ARBEC - The Story
The
“Perfect Storm”
The
early days of the project saw UNIMAS facing many challenges
while implementing its respective milestones. First of all, it was
difficult to find any commercial value for the first biodiversity online
journal coming out from South East Asia. Secondly, even with UNIMAS’s
high profile links with world renowned researchers in biodiversity, it was
tough to get them to contribute articles given the highly reputable
competition coming from Leiden (Holland), Muẻnchen (Germany) and
London. And thirdly, R&D efforts were seriously hampered by the then
prevailing Asian financial crisis.
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Meeting between ARBEC and Natural
History Museum of London (NHM) on 18 October 1998 at Cromwell Road,
London (From L to R: David Vaughan (NHM), Prof. Dr Ghazally Ismail
(UNIMAS), Prof. Paul Henderson (Dir. of Science, NHM), Lim Kooi Fong
and Sheikh Abdullah
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However,
thanks to the low cost platform of the internet, most of the challenges
were circumvented via persistent and strategic engagements with the
respective authorities and scientific personalities. This was accomplished
through Professor Ghazally’s personal contacts, referrals from
“unanticipated” sources and other third parties.
He firmly believed that the key to the successful overcoming of the
challenges was the dynamic and creative packaging of indigenous content.
When a check was done for similar information emanating from South East
Asia, it was discovered most of it were just plain electronic pages.
“There
were no interactive elements, no engaging articles, and no electronic
mapping which is so essential in deciphering key elements in biodiversity
research” explained
Prof Ghazally. “We basically had to visit researchers in
their rooms, demonstrate prototypes, sit down in cramped conditions and
understand how they map out species distribution and determine endemic
varieties.”
Perhaps
the biggest storm it weathered was the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
Coming out of it intact was the greatest test and since than ARBEC has
moved from strength to strength and is steady enough to keep on sailing
for a long time to come.
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