Category: Technology

Progresif or regresif?

Progresif has always seem to me to have a good marketing push behind their brand however some “truths” from their past do not seem to hold true anymore and these days such that I do refer to them as “a marketing company with a telco” as I read somewhere (probably from some random Reddit thread on /r/brunei)

Their brand and marketing image has been going on for a while but I noticed it around the time of their launch of the new mobile and home broadband plans in March 2020. I did like that they had memorable summaries and tag lines for their products that poked against the competition as seen in these captures of their old website

  • “No throttling”
  • “No 24 month contract”
  • “Only pay for what you use”
  • “No fine print”
  • “No contract”

Screenshot of Progresif mobile plan page from March 2020

Screenshot from Progresif’s fibre plan page from September 2020

During that launch of new offer from the telcos they had this published the following with memorable quotes such as

  • “…find the real differences when you read the fine print”
  • “Remember, the first to eat sometimes burns their tongue”
  • “We’ve got ONE simple, innovative and affordable plan”

They even had a video advertising just before their Feb 2020 relaunch which pushed their features and philosophies (screenshot below). Some things we weird like “To us, genius means it simple keeping” which is nonsensical enough that in one of my group chats, we likes to reference “Simple keeping” periodically

All in all, I like some of the ethos and tag lines and messaging they were trying to convey. But as with all marketing there is always the hidden aspects that it likes to leave out.

  • Like the “No throttling” tagline, meant that if you used data beyond your quota, you’d have just no Internet. Depending on the situation this can be more problematic than the typical “bill shock” term that gets thrown around
  • The “No fine prints” I presume was trying to convey the message that things are clear enough in their simple definitions of their products that you didn’t need to dig into fine print to see “surprises”. While I’m not sure what jab it could be making to its competition with that, I feel that the ethos hasn’t held up over the years and as always, there will always be fine print

Encounters with the fine print

Fibre pricing

This happened when I was thinking of upgrading to their 1TB Fibre plan in December 2024 based on the promo pricing as shown in the screenshot below

I thought the promo meant that you’d get the promo cost for their entire duration of the subscription. But I found out that was not the case when I was at the counter trying to upgrade. I was told that

  • In order to get the promo price you needed an 18 month contract
  • And you’d only get the price for 12 months and then it reverts back to the original pricing
  • There is no mention of this on the main page and digging in a bit now, I can see some mention on their Fibre support page

What are the current on-going promotions for Progresif Fibre?
Our 1TB Progresif Fibre plans will be offered at a promotional price from 29 February 2024 to 31 March 2025. Sign up during the promotion period and enjoy a discount on your plan for 12 months.

  • But it has mention of the contract
  • Also from the screenshot we can see promo prices for 550GB and the support page does not mention that, so is that promo price the same 12 out of 18 months? I bet there is more “fine print” to be had

Yo! top-ups

I have a friend who is on their Yo! Prepaid and complained that their top-up validity kept on expiring before the 90 days stated in the app (screenshot below from September 2023)

And if you look up the Yo support docs it does mention this the difference so the app is/was incorrect (unsure if this has changed since)

How long is my Top Up valid for? 
$5 Top Up is valid for 30 days. All other denominations for $6 above are valid for 90 days.

There is currently no mention of regular credit top up on the Yo! home page let alone credit top up time validity. And having different duration for different amount certainly fits into the “fine print”

Contracts

  • It was previously stated “No 24 month contract” for mobile and “No contract” for Fibre
  • “No 24 month contract” for mobile general still to hold true
    • Generally no contract for typical prepaid/postpaid lines
    • But 12/18 month contract for MORE
  • “No contact” also holds true for Fibre
    • It is an option but you can get discounts with a contract needing to read the fine print (or print that isn’t even listed and only find out when talking to them)

From Postpaid One Mobile support page

Is there a fixed contract duration when signing up for a Postpaid One Mobile Plan?

No, there are no fixed period contracts for signing up to the Postpaid One Mobile. You may terminate any time you wish.

From MORE postpaid support page

Will I be under a contract when I sign up for the MORE plan?

No, however if you take up a 12-month or 18-month contract, you will be able to enjoy a lower price on your monthly plan.

From Fibre support page

Is there a contract duration when signing up to Progresif Fibre?

You have an option for;

  • No contract with one-time $100 installation fee, or
  • 12-month contract with free installation (U.P. $100) when you sign up to a 1TB, 2TB or ZOOM plan.

Summary

So I wish Progresif could go back to some of their “roots” of how I knew of them in the past. They had the spunky kid attitude and in general I do like the vibe and brand they have

But currently time and time again right now they just seem like a marketing company with a telco. I’ll wait for the day it is a telco company with good marketing

MyDST – super app or stupor app

Being a DST user for over 10 years, MyDST has seen changes over the years and there have been ups and downs. Last year they upgraded yet again adding extra wallet / shopping features and started calling it a “super app”. While it is generally a pleasant experience there are consistent annoying points related to ads and popups that make me call it a “stupor app”. While the issue is kind of small, it is a constant annoyance as it happens every time I open the app

My experience is only for the Android side of things so I can’t speak to how it works on iOS but I’d presume it should be similar and my usage of MyDST is mainly for

  • management of Easi / Infinity home broadband (when I was Infinity user from 2020 to 2022)
  • testing out digital wallet shopping options when was released

But all in all, MyDST would have to be the best app along with its full services it provides compared to the other telcos Imagine and Progresif

Basic features all 3 telcos app have

  • Multiple accounts
    • Being able to link multiple accounts / numbers to a single login
  • Biometric login
    • Being able to use your fingerprint is just so convenient
    • For MyDST, I haven’t tested any facial recognition but I’d presume it could work the same for phones without fingerprint readers
  • Core management features
    • Quota usage
    • Bill payment
    • Top-ups
    • Purchase boosters/add-ons

Pros for MyDST

  • Web app access without needing to download app https://mydst.dst.com.bn/
    • It has limited features (no full wallet and shopping features) but has the core functionality related to mobile and home broadband management
    • Imagine also has a web app at https://imagine.dtworks.ai/icare/user/login (certainly not something you’d likely remember the full URL of)
    • Progresif has this with slight caveats https://care.progresif.com
      • It tries to force you to download the app when accessing on mobile
      • But you can still bypass this by setting browser to request the desktop site
MyDST loading on mobile browser vs Progresif Care pushing to app when using mobile browser
MyDST loading on mobile browser vs Progresif Care pushing to app when using mobile browser
MyDST on the desktop
MyDST on the desktop
  • Saved credit cards
    • Makes purchasing add-ons / recharges a simple process: pick what you want and use your saved card to page
    • Progresif has a similar option
    • Image does not have this: you need to fill in your credit card details every single time
  • Digital wallet and includes payments/transfers with tarus
    • Progresif has this with Ding!
    • Imagine does not have digital wallet
  • Shopping ability to purchase/order things by simply choosing from the menu
    • Progresif shopping works different and is more for replacing cash payments with QR payments
  • Linking insurance to app
  • Bill payments for certain shops and government departments. Bill payment also seems to have reminders which is nifty

Cons for MyDST

  • Annoying ads on login
  • Multiple notifications when having multiple accounts (seems fixed)
  • Web app is not as full featured as mobile app
  • Shopping option requires shops have a list/menu of their items. So may require extra work on business end
  • Limited insurance, bill payment and government options

I’ll add a bit more detail into some of the cons below

Annoying Ads after login

It started with showing a dialog box telling me that I have successfully logged in, after I just logged in. I just logged in and things are loading to show my details, of course I know I just successfully logged in. This is just a useless notification that adds an unneeded step for a user to start using the app

And now after logging into the app on the phone, it always wants to show me their latest promotion / ad even if it is not applicable me or possibly expired ones. So each time I log in I have to dismiss these ad. The worse I’ve experience so far was 4 of these ads back to back shown below

Today, it is just a single ad telling me to “Choose DST”. Ironic how the fact that popping this up each time I log in makes me want to leave DST

Multiple notifications

I have several accounts registered on MyDST applications and when going to the notifications section it used to show me one message per account registered. This was something that happened before the super app and looking at recent notifications, it seems that this issue could have been solved as I don’t see multiple duplicates

The other cons

These are not so annoying but a bit more of limitations and possible design choices

  • The web app is not as full featured as the mobile app. It has no super app features
    • No mobile wallet
    • No shopping
    • No linking of insurance
    • No bill/government service payment
  • The super app features of insurance linking, bill payment and government service payment are limited to certain providers
    • None of these are applicable to me so your mileage may vary with these features
  • For the shopping experience, it would be similar to online shopping of picking items from a cart and purchases
    • Good from the consumer perspective but could be hard for businesses to create a full itemized list of what they sell let alone keep it synced with their actual physical stock. I have no insight into the business owner perspective so I can’t speak to it.
    • It didn’t seem like there was an option to replace cash at the counter where you can order in physical location and use the app to make a payment for things that are not listed in the app. It could be possible with the regular transfer of funds feature that the digital wallet

Summary

  • MyDST is generally a good app
    • Yes it has a bloat of features which I wish there was a stripped down version
    • DST’s quest for pushing ads in the face of existing customers is annoying and makes me like Progresif’s app more and it has practically the same feature set that is important to me
  • Is it a super app? Not to me
  • Is it a stupor app? Yes indeed while it keeps using ads to me
  • Will I still use it?
    • Yes reluctantly (Easi is still the best value for my usage) and curse each time I see annoying ads or useless notifications/messages
    • So I guess they win for now
    • Hoping that Progresif / Imagine can save me (but so far based on my current ImagineGo experience, Progresif will need to be my hero)

imagineGo to the moon or imagineGo away?

Recently switching to Imagine for my home broadband, their imagineGo app (Android / iOS) has potential to be a nice simple app but its execution and likely internal process issues cause it to falter to be the worst telco app experience that I’ve had

The good

Nothing much to add as the points are succinct and nothing much to discuss. I do like the app isn’t bloated and that there are supporting features with imaCare but as we can see from the section below, it does not seem it will be a saving grace

The bad

  • Could not login
  • App does not support saving credit card details
  • Billing issues
  • The app crashes and has issues
  • No wallet / shopping features at all (while I mentioned as a pro of not having it, for those who this is important or a nice feature to have, this will not be possible with Imagine)
  • imaCare did not work until I found the right person
  • imaCare data usage and top up is only for broadband and not mobile
  • Multiple accounts cannot be added manually
  • Incomplete and bad UX web app

I’ll go further into the bad points I ran into below and there are quite a bit of them

Could not login

  • As a newly migrated user, not the best thing to encounter when starting
  • It took two days to get resolved

App does not support saving credit card details

  • This means that every month you’d need to manually enter your credit card details
  • Both Progresif and DST apps allow saving your credit card so payment of bills is pretty simple with a just a couple of taps
  • Yes I agree it is more secure not saving the details in general but not even being able to be given the option to save it means there is much more annoyance paying

Billing Issues

  • This is the worst billing experience I’ve had
  • I’ve had to follow up multiple times to get some movement on the billing
  • I didn’t want my line to get cut off so I wanted to ensure it was paid and without issue. so that it shows so that I can pay. I didn’t want things to suddenly get cut off
  • Timeline
    • Dec 28th – signed up
    • Feb 10th – still no bills showing. asked about billing and said it would take 3 working days
    • Feb 20th – still not resolved and followed up and told that there were still in some transitional phase and gave no ETA
    • March 2nd – bill amounts finally appears in the app and I can pay but I can’t even download or view bill details. Told that the bill can only be accessed 3-5 working days after bills released
  • Now in the 3rd month, and my next bill has still yet to arrive
  • I’ve also checked and they said my bills are fully paid and says no more balance left but bill still shows as “Unpaid” (as shown below)

App crashes and has issues

  • My phone consistently giving me error messages for the app
  • While these have not seemed to affect regular while using the app, it can happen occasionally when I try start the app
  • If the app has issues such as this, what other issues are there?

imaCare did not work until I got the right person

  • While waiting for my account to get sorted out with the app, I found imaCare had a page to check data usage but once again I could not get it to work
  • I asked support and they directed me to the ImagineGo app despite me specifically asking about the imaCare page
  • Finally managed to get through to a person on the support team who was able to follow up with the appropriate people to fix my access
  • But if the simple data checker didn’t work, until I got a hold of the right person I do not have much faith that the other features will work without issue

Multiple accounts cannot be added manually

  • While there is an option to switch accounts, there is no way to manually add them
  • So I presume it means this needs to go through support to link accounts to your login

Incomplete and bad UX web app

  • The webapp has a nice “Data usage” menu on the left with a “Coming soon” message
  • Why bother even include that as a menu item if it is not even live?
  • I thought it was where I check the usage of my data. But apparently there is a “View Usage” link on the main page which allows for that
  • I overlooked that every time I logged in until a day or two ago

Summary

  • I had hopes for the app not being bloated and having extra features like imaCare on the web and also a web version that you can log into without having to download an app, the consistent issues really make this the worst app out of all 3 telcos
  • If they fixed all those issues, the app would be a minimal usable app. Nothing exciting but usable which is good.
  • Apps don’t have to be all fancy and in your face. Just do your job and do it well
  • But my 3 month+ experience so far with Imagine has me imagining a life without them

Nationwide WiFi no more?

Before UNN helped bring Imagine, DST and Progresif to a somewhat level playing field, Telbru had their TelBru WiFi hotspots that you could connect to and it used your existing quota

We can see remnants to this in this PDF on Imagine’s website

Free Access Service
TelBru WiFi Free Access Service (“Free Access Service”) is a complementary service made available by TelBru for the public at designated TelBru WiFi locations (also known as “TelBru WiFi Zones”).
…

Postpaid Service
TelBru WiFi Postpaid Service (“Postpaid Service”) allows you to access and utilize your Residential Broadband Plan subscription outside of your home at any TelBru WiFi Zones.

But unfortunately the current state of if seems to be that it is only available on Progresif if you’re able to get their support to set it up but hopefully this can change in the future. See below for my experience of each telco

Imagine

  • No longer available
  • Am an Imagine Dream broadband subscriber since December 2024
  • Previously Imagine had prominently mentioned on the website and even stated that it supported multiple devices as I detailed in “Brunei Telco Wars 2022” as shown in the screenshot below taken from the Wayback Machine from January 2023
  • But now it is no longer stated on the site and when I asked their support, they told me it is no longer available. I didn’t research too much before my migration as they were previously pretty open and upfront about it being available so I presumed it would have still be around so it’s pretty unfortunate
Screenshot of Imagine website from wayback machine stating

Progresif

  • Available (if you get through to the right people)
  • I was a Progresif Fibre subscriber from September 2022 to December 2024
  • It may take a while to get set up though as I had multiple discussions to try find out about it. One person was convinced that it would only work if I had a Progresif mobile subscription which I did not have. Only after multiple follow ups with their support I managed to get it set up. It seems they had to liaise with UNN to get my account working
  • Currently their support page mentions that it is a feature
Screenshot of Progresif support page stating the following: Can I use my Progresif Fibre data on the Nationwide WiFi? Yes, you can use your Progresif Fibre to access to Nationwide WiFi. You can login with your Progresif ID (Mobile number), Password and Service number (Fixed line number).

DST

  • Never available
  • I was a DST Infinity subscriber from March 2020 (soon after their launch) to September 2022
  • Whenever I asked DST support, they all didn’t seem to know about it or some people just saying it was not supported
  • If you try to connect to DST WiFi hotspots there would be a link to this PDF file which states the following but the MyDST credentials never worked

Customer’s MyDST credentials will be used to log-on to the DST WiFi Service and therefore the user will be fully responsible for whom these credentials are shared with.

DST EASI Roaming in 2025

Summary:

  • It seems that DST has disabled automatic roaming and you need to contact them in order to enable it (Update April 2025 – I can confirm that it works. Normal roaming functionality now works so you can receive SMS notifications for free)
  • This means if you go overseas your SIM will not even connect to any network and you would not even be able to receive SMS which could be an issue if you need 2FA/OTP messages

Last year I went to Malaysia and Singapore and noticed that my DST EASI was not getting any reception – it couldn’t connect to any provider despite my other SIM roaming without issue. Tried restarting the phone, enabling disable airplane mode but it didn’t help. It didn’t matter too much to me as my other SIM with had local data for the country in question.

But when in Singapore I think I needed a 2FA message and decided to just try purchasing an EASI data roaming add-on (even though I didn’t need the data). And to my surprise I was able to get connected to the network and start receiving SMSes

I presume this could be something DST has changed last year with the typical stories we hear about DST roaming charges where the end user does not actively enable data roaming and get charged. If you’re not familiar with this, a quick search shows these 2 such stories and with the first one being the weirdest of even buying a roaming plan, but it didn’t seem to get used but they still got charged

Dst ridiculous roaming charges. what to do?
byu/BruneiSecretNinja inBrunei
DST roaming fees
byu/anonymous2219 inBrunei

I called DST on 151 and they told me they would activate my account to auto enable roaming in the backend and that it doesn’t have any costs unless I make calls or send SMS. So I guess only time will tell whether this actually works.

On a related note it seems they have tried to help prevent data roaming bill shock by auto subscribing you to the lowest data add-on if you connect to the data network while overseas for MOBI customers https://dst.com.bn/mobi-roaming/ which is good if you know about it and I guess is a generally good move to prevent excessive charges.

It always seems that DST is the only carrier affected by this (or maybe just that they have such a high percentage of the mobile market that we only hear stories about them). But I’ve heard stories of people who are careful and still get charged, so it is always worrying and it was one of the questions posed on KristalFMs “Telcos Tell All: Inside Brunei’s Telecommunications Transformation” roundtable with the 3 telcos and UNN.

All telcos have their issue and it will just be a matter of finding what works best for you. I created “Pick my provider” to help me continue to decide which telco to use and in general my usage of EASI for over 10+ years has gone well (it is the most cost effective with 6GB data add-on and practically no SMS / call usage). I’ve used DST’s mobile broadband service before it was rebranded to Freedom and was also using their home broadband Inifinity and both were general good and I got what I wanted.

I migrated away from DST to Progresif and now Imagine of home broadband and I have all 3 of their apps installed so there will hopefully be more stories to come so stay tuned.

Brunei Telco Wars 2022

September 1st brought a UNN upgrade and now our telcos DST, Imagine and Progresif have updated their home broadband plans. Below is a summary of the changes for each telco and the latest plans

Pick My Provider https://bruneigeekmeet.com/pmp updated to help pick which provider could suit your needs (view old plans here)

Summary

DST

  • Straightforward upgrade: same price but with either more data (100GB) or faster speed
  • Good
    • Webpage seems to have all necessary information
    • Simple 5 price points and decide if you want more data / more speed
  • Bad
    • 2 year contract
    • No Nationwide WiFi
  • Ugly
    • No real “Unlimited” plan as all plans are throttled after a certain data usage
    • Extra data only being 100GB feels small and doesn’t feel like it differentiates enough between
    • Message is confusing
      • saying all plans have 100Mbps but there are plans with less than that
      • most plan details show a breakdown based on 100Mbps then “Other plans” then “Unlimited” instead of showing the 5 price points

Imagine

  • Upgrades in general get extra data and extra speed benefits
  • Good
    • Actual unlimited plans
    • Nationwide WiFi and explicitly mentioning multiple device support
  • Bad
    • 1 or 2 year contract
    • Unclear throttling info for data based plans (should be same as previous of limited to 1Mbps)
  • Ugly
    • Dowgranding plans once contract runs out and not directly mentioned on main page
    • Online chat system is not great and got no response (previous chat system was better)

Progresif

  • Consolidated plans typically with more data / speed at same price
  • Good
    • No contract needed
    • Actual unlimited plans
    • Nationwide WiFi access
    • Has 100GB for $10 data add-on with long 60 days validity
  • Bad
    • Some lower plans now pay more
    • Unclear throttling behaviour for data based plans (had to ask them as not on website)
      • no Internet for “Entry-Level” plans
      • limited to 512kbps/1Mbps for the rest (was told 2 different values from 2 different sources)
    • $10 line fee now for all plans
    • Online chat system is not great and got no response from multiple messages sent
  • Ugly
    • Now with excluding $10 line fee
      • Feels like they are the same as competition and lost an edge
      • Adds confusion for previous customers where it was previously included in the plan
      • So it is less “Simple keeping”(one of their advertised phrases in the past)

Details

DST

  • Comparing to previous plans
    • In general same price but with either more data (100GB) or faster speed (so you only get 1 benefit)
    • Exception: Infinity 38 will get faster speeds when choosing more data (previously 20Mbps now 50Mbps)
  • 5 price points and each has an option for supersize (more data) / superspeed (faster)
    • I did not understand this until I saw the following sign at a store

Imagine

  • Comparing to existing plans
    • Upgrade gives 100GB more with faster speeds at same price
    • Exception: 1.6TB data plans quota has no data change but $4/month cheaper
  • When plans are out of contract you get less data / slower speed
    • Based on their Instagram post as could not find an info on their website
      • 800GB quota and lower: less data
      • 1.6TB data: less speed (100Mbps -> 50Mbps, 200Mbps -> 100Mbps) and $4/month extra
      • Unlimited data: plans less speed (100Mbps -> 50Mbps, 200Mbps -> 100Mbps)
      • To keep 200Mbps extra $200/month
    • There is mention of less data in Broadband FAQ but no details
      > WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF MY CONTRACT PERIOD ENDS?
      > You will automatically be moved to a no contract plan, but with less data. There will be no changes to your monthly rental. To continue enjoying more data, simply renew your contract to 12 or 24 months.
      > HOW LONG CAN I STAY UNDER A NO CONTRACT PLAN?
      > You can stay for as long as you wish. However, you will enjoy more benefits i.e. more data or savings when you renew your contract.
  • Nationwide WiFi available
  • Has real unlimited connection
  • Data based plans should throttle on exceeding data
    • No mention in website, had to ask in person and they did not know the speed
    • Likely 1Mbps as was previously
  • 1 or 2 year contract
  • Online communications not so great
    • Thier ima chat system has had a downgrade since the last time I used it
      • Says “Type a message” but you have to click buttons as they have disabled actual chat?
      • Personal identifiable information is sent in the clear in the address bar
      • Never got a response
    • Instagram direct message reply took 23 hours

Progresif

  • Consolidating multiple plans to single new plan
  • Comparing to previous plans
    • In general twice speed and slightly cheaper
    • Lower tier previous plans now pay more
      • Previously: One Home 50GB @ 20Mbps for $30 / One Home 250GB @ 20Mbps for $38
      • Now: Fibre 125GB @ 50Mbps for $35 / Fibre 250GB @ 50Mbps for $45 (Data add on 100GB for $10 valid for 60 days)
  • Now all prices **exclude** $10 line cost
  • No contract required
  • Nationwide WiFi available
    • Was told in store that it is only for a single device and multiple devices can be registered but needs to be done in store
  • Online communications not so great
    • Thier “Ask Tia” chat system has never given me a response
    • Prior to this recent upgrade it just said “Message sent” so I presumed it was an email and I would get a reply. Never received one
    • This time around it loads a chat interface but still I never got a respons
    • Instagram direct message reply took 31 hours

#fixBruneiWebsites : Telbru’s horizontally scrolling website

As part of the #fixBruneiWebsites movement, we took a look at the Telbru website https://www.telbru.com.bn/ which had some weird horizontal scrolling as I found out and mentioned in this tweet

The Problem

  • Continuing to scroll down when at the bottom of the page seems to do a horizontal scroll
  • In fact, it is even possible to scroll horizontally even if there is no actual real content visible

The Solution

  • Adding the following CSS definition
.owl-wrapper { 
    max-width: 100%;
}

The Investigation

Note: I’m using Chrome dev tools as I typically use Chrome but other browser should have similar functionality

  • Open up the Chrome dev tools and head over to the “Elements” section to view the rendered HTML code on the page
  • Start deleting elements in the BODY until the problem stops happening
  • We found that the testimonial-container seems to be the cause of the problem
  • Expanding the elements the elements we see that a owl-wrapper div has a width of 3300pxwhich seems suspicious 
  • Setting a max-width: 100% seems to fix the problem 
  • So adding a custom style of max-width: 100% on the .owl-wrapper looks to be the solution we want!

I believe that should fix the problem! 🚀

Moving on from here, perhaps we could looking a bit more into what is creating this owl-wrapper in the first place: e.g. is it a library that just needs proper configuration or is there an actual bug in the library. But that would possibly be something for another day!

B-Code: Brunei’s 1st National ICT Hackathon – Launch and Info session

So, B{CODE} – Brunei’s 1st National ICT Hackathon kicked off on Tuesday with essentially an info session with the subject matter experts, SMEs (yeah I know that is a pretty bad acronym when the news uses it in the context of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) of the 9 projects that was available

bcode.jpg

I went to it with an open mind and tried to make the most of it but felt that some titles and descriptions pitched on the website was at odds with what was said during the session. I’ll detail each project with the synopsis/description provided on the website and what I gathered from the panel session

Brunei Communication Hub – Empowering communication between public and government agencies

Website synopsis: The government has provided several different platforms by which the public can communicate with various agencies. For example, the E-Darussalam Portal presents users with a forum for individuals to express their opinions and concerns. Several government agencies are also actively making use of social media to interact with the public. To further improve communication, the government needs to increase the visibility, responsiveness, and cohesiveness of the different mediums so as to better interact with the general public.

From the panel session:

communication hub.jpg

  • They mentioned about using customer satisfaction survey as a standard for measures like KPIs
  • Had trouble with past survey participation despite “aggressive” push
  • They would like real time reports from the surveys
  • Ideally to cover all government agencies
  • Mentioned distrust in usage of social media due to possible bias
    • Need more official communication platform
    • After Q&A they seemed open to using social media but they didn’t want 3rd parties like Facebook to read the data
  • Key take aways:
    • Mainly wanting to use it for taking surveys and needing an official platform that 3rd parties don’t have access to the data
    • Discussion felt at odds with the synopsis which mentioned the use of social media but hesitation to use it as mentioned in the panel?

Interactive / Dynamic Open Data Platform

Website Synopsis: Data.gov.bn portal site was developed and launched in 2014 to promote Open Data. The portal was developed with the intention to facilitate and help the public, business entrepreneurs and researchers to obtain data that are general data that are collected by government agencies, through the portal. To improve the effectiveness and accessiblity of the website, the portal needs to be further developed to enable automation (API access), as well as incorporating dynamic and interactive interfaces to aid in better understanding and interpretation of data by the general public.

From the panel session:

  • Looking for tools on top of the current portal to bring some interactivity to the data
  • And possibly even tools for making data more machine readable

Intelligent emergency response

Website synopsis: The government has provided four (4) separate hotline to receive the emergency calls from the public; ambulance (991), police (993), fire & rescue (995), as well as search & rescue (998). With the availability of the latest technology, the delivery of this emergency information can be further improved so as to allow the proper emergency authority to provide quick & accurate response and reach the emergency location faster.

From the panel session:

  • Currently every authority (police/ambulance/fire/search & rescue) have their own control centre
  • Wants as easy way for end user to get in touch with the correct authority (e.g. an app with icons for each one). And also an easy way to share location
  • Possibly even have emergency contacts with family instead of call centres if lesser emergency
  • Possible modes of communication: call / email / text
  • Possible extension to use for dispatching to other non emergency agencies with extra features like ability to take photo with  locations so can complaint or sent to appropriate agency

Crowdfunding on community and charity – Social empowerment through public funding

Website synopsis: Through the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the government has recently successfully implemented the Mosque Fund, and may soon see development of its first mosque from the fund. It would be beneficial to explore the expansion of such activities primarily to support the development of social communities and potentially fund national scale projects that benefit the country as a whole. Challenges in this domain include having solution that have the necessary transparency and accountability built in, while enabling funds from various different mediums.

From the panel session:

  • Wasn’t too clear what the existing problems were and what an ideal solution would be
  • Mentioned of wanting an integrated system to be able to select which funds to donate to
  • Moderator shared examples of related online sites like: GoFundMe / Kickstarter

Brunei Fitness – Tackling the obesity by engaging the community and encouraging the healthy lifestyle

Website synopsis: The scale of the obesity epidemic in Brunei Darussalam is staggering. Recent surveys indicate that 33.5% of the adult population in Brunei are overweight and 27.1% are obese. The implications of this for the development of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and stroke are highly significant and the social and economic consequences are potentially devastating. Without a change, Brunei Darussalam will fail to meet its Wawasan 2035 goal of becoming a top 10 nation for quality of life.

Evidence suggests that to combat the obesity epidemic we need to engage individuals and the wider community to take responsibility for their own health. Individual behaviour has to change such that eating healthily, with moderate portion sizes, and doing 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week to maintain health becomes the social norm. Unfortunately, it is not enough just to raise awareness and educate individuals. We have to move beyond “awareness raising”. Our behaviour is strongly influenced by our environment and the culture around us. In Brunei there is a ready availability and affordability of high calories, nutrient poor foods, alongside a mindset that views over-eating as normal. The task therefore is, how we engage the community, and create a social movement towards healthy living? How do we make healthy lifestyles the new normal and push the message that ‘Health is Everyone’s Business’?

From the panel session:

fitness.jpg

  • Wants a “very very local” kind of app that “has to be as unique as our Bruneians” that caters to help people lose weight especially the obese and overweight
  • Mentioned a good example app was “FitnessPal” (perhaps referring to https://www.myfitnesspal.com/)
  • Mention of calories counts of things like ambuyat

Talent Search Centre

Website synopsis: In recent years, a number of talented locals have turned to social media  to attract customers and showcase their talents. In order to ensure that this talent can be marketed and has greater visibility, a platform for a talent management and matching may prove beneficial.

From the panel session:

talent search.jpg

  • They mentioned that they have issues with the current JobCentre site (didn’t give exact details but that they are some)
  • Would like to have resources related to job finding such as personality tests, best practises on how to apply for jobs and job readiness assessments
  • Mentioned https://www.jobsbank.gov.sg/ & https://www.onetonline.org/ as good examples
  • During Q&A was asked about how would we patch into the current system and if we would have access to the data. No data access would be given but structure would be possible but no direct access to current system which essentially makes it requiring a complete overhaul of an existing system
  • Take aways
    • Felt this was pretty confusing to me especially with the synopsis. I interpreted “talent” as coming from the creative industry of things like graphic design / arts / performances / e.t.c. but seemed like asking for a new JobCentre site

Public Transportation

Website synopsis: Efficient public transportation can form a crucial part of the solution to the nation’s economic, energy, and environmental challenges – helping to bring a better quality of life to those who rely on it. The government is continuously committed to improving its public transportation. Challenges here include improved access to service times for public transportation and routes, and information about delays and official information.

From the panel session:

public transport.jpg

  • Mentioned about having access to data like
    • location of stops because sometimes it may not be where you think it is
    • real time data to know when the next mode of transportation is coming
    • fare estimators
  • To watch out for complaints for things like unfair prices

Local Tourism – Kenali Negara Kitani

Website synopsis: Statistics of tourists visit to Brunei Darussalam has increased from year to year. Last year alone, a total of 218,000 tourists visited Brunei Darussalam which was an increase of 8.57% compared to the previous year. With the increase in this statistic, it can also help Brunei in boosting the national economy. Challenges here is how to ensure that the tourists feel comfortable and safe, while increasing their enjoyment and ease in the country.

From the panel session:

local tourism.jpg

  • Wanting to make data available to both foreign and local tourists
  • Having listing such as like historical tours / heritage trails / tour packages
  • Being able to cater for foreign delegations like visitors from China

Property Guide

Website synopsis: The real estate market in Brunei Darussalam continues to grow with several types of housing, property and shops being developed in different locations. To further increase and attract more investors (both local and foreign) a tool that enables them to analyse the market trends based on the data may serve to better decision making and development in areas of demand.

From the panel session:

property guide.jpg

  • Mention of knowing of things like prices of houses in different locations, gathering market trends and knowing things like who’s responsible for grass cutting

Summary

Truth be told I got pretty weary after the first 2 sessions (i.e. first 6 themes mentioned above) and these were my key take aways in the overall day

  • They faced the typical issue with events in Brunei: running it during work hours. Not everybody would be able to attend due to work commitments and not everybody would have the luxury of taking time off
  • They missed the opportunity for the subject matter experts to be available to the participants. Preliminary schedule mentioned that there would be a session in the morning where they would have booths for participants to ask them questions before the afternoon panel discussion. But this was not the case: there was no subject matter experts from each project available in the morning.
  • Theme description on website and what was discussed during the panel session can be different. Not the case for all but from what was emphasized during the discussion, it seemed to diverge from the theme synopsis.
    Felt that the “Communication Hub” and “Talent Search” projects were the main ones for me here: “Communication Hub” synopsis mentioned of the government utilising social media, but panelist mentioned not wanting to use social media. As mentioned previously the “Talent Search” synopsis made me think along the lines of the creative arts industry.
    As I believe there were some people who couldn’t make the event, feels that they are “flying blind” not having access the possible more relevant things discussed in the panel session.
  • Some of these have ready made solutions out there (particularly the “Property Guide” and “Talent Search”). Thus it feels that having them as a theme without focus particular unique situations as to why current solutions don’t work, will just be like reinventing the wheel (while a good learning process for people, it wouldn’t really bring anything unique to the table).
  • Some solutions don’t really need a full app like solution and having just an updated website or central source of information is sufficient.
  • Some solutions feel that they should just be government tenders as opposed to hackathon projects
  • Perhaps I missed it but not all panelist had a summary slide (the ones that I took a picture of and showed above in each section)
  • Some panelist kept things vague as to what problems they were facing and while I understand that they would want to keep things open in terms of flexibility and creativity, but I feel for a better success rate in terms of a project, it would best to highlight key issues they are having with their current systems. While being creative is great, if it doesn’t solve core issues, I don’t think it would be as effective
  • No Q&A with the organisers directly and no direct means of communication with the subject matters experts post event (will probably have to email in the organisers to get these details)

Feels that I’m rambling on a bit on this but I do hope for the best of this hackathon and that the projects do see actual real world use. Just from my feeling of the day itself, it felt a bit confusing and I needed to decompress the info out a bit. I fully commend the organisers in getting this out the door and all the best to the contestants!

Sublime Text: “ImportError: No module named sublimeplugin” i.e. bad plugin documentation

TLDR: Sublime Text’s plugin Examples page is out of date as of 30th May 2014. Look at “How to Create a Sublime Text 2 Plugin” for proper guidance.

For the popularity that Sublime Text gets, it seems that their plugin documentation has been left by the wayside

Their Plugin Examples page is out of date showing an example for SublimeText 1. I found that out when creating the plugin only to see the following error message in the Sublime Text console (Ctrl+~ in Windows)

ImportError: No module named sublimeplugin

Searching for this error I landed on this forum post which the link to “How to Create a Sublime Text 2 Plugin” from Tuts+ which seems to work.

There seems to be a change from camelCase to snake_case for functions thus all the instructions on the plugin page are incorrect.

Links API References: choose appropriate link for Sublime Text version

iPad screenshot crashes iPad 2 (iOS 5.1)

Somehow I managed to crash my iPad 2 by trying to edit an image in the Photos app. This is a repeatable problem and I’ve tried restarting, closing all apps and it still happens. Check out the video below to see the problem in action

The offending image is below: try saving it on your iPad and try editing it in the Photos app to see if this happens on your iPad.  In current testing, it doesn’t seem to affect the new iPad (3rd gen), iPhone 4 or iPod Touch (4th gen).  I can still edit other photos or screenshots so this totally puzzles me and is completely reproducible. It this another one of those special Apple bugs just for me?