Bhutan takes quick steps to digitisation
For computer engineer Philip Smith, connecting Bhutan to the world wide web was just another task, but it was a quantum leap for the Bhutanese. Since then information technology has progressed by leaps and bounds and has helped locals to share their unique culture.
“I see website and email addresses on the signboards of shops now, back then it was just the telephone numbers,” said Philip Smith. “I’m happy to have been a part of this.”
- Paul Smith/ Photo credit: Kuensel
In 1999, Bhutan went online. The man who connected Bhutan was Philip Smith.
Some time in March of 1999, Philip, a computer engineer, received a phone call. He was to connect Bhutan to the world by June 2, less than three months away.
Philip downplayed his role. “There was already a project underway,” he said, and the necessary equipment like servers and routers already in place. He simply made sure the people handling the equipment knew what they were doing, so that a connection could be established and maintained to the web, allowing Bhutanese access to the world.
Although establishing internet connections for service providers like Bhutan Telecom (BT) was nothing new to Philip, he said, “but it was the first time I was bringing a country online.”
From a technical point of view, it was nothing different, he said. But from a personal perspective, he said he was happy to facilitate a new form of communication that would allow the Bhutanese to show the world their unique culture.
Eleven years after he introduced the internet to Bhutan, Philip, who has been returning periodically ever since, said that “progress has been amazing.”
Currently involved in a five-day program with Bhutanese information communications technology operators in Paro, he observed that Bhutanese operators were “hungry” for the more sophisticated aspects of networking. “Ten years ago, I was only teaching the basic functions,” he said.
But Philip wants to know more about how the internet has impacted Bhutanese society. “There are a lot of implications, on how people’s perceptions change,” he said, “it’s a shame no one has done a study.”
On why, he himself had not done a study, especially with his personal connection to Bhutan, he replied, “no time.” Philip said he usually has around 300 emails he has to read through almost on a daily basis. Such a task would be better suited for a sociologist, he said.
Until such a study, Philip will have to do with only seeing the changes on the surface of an internet connected Bhutanese society, that he helped create.
