Open

Forum

Information

eXchange

 

The Open Forum of Cambodia 
House 245, Street 51 
Phnom Penh / Cambodia 
  
FaxPhone: (+855)(23)360 345 
Email: system@forum.org.kh 

Our History

The Open Forum Information Exchange has the longest history as an e-mail service in Cambodia. It was started in early 1994 in order to make it possible for a staff member of the Ministry of Agriculture to receive a scholarship for a two years Master of Science program jointly sponsored by the Universities of Oxford/UK, Uppsala/SWEDEN and the Agricultural University of Ho Chi Minh City/VIETNAM. While the students worked for the six initial and for the six final months together in Vietnam and in Sweden respectively, everyone had to return to their own country for the twelve months field research in the middle of the program. Their work during this period was guided by e-mail correspondence with their supervisors in an international team of scholars from different countries. 

Mr. Khieu Borin, an Agricultural Technician and staff member of the Ministry of Agriculture, returned in mid June 1996 to Cambodia with an internationally recognized diploma as a Master of Science. An UUCP e-mail link, specifically created for him, made this possible. 
 

Challenges and Developments

Once a daily link had been established for the needs of one person it was only natural to extend this service to a wider community. It was necessary to overcome tremendous technical difficulties. The telephone system in Cambodia consists of a combination of failure prone old lines and mechanical exchanges, but also of  several cellular phone systems - unfortunately with totally overloaded gateways between the different systems. As there are frequent daily interruptions in the supply of electricity, a stable power supply had to be created: two 12 V truck batteries of 200 Ah each, connected to a 12 V DC to 110 V AC inverter, and a 110 V to 220 V transformer supply the electricity for the server, the modem, and the non-mobile cellular telephone. Users can call in whenever they have electricity at their site, while the electricity supply of the server has not been interrupted during the last two years. 

On the other hand there was a dire need to provide new means of communication and access to information after more than two decades of war and isolation. The Open Forum of Cambodia, a Cambodian Non-Government Organization contributing to social development by facilitating communication between different sectors of Cambodian society, provided a genuine space for the further growth of this e-mail link by making it a department of its work under the programmatic name Open Forum Information Exchange with the following goal: 

To provide Cambodian institutions - government and non-government - and other institutions or individuals working in cooperation or support with Cambodian institutions with access to information and communication which: 
 

  • improves technical understanding of issues relevant to development and policy in Cambodia 
  • facilitates rapid broad distribution of information among persons with related concerns 
  • promotes debate about options for handling development and policy issues
  • allows rapid private electronic mail communication within Cambodia 
  • contributes to building a stronger civil society in Cambodia 
After one year of public operation, more than 100 public institutions or their staff members - government ministries and Cambodian and foreign non-government organizations - use the Open Forum Information Exchange. About 50 more future users are waiting for the transition from a one telephone line system to a multi-tasking operation, planned for the near future. 

written in November 1996