This is a new kind of summer camp in Phuket, one that has far-reaching implications for the government's plan to bolster information and computer technology (ICT) in Thailand. Dozens of Thai school kids mostly between the ages of 9 and 12 take up spots at computer workstations in Phuket City's brand-new ICT Skill Development and Learning Centre, among the Sapan Hin sports complex.




A teacher guides them through exercises meant to build computer literacy, so that eventually they might dream up their own computer projects and send them out on the internet for student-peers and teachers to use.




This late-March event is sponsored by Oracle, the world's second-largest software company in total sales after Microsoft. But the Oracle executives in the building aren't pitching databases and customer relationship management applications. Instead, they're bringing teachers together to talk about motivating students to learn about ICT.




"Rather than us coming in, we try to get people with direct experience to conduct the training, and I think that's a lot more useful," says Sudhisak Chanchamnong, business development director for Oracle Thailand.




Earlier in the day, during a Power Point demonstration, Khun Sudhisak explained to a small group of teachers that in 2002, Thailand ranked among the first countries in Asia where the Oracle Education Foundation introduced its Think.com educational website initiative and ThinkQuest international competition. Most of the focus since then has been on schools in Bangkok and camps in the north. This year, however, the programme is expanding considerably with Oracle-sponsored camps in Chiang Rai, Phuket, Kong Kaen and Rayong.




For Panupong Wanjantuk, director of Phuket's ICT Centre, the Think.com camp is a big deal for Phuket--and it's exactly in line with the centre's core mission.




Constructed in a building that housed a former youth centre, the ICT Centre opened in December 2007 with 118 computers; both for general use and for computer instruction. The national Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) and Phuket municipality shared in the 25 million baht cost, with SIPA providing computer hardware. Two open areas are found downstairs, with banks of computers all connected to the internet via content-filtered gateways to protect users from viewing inappropriate material. A technology oriented library is at one end next to adjoining classrooms or seminar spaces. The upstairs has a large conference facility.




"We try to do activities that give people knowledge," Khun Panupong says. "One thing we do is to invite students from local schools for 3-hour training sessions on how to use the internet in the right way. We try to do activities that extend from the class. Some schools don't have ICT programmes, and so we teach programmes focusing on things like animation or robotics."




Panupong looks the part of the quintessential ICT professional wearing casual slacks and a polo shirt, the standard uniform in Silicon Valley, Singapore and Bangalore. He speaks carefully and directly. Having earned his doctorate from Manchester University in England, he now splits his time managing the Phuket ICT centre and managing another ICT Centre in Kong Kaen. He's also a lecturer at Kong Kaen University and director of the E-Saan Software Park, a programme organised by the university to foster regional ICT expertise.




"The way to develop the software industry is by first developing manpower," he says. "In the university, we try to convince people to get certified to international standards. We also help entrepreneurs who want to set up business here ... and we invite investment from other parts of Thailand.




"Second," he continues, "we try to be a promoter of research and development in ICT in the university. This last one is to provide knowledge. If people know ICT well, they will develop the software they need to use in the future."




In other words, knowledge creates demand for new ICT products. Hopefully, demand for ICT products in turn will create Thailand-based businesses that want to provide them.




For Panupong, the main areas of opportunity for Thailand's ICT industry lie in entreprise software (such as business databases and information management systems), animation, embedded systems (such as computer components built into other products, like automobiles) and mobile tech (like cell phones and handheld computers).




"Those are the need areas," he says. "I can't identify what is the main product, but if we can identify it by sector, software for the private sector versus software for government, the need is 60% for the private sector and 40% for government."




Somewhere in the room for Oracle's Think Camp, Panupong believes, some students may learn something about ICT that inspires them to study computer engineering in college and create a software product that's needed in Thailand. Part of his job is to find advanced students and give them learning challenges.




"If we see those kinds of students, we ask them to learn advanced techniques," he says. "We talk to their schools to find out who's the best in the school and ask them to send them here."




That's also the motivation behind Think Camp, explains Sudhisak. Advanced students may not have peers within their own schools, so Think.com and the ThinkQuest competition encourage collaboration among people from different schools and even from different nations.




In this year's ThinkQuest competition, which challenges students aged 9-19 to develop educational website projects, Sudhisak says 6 teams from Thailand have registered their projects. Next year, perhaps, that number may rise, as students return to classes after a summer break when they attended one of 4 Think Camps or spent time learning about animation or robotics at Phuket's ICT Center.