ICT - REAL USES FOR REAL CHALLENGES

July 21, 2010

ICT - REAL USES FOR REAL CHALLENGES

"Non-tech" people in Jamaica have been using the power of ICT to deliver real-life solutions. This, despite much of the island still not yet connected to regular Internet service. A two-day conference, called the Caribbean (ICT) Roadshow held in Kingston from July 19-20, showcased that its power is being harnessed for a wide range of applications.

Held under the theme, Forging Partnerships for the Future, the conference saw participation from telecommunications companies, training and educational institutions, data and systems management organisations and also commerce.

Non-governmental organisation, ICT4D, which delivers ICT training and education to youth-at-risk, is remarkable as it was established by a group of professionals, none of whom are trained in ICT. Project Administrator Gina Leslie, explains that they realised that ICT could be used by everybody and an important component was to establish meaningful partnerships to achieve results.

On location for the two days of the Roadshow were the members of the celebrated winning team of the 2010 Microsoft Imagine Cup Inter-Operability Award, an international competition. The three students from Northern Caribbean University designed a social networking site aimed at empowering communities to find the resources that they need for agricultural and other projects.

The aim of the site is to share information on resources that are available. For example, a food processing company may need additional tomatoes and a community on the site would have posted that they have in the field ready to reap in a few days time. Final-year student of computer science, Shawn McLean, described the environment at their school as being very enabling where students have a passion to learn not only what is taught by teachers, but eagerly learn more from the Internet. They imagined a world where technology helps the entire world. The other members of the team, who are not computing students, are Dwayne Samuels and Derron Brown.

Also showcasing the role of education was e-Learning Jamaica, which equips teaching institutions and schools with ICT equipment and also trains educators in delivering ICT-enabled teaching methods. According to Implementation Supervisor, Dorothy Thompson, the organisation provides software, equipment and training support to 203 institutions across the island. Key to this are the services provided by them to ten teachers colleges and 166 public secondary schools.

The Jamaica Library Service demonstrated that it plays a vital role in community life. Five of its mobile libraries serving the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon, Hanover, St James and St Thomas, are equipped with laptops that have wireless Internet access. Deputy Director of Database and Network, Everton Young, notes that the demand is high and so time online is limited to about 20-minutes per person. Jamaicans understand the value of reaching out to the world.

On the matter of reaching the world, Virtual Mall is Jamaica's storefront to the world for dozens of companies that stock ‘made in Jamaica' inventory. The participation of Vice President, Dave Foster in the ICT Roadshow lead-up event in Mandeville spurred such interest that the company is establishing a mid-island agent to serve those new clients.

It would appear that the sky is the limit which is why during the cloud computing presentations by Executive Director of Innovative Corporate Solutions, Christopher Reckord, and Xsomo ICT Manager, Neil Williams and Xsomo Citirx Enginer, Albert Alvarez were well supported. Cloud computing is about saving costs by sharing data storage space in a remote system by sending and retrieving files via the Internet. Jamaicans are educating themselves, interested, and ready to apply the power of ICT to power their generation.

The conference was staged by the Central Information Technology Office, (CITO) and also the Spectrum Management Authority. Both are agencies of the Office of the Prime Minister.  The Caribbean ICT Roadshow has been staged in fourteen Caricom nations so far and continues through 2011. It celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union of which Jamaica is a member.