Pacweb
Building a Digital Future
Two Pacific Islanders Are Helping To Shape a Digital Tomorrow
Imagine sitting in the waiting room of a dentist’s office. The Muzak is muffled, and the dog-eared magazines in the rack are from 1997. Mounted on the wall, however, is a flat TV monitor, depicting an underwater scene. You walk over and touch it. Immediately, the on-screen fish swim over and nibble at your finger. You place another other hand on the opposite corner of the screen. The fish congregate in that direction.
Heck, if all waiting rooms had this interactive decor, you’d book doctors appointments all the time.
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The interactive décor and the Internet music video jukebox are the brainchildren of Digital Mediums, a Honolulu, Hawaii-based high-tech company that opened its doors a little more than a year ago. And two of the company’s senior managers, including its president, are Pacific Islanders.
The company specializes in the development of Web sites and Web-based applications, tailored to businesses in Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. To date, Digital Mediums has designed and maintains more than a dozen company Web sites in Hawaii, Micronesia and Japan.
“We started as a research-and-development company,” recalls Lubuw Falanruw, president of Digital Mediums. Falanruw, a graduate of the University of Hawaii-Hilo, was raised on Yap and Guam. “Our specialty is looking at business products and improving it, in any industry,” he says. Today, the company has spun off into different directions, but that business philosophy remains the same.
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You only have to log onto Digital Mediums’ home page (www.digitalmediums.com) to realize what it takes to improve a business through e-commerce solutions. Digital Mediums’ Web site is eye candy, a smorgasbord of possible online features, and not to mention, full of creative graphics, flash features and space-age music.
One client, popular Honolulu radio station KUMU Lite 94.7, (www.kumu.com), allows station employees to regularly update its contents in real time, without the need to know HTML language. Another client, Haruko Designs (www.harukodesign.com), is a simple, virtual showcase of the designer and her creations.
Not all sites are based in Hawaii. Two Web sites, Village View Resort (www.yapoceanview.com), belong to beach resorts in Yap. Both sites allow viewers to book reservations online.
“There’s a sea of opportunity out there (in Micronesia),” says Falanruw, who comes from a prominent family in Yap.
Agrees Glen Hunter, vice president of operations: “There are a lot of companies out there, struggling to receive global exposure.” Although Hunter was raised in Hawaii, he has strong family ties in the Northern Marianas and Palau. Both he and Falanruw have targeted the Western Pacific as a likely growth area this year.
Digital Mediums also maintains two international sites: one for a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone affiliate in Japan (www.broadtv.com) and another for the Japanese government agency that manages high-tech buildings (www.mbcoop.com).
Web site developments aside, Digital Mediums’ latest, and greatest products -- the Internet music video jukebox and the touch-screen interactive décor -- are just two of several ideas that are waiting to be officially released or patented.
In fact, the potential for Digital Mediums to combine all applications is endless. Think: a virtual car salesman for prospective car owners; a street map that leads clients to a location, specifically from the client’s location; a CD business card with updateable information; a kiosk that speaks different languages.
“We’re used to changing gears,” Falanruw says. “If you want to be on the cutting edge, you have to have a lot of energy to tap into new technology. A lot of skillful engineers are young. They’ve got to pretty much live and breathe it.”
Photo: Arna Johnson
