Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society

Category: meetings

  • TATT seminar “balance on the airwaves ; free speech and responsibility” on April 2-3, 2008

    The Telecom Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) is sponsoring a public seminar called “Balance on the airwaves: free speech and responsibility” on April 2-3, 2008 at the Grand Ballroom, Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.

    There is no charge for attending this seminar, however interested persons are asked to register by 4:00pm Wednesday March 26th 2008. To register you are kindly asked to contact Mr Sean Samad, Communications, Public Relations Officer or Ms Ingrid Gittens, Administrative Coordinator at 675-8288 ext 310 and 332 respectively or at registration at tatt -dot- org -dot- tt.

    According to the PDF on TATT’s website (18K) :

    “This seminar will feature, interactive sessions, panel discussions and stimulating presentations by the following eight internationally respected experts on issues and areas of concern dealing with broadcasting, media and regulation policies and practices for media and broadcasting.

    • Ms. Eve Salomon – author of UNESCO and CBA’s “Guidelines for Broadcasting Regulation” – The Broadcast Code – challenges faced and commonalities encountered (with a focus on the global aim to protect minors)
    • Dr. Hopeton Dunn – Director, Telecommunications Policy and Management Programme, Mona Business School, UWI MONA – Globalisation, Convergence and the Digital Future: Policy Issues in Caribbean Broadcasting Regulation.
    • Mr. Mark Lloyd – Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, Adj. Professor, Georgetown University Public Policy Institute: The relationship between communication policies and a strong democratic society – why talk radio is important
    • Dr. Suzy dos Santos – Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro: “The role of media in social development and democracy: how Brazil faces global changes in TV regulation, distribution and production”
    • Mr. Toby Mendel – Law/Asia Programmes Director, ARTICLE 19: International Guarantees of Freedom of Expression: Implications for Broadcast Regulation
    • Ms. Sonia Gill – Asst. Executive Director, Broadcasting Commission, Jamaica: A Caribbean perspective: stakeholder consultation and the road to broadcast regulation in Jamaica
    • Ms. Graciela Baroni Suleiman – Executive Coordinator NUPEF, RITS’ Centre for Research, Studies and Capacity Building in ICT for Human Development, Internet Governance and Rights: The impact of media on the construction of more peaceful societies
    • Mr. Ronald I. Cohen – National Chair, Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: Making the link – the model of self-regulation, enforcement and collaboration between regulators and the broadcasting sector

    Under the Telecommunications Act,  TATT is mandated to develop a National Broadcasting Code which will apply “to the transmission of audio, video and text broadcasts via any medium, whether “free to air”, subscription based, or the Internet”

    In April 2005, TATT’s announced a Draft National Broadcasting Code (PDF ; 157K) document and after three public consultations, announced that a Broadcast Code in 2006 will be in place although this did not happen.

  • TTCS pizzalime on TUESDAY March 25th, 2008 from 6-9pm

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a pizzalime on TUESDAY March 25th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

    Come join us as we eat and chat about :

    Contribution of $30 towards refreshments is expected. Copies of TTCS OSSWIN CD are available for $20TT.

    See you there!

  • TTCS pizzalime on Wednesday February 13th, 2008

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a pizzalime on Wednesday February 13th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

    Come join us as we eat and chat about :

    Contribution of $30 towards refreshments is expected. Copies of TTCS OSSWIN CD are available for $40TT. See you there!

  • Summary of TTCS meetings held in 2007

    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.
    (more…)

  • TTCS tech meeting on Saturday 26th January 2008 – look at OLPC laptops and EEE PC laptops

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) will be having a tech meeting on Saturday 26th January 2008
    from 1pm to 5pm at Hand Arnold (Trinidad) Limited, El Socorro Road Extension, El Socorro, San Juan (see map at
    http://ttcsweb.org/handarnold-map)

    Two One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) laptops and two Asus EEE PC laptops will be shown at this meeting.

    The meeting is open to anyone interested in learning more about these laptops. A $20 contribution towards refreshments is expected.

    The TTCS OSSWIN CD will be available for $40TT at this meeting.

    See you there!

  • Updated events on TTCS calendar for January 2008

    The TTCS online calendar of TTCS meetings/activities at http://www.ttcsweb.org/calendar has been updated with several events in January 2008 :

    – Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards meeting re: ISO IT standards that TTBS is obligated to vote on, including the Microsoft Open XML standard. If there are any comments re: ISO IT standards (see past posts on the TTCS blog and on the TTCS announce mailing list ), please email admin at ttcsweb . org

    – TTCS tech meeting on Saturday January 28th, 2008 – demonstration of OLPC and Asus EEE PC laptops

    – Comments due on ICANN GNSO initial report on domain tasting. See http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/DomainTasting for more background details.

    You can view the TTCS calendar online at http://www.ttcsweb.org/calendar/ . You can also subscribe to/add the TTCS calendar to your calendar software/website via these links : iCal | XML | Google Calendar

  • TTCS pizzalime on Wednesday January 9th, 2008

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a pizzalime on Wednesday January 9th, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

    Come join us as we eat and chat about various computing related topics including TTCS planning for 2008. Hardware from the past two meetings should make an appearance.

    Contribution of $30 towards refreshments is expected.  Copies of the TTCS OSSWIN CD are available for $40TT.

    See you there!

  • TTCS online Calendar

    An online calendar of TTCS meetings/activities can be found at http://www.ttcsweb.org/calendar/. It also shows the public holidays in Trinidad and Tobago.

    The TTCS first meeting for 2008 : TTCS pizzalime, January 9th, 2008 at Pizza Hut, Roxy Roundabout.

  • TTCS tech meeting on Saturday 24th November 2007 – DIS 29500

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society will be having a tech meeting on Saturday November 24th, 2007 from 1 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 DIS 29500 (Microsoft Office Open XML format). This draft standard is currently being reviewed by the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) IT committee.

    The TTBS as a P-status member of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 will be voting on this standard at the ISO level very soon. See “TTCS invited to Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards IT committee to work on ISO/IEC JTC 1 matters“.

    The DIS 29500/Office Open XML format can be found at http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm but given the length of the specification under review (6000 pages of technical details) and that time is limited, we will be attempting a test ; see http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/DIS29500 for details and information on how you can take part. You can also add your comments by editing this page.

    Anyone interested in this topic are welcome to attend. A contribution of $20 towards refreshments is expected. See you there!

  • Software Freedom Day 2007 report

    Introduction

    Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the availability and benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Local teams around the world organise events on the third Saturday in September. In 2007, Software Freedom Day was celebrated on September 15th.

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) organised meetings in 2005 and in 2006 to promote free and open source software, but did not register with the official Software Freedom Day website.

    This article is a report on the planning that went into SFD 2007, a overview of the presentations made on the actual day and various photos and video clips from SFD 2007.

    Preparations for SFD 2007

    The TTCS registered as a team on the Software Freedom Day website in mid-July 2007 at :

    We received materials and CDs from the Software Freedom Day organisation during the last week of August. During that week, the venue for the event was confirmed as Hand Arnold (Trinidad) Limited, El Socorro Road Extension, El Socorro, San Juan, Trinidad. TTCS has held some of its previous tech meetings at this location.

    Planning for the event began via phone calls and email among members of the TTCS and we decided that the time for the SFD event would be from 1pm to 6pm. Plans were made for the following:

    • a flyer with information about the TTCS, TTCS OSSWIN CD (our CD compilation of open source software for Windows), Ubuntu and open source to be given to persons on SFD. To minimise costs, it would use a single sheet of paper.
    • a one page flyer to promote SFD – this would be put online for TTCS members to download and distribute to the public. This had to be done before 7th September 2007.
    • a letter to send via postal mail to secondary schools. The letter to schools should:
      • introduce the TTCS
      • tell them about Software Freedom Day
      • mention if they attend, they would receive an Ubuntu and a TTCS OSSWIN CD free of charge and get to see demonstrations of the software and learn more about opensource.
      • ask them to reply via email to confirm if they are attending
    • promote SFD via the TTCS Facebook group and other computer related email lists.
    • at least three computers to be available on SFD to demonstrate Ubuntu and open source software for Windows.
    • a meeting on September 8th, 2007 to prepare machines for SFD, to meet with volunteers willing to help with the event.

    3rd September – 8th September 2007

    The week from the 3rd September to the 8th September was very busy with many emails passing between the TTCS members who would be running the SFD event. A wiki page was created at http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/SFD to help with the planning for SFD including the text of the letter for schools, the email text to be posted to various mailing lists and various Linux distros to have on hand at SFD

    The TTCS Software Freedom Day flyer (PDF ; 180K) to promote the TTCS SFD event was made available online :

    A TTCS FOSS tri-fold brochure (PDF ; 654K) about Free and Open Source Software was done (it is a modified version of a brochure from http://geekosophical.net/misc/sfd/ and also made available online.

    The official TTCS Software Freedom Day webpage at http://www.ttcsweb.org/sfd was completed and the TTCS home page also carried the announcement of the Software Freedom Day event.

    The event was also announced on the Facebook social network : TTCS Software Freedom Day 2007 event on Facebook

    It was decided that there should be a door prize or giveaway of some sort. The Official Ubuntu Book (2nd Edition) and and OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook were ordered from Amazon.com so that the books would arrive before SFD.

    The list of secondary schools was obtained from the Ministry of Education website, the relevant data extracted and put in an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet. There were 200 secondary schools in all.

    September 8th, 2007 meeting

    At the September 8th, 2007 preparatory meeting held at ENCO, persons attending discussed :

    • The proposed agenda for SFD. The plan called for doing several demos/presentations which required a projector:
      • a presentation about TTCS OSSWIN CD and various OSS for Windows
      • a presentation about Ubuntu :
        • the background behind Ubuntu
        • how to install Ubuntu by demoing the Live CD
        • how to use the Live CD version of Ubuntu
        • installation of Ubuntu on the hard drive of a Windows PC
        • when install begins (files are being copied from CD), switch to machine with pre-installed ubuntu. (can let install continue if desired)
        • on Ubuntu – show overview of desktop – how menu are organised, how to change appearance of desktop (wallpaper, add programs to menu, etc) doing common tasks with Ubuntu, for example: internet tasks such as chat, browsing, email, voip; media playback of restricted formats; synchronising a music player with Ubuntu; connecting digital cameras and organising photos; how to install a printer; gaming; running Windows apps in Ubuntu.
    • Discussion of CD-Rs needed for TTCS OSSWIN CD and Ubuntu – should we use printed CD-R labels, or use plain CDs with a paper-case label to save costs. The desire of good presentation won out in spite of the increased cost and extra work of printing labels on printable CD-Rs (only two persons have such inkjet printers).
    • Computer equipment needed on SFD :
      • Windows PC with space to install Ubuntu
      • preinstalled Ubuntu machine installed with up-to-date software (compiz-beryl, flash, restricted formats).
      • preinstalled Ubuntu machine would have Windows XP as a dual-boot option to demo OSS for Windows from the TTCS OSSWIN CD
      • one of the presenters will bring his laptop which already has Ubuntu.
      • a Windows laptop for persons to try out OSS for Windows.

      The extra machines would allow attendees try out FOSS for themselves during the breaks.

    The text of the TTCS letter to secondary schools (PDF ; 113K) inviting them to attend the SFD event was agreed upon :

    The next day, OpenOffice.org was used to do a mail merge, letters and envelopes were printed, letters were folded and put into the envelopes. The letters were
    delivered to the local post office on Monday September 10th.

    September 10th-14th, 2007

    A meeting was held on Wednesday September 12th, 2007. A more definite agenda of what would be done on SFD was agreed upon and also how to arrange the layout of the venue.

    A promotional poster for the TTCS OSSWIN CD to put up at the SFD venue was done :

    During this week, 80 TTCS OSSWIN CD labels were printed and 50 Ubuntu CD labels (using the Ubuntu CD artwork on the Ubuntu’s DIY Marketing page) were printed. The night before SFD, the printed CD-Rs were burned with the appropriate data. About 120 tri-fold brochures were printed.

    September 15th, 2007 – Software Freedom Day

    Arrived at the venue at 10am to prepare the venue in time for 1pm.

    Event started at approximately 1.10 pm with around 27 people present.

    • 1.15pm – An introduction to the TTCS what the TTCS does, highlighting our website at http://www.ttcsweb.org/.
    • 1.35 pm – A Introduction to Free and Open Source Software (PDF ; 103K) presentation was done.
    • 1.59pm – Overview of Software Freedom Day.
    • 2.05pm – 2.18pm – Short break to prep for Ubuntu presentation; refreshments for the audience.
    • 2.20pm to 3.15pm – Introduction to Ubuntu. Demonstration of a “live” CD. Gave overview of the Ubuntu desktop. Began a hard drive install of Ubuntu. Answered questioned from members of the audience while the installation was in progress Gave background to how Ubuntu came about ; what “Ubuntu” means (played the included video clip “What is Ubuntu”), with a brief biography of Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth.
    • 3.15pm to 3.30pm – Break While refreshments were served, many attendees asked several questions and made use of available machines to try Ubuntu.
    • 3.31pm to 4.12pm : Demonstration of installed Ubuntu This machine was pre-installed with Compiz, restricted formats, Adobe Flash player, Nvidia restricted drivers Did an overview of the large number of applications available and how to add/remove applications. How security updates are performed Described how a new version of Ubuntu is available every 6 months. Discussion of proprietary formats (e.g. MP3, WMV) and why Ubuntu does not include support in the default install Described how to add support for proprietary formats. Showed OpenOffice.org and discussed the benefits of non-proprietary formats. Showed Compiz including effects such as the rotating cube and switching between applications.
    • 4.15pm – 5.00pm overview of TTCS OSSWIN CD – open source software for Windows showed various OSS on the TTCS OSSWIN CD – OpenOffice.org, Tux Paint, Rainlendar, Mozilla Firefox and others
    • 5:00 – 5:10 pm – Break
    • 5:10 – 5:45 pm – more OSS for Windows from the TTCS OSSWIN CD Continued the overview of OSS for Windows from the TTCS OSSWIN CD.
    • 5:45 – 6:00 pm – Book giveaway One member of the audience received The Official Ubuntu Book (2nd Edition) and another received the OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook.
    • 6:10 – end of event

     

    Additional notes :

    Seven persons directly helped with the running of SFD on that day and three other persons helped with the preparations leading up to SFD.

    Forty one persons signed the attendance sheets, many were secondary school representatives who responded via email before SFD. A few were from the IT department of T&TEC (the local electricity company) who found out about the SFD event when a TTCS member who worked there, printed and showed the flyer to them.

    Each attendee received :

    • the TTCS trifold brochure
    • a printed TTCS OSSWIN CD
    • a printed Ubuntu CD (once stocks of the Ubuntu CDs from Softwarefreedomday.org were finished.)

     

    Photos and videos

    Several photos from the Software Freedom Day event were uploaded to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttcs/sets/72157602189102284/

    An 18 minute video of the Software Freedom Day 2007 event was created and available for viewing at Vimeo

    Press coverage

    Mark Lyndersay who writes BitDepth, (a weekly column about personal technology published in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper) was present at SFD 2007. He wrote about the TTCS SFD 2007 event in BitDepth #595 – ‘A slow march to freedom’, which was published on Tuesday September 25th, 2007 in the Trinidad Guardian.