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GERALD
Tan, despite his tender age, has designed a lot of websites.
Gerald
says that as a child, his preoccupations included examining
textures and observing the impacts created by light -- preoccupations
which he translated to the homepages he designed.
Viewing
Gerald's repertoire of websites, one can detect a certain
mood, atmosphere, style and setting.
www.teenworld.com.my
Teenworld International was formed as a worldwide organisation
for ``Net-savvy'' teens to build an online community by teens,
for teens.
The site
is managed by Kuala Lumpur-based SM Bukit Bandaraya student
Ryan Lim, who also doubles up as chief executive officer.
Gerald remains as president.
The duo
are in the midst of exploring a possible merger and partnership
with a teen magazine.
``We
are planning to redesign our entire community, and re-launch
it with a new identity and perhaps new name after these issues
are settled,'' says Gerald.
The site,
first launched in December, 1996, is hosted by Asia Connect
and is running on a Pentium Linux machine and a Silicon Graphics
Indy machine.
``For
our expansion, Asia Connect has graciously agreed to dedicate
three more powerful Sun servers for our use. They pamper us,''
says Gerald.
www.pfs.edu.my
Gerald founded the first school website in Malaysia, PFS Online.
The Penang Free School site began as a single page, unofficial
personal website.
It was
later established as a school project managed by a small team,
and later merged with the school's computer club.
It is
a neat site with all the necessary information to serve its
student community. A news section was introduced in January.
According
to Gerald, the PFS culture is very supportive of activities,
with no silly policies or rules standing in the way of creativity.
When
he was elected club president, Gerald was allowed to lead
the club as he thought fit.
``Playing
networked computer games was the bait I used to get members
to attend club meetings,'' he chuckles.
library.advanced.org/18220
The site, entitled A Reminiscence Of The Nineties, is essentially
a teenager's insight into, and perspective on, events that
took place in the 90s.
Designed
jointly by Ryan Lim and Trishank Karthik, the site was submitted
as an entry to the ThinkQuest 1998 contest organised by the
New York-based Advanced Network & Services Inc, which is involved
in the Internet2 project (see In.Tech last week).
The trio's
submission won an award in the Arts & Literature category.
www.vc97.attjens.co.jp/VC(underscore)42
The PFS computer club joined forces with students from Lithuania
and Belgium to compete in the AT&T Virtual Classroom Competition.
Gerald
led a team of 60 students from the three countries to create
a website. Their submission, entitled Cultures Compared, received
the first runner-up award in the secondary school category.
``It
was an interactive comparison of the culture, dress, music
and food of the three countries,'' says Gerald, adding that
the team collaborated over two months to design the site.
www.teenworld.com.my/gerald/sac
Go on a tour of schools and cyberspace, courtesy of Gerald
Tan. There is even a ``how-to'' section for schools interested
in introducing technology to their classrooms.
www.teenworld.com.my/gerald/wow
Explore the wonders of the web through the eyes of Gerald
Tan.
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