Caribbean

While I was at the Caribbean Internet Forum, the focus was on innovation - and one younger man brought up to innovate, funding needs to be provided. Due to the context of the conversation, it was implicit that someone had to provide the funding. I responded, saying that if you're looking for funding then you're not innovating. Two broad brushes met and disagreed, but for brevity I didn't really explain my position.

A fellow came up to me afterward - from one of the telecommunication regulation agencies - and told me he understood what I meant. In Cuba, to get something laminated, he'd seen people use two steam irons and some plastic. Innovation. Using what you have to do things that need to get done. And this is where funding agencies and philanthropists fail and, in my opinion, will continue to fail. My problem has been that I haven't explained the inductive kick that got me to my theory on failures of funding agencies and philanthropists. Watching Thomas Friedman talk about bubbles on Jon Stewart while doing some PR for his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America¹, got me thinking about how to explain this all.

Since my experience with funding agencies and so forth is in the Caribbean, my examples will focus there. I've seen Caribbean initiatives die lingering deaths after funding was cut because there was no 'exit strategy' of worth - or the 'exit strategy' was not implemented. { Read more }

I've waited for the last posting on this issue for the reason that I had no clue as to what was actually said. Nicholas Laughlin cleared this up for me in dropping a link to me on Facebook - the transcript of what was said can be found here.

After writing the Prime Minister an Open Letter on the topic, then following up, I'm almost done with this issue. To keep it nice and clean, we'll do this in point form: { Read more }

• While I am not a fan of commentary during newscasts, as is (was?) apparently available on 94.1 FM, I recognize that no broadcast of news is the same and that there is an option for people to change the channel or turn the radio off. More than likely, people who were listening to the broadcast enjoy that sort of commentary. Judging the people who provide the commentary during the newscast is also judging the people who enjoy the commentary. Thus, the suspension of the involved employees of 94.1 FM after a visit by the Prime Minister is a strong signal to listeners of 94.1 FM. You can't have it anymore. Squelched.
• The visit by the Prime Minister, as the 'spirit moved him', to a radio station is not appropriate for a person who holds an office that can (and apparently does) be used to intimidate the media.
• Management at 94.1 FM seem derelict in their responsibilities if the people suspended never received punitive measures before. If I were suspended by the management there and I had a clean record, you can bet your bottom CNG container that I would be seeking legal counsel. I've never owned a radio station before. That could be fun.

Dear Sir,

I must admit that I have some concerns about your dealings with the media as outlined in the following articles:

• PM comes under fire (Trinidad and Tobago Guardian)
• It was not my idea: PM on suspension of 94.1 FM employees... (Trinidad Express)
• Manning: I am going to the courts next time
• ‘I have rights too’ (Trinidad Newsday)

As a member of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, I am concerned for a few reasons. The first reason is simple, and something that you could rectify since the media I have found on the topic has been weighed and found wanting - something I find a regular issue. What, exactly, was the unprofessional behaviour that prompted your visit to the radio station? I understand that you have rights, but without such information there is an open question as to what the people were suspended for. Without that information, it appears to be censorship of the media - something which can only be alleged, but which tarnishes the reputation of your person, and more importantly, the Institution which your person is associated with. So I ask you, openly, to tell the nation why these people required your personal attention and presence.

It is a simple request. As it stands now, from people I have spoken with and also my own personal opinion, everything is quite dubious. You, who have held the Office of Prime Minister for so long, are aware of the effect of your presence - or should be. { Read more }

During the three days of the Caribbean Internet Forum, I wrote a bit about things happening in the forum that I thought were interesting - but these were tied to the forum's agenda itself. Here is where I'll break from the schedule of the Caribbean Internet Forum, since it is over, and since I've had time to digest it. Thus, my personal account is here - gluing all the other parts together and put my own spin on how it went. After all, it was an experience - and it is an experience worth sharing.

The Best Part Of Any Forum/Conference Is...

People. And there were plenty of people who I knew, or who I was happy to meet. Everyone I spoke with was very grounded and aware of the challenges - or, interested in the challenges - of the Internet in the Caribbean. It is hard to believe that with such good and intelligent people so interested in this that the region hasn't progressed further. Or maybe there's still a young and impatient part of me. If there is, it is also unrepentant for it's impatience.

In talking with people from various organizations - including governmental organizations - there seemed an almost tangible level of frustration when certain topics came up for much the same reason. I found myself in the odd position of a drummer trying to preach to the choir; the people who were there wanted progress - change for the better. And here and there, the drummer, too, got a dose of the choir. { Read more }

I'd been keeping track of the Teleios Code Jam even as I was paying attention to the rest of the forum on the 3rd day (here, here, and here). The first hours of the Code Jam were understandably quiet:

Programming is not a spectator sport.

Even so, I opted to head over and stick my head in now and then just to see what was going on - and to hit the food table there, which had lower traffic than in the main conference area. Why? The programmers were working. They even worked through lunch, opting to work on their code rather than focus on their biological needs. In other words - some real hackers turned up.

After the IPv6 post, I sat next to Raul Bermudez and watched the last bits of the competition. From the outside, it looked very similar to the start - keyboards tapping with sustainable urgency. Teams had been handicapped in ways that only made the challenge a little greater - people leaving (commitments), and so forth. One team got there late because of the lovely traffic that the government says is an indicator for development.

The teams were all from the University of the West Indies, which was a little disappointing for me. I wonder how many others simply didn't know about the challenge. Even so, 5 teams were sufficient to fill the room. { Read more }

Mr. Roque Gagliano, Senior Project Engineer at LACNIC spoke about the history of protocols on the Internet, and is explaining Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR) and Network Address Translation (NAT).

NAT eased a lot of issues for growth, including the reduction of the need of public addresses, the internal addressing plan (and subsequent financial overhead), transparency to some applications and a clear delimitation point for some ISPs. However, NAT has disadvantages as well, including:

Translation can be complex (VoIP, FTP as examples)

• Applications using dynamic ports
• Doesn't scale - today's average of 500 active sessions per user)

Other examples were given as well in the slides, but... I can't type as fast as Roque is talking. :-)

Random fact: IPv6 Permits 2¹²⁸ addresses.

During lunch, when I was showing someone the YouTube video I had embedded of John Cleese talking about Sarah Palin and the U.S. Election, I ended up switching to another video of Barack Obama and... my laptop became the center of discussion. People from around the region were concerned about the Republican control of voting machines, the disparity in methodology of voting throughout the United States... and the possibility that Barack Obama could lose because of it.

In essence, there was an assumption that Barack Obama should win. This was interesting to find at a Caribbean forum... It's no surprise to me that the Caribbean people at the forum like Obama. I just had no idea that his voice on a YouTube video could actually draw people to a laptop...

Go Obama!

Today is split between the the Teleios Code Jam and the CTU's Internet Day. As I've been bouncing between the two sessions (and will continue to do so throughout the day), I'm now catching up and I expect I'll be catching up throughout the day. However, with a good wireless connection today, I'll be able to live blog.

Just so I'm consistent, the traffic coming from South Trinidad was horrible. 2 hours this morning, again.

On the Teleiso Code Jam side of things, there were a few delays. I missed the part by Microsoft where they were advocating some of their technology, but in talking with some of the developers who were present I heard the word 'Linux' popping up here and there. That made me feel a bit more warm and fuzzy. The key delay was that one software development team member was stuck in traffic - and he was bringing an additional team. As I write this, the room is as quiet as a room of developers writing code. And that is actually pretty quiet. A random look around did make me feel better - at least half of the developers were wearing jeans, something which I did to maintain a level of sanity. Or perhaps to separate the corporate developers from the hackers.

On the CTU side of things, we're now into the second session. The first session basically introduced the CTU and the Internet Society (ISOC) a bit better. I'm now a global member of ISOC - which is free. You can look into that here; there was discussion of creating a Caribbean chapter. { Read more }