It is not too big a claim to say Trin Tantsetthi, president and CEO of Thailand's largest Internet service provider, Internet Thailand (Inet), has influenced the history and development of the Internet in the Kingdom.

He was a pioneer who brought Thailand recognition in the Internet world almost two decades ago, when the Internet was still something of a mystery to most of us but when many countries were already taking an active role and parcelling out cyberspace.

In 1990, when countries were jostling to have their languages accepted as Internet standard languages, or Unicode Standard, it seemed that Trin was one of just a few people in Thailand who knew anything about it.

At the time, he was a language engineer for the international computer company Digital Equipment (Thailand), or DEC. He oversaw about 200 languages in Southeast and South Asia and was able to keep track of global activities related to the Unicode Standard.

He was also a member of a subcommittee of the Thailand Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) and, with the support of Thammasat University IT Prof Thaweesak Koanantakool and National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) director Pairash Thajchayapong, pushed for acceptance of the Thai language into the Unicode Standard. It took him eight months, but he eventually achieved it.

It was a starting point for Trin's realisation that the time had come for Thailand to be connected to the world of Internet. He was still a language engineer at DEC but at the same time was working as a volunteer in Internet-related development projects with Thaweesak and Pairash at Nectec.

At that time, there were only two Internet networks, ThaiSarn and CU Net, both of which were established in mid-1992 for educational purposes only. In fact it was then illegal to use the Internet for commercial purposes, and the restriction to educational applications limited Internet use to people like Trin, who worked for global companies.

Trin's volunteer work was aimed at making the Internet accessible by and beneficial to Thais. He proposed the creation of what he called a "Pub Net", or Public Area Network, with the hope of integrating the different platforms of the Bulletin Board System (BBS), the only legal communications network, to give Thais the experience of communicating both locally and internationally.

The BBS ran successfully for one year and was terminated with the establishment of the first public Web server, named "Thailand: The Big Picture". It made Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to hook up to the world of the Internet. The first Thai URL registered at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, where the Internet began, was www.nectec.or.th, used for publishing and promoting Thailand to the global community though the Internet.

"I spent my nights working as a volunteer for Nectec, to operate and oversee the development of Internet applications," Trin says. "I made a modem dial for the Internet while working remotely from home at night. In the daytime, I still worked for DEC."

His life continued in this fashion until 1995, when Thailand's first commercial Internet service provider (ISP), Internet Thailand Service Centre (ITSC), was established through a collaboration of CAT Telecom, TOT and the National Science and Technology Development Agency. Trin left his job at DEC to become head of ITSC's operations in September 1996.

"During its first year, when it was run by Nectec, ITSC made a profit of Bt2 million, while another three ISPs [that had started up] ran at a loss. I operated ITSC in its second year, and we made a profit of Bt10 million," Trin says.

A year later, ITSC became a private company registered as Internet Thailand and made a profit of Bt60 million. After continuous growth, it became the first ISP to be listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, in 2001, and was thereafter known as Inet.

Trin recalls that among the challenges of running a fast-growing company were the issues of maintaining sustainable growth, holding onto its role as industry leader and influencing the market to ensure that Internet access continued to benefit the country. An example of the latter was keeping access prices affordable by all people and forcing other ISPs to match Inet's prices.

The 47-year old Trin says he always strives to keep his management dynamic. Inet now has a staff of more than 200, with a low turnover rate.

He motivates his staff by insisting they bear in mind that past success does not guarantee present or future success. What's more, part of his definition of success is keeping the cost of Inet's services affordable to all people.

"The raw material of the company is human resources and knowledge. We listen to our staff as a matter of normal corporate behaviour. We set up an Employee Relations Committee, to give all staff members a chance to participate in decision-making and devote their abilities to the corporation and their society," Trin says.

His management principles have remained unchanged since Inet was a small business. However, management practices need always to be adapted and adjusted to business expansion and new situations.

One other thing remains unchanged. Even though Trin is president of a large company with more than 200 employees, he still devotes his nights to the world of the Internet, and his thoughts are constantly focused on schemes to make the Internet beneficial to all.

He is usually online for eight hours each night, much the same as when he was still a language engineer at DEC. These days, he monitors movements and developments in the Internet world as well as assigning tasks for his staff.

"I'm online through 4 o'clock in the morning. I assign tasks for my employees by e-mail. Then, in the late morning, I follow up the tasks at the office," he says.

Currently, Trin devotes much of his time to a project called "Open Care", or Open Exchange for Collaborative Activities in Response to Emergencies. It provides infrastructure for information exchange in emergency situations. Inet provides a server and core engine based on open-source technology, allowing all organisations that respond to emergencies to plug in and share and exchange data seamlessly across different legacy database systems.

Open Care is designed to support Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) messages for Internet-protocol data communications between emergency professions. EDXL is a suite of emergency data-message types, including resource queries and requests, situation status, message routing instructions and the like, needed in the context of cross-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional communications related to emergency response.

"Within the next couple of months, we'll be able to demonstrate some of the outcomes from the Open Care scheme. We're now in the initial stages of gathering different data specifications and information requirements from relevant emergency organisations in Thailand. This project is designed to benefit not only Thailand, but also the international community," Trin says.

After nearly two decades, the Thai pioneer's dedication to making the Internet beneficial to humanity remains a work in progress.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation