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Silicon Beach
BaliCamp is betting sun, surf and sand will breed killer apps
By ERIC ELLIS
December 16, 1999
Web posted at 7 a.m. Hong Kong time, 6 p.m. EDT
Richard Li: eat your heart out. Dr. Mahathir Mohamed: go figure.
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Vancouver-based Indonesian techpreneur Bing Moniaga is not impressed with Li's grandiose Cyberport scheme for Hong Kong, or Dr. M's Multi-Media Super Corridor Big Idea. He reckons the way to spawn long-lasting technology and Internet companies is to nurture them in the most amenable surroundings possible.
And in Asia, few places come more sybaritic than the "Island of the Gods"--Bali. So Bing is building a uniquely Balinese technology venture: the BaliCamp, "an artists' colony for software developers."
As Bing explains it, in Balinese philosophy "work must be harmonized with the world [and] matter must conform to the dictates of spirit. Why not apply this philosophy to the creation of a work environment of software application developers?"
Why not indeed? So Bing and his backers at the Jakarta-based Sigma Information Technology Services group have put money where their philosophy is. On a subtropical mountainside near the idyllic village of Bedugul in central Bali, a three-phase complex that looks more like a boutique hotel than an anonymous four-story, reflector glass-covered tech office is taking shape.
Typically for Bali (or maybe the North American West Coast, where Bing is based), BaliCamp will eventually comprise a network of pyramid-shaped pods in which developers--so goes the business plan--will create cutting-edge technology applications. Bing explains that the developers will be provided. Or outside companies can rent the pods on a project-to-project basis.
"We want people to be inspired by our surroundings," he says. Those surroundings include the obligatory Balinese temple and lush jungle, along with mountain biking, whitewater rafting and intoxicating culture. "Work should also be a holiday and Bali is world-famous for its art and culture."
Quite so, but Internet culture wasn't what Mexican aesthete and anthropologist Miguel Covarrubias had in mind when he warned in 1937 that Bali may be "doomed to disappear under the merciless onslaught of modern commercialism and standardization."
BaliCamp might just be the ticket for harried nerds who feel they've become Net slaves by pulling 80-hour weeks frying their brains in front their computers to produce the next killer app. But Net nerds also like speed, particularly when it comes to their Internet connection, and Bali's not the place ordinarily associated with things moving too fast.
Even so, Bing (whose company controls Indo.net, one of Indonesia's main Internet service providers) reckons he has the solution. A big part of the $10 million going into the development of BaliCamp is getting reliable satellite-linked Web access to the facility. Bing says BaliCamp will soon have some the region's fastest Net connections, hooked to a speedy server transmitting to the island from Hawaii. It's a nice idea. Let's hope for struggling Indonesia's sake it takes off to be more than just another techie property play.
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