Wednesday 30 December 2009

Old friends (Old NOMIS friends)

JobStreet.com chief executive officer Mark Chang flew up from Singapore yesterday to join us for lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Bukit Jambul, Penang. I was very glad to see him as it wasn't often that he'd be around at the Penang office. Coincidentally, Eng Soon (far right), Ted (far left) and I had been thinking of having a small get-together of the remnants of the pioneering North Malaysia Internet User Group (NOMIS) in Penang which we set up in 1995 or thereabouts -- at least, those of us that remained at JobStreet.com -- and Mark showed up at the right time!

Right from the start, he was at the forefront of forming NOMIS. Soon he became our acknowledged ringleader (we took no leaders as everyone was one, so at best he could only be the ringleader among ringleaders) and helped to move our regular meeting venue from the YMCA to the Universiti Sains Malaysia. In the later 1990s, NOMIS helped shape Internet use in Penang when we gave talks and demos at several annual computer events events by The Star newspaper.

No comments: