Khon Kaen May 1-13 faculty training

This story actually starts about mid-April, when my remaining time as Fulbright was running short. l had worked pretty had to develop the entrepreneurship curriculum and the materials for the online resource center. The research data was starting to indicate that online learning was not going to be the best path, at least in the Mukdahan/Savannakhet region. The main campus expressed a lot of interest in a single sign-on Moodle/Google Apps set-up, which we demonstrated successfully. Still, online learning didn't appear to be a wise investment of time so I set out to learn more by interviewing faculty and small business owners. 

During the second week of April I visited the main campus in Ubon. They invited me to visit for the Faculty of Computer Science "demo day." It was strikingly similar to the demo days we host at FSU. And the projects included software engineered remote-controlled automated watering systems, a 3-D game programmed using the Microsoft Kinect, and several apps.Dr. Guide and his group are so kind -- after they learned that I was interviewing people for my research they also arranged interviews with three or four faculty. I managed to make contact with two others through a group l met in Ubon. I had a lot of fun with several people I met who are working on the Google-Thailand team. We wore crazy hats and posed for photos to help promote Google -- It was great fun.

[ IMAGE HERE ].

The people I met at the demo day connected me to acquaintances they have at Khon Kaen University (KKU)-- graduate computer science students and a computer science professor. The demo day turned out to be somewhat of a jackpot, a brilliant stroke of luck really. In retrospect, there is a laundry list of reasons why KKU seems like the place I SHOULD have gone to for my Fulbribght project -- not to suggest that online learning would be a more widely used resource in Khon Kaen than other locations. The simple fact is that Thai people live in a collectivistic society. Online leaning requires a certain set of styles; independent learning, technology-oriented, proclivity for reading and writing -- none of which, in their own way, mesh well with Thai culture. At the same time, I thought that I might learn a great deal. Khon Kaen is home to the Isaan software park, the university has a center for software innovation, Microsoft has a presence on campus and there is an established ICT entrepreneur group in town. When compared to other regions of Thailand, Khon Kaen is a hotspot for software entrepreneurs. 

I met with the VP of Technology at Khon Kaen University I the morning of my first day in  town. [ IMAGE ]. We toured around campus and visited teh "Net Zero" building where all of the university's media communications are managed. That evening I wandered through the absolutely enormous night market downtown. It was an easy walk from my hotel so that was great. [ IMAGE ]. The next morning I found the day market, which is spread out across a couple of buildings and outdoor venues covered by corrugated tin roofing. Oh the food -- curries, meats, fish, seafood, grilled food -- but by far the fresh fruit was the best. By this point of my life in Thailand, I had fallen in love with Som-ooh - lobes of Grapefruit meat with gleua prick (salt & chili pepper dip).

The next day I visited the Faculty of Science, computer science department. I met the interim dean of the College and several other faculty. When they started to learn more about eh entrepreneurship research, they invited me to return the next week to deliver 2 days of entrepreneurship training. That was a surprise. They asked me what I wanted in return - I replied that I only wanted to be cash neutral so that if my transportation (fuel) and hotel costs were paid then I could agree. They were so kind. Their counter offer was all of the above and a handsome hourly rate. I stayed in the Pullman -- arguably among best hotels in Khon Kaen.

The 2 day session was great fun. We did a pitch competition, prototype and team presentations. The students and faculty put a lot of work into their ideas. I believe that the KKU computer science students are on a whole other level when it comes to software entrepreneurship. It was a refreshing joy to teach at KKU. At the same time, it was amazing to see 80% of the teams work on garden maintenance, food and tourism. While there are great topics to explore for some kind of electronic/ICT support, application development or ICT service business the results were labor-intensive business models. Where are the apps? Why so many restaurants and coffee shops? Nothing made the GEM survey data more real than this experience. I never expected the data patterns would be blatantly apparent in practice -- and while mine is a smaller sample (two workshops and a semester long seminar), the pattern is remarkably similar -- few ICT startup ideas.