(Update 3 August 2010 : The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/) will be having a pizzalime on Thursday August 5 2010 from 6pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout to discuss the upcoming Focus Group Discussion with the Ministry of Public Administration on Trinidad & Tobago ICT Strategy “Fastforward II”. Anyone interested are welcome to attend. A contribution of $30 TT towards the food bill is expected.)
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS ; http://ttcsweb.org/) has been invited by the Ministry Of Public Administration of Trinidad and Tobago (http://www.mpa.gov.tt/) to a focus group discussion on August 7 2010 regarding Fastforward II, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy.
From the letter of invitation :
The Ministry of Public Administration, in collaboration with the National ICT Company Limited (iGovTT) and the Infocomm Development Authority International (IDA-i) of Singapore, has embarked upon a ICT master planning exercise towards the drafting of the second iteration of fastforward. Whereas fastforward I (2003-2008) focused primarily on “Connectivity” and sought to bridge the digital divide by increasing the accessibility and affordability of ICTs to all citizens irrespective of economic status and location. Fastforward II will concentrate more on ICT “usage and uptake” in order to give direction to Trinidad and Tobago’s digital development for the period 2010 to 2014…..
….Discussions will surround key initiatives being proposed under fastforward II including, but not limited to :
1. Building an e-Ready Generation through ICT Enriched Learning 2. Creating and Promoting Local Digital Content 3. Providing Accessible and Affordable ICT Services for Digital Inclusion 4. Promoting Media Literacy and Online Protection.
What are your thoughts on these initiatives? How can these initiatives be achieved?
What other initiatives should be included in a National ICT Strategy of Trinidad and Tobago?
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 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 Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a meeting on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 1pm to 5pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain (corner of Oxford and Edward Street).
At this meeting, we will be looking at the release candidate of Microsoft Windows 7 by installing Windows 7 RC on at least two machines
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizzalime on Wednesday May 13th, 2009 from 6pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.
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.” Read blog post for more details.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a meeting on Saturday 9th May 2009 from 11am to 4pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street (corner of Oxford and Edward Street)
This meeting will be a 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.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a meeting on Saturday 28th March 2009 from 12:30pm to 4:45pm at Hand Arnold (Trinidad) Limited, El Socorro Road Extension, El Socorro,
San Juan (see map at http://ttcsweb.org/handarnold-map)
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a meeting on Saturday 21st March 2009 from 1pm at Engineering Consultants at 112A Edward Street, Port of Spain.
Proposed agenda :
planning for Software Freedom Day 2009;
ideas for TTCS arising from the recently concluded ICANN Mexico meeting.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a pizzalime on Thursday February 12th, 2009 from 6pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout, Port of Spain.
Come join us as we eat and chat about various computing related topics.
Anyone interested in computing are invited to attend. A contribution of $30 towards the food bill is expected.
