When I saw that FastForward, Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry Of Public Administration & Information, was at the Trade Investment Convention 2008, I was of two minds to speak to them. On one hand, I know that from discussion with them in public meetings when they first started demonstrated their own introspection as an organization. And yet, I also know that they face a lot of resistance from their own side of the fence - government. In many ways, rewiring a bureaucracy to handle information and communication technology is a daunting task for all involved.

Still, it is difficult to hide my own disappointment in the lack of viewable progress on their site. They may be very busy, but most of that hardly leaks out to their own pages. And so, when I entered discussion with a few people there, I brought that up fairly gently and outside of the public eye - I tried not to be confrontational about it and I think it succeeded.

Again, FastForward's people behind the scenes impressed me. They admitted the problem of appearing 'static', and even took the time to explain their own issue - working with so many governmental entities in a bureaucracy that was, at least initially, poorly suited for the use of technology to bring things together faster. I had a fun and interesting discussion with Wendy McDonald (sp?) who is now in charge of handling issues that I am critical of, and we had a few laughs about the whole thing - she's recently back from outside of Trinidad herself and is striving for positive change. She also corrected my assumption that people within government were not checking their email regularly - and gave me some insight into what is going on behind the scenes without particulars.

A tangled web indeed.

That said, it is good to see that the character of the people behind FastForward are much the same as I remember them at the original meetings I attended. While there have been advances - perhaps too slow for myself and others - there are good people trying to make the difference that it takes behind the scenes. And that is something often in the silhouette of the major issues of the country - crime and, now, food prices.

Hat tip to the folks at FastForward who took the time to chat with me. Thanks for your time.

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