*Click the photo frames for more "hotdogs and sausages"
The Pioneer MTP Team '96
The idea for creating a homepage as a resource for matters related to town planning in Malaysia had actually been discussed by the three principle pioneers of the HBP HomePage Team for a couple of months.
The impetus however was provided by the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Town Planning Service in Malaysia. At the organising committee meeting on the 26th December 1995 held at the Conference Room, School of HBP, USM, Dr. Lee Lik Meng (web-weaver extra-ordinaire) offerred to create a virtual exhibition of the celebration on the World Wide Web. This idea immediately received the enthusiastic support of the Director General of the Town and Country Planning Department and the Dean of the School of HBP.
Dr. Alias Abdullah, co web-weaver extra-ordinaire, then roped in his students of the M. Sc. Planning programme who were by co-incidence required to create homepages for a Computer Applications for Planning course.
On 5th January 1996, Dr. Lee developed the structure for the homepage and called it the Malaysian Town Planning Homepage. The acronym MTP was suggested by the students in the Team. Hence, far from being merely a one-time only virtual exhibition of town planning achievements, MTP will be maintained and developed as a resource for matters related to town planning. Other lecturers have already expressed interest in participating in this venture.
The development as of January 1996 has been the result of the tremendous enthusiasm of the students in embracing IT in general and the Web in particular. The research and gathering of materials, scanning of images and creation of the initial HTML documents and graphics were mainly undertaken by the students under the close supervision and guidance of Dr. Lee, Dr. Alias and Dr. Ghafar (who was roped in for his expertise in urban conservation). All the students gave 100% towards this project ... Ooi Kok Hong gave a little more as their leader.
Technical staff at the School of HBP also provided much needed support. In particular we mention Kam Hong, Aishah, Leow, Carmen and Adnan. Mohd Yahaya Mohd Daud, the other web-weaver extra-ordinaire (of course) of the HBP trio provided critical inputs from the side-line (he's a management guy!).
Staff at the Town and Country Planning Department (especially in Penang) assisted by providing relevant materials.
One good thing led to another. The MTP Team was given notice mid-way through the development that the Chief Minister would be invited to launch the Diamond Jubilee Celebration via MTP on the Web. MTP has also now been adopted as a project of the Urban and Regional Planning Programme of the School of HBP.
To all the members of the Team and other far-sighted supporters, thank you for making it happen.
Lee Lik Meng
15 January 1996.P.S. Lee is the one in the round frame with the baby peeking from behind. Alias is in the square frame just above Lee. Ghafar is next to Alias.
