In June 2010, the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society put together some comments regarding the laptops-for-children program (in which every child going on to secondary school will be provided with a laptop) that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago was proposing to implement for September 2010. These comments were forwarded to the Ministry of Education.
Involved in ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (http://icann.org/)) policy work as the secretariat for the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO ; http://lacralo.org/), a group of At-Large Structures (ALSes) within the Latin American and Caribbean Region.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) celebrated Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2009 with a series of activities in September, including scheduled presentations with giveaways and demonstrations of various aspects of Free and Open Source Software. Admission was FREE and CDs/DVDs of Free and Open Source Software were give to all attendees. The activities involved outreach meetings involving booth displays at malls in Trinidad and Tobago as well as information sessions geared towards beginners, intermediates and software developers.
Booth Displays were done on
Saturday September 5th, 2009 – outreach meeting at Gulf City, Lowlands Mall, Tobago
Saturday September 12th, 2009 – outreach meeting at Long Circular Mall, Trinidad
Information Sessions were done on
Saturday September 19th, 2009 – “Open Minds, Open Source: For Beginners” at St Mary’s College, Port of Spain
Saturday September 26th, 2009 – “Exploring Open Source Possibilities: For Intermediates” session at St. Mary’s College, Port of Spain
Saturday October 3rd, 2009 – “Building with FLOS: Open Source for Developers” session geared for OSS developers
A great deal of planning sessions were done in 2009 and this planning work was documented on the wiki
Promotional material was generated for the events including a number of flyers and a press release. Newspaper ads (2″ x 8″) were also done for the three daily newspapers.
Venue for Tobago : Gulf City, Lowlands Mall, Tobago on Sept 5th)
Venue for Trinidad : Long Circular Mall (available Sept 12th)
The booth displays involved three booths:
One table geared towards providing information about the TTCS and filling out membership forms online.
One tabled geared towards demonstrations of the OSSWIN Open Source CD
One table for the demonstration of Ubuntu and Netbooks
Members of the TTCS were able to distribute approximately 140 Ubuntu Cds, 140 OSSWin Cds, 250 Flyers and added 120 new members to our mailing list (see photos and videos section below).
Photos and Videos from SFD 2009 Events
Saturday September 5th, 2009 – outreach meeting at Gulf City, Lowlands Mall, Tobago
There was a good turnout ; we had 50 TTCS OSSWIN CDs & 50 Ubuntu CDs and towards the end, we had to burn 10 additional CDs and 5 additional Ubuntu CDs to give out. 220 flyers were given out and it was estimated that up to 200 patrons visited the TTCS booth at Gulf City, Lowlands Mall.
Pictures from TTCS SFD booth in Tobago Sept 5, 2009 are on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ttcs/sets/72157622259068670/ and on our TTCS Facebook Fan Page at http://bit.ly/2y6ja1
We hold two types of meetings : Pizza Limes and Tech Meetings. A Pizza Lime is the name given to our monthly discussion forum which is usually held at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout, Port of Spain on the second Wednesday of the month. The tech meeting is when we have computers on site to demonstrate a particular type of hardware or software.
ideas for TTCS arising from the recently concluded ICANN Mexico meeting.
Saturday 28th March 2009 – Nintendo Balance Board/Wii Fit
Held at Handarnold, we tried the Wii Balance Board along with the Wii Fit game for the Nintendo Wii. The Wii Balance board is a peripheral device shaped like a household scale that measures a user’s weight and balance to interact with games.
Saturday 9th May 2009 – SFD2009 planning
planning session for Software Freedom Day 2009, planning for upcoming meeting on Windows 7, activities of TTCS within ICANN and discussion of other TTCS activities.
Wednesday 13th May 2009
Come join us as we eat and chat about :
proposed Trinidad and Tobago Government Policy on Cinema Exhibition and Video Entertainment in Trinidad and Tobago. This policy is targeted “to the proprietors/ businessmen, administrators and law makers involved in providing availability to, and regulation of such availability of, film and video entertainment products to the public of Trinidad and Tobago.” and applicable “..to all persons exhibiting, intending to exhibit or otherwise making available motion pictures, video games or any form of video entertainment via rental, sale or arcades to the general public.”
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 35th public meeting being held in Sydney, Australia (http://syd.icann.org/) on June 21st-26th, 2009. The Secretariat from the Latin American and the Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO ; http://lacralo.org/) from the TTCS will be attending.
Online meeting via Skype to discuss planning for Software Freedom Day 2009
Wednesday August 19 2009
Online meeting to finalise plans and the text for the letters for Software Freedom Day 2009.
Wednesday August 26th, 2009
Online meeting to finalise plans and the text for the letters for Software Freedom Day 2009.
Saturday September 5th, 2009 – SFD 2009 Tobago
The TTCS had its first Tobago event with a booth at the Gulf City Lowlands Mall, Tobago about Software Freedom on Saturday September 5th, 2009 from 10am to 5pm.
There was a good turnout ; we had 50 TTCS OSSWIN CDs & 50 Ubuntu CDs
and towards the end, we had to burn 10 additional CDs and 5 additional
Ubuntu CDs to give out. 220 flyers were given out and it was estimated
that up to 200 patrons visited the TTCS booth at Gulf City, Lowlands Mall.
Once the room was filled, about 5:30 P.M., the meeting commenced. The audience, which numbered roughly fifteen persons, ranged from TTCS veterans to a few new faces. We were welcomed by the affable Pradeep Raman, General Manager of Microsoft Trinidad, who introduced himself and shared a bit about his background.
He then introduced the evening’s presenter, the confident and articulate Microsoft Technology Specialist, Jonathan Jagai. The presentation, “What’s New In Windows 7”, was moderately technical, and covered several new features of Microsoft latest operating system.
Jonathan initially gave a broad overview of new Windows 7 features, then went into more depth with each feature. The slides showed the customer feedback upon which new features were designed and implemented. A brief explanation of the underlying technology was given. Where possible, the feature was demonstrated in Windows 7.
Some features covered included:
* DirectAccess, which seamlessly provided intranet connectivity to users when they connected to the Internet
* BranchCache, which reduced network traffic on WANs
* Windows XP Mode, which transparently ran Windows XP applications in a virtual environment
Several new features of the Aero interface were also demonstrated, including the Aero Peek, Aero Snap and Aero Shake, among others. Aero’s eye candy was rivaled only by the PowerPoint 2010 graphics.
Far from being XP with an Aero interface, Windows 7 was designed from the ground up with security, usability and stability in mind.
After the hour-long presentation was concluded, a number of questions were fielded and answered thoughtfully by the presenter. Refreshments were provided afterwards and the evening’s gathering concluded around eight o’clock.
The following is a list of venues such as restaurants and hotels (in no particular order) where internet access via Wi-Fi is known to be available to patrons and visitors to these estabishments. Details on how to configure your laptop to connect to these Wi-Fi networks should be obtained from the restaurant/hotel. Some restaurants/hotels may charge a fee for Wi-Fi internet access. [A map (volunteers needed to update this) is also available to clarify locations.]
(Last updated: 14 September 2016)
Public WiFi Hotspots
Bmobile’s Bzone
TSTT offers WiFi hotspots at various locations for free to bmobile and Blink Broadband customers. See the list of Bzone locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago. Bmobile and Blink Broadband customers must register at http://bzone.tstt.co.tt/ to access Bzone hotspots.
Two more games removed to cater for the increased file sizes of Celestia and the TuxPaint stamp collection. Goodness, and Software Freedom Day 2009 is just around the corner, if a v2.0 is to appear before then.
The proposed policy “is targeted to the proprietors/ businessmen, administrators and law makers involved in providing availability to, and regulation of such availability of, film and video entertainment products to the public of Trinidad and Tobago.” and applicable “..to all persons exhibiting, intending to exhibit or otherwise making available motion pictures, video games or any form of video entertainment via rental, sale or arcades to the general public.”
(Update 18th May 2009 : The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society has open a wiki page (Note link is to a saved version of the wiki page as a PDF) to gather answers to the questions asked in the document. If you have never used the TTCS wiki, you can request access to the TTCS wiki and once added, you can edit the TTCS wiki page)
In this proposed policy, the GoRTT states the following policy positions :
The current mechanism for censorship of material is unwieldy and impractical in the contemporary setting. In the interest of encouraging personal choice of the consumer, the Government proposes to introduce a rating classification system which will guide the content of the motion picture and video entertainment product.
Accordingly the framework should be focused on content regulation and/or management in the interest of protecting the citizenry (and especially minors) from unwanted or unexpected exposure to harmful, distasteful or socially malignant content. Such regulation shall include all forms of motion picture (film, videocassette, DVD, etc.) and/or video entertainment products (commercials, electronic games etc.), and auxiliary materials associated with the marketing and release of such products.
In an environment of continued convergence of information and communications technologies, and the new channels and media thereby facilitated, it is essential that the framework is technology neutral;
Where there are gaps in the overall legislative framework, or where it is necessary to provide clarity for applicability herein, the framework shall defer to parent frameworks associated with the maintenance of public safety and the preservation of public order.
The framework will support easy entry into the industry of video entertainment sales or rental service providers, reducing regulatory overhead as much as possible in this area of activity which has neither control of supply nor market dominance, considering the multiple channels by which these products can be obtained. In that regard, regulation will be limited to that which is sufficient to ensure compliance with the content management provisions pursuant to (2) above.
To facilitate this function, the Government proposes to convert the Film Censors Board to a sectoral regulatory body: – the Film and Video Review Authority to –
Classify film and video entertainment products, as well as auxiliary marketing paraphernalia (posters, advertisements etc.);
Licence Exhibitors;
Licence Exhibition Venues
Undertake to inspect operations of Exhibitors and Proprietors to ensure adherence to the provisions of this Policy;
Develop codes of practice in conjunction with Exhibitors and Proprietors; and
Advise the Minister on recommended regulatory instruments and orders to support the management of the regulatory framework herein established.
The deadline for comments to the GoRTT is June 30th, 2009 (updated June 15, 2009) May 30th, 2009. View/Download
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizzalime on Tuesday 16th June 2009 from 7 pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, VALSAYN.
Come join us as we eat and chat about :
the Policy on Cinema Exhibition & Video Entertainment in Trinidad and Tobago. http://bit.ly/7i42G
the “Boosting ICT in the Dominican Republic” event on June 4th-5th, which the TTCS attended. http://is.gd/O4BC
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 35th public meeting being held in Sydney, Australia (http://syd.icann.org/) on June 21st-26th, 2009. The Secretariat from the Latin American and the Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO ; http://lacralo.org/) from the TTCS will be attending.
The Data Protection Bill 2009 was introduced in the House of Representatives in January 2009 which was identical to the Data Protection Bill 2008 that lapsed in the previous session of Parliament.
Following concerns raised by the Opposition, the Bill was referred to a Joint Select Committee in February 2009. The Joint Select Committee Report was laid on May 15 2009. However, the Bill lapsed with the end of the Parliament session in January 8 2010.
