library for the largest region, the east. There are three regional library in Singapore, each boasting 10,900 square metres.

Lynn Koh, the manager of Tampines Regional Library, said the facility works under the concept of “Don’t read the same things! Please try different books”. Tampines offers 400,000 books, 347 magazine titles, and 16,800 audio-visual items to induce people to spend time discovering something new. A lifelong library membership is free for Singapore citizens, while foreigner pay an annual membership fee of 42.80 Singapore dollars.

Self-services

As the entry floor has heavy foot traffic, Level 2 hosts a more general collection, along with transaction kiosks, and book check-out stations. Many transaction kiosks in the library are self-service, with the library encouraging users to find things themselves as well as check them out. In fact, users can largely bypass traditional library desks by using a mobile app to make payments, register for membership, borrow items, and search for and register in programmes.

A digital directory is located on every floor. It gives users a map of the whole library, making it easy to find what they’re seeking. They can search different levels and also search for the best route to the book or programme they seek. The kiosk also allows users to download a map to their mobile phone. Because the library is so big, it hopes to facilitate self-navigation.

It offers some 24-hour services in a round-the-clock lobby and an outside book-drop that takes books borrowed from any of the system’s libraries. And “reservation lockers” to put a hold on items has enabled users to pick up the item at any time – even when the library is closed.

Mobile Bookdrop

Tampines Regional Library is the first of its kind to implement a “bookdrop robot”, a bookdrop machine embedded with electromagnetic radio frequency identification (RFID).

Users can return books through the machine. Once it is full, the robot will automatically “walk”, following a magnetic strip on the floor embedded with QR Code, as it travels to return books to the main sorting area. When it arrives in the sorting area, it will send a signal to the sorting room to alert staff to replace the bin.

Librarians can also detect where the robot is along its route. At the book-sorting area, library staff will put the books into an “auto-sorter” machine that arranges the books for return to their proper shelves. The auto-sorter is a computerised system that mechanically sorts returned items into specific categories for easy shelving by staff and service partners. The machine uses data analytics to identify popular titles for staff to place on the “Just Returned’” shelves.

This is the first and only Singapore library to boast a “bookdrop” robot, which was just added in December 2017. It plans to roll out more in the other libraries.

Dedicated design for all

Koh noted that the Tampines Regional Library is designed to serve all people with an inclusive community space. The library is laid out so that Level 2 is has the more general collections including magazines and cookbooks, Level 3 serves young children, Level 4 is for older children and teenagers, Level 5 is for adult collections including non-fiction books, while Level 6 features quiet reading areas.

Shelves on Level 3, display books with their cover facing out to better attract children and make it easier for them to flip through and pick up the books they like. It also includes books for parents to read to babies aged zero to three years old.

It also offers four Tumble Book e-book reading stations, where a machine reads the book to children.

“One of objective of the library is to make it an attractive place for Singaporeans and library users to come to visit,” said Koh.

Anybody, including tourists, are welcome to visit and use the library, including finding a book and reading it there without charge – until, they want to borrow the book, at which point people apply for a library membership and pay the annual fee.

“It also offers an outdoor reading garden for teenagers who want to hang out and make a bit more noise rather than keeping quiet all the time,” said Koh.

The library also engages its users with social media, using hashtag #librarysgteens to showcase recommended books for teens. Teens can post their own content on Instagram or Twitter with hashtag #librarysgteens to engage with the library and their friends. They can post their activities in the library, respond to questions posed by the library, post what they are reading and so on.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Tampines also boasts a Culinary Studio, a cooking studio in the library managed by the People’s Association (PA). It is the first time that the library system has integrated its cookery collection with PA’s Culinary Studio. In addition to holding cooking classes, NLB supplements the space with a digital display of recommended reads and videos to facilitate learning.

Creative Space: Pixel Labs

Tampines Regional Library also offers users the Pixel Labs “Making Space”, a collaboration between National Library Board (NLB) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

It provides users with the equipment to create prototypes of new things. Pixel Labs aims to inspire people to “do” rather than just to “see”, participating in the act of creation and moving beyond the traditional library approach of consuming information. It is a chance to apply information to a problem, to test out a prototype or work on a hobby or area of interest..

Users will find a dedicated space with tools and supplies that enable individuals to learn, create, invent, network and share skills and knowledge. Tools and equipment such as 3D printers and microcontrollers enable onsite tinkering in the library.

Programmes are jointly arranged by NLB and IMDA for general library users, covering both tech and non-tech areas, including hands-on workshop for students and families; programmes for young children, adults and seniors, and also tech-related talks for the public and crafting sessions for makers.

The Enabling Village is an inclusive community space that brings under one roof a range of facilities and services for persons with disabilities.

Within the 30,000 square-metre village, visitors will find three key services – a community facility that promotes integration of persons with disabilities, a focal point for training and employment, and a showcase of accessibility and universal design, assistive technology for disabilities.

The Enabling Village is both a community and a space. The goal is to create a place where people with different abilities can move independently, where they can feel accepted for who they are and be valued for their contributions.

It is a community space combining retail, lifestyle and training in an all-accessible public space.

Tech Able

The Enabling Village is home to Tech Able, an integrated assistive technology space.

An initiative by SG Enable and SPD, Tech Able provides assistive device assessment services while doubling as a technology showcase.

It also offers a workspace to collaborate with other innovators, makers and marketers. They can test their ideas and products with both able-bodied and disabled users. Tech Able’s experiential space allows for testing products for the visually- and hearing-impaired in a fully-equipped soundproof and lightproof room. It also has a communications lab and an assistive technologies showroom.

It provides an independent living showcase where visitors can see universal design and assistive technologies in the context of a simulated living and working space. This helps users with disabilities make informed decisions about assistive technologies for their offices and home.

Thais are turning to technology, including through Facebook, to create social good and to help each other online – with real-world impacts.

Currently, nearly 1 million active Facebook Groups have been created by Thai people. For example, Help Us Read is a community of more than 11,000 volunteers and visually impaired Thais. Using text-to-audio features on their mobile devices, visually impaired members are able to “read” content that helps them in their daily lives.

Natwut Amornvivat, co-founder and administrator of Help Us Read, said the group was established with a sense of community and support for blind people in Thailand, who often struggle to find the basic help they need each day.

“Today, our community of more than 11,000 people connects visually impaired members with volunteers who are willing to be their ‘eyes’,” said Natwut. “We rely on the tools available on Facebook to help visually impaired members ‘read’ content, such as food labels, books and even describe pictures or cards from their children. This helps bring real value and impact to their lives. We’re now excited to extend our community into other countries.”

Since Facebook is accessible by the visually impaired, Natwut changed his mind from his original idea of developing an app to serve that community, and instead turned to Facebook and started Help Us Read. Immediately, within the first week of launch, there were 700 to 800 volunteers participating on the page. That has now reached 10,000 volunteers, with someone available 24 hours daily, seven days a week to help by reading drug labels or other information.

“It is kindness blended with technology,” said Natwut. “Facebook is the bridge that links these two different groups together, the blind and people with ‘normal’ vision.”

Cholatip Yimyong, co-founder and administrator of Help Us Read, said she found Help Us Read on Facebook four years ago.

Another socially useful Facebook group is Run2gether, a community of more than 28,000 people. It organises mini-marathons to promote the inclusion and equality of non-disabled and disabled people. Facebook serves as the platform for participants to connect and share their experiences.

Chatchai Aphibanpoonpon, the Group and Page Administrator of Run2gether, said the group serves a community of runners with disabilities. Set up for four years ago, the objective of Run2gether is to invite visually impaired and disabled people to get exercise by running.

Chatchai has always worked closely with blind people and found that many of them are overweight. This led to the idea of inviting them to run. But those with strong visual challenges need partners to run with them and cannot run alone. And that’s where the Run2gether initiative fitted in.

“At the first event of Run2gether, mini-marathons, we had 12 blind people and 12 volunteers running together. They had a ‘shared experience’ and became friends. Able-bodied people now have disabled friends, and they will always be thinking of their disabled friends,” said

Chatchai. He used Facebook as a platform to connects able-bodied community members to those with disabilities, as well as a place to share the experience and to connect.

And the idea may be catching on – a Run2gether event and community page has opened for Bulgaria.

Arnun Chantan, or Lek, a member of Run2gether, said that he became disabled because of disease. When he came across Run2gether three years ago he was not able to even walk, but has now turned his life around and is running. In fact, he is now a full-marathon runner, able to cover 42 kilometres.

Then there is the HandUp Network, a community of more than 5,000 connecting skilled professionals with non-government organisations (NGOs) to help the groups learn the skills needed to scale their operations and create greater impact.

Thunhavich Thitiratsakul, project manager of HandUp Network, said it has provided a place for everyone who can contribute their skills to help others. The HandUp Network in 2015 debuted on Facebook, and has helped 27 society organisations in Thailand.

Facebook for society 

John Wagner, managing director of Facebook Thailand said that one of the social site’s missions is to support communities, to help them achieve growth and fully realise their digital aspirations.

“Facebook is a platform connecting people and creating shared value,” he said, pointing to the more than 1 million Facebook Groups created by Thais. “We are inspired by the amazing communities developing within Thailand’s digital society.” Many of the million groups aim to create a positive social impact.

Facebook is committed to amplifying the social value created by Thai communities with local programmes, he said. For example, Facebook has teamed up with C-Asean to conduct a series of training sessions and workshops aimed at helping social enterprises in Thailand gain critical skills to grow their operations.

THAILAND’S DATA protection bill, approved by the Cabinet earlier this week, is falling short of the benchmark set by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, especially in terms of protecting Thai citizens’ right to their online data, according to the Thai Netizen Network.

Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the network, said a major issue is that the proposed national committee on data protection, which will be in charge of protecting the rights of Thai citizens, will not be independent enough since most committee members will be state officials and representatives of private sector bodies.

In addition, this crucial committee is under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’s (MDES) jurisdiction, so committee members will not have the autonomy enjoyed by those sitting on the National Human Rights Commission or the previous National Broadcasting and Telecom Commission, he said.

The proposed national committee also has members who are users of the people’s online data, including representatives of the Thai Bankers’ Association and Federation of Thai Industries and the Board of Trade, so there is a potential conflict of interest as far as protecting citizens’ online data is concerned.

The National Committee on Digital Economy and Society, chaired by deputy premier Prajin Juntong, yesterday held a meeting to discuss enforcement of the EU law, which was implemented worldwide yesterday. Dr Pichet Durongkaveroj, the Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said earlier the government is speeding up enactment of the Thai data protection bill to ensure that the country has a legal framework to work with the EU on this matter.

There were also reports that the Cabinet-approved bill may need some changes so that it is up to date when compared with the EU law, especially in terms of punitive measures covering data leaks and breaches.

The EU law’s enforcement also has consequences for Thailand and other countries that deal with EU citizens. In Thailand, tourism and related businesses, financial services, and healthcare are among the sectors required to take steps to comply with the EU law, or they may face punitive measures if there are data leaks and breaches involving EU customers.

According to Arthit of the Thai Netizens’ Network, the government should consider upgrading the composition of the national committee on data protection to ensure that they are better qualified to do their duty to protect the rights of citizens’ online data.

The EU has said that its data protection law, which was enacted in 2016, is designed to allow citizens to take back control of personal information held online. Brussels has insisted that the law will become a global benchmark for the protection of people’s online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal, according to AFP.

AFP also reported that some US news websites were blocked by the EU data law yesterday after the law took effect, with the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel websites all displaying the same message that they could not be accessed.

“Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries,” the message read. “We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”

The blocked websites are all owned by media company Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing. Local US newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, including the St Louis Post Dispatch and Arizona Daily Sun, were also out of reach.

“We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area, including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and therefore cannot grant you access at this time,” its website said.

According to AFP, the EU rules were officially adopted two years ago, with a grace period until now to adapt to them, but some companies have been slow to act, resulting in a last-minute scramble.

The new phone comes with smart features for the 4.0 era and is being offered by HMD Global at the second Thailand Mobile Expo 2018 until May 28 at booth PL3, Plenary Hall at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

With a familiar and easy-to-user interface, the 8110 4G features intuitive tactile mechanics, with slide to answer and end calls, as well as an addictive helicopter-style spin on its axis.

For more information visit www.facebook.com/NokiamobileTH/และwww.nokia.com/th_th/phones

The groups created a website, and a Facebook page, to garner support for a petition to the US Federal Trade Commission to require the social media firm to spin off Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger into competing networks, and to “impose strong privacy rules.”

The effort was launched by a handful of groups focusing on digital rights, privacy and other social causes.

“Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have amassed a scary amount of power,” the groups said on their website.

“Facebook unilaterally decides the news that billions of people around the world see every day. It buys up or bankrupts potential competitors to protect its monopoly, killing innovation and choice. It tracks us almost everywhere we go on the web and, through our smartphones, even where we go in the real world.”

The effort comes with Facebook under fire in the US and elsewhere over the hijacking of private user data on some 87 million users, adding to concerns on how internet platforms were manipulated to spread misinformation during the 2016 US election.

Responding to the campaign, a company spokesman said Facebook “is in a competitive environment where people use our apps at the same time they use free services offered by many others.”

The spokesman said in an emailed statement that “the average person uses eight different apps to communicate and stay connected.”

Chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg told a US congressional panel last month that it “doesn’t feel like” Facebook is a monopoly.

Facebook has an estimated two billion users worldwide, and its Messenger and Whatsapp messaging services each have more than one billion.

Any breakup would require a lengthy investigation by US authorities and a potentially long court battle as well.

The latest campaign was launched by the activist organizations Demand Progress, MoveOn, and SumOfUs, along with the groups Citizens Against Monopoly, Jewish Voice for Peace and Muslim Grassroots Movement.

It comes as Zuckerberg prepared to appear before European Parliament members to answer questions on the data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, which obtained Facebook user data while working on the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.

It is going to be an important match for both countries as they seek a solid foundation to reach the knockout round. In Group D, Indonesia finds itself up against Malaysia, France and record 14-title holder and defending champion China.

Susy Susanti, head of sport development for the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), said her team was ready to fight for a spot in the next round.

“The strategy for the [opening] match is based on head-to-head between players [of Indonesia and Malaysia],” Susy said on Sunday, adding that the association had decided who would play whom based on their respective condition.

The cup applies a best-of-match match — three singles and two doubles — with a tradition of sending off a country’s top player to open the match.

Indonesian Fitriani, world number 39, has a chance to play world number 31 Goh Jin Wei in Monday’s opener.

Susy said the world ranking would not affect the match, as she believed the individual player’s readiness was more significant when it comes to playing on the court.

“They are on the same level. They have beaten each other in previous matches. Now, it depends on their readiness, bravery and confidence when they step onto the court.

“We are optimistic, although we know it will be a tough match,” added the Indonesian legend, who helped the country win the cup in 1994 and 1996.

Indonesia, a three-time title holder, has been struggling to return to the top level after the 1996 victory. In the previous cup in 2016, Indonesia lost in the quarterfinals.

The Queqiao (“Magpie Bridge”) satellite was blasted into space from the southwestern Xichang launch centre in the pre-dawn hours, according to the China National Space Administration.

The satellite split from its carrier, a Long March-4C rocket, after 25 minutes and unfolded its solar panels and communication antennas, as it headed towards its destination, the CNSA said.

“The launch is a key step for China to realise its goal of being the first country to send a probe to soft-land on and rove the far side of the Moon,” Zhang Lihua, manager of the relay satellite project, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The satellite will relay communications between controllers on Earth and the far side of the moon, where the Chang’e-4 lunar probe — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — will be sent later this year.

Also known as the “dark side” of the Moon, the far hemisphere is never directly visible from Earth and while it has been photographed, with the first images appearing in 1959, it has never been explored.

The Chang’e-4 rover will be sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region, according to Xinhua.

It will be the second Chinese probe to land on the Moon, following the Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”) rover mission in 2013.

At first, the Yutu looked destined to fail when the rover stopped sending signals back to Earth.

But then it made a dramatic recovery, ultimately surveying the Moon’s surface for 31 months, well beyond its expected lifespan.

The CNSA is planning to send another lunar rover, Chang’e-5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.

China is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of sending humans to the Moon in the near future.

Sompoat Chansomboon, managing director of dtac accelerate, said the top 11 were selected from over 500 start-ups pitching to Thailand’s top nine start-up mentors.

The standard of presentations by start-ups has dramatically improved on several fronts, he said. Teams had done their research in market validation to make sure there was market demand for their product, ensuring product-market fit that validates the product through garnering the first 100 customers, and “growth hacking” that aims to expand the business to potentially reach one million customers.

Most of the start-ups included team members who are domain experts in the industry and have a good understanding of problems or pain points.

For example, there were many doctors or medical professionals involved in the health tech start-ups, including Doctor A-Z, whose co-founder is a doctor.

Teams had also started to adopt new tools, such as AI and machine learning. Women made up more than 50 per cent of founders or co-founders of this year’s start-up teams, which is significantly higher than previous years.

All finalists will receive seed funding ranging from Bt500,000 to Bt1.5 million per team, along with commercialisation support from DTAC worth more than Bt100 million. They will also participate in an intensive boot camp that will run from this month through to August.

All finalists will participate in an intensive boot camp with respected mentors, including Nir Eyal, whose “Hooked Model” is behind Facebook and Instagram’s success, and Hai Habot, one of the world’s top “Objectives and Key Results (OKR” experts.

The final pitch and the announcement of winners will take place on “Demo Day” in August.

The programme will also provide tools from global partners, such as Google Cloud, Facebook, Microsoft Tencent Cloud, and AWS and commercialisation support worth over Bt100 million from DTAC and fellow companies under Telenor Group in 13 markets.

“The 11 finalists bring what dtac accelerate is looking for – creativity, business innovations to the Mobile Internet Ecosystem, and new-concept lifestyle applications to improve the quality of life of the Thai people,” said Sompoat.

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Eleven start-up finalists

1 Kohlife – Travel and transportation. To plan and book all ground transportation, as well as flight, activities and events in Thailand and worldwide.

2 Zwiz.AI – AI, business services. The first AI chatbot platform, allows quick access to AI chatbot and analytics tools.

3 PenguinT – Travel tech. Brings the best options from local travel agencies to mobiles through a chat channel.

4 Kochii – Entertainment tech. Platform to help gamers improve their skills.

5 Event Banana – Real estate tech. Online platform for property owners to rent and promote their under-utilised spaces, and for customers to easily find and book spaces for their meetings and events.

6 GoWabi – Beauty tech with a mobile app. Offers special deals for spa and beauty services.

7 Ooca – Health tech. Online platform connects patients and psychologists via video calls.

8 Somjai Home Loan – Property tech. A one-stop home loans application service for property

developers.

9 CareerVisa – Education tech. Platform offers personalised career development to explore career choices with mentors, set career goal, identify and close skill gaps and land a job.

10 Noburo – Fin tech. Lending-as-a-service platform enables easy lending by businesses to customers.

11 Doctor A-Z – Health tech. Platform matches medical tourism surgical patients to accredited hospital and specialist doctors.

To reduce their exposure, the study indicated that the majority of companies are being more selective in the data they collect and manage, with 70 per cent disposing of data ahead of the deadline for compliance.

Companies’ preparation for GDPR comes in the wake of increased scrutiny from consumers on businesses’ management of personal data.

A separate poll of 10,000 consumers, conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of IBM, found that only 20 per cent of US consumers completely trust organisations they interact with to maintain the privacy of their data.

In the weeks leading up to the May 25 enforcement date, IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) surveyed over 1,500 business leaders responsible for GDPR compliance for organisations around the world.

The results reveal how companies are approaching GDPR as an opportunity to build further trust with customers and to help drive innovation.

For example, 84 per cent believe that proof of GDPR compliance will be seen as a positive differentiator to the public, while 76 per cent said that GDPR will enable more trusted relationships with data subjects that will create new business opportunities. Despite this opportunity, only 36 per cent believe they will be fully compliant with GDPR by the May 25 deadline.

Kittipong Asawapichayon, country manager, Software Group, IBM Thailand said that GDPR will be one of the biggest disruptive forces impacting business models across industries – and its reach extends far beyond the EU borders.

“The onset of GDPR also comes during a time of huge distrust among consumers toward businesses ability to protect their personal data. These factors together have created a perfect storm for companies to rethink their approach to data responsibility and begin to restore the trust needed in today’s data-driven economy,” said Kitipong.