In Conversation with James Seng, Technology Entrepreneur and Internet Pioneer

Alpha geeks are rare, but alpha geeks with good track records as entrepreneurs are even rarer. James Seng is one of the internet pioneers in Singapore and have a successful record of several interesting internet companies and projects, for example, i-DNS.net, TechNet, PoBox (a web-based email and forwarding service used by SPH), Heroes of the Lance (a multi-player online game) and last but not least, Tomorrow.SG (an aggregator for the Singapore blogosphere). We are honoured to have him to share with his thoughts about the evolution of the IT industry dated back from the 1990s to now, his journey as an entrepreneur and finally his frank and insightful opinions about the web 2.0, business ideas and open source movement in Singapore.

BL: Hi James, thank you for accepting the interview at SG Entrepreneurs. We understand that you are one of the early internet pioneers in Singapore. Can you tell us more about what your background and what you are currently doing?
James Seng: I started (self-taught) programming when I was 8 years old. Since as a kid, I knew computer is what I want to do with my life. The first network I played with is Fidonet (a BBS network) and I started on Internet in 1993 when I entered National University of Singapore.

A young biochemistry professor, Dr. Tan Tin Wee, found me spending a lot time in the computer lab (as he does) so we started talking. Soon Dr. Tan asked me to help him in his new assignment as Head of Technet, the first and only ISP for University and R&D centers in Singapore.

Then it is a nearly a decade of wonderful years doing all projects after projects on Internet at Technet and subsequently at Internet Research and Development Unit, doing localization (first Chinese web), PostOne (first web-based Email), InfoMap (www.sg) etc.

My research work on Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) catch attention of VCs so with 24m USD investment, I went on to do a stint as the CTO of a dotcom start-up. Beside the typical business issues of running a company across multiple countries, I was doing hardcore engineering like doing standardization of IDNs as the co-chair of the IDN Working Group at IETF to softer political stuff like evangelizing and talking about IDNs at ICANN, ITU and other Internet Governance forum.

After the dotcom burst, I joined IDA as Assistant Director of Next Generation Internet and then did more stuff relating to Internet (Anti-Spam and IP Telephony to name two) and Open Source among other things.

Currently, I am doing technology and investment advisory work.

BL: In your early career, you started your career from Technet, which subsequently became Pacific Internet with a post-IPO market cap of $1B USD on Nasdaq in 1999. How was the internet market different from now? What are the major changes that has happened in the internet industry in Singapore?
James Seng: While I was one of the early adopters of Internet in Singapore, I wasn’t the pioneer batch. The folks before me include Tommy Chen and Lim Hock Koon and those working with them are the ones who brings Internet to Singapore in 1989.

That said, the industry has change a lot over the years.

When I started in 1993, you cannot join Internet unless your company is doing R&D or you are in an education institution. Most people accessing Internet are using text-based console (kermit) and the biggest thing back then was Email and Usenet. WWW appears in late 1993 but didn’t took off until Moasic come into the scene in 1994. Even then, most cannot use Mosaic until PPP was invented.

The early days was all about building infrastructure and building core technology just to use Internet.

By 1996, the focus shifted to the new hot thing called Web and everyone is doing something relating to it, be it selling toys, pet food, secondhand goods etc etc. Portal was hot for a while then it gives way to services. It was the time of innovation and many made a lot of money but even more failed and never to be heard again.

In 2002, the dotcom crashed and wipe out all those who are either unfortunate or with just bad business model. I remember visiting friends in the silicon valley then and no one talks about starting any company and everyone looking for a job or wondering how to raise money. It was a time when friends offered to sell their company for a dollar. Oh, the hottest thing then was Napster and there were whispers of people doing peer-to-peer to download not just music but *gasp* also video.