Bala Pillai Introduction Draft 1.4 May 24 2002
1. What's Bala's mind like?
Innovator Humanist Communitarian Thinker Nature Lover Generalist Strategist Liberty Lover Ecovariety Lover Tamil Malaysian Online Community Strategist Social Entrepreneur Pioneer Meta-knowledge
2. What I pursue
Thinking Lifting Cultures (South/Southeast Asia in particular) Erumbugal (Cross-media networked cooperative for wired Tamils worldwide) Tamildom A Liberal Malaysia Halls Without Walls Cross-Media Networked Cooperatives New Ownership Models for the Attention Economy New Organisational Structures for the Attention Economy Deatomisation of the Mind Why the Tamil Sangam Ages Were Successful Open Source Evangelism (Software & Content) Logic & Rhetoric Self-organising Chaos Humane Economics An Asian mindcosm Digitally Enlightened World
3. Key Thought Sources (not in any order)
Thomas Jefferson John Stuart Mill Thiruvalluvar Mahatma Gandhi Mark Twain Pierre Trudeau Tunku Abdul Rahman John Perry Barlow Tamil Alliterators Dalai Lama Margaret Mead Sun Tzu Kahlil Gibran Socrates Jared Diamond Street People (yes tramps, beggers etc) George Gilder Thamil Innaiyam (tamil@tamil.net) Sangkancil at Malaysia.Net (sangkancil@malaysia.net) Anthony Gibson Joseph Goebells
4. My weaknesses
Pushing shit uphill (too slow at realising when to give up) Mother tongue (Tamil) Impatience Cannot work in a 9-5 job anymore Lots of others (can't think of them right now)
5. What I don't like
Routine Stagnancy Repetitive Tasks Housework Prudishness Hypocrisy Unexamined Minds Tea-shop Socialists Demagogues
6. My background
Ultra-wired (connectednessful), socially conscious entrepreneur, change agent and pro-self-esteem/anti-servanthood activist.
Tamil-Malaysian resident in Sydney, Australia since 1991. Born in a village near Seremban, Malaysia, Feb 28, 1958.
One of 8 children to parents, Mooka Pillai and Ponnammah. Parents moved to Malaysia from Trichy in the early 1940s. Father a farmer, turned grocer, taxi-driver, planter (rubber and oilpalm), entrepreneur and real-estate investor. Mother, grocer and homemaker. My character role model, even now, my mother died in 1988. Miss her presence - she communicated so much with silence and unconditional love.
Father lives in Seremban, Malaysia. We moved from a rural livestyle to a semi-urban lifestyle and often alternated.
2 brothers and 4 sisters live in Malaysia (mostly in the Klang Valley). One sister lives in Trichy, India.
Married with 2 children. Wife: Diana; Children: Uma Devi & Ratna Devi
7. Career Background
Pioneering Earthy Online Communities in Asia; Senior country and continental management roles in banking, finance, financial technology, media and emerging media at Reuters, DBS Bank and The Asia Pacific Internet Company (APIC).
Have worked and lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Charlottesville, Virginia; Boston, Massachusetts; Singapore; Toronto, Canada; Brussels, Belgium; Hongkong and Sydney, Australia.
Since 2001 Founder, Erumbugal http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erumbugal Sydney
Since 1995: Founder, Thamil Innaiyam http://www.tamil.net Sydney Founder, Malaysia.Net http://wwww.malaysia.net Founder, Sydney.Net http://www.sydney.net (sold in 2001) Founder, Asian Internet Marketing Community http://www.aim.apic.net (dormant now) Founder/CEO, The Asia Pacific Internet Company http://www.apic.net
1992-95 State of the Art Kids, Children's Publishing Sydney Star Lazer - Asia-Russia Trade Consulting FBMA Pty Ltd, Bidding for a National Data Utility Network in Malaysia with the Australian Land Titles Office
1991-92 Reuters Australia & New Zealand (Online & Financial Services), Sydney Head
1988-91 Reuters Asia (Online & Financial Services), Hong Kong, Head
1986-88 Reuters, Toronto. Global Product Manager, Risk Management Systems
1982-86 DBS Bank (Singapore's largest) Project Manager, Global Treasury Risk Management Systems Assistant Treasurer & Institutional Credit/Non-Credit Relationship Officer, Correspondent Banking
1981-82 Systematic Business Training Centre, Singapore, Lecturer
1980-81 Osvar Plantations, Kuala Lumpur, Company Secretary
8. Education:
Informal Education: Lots of self-learning including one year hitch-hiking through 34 of the 50 states in the US (1979-80)
Formal: Bachelor of Science (Commerce) from University of Virginia, USA, 1976-79 Did part of but didn't complete a Masters of Arts in Speech Communications and Bachelor of Laws.
St Paul's Institution, Seremban, Malaysia 1965-1976 Standard 1 to Form Upper Six (Year 1 to 13)
9. Some Notable Achievements
(a) Responsible for most reported Internet story in Asia in 1996 for my Internet pioneership - the Mr Sydney 2000 story http://www.apic.net/news.phtml
(b) Honoured as "Innaiya Himayam" [Himalayas of the Internet] in the most popular Tamil TV talk show, "Naiyaandi Durbar" in Dec 2000, for my fathering, despite all odds against me, of wired interaction, connectedness, networked networking and mind mobility amongst Tamils worldwide
(c) Conceiving the world's first cross-media networked networking cooperative, Thamil Innaiya Erumbugal http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erumbugal in June 2001. Was inspired by ants and ant colonies in my garden while I was in one of my regular "nature-details" gazing moments. It suddenly struck me that ants, with no government, no fate and no bank account to blame, had no problems with food and shelter. And that Erumbugal (ants in Tamil), would be the best metaphor to articulate a wired space of cooperating plus value and connections exchanging minds by weaving together the Internet, television, face-to-face and other media. That the payment system would be an attention and networked economy adaptation of Australia's Bartercard. And that we would spread the reach of the network via viral marketing.
10. Some Conferences Spoken at or Chaired
Stock Borrowing & Lending, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur (1987-9) Securities Settlement, Singapore (1990) ISP Strategies for Telcos, London (1997) Internet Business, Kuala Lumpur (1996) Secure Payment Methods on the Net, Sydney (1999) Linking With Asia with the Net, Sydney (1996)
11. Hobbies: "Work" and play have merged a lot. Other than that: Reading, Observing Nature details, Hiking, Climbing Waterfalls, Learning Tamil, Adventure travel, Observing People
12. Most favourite quotes
a) 90% of one's success today is the sum of (i) how one uses her brains PLUS (ii) how excellent one is at building relationships (Bala Pillai)
b) If ants, with no government, no fate and no bank account, to blame have NO problems with food and shelter, why should Man? (Bala Pillai)
c) If you have a problem and there IS a solution, why worry? If you have a problem and there is NO solution, why worry? (Dalai Lama)
d) Suppressio veri suggestio falsi (suppression of truth is suggestion of falsehood)
e) Never doubt the capacity of a few dedicated individuals to change the world: in fact, it is the only way it ever has. (Margaret Mead)
f) Some people change their ways when they see the light, most when they feel the heat (Caroline Schroeder)
g) For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error, so long as reason is left free to combat it (Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father USA and Founder, University of Virginia)
h) What you see is not the truth, though it may be (Bala Pillai)
i) The most important parts of knowing a tree cannot be seen -- eg its crown roots and the photosynthesis process (Bala Pillai)
j) Don't let schooling get in the way of your education (Mark Twain)
13. Most frequented websites
http://www.google.com http://www.malaysia.net http://www.tamil.net http://www.malaysiakini.com http://groups.yahoo.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/erumbugal http://www.chennaionline.com http://fastcompany.com http://upside.com http://redherring.com http://asia.internet.com http://singapore.cnet.com http://gorillasia.com http://forumhub.com http://discovery.org http://asiaweek.com http://economist.com http://abc.net.au
13. Contact details:
bala@tamil.net bala@malaysia.net bala@apic.net
YIM (Yahoo Instant Messenger): bala2pillai Phone: + 61 2 9498 4852 Fax: + 61 2 9818 7711 Street Address: 62 Cecil Street, Gordon, Sydney, NSW 2072, Australia Snail Mail: P O Box 1191, Lane Cove, Sydney, NSW 1595, Australia
