Mr Michael YAP

Michael YAP is the Deputy CEO at Media Development Authority (MDA), the national agency with overall responsibility for regulating and development of media sector in Singapore.

Concurrently, he is the Executive Director of the national Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Programme Office, which has the charter for growing a new media industry fuelled by R&D and innovation. Prior to that, he held dual roles as Managing Director for Oracle Corporation Singapore, and VP Business Development for Oracle Asia Pacific. He was responsible for the company’s activities in Singapore and business development across the Asia Pacific region.

Before joining Oracle, Michael was the founder and CEO of Commerce Exchange (Comex). Michael started and built Comex, a software product company, into a regional company with a presence in more than 30 countries in Asia - with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and China. He led its successful divestment to public listed companies in India and Singapore. Prior, Michael was the CEO of National Computer Board (NCB), the national authority responsible for Singapore’s overall IT policies and implementations, and a pre-cursor to the present-day Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). At the NCB, Michael spearheaded various national programs to establish Singapore as an icon for info-communications adoption and innovation in the region. These included the development of the Singapore IT2000 Master Plan, the SingaporeONE (One Network for Everyone) roll out, and the Electronic Commerce Masterplan. He was the key driver behind the SingaporeONE initiative which placed Singapore as the first country in the world with national broadband access.

Michael has also been involved with the venture capital industry as chairman of an investment fund, and was Venture Partner at one of Singapore’s most established VC firms.

Michael sits on the board of directors of various public listed companies in Singapore and Malaysia. He chaired the national Community Advisory Committee and is a member of the East Asia Business Council. He had served as a board member of several public organisations, including the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the National Library Board and the Singapore Science Centre. He also chaired the National Information Infrastructure Standards Committee, the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCERT), and the Board of Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore.

In 2000, the World Economic Forum named Michael as one of the “Top 100 Future Global Leaders”. In 1999, BusinessWeek named him one of “50 Stars of Asia” in 1999 for his significant contribution to the IT industry in Singapore.

 

Synopsis of Opening Speech

The Future of Ultra Realistic, Pervasive, Mobile and Online Media

The proliferation of GPS enabled comsumer mobile phones, couple with cheap technologies such as cameras, sensors, microelectronics and high bandwidth wireless networks has enabled the dawn of a ubiquitous networked sensor infrastructure, where the the world's 'sensed phenomena' of sight, sound and touch becomes intertwined with a mesh of endless digital extensions.

This electric 'nervous system'; extending beyond people, places and objects offers new challenges in understanding, interfacing with, and relating to such information; where applications not only need to be intelligent, but also context-aware, modular and prepared for working in open and highly distributed, real-time environments.

The transmission of real-time, context driven information, across space, time and fibres also transforms one's interface knowledge; augmenting our five senses beyond the canonical 'here and now', redefining the meaning of presence - - All this will result in brand new media, where the frontiers of our dreams are visualised with startling realism, and distant people get connected with a fascinating interlude of real and imagined.

The Future of Media lies in the Co-Existence of the physical and digital spaces (Co-Space) - the nexus of the physical and digital environments; where simultaneous interactions between the two result in a brand new media. In such a setting, semantic arbitration and content contextualisation in a natural, immersive but unobtrusive manner becomes key to unlocking the unfulfilled promise of an information society. The speech will focus on the future of an immersive digital-physical environment, with insights on technology breakthroughs needed for such an eventuality. Participants will also be given an insight into the nation-wide strategy for IDM R&D in Singapore, its focus on the Future of Media.