Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The Caribbean on the Road to WSIS

So I'm here in the lovely isle of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, at a workshop to discuss the Caribbean and the Information society. Lots of interesting work going on. BUT how come I have to come here to hear about it? What is the media doing with regard to the Information Society? From what I've heard, or rather, not heard, in the news media, a big fat nothing!
There are major events going on worldwide on national programmes for bridging the Digital Divide. The Caribbean has some of the most innovative and interesting programmes. But our national and regional media are ignoring the events. How much have we heard in Trinidad and Tobago about the fastforward initiative? I heard more about it from Kenyan and other African people than from Trinidadians! It's considered a great project outside. I couldn't say, as there has been no discussion of it in the media or in the society in general in T&T (that I've heard, or that many of my friends have heard) except for the adverts starring David Rudder and George Bovell III after he won his medals in the Olympics.
So when is the local media going to get interested in this issue? The Internet Governance issue is HUGE. There were major stories last week about the US DoC's statement on IG, ICANN nad control and oversight of the Internet.
Where were the local media stories? Where was the discussion of what this could mean to us in the Caribbean? When will this be documented in the local media?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear. We're trying to document such cases right now... and because no one highlights them, they're hard to find. But we know and hear about so many wonderful ICT projects happening at the grassroots level they're just happening under the radar.

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