Now all information on Thailand just a mouse-click away

Now, accessing any information about Thai culture, history, art, tourism and academic research is just a mouse click away for the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) has completed “Digitised Thailand,” a project that marks the collaboration of several organisations.

The project has developed Thailand’s national digital archives by collecting and transforming all physical data scattered around the nation into digital form and allowing people at all levels to gain access to an enormous wealth of knowledge at any time and from anywhere over the Internet.

“The content goes beyond what have seen in video or audio content and Nectec will not cover the entertainment area, but will focus on knowledge-based content,” Nectec director Dr Pansak Siriruchatapong said.

The three-year project, which will be run from now until 2010, will start by collecting Thai-based data available on the Internet and will put it into the archive which concentrates on mainly five spheres of Thailand, namely, knowledge, language, culture, history and tribes. Apart from this, Nectec has also developed an encyclopaedia and dictionaries such as Thai-Japanese, Thai-Lanna and Thai-Malayoo so far.

In addition, Nectec has conducted pilot projects to develop digital content, starting by collecting data and knowledge related to Thai herbs under a project called “Knowledge Unifying Initiator for Herbal Information” (KUIHerb). This will be a herbal information resource that includes information about local medicines, photos, videos, medicine recipes and prescriptions and information about poisonous substances.

Dr Virach said, “We hope that once Thai-based data is converted and put into the digital archive, the country will have an enormous database that can be developed into sustainable knowledge and this will be invaluable information source, which will not only stimulate Thais to improve their self-learning but preserve Thai culture and offer new opportunities for business development.”