Here’s the Singapore government doing its best to keep up with the times — it’s just launched a new agency called the Info-communications Media Authority, or IMDA for short.
It’s exactly what you think it is, in summary — born from the Media Development Authority, as well as parts of the Infocomm Development Authority, the IMDA is an 850-staff-strong agency helmed by second Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Communications and Information Gabriel Lim.
The tech side of the IDA will become another stat board called the Government Technology Agency.
Here’s a quick rundown of what the IMDA is doing:
– It’ll have three key arms —
1) Industry Development
These folks will focus on improving our infocomm and media infrastructure — i.e. improving our
currently not great
Wireless@SG coverage and connectivity, for instance.
They’ll also run initiatives to help companies in this sector with grants or other support to take off from the ground (this’ll be like the PIC grants and other initiatives but for this industry), and organise skills training programmes for individuals hoping to enter the industry — It’ll kinda be like a SkillsFuture specifically for the infocomm and media industry.
2) Regulation
These are the guys who make sure industry players fall in line — their key focus in the coming few years will be to update the Telecommunications, Films and Broadcasting Acts to keep up with how the sector is developing and evolving.
3) Community Outreach
These folks are aiming to bring internet connectivity to lower-income households — the plan is to equip each household with a tablet and four years’ internet connectivity.
This arm will also work toward teaching the less-savvy how to use the internet and benefit from it, with the aim of getting as many Singaporeans connected and benefiting from technology and connectivity as possible.
Additionally, the Personal Data Protection Council will come under IMDA.
Here are some of the things they’re doing to show you how serious the government is with keeping up with the times:
Exhibit A: Virtual Reality social studies lessons in schools
IMDA is working with Beach House Pictures, a media company, to create visual simulations of historical locations and events for students, so that social studies will feel a bit more fun and interactive, and hopefully a bit less like a monotonous
propaganda
exercise.
Exhibit B: Initiative to improve logistics and supply chain processes for shopping malls
Starting with Bedok and Tampines Malls, IMDA has enlisted two companies to come up with systems to schedule and coordinate deliveries of goods at the malls, and pool resources like drivers, vehicles and warehouses, as well as to develop a smart-locking system that can keep goods intact from sender to recipient, in order to reduce delays from counting and re-counting of stock.
Exhibit C: Virtual Reality simulations for medical training
IMDA has enlisted SideEffects Asia Pacific to develop a system using advanced immersive technology like augmented, virtual and mixed reality to produce medical emergency scenarios that can be used to train doctors and medical staff.
Top image of IMDA logo from IMDA’s Facebook page
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