In the final contest, Tuon Saman was the fastest typist for typing Contest in Khmer Unicode amongst contestants from 17 provinces, which was organized by The National Information Communications Technology Development Authority of the Royal Government of Cambodia on Monday December 18. He is the teacher of information of Technology at an orphanage at NGO ASPECA in Sihanoukville.
He received $500 prize. The 12-year old boy second winner, Eng Tinya, was awarded $300 from Battambang province at NiDA office in the Council of Ministers. This is the first time for typing contest in Cambodia.
Khmer Unicode helps to break the vice-grip the English language has held on computing in Cambodia. Unlike existing Khmer-language fonts like Limon, ABC, Battambang and other fonts, Unicode is designed to be a standard font compatible across application. By the way, NiDA has already developed a Khmer-language keyboard, and free, open source Khmer-language versions of popular software applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point.
That is fantastic. I am more intrigued by the “12 years old” boy winning second place. I am happy to see Srok Khmer coming into their own, in terms of technology. Technology is the key to Cambodia’s future. Every Khmer youth should persue technology as a means to their future. Ofcourse, we also need more doctors and lawyers too. Maybe not as many lawyers.
I really want one of those keyboards when it becomes available!!
Khmer Keyboard is on sale at computer shop in Cambodia.