Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society

Tag: request-for-comment

  • Govt of Trinidad and Tobago releases Consultative Document for the Policy on Cinema Exhibition and Video Entertainment

    The Government of Trinidad and Tobago (GoRTT) has released a “Consultative Document for the Policy on Cinema Exhibition and Video Entertainment in Trinidad and Tobago.” (PDF ; 671K) in May 2009

    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)

    (Update: On June 30th, 2009, the TTCS submitted its comments : TTCS Comments on Consultative Document on Draft Policy for Video and Cinema.pdf

    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 –
      1. Classify film and video entertainment products, as well as auxiliary marketing paraphernalia (posters, advertisements etc.);
      2. Licence Exhibitors;
      3. Licence Exhibition Venues
      4. Undertake to inspect operations of Exhibitors and Proprietors to ensure adherence to the provisions of this Policy;
      5. Develop codes of practice in conjunction with Exhibitors and Proprietors; and
      6. 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

  • Electronic Transactions Bill, 2009 ; Data Protection Bill, 2009 read in Trinidad and Tobago Parliament

    According to the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament House of Representatives
    February 6th, 2009 order paper     , there was a second reading of two IT related bills :

    Any thoughts, concerns, suggestions regarding these bills?

  • 3rd Draft of National Broadcasting Code for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago published for comments

    The Telecommunications Authority of  Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has published the third draft of the National Broadcasting Code for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (PDF ; 1.14MB) .

    Included in this draft document are the comments received from previous drafts and TATT’s response to them.

    Comments on the draft Broadcast Code for Trinidad and Tobago are to be sent to TATT before January 23rd, 2009.

  • Ministry of Public Administration consultation on the management of .tt ccTLD on Wednesday December 17th – what are your thoughts for .tt?

    The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society has been invited by the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) to  a consultation on the .tt country code Top Level Domain policy this Wednesday. From the text of the invitation :

    “The .tt ccTLD is the country code top level domain for Trinidad and Tobago. A country code top level domain is an Internet top-level domain, generally used or reserved for a country or a dependent territory. ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and currently all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is performed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and generally corresponds to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes maintained by the United Nations.

    In some countries they are very popular (.de is the most popular, second only to .com in number of registrations), less so in others. Some countries use the ccTLD as a revenue generator (.tv) while others use it as a national resource and for country branding (.uk, .au). In general, .tt is little known either inside or outside the country, and there has been little interest among most of the local Internet stakeholders in its use or policies.

    The Trinidad and Tobago government has been working on a process to develop a plan for local policy development for the Trinidad and Tobago ccTLD – .tt. It has been run for many years by the ttNIC (a local company), but the time has come to have a national consensus multi-stakeholder policy for the local management of this Internet resource, and an inclusive and transparent consultative process to get there.

    The key objective of this consultation is to get the views of Internet stakeholders on the major policy issues that inform the management of the .tt ccTLD. Other objectives of this consultation include:

    • To present models for ccTLD management

    • To discuss guidelines and best practices for ccTLD management
    • To discuss potential for re-delegation of the .tt ccTLD from the current administrator (TTNIC)
    • To identify prioritised actions, processes and indicative schedules for developing the .tt ccTLD as a national resource”

    There have been many posts on this to the TTCS discussion mailing list (scroll to the bottom of the page for the responses). Your thoughts?

  • Trinidad and Tobago Broadcast Code

    The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) has published a draft Broadcasting Code  containing rules for regulating the content of programmes and material transmitted by radio and TV broadcasters (specifically the free-to-air radio, free-to-air TV and the basic (or general audience) package of subscription TV broadcasters).

    According to the document :

    “the principles which inform the Code are respect for the right of adults to choose the programming they want, while protecting children and young persons from unsuitable
    material through appropriate scheduling and, the need to protect persons from harm or
    unnecessary offence.”

    The Code prescribes specific standards for the broadcast of free-to-air radio and television programmes in relation to a number of issues including the following :

    • Protection of children and young persons
    • Harm and offence
    • Crime
    • Race
    • Due Impartiality and due accuracy in the reporting of news
    • Election coverage
    • Fairness and privacy
    • Right of reply
    • Information and warnings
    • Advertising and sponsorship
    • Religion

    The Code also outlines procedures for receiving complaints and for redress.

    TATT will be holding public meetings (not announced as of August 10th, 2008 ) at locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago between 18th August 2008 and 29th August 2008. Persons may also submit comments in writing to the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago at 76 Boundary Road, San Juan, Trinidad or by email to [email protected].

    The deadline for the receipt of written comments on the Code and the Guidelines to TATT is
    August 29, 2008    .

    Download :

    Also, see Presentations from TATT’s seminar “Balance on the airwaves ; free speech and responsibility”

  • MPA releases Draft National Policy on Electronic Business For Trinidad and Tobago

    The Ministry of Public Admin (MPA) has released a “Draft National Policy on Electronic Business for Trinidad and Tobago” (PDF ; 648K). According to this 23 page document, the aim of the policy is :

    To develop a vibrant and sustainable e-Business industry that will contribute to the
    transformation of Trinidad and Tobago’s economic paradigm towards one that has a
    significant knowledge base, through:

    • Strengthening the Nation’s infrastructure;
    • Clarifying market place rules;
    • Developing networks;
    • Increasing participation;
    • Developing the Nation’s human resources; and
    • Developing the Nation’s R&D and Innovation Capacity.

    The objectives :

    This policy paper intends to identify actions that the Government of the Republic of
    Trinidad and Tobago (GoRTT) will need to take in collaboration with the private
    sector and academia, in order to create an economic, infrastructural and human
    resource environment in which e-Business opportunities are relatively easy to take
    advantage of by businesses and individuals.
    In this regard, the proposals herein are structured to minimize the direct intervention
    of Government in taking these proposals forward; this is to encourage increased
    competitiveness of the ICT sector in Trinidad and Tobago.

    The document also gives a glimpse of planned government policies :

    • Fastforward II Trinidad and Tobago’s National ICT Plan, 2008–2013
    • Government of Trinidad and Tobago e-Legislative agenda
    • Hosting policy (presumably related to the Internet Bandwidth Management policy)
    • e-Payments position paper
    • National Broadband Action Plan

    The deadline for comments has not been announced as yet but the TTCS will update this entry along with a link to where we can co-ordinate our response to this policy.

    Download :

  • TTCS invited to Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards IT committee to work on ISO/IEC JTC 1 matters

    At the beginning of November 2007, the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) invited the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society (TTCS) to participate in a mirror committee for Information Technology.This committee was established by the TTBS to develop national policy positions on various issues and to contribute towards the work of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1).

    The TTBS has recently acquired Participatory Member Status (P-status) in the ISO/IEC JTC 1. This involves mandatory voting on draft international standards and compulsory involvement in working groups and sub-committees.

    At the ISO’s ballot to fast-track Microsoft’s Office OpenXML (OOXML) format as an international standard (held in September 2007), the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) cast an “abstain” vote. It is likely that this issue will continue to be discussed by the mirror committee as another vote on OpenXML is scheduled for February 2008.

    The TTCS will be posting the various issues before the TTBS committee to our mailing lists, wiki and blog comments. Do consider them and let us know your opinions on these matters.

    Many new P-status members who joined ISO/IEC JTC1 before the OpenXML vote are not voting on other ISO standards. We do not want Trinidad and Tobago to be one of them. See ConsortiumInfo.org post : “..Global Standards Work in SC 34 “Grinds to a Halt”

    The TTCS will post more details about the TTBS IT committee as they become available.

    About ISO/IEC JTC 1

    The ISO/IEC JTC 1 mission statement is “to develop, maintain, promote and facilitate IT standards required by global markets meeting business and user requirements concerning

    • the design and development of IT systems and tools
    • the performance and quality of IT products and systems
    • the security of IT systems and information
    • the portability of application programs
    • the interoperability of IT products and systems
    • the unified tools and environments
    • the harmonized IT vocabulary, and
    • the user-friendly and ergonomically-designed user interfaces.”

    There are eighteen sub-committees (SC) working under ISO/IEC JTC1, but one subcommittee SC 34, has received a great deal on attention on a recent vote related to the Microsoft OpenXML format.

  • GNSO report on policy for introducing new gTLDs ; questions for ICANN workshop for 29 October needed

    A followup post to the Summary of GNSO report on policy for introducing new generic Top Level Domains.

    The controversy (as I see it), is the meaning that people associate with certain letter combinations. For example, if the North American Zookeeper’s Institute wanted its own top level domain and met the technical requirements for a registry gTLD, then a .nazi gTLD could be created. Hmmm…….

    The list of gTLD that could offend someone based on their thoughts of morality, religious beliefs are potentially limitless. Governments which object to expression of certain ideas could also object to creation of certain gTLDs because of the ideal the gTLD gives recognition to. Some examples :

    • Should a group be allowed to get a .god gTLD for example? Or .jesus gTLD? Or a .mohammed gTLD?
    • What about a .casino gTLD? Lots of persons object to gambling.
    • Or a .freetibet gTLD?
    • Or .gay?
    • Or .porn?
    • Should a group outside Trinidad and Tobago create a .tnt or .trinidad gTLD?
    • Should a group/country outside Trinidad and Tobago object to a local group here applying for say a .trinidad being formed? What if the word “tnt” is a racial slur in another language? What if it offends religious sensitivities in other country?

    How to make this equitable to all? That’s want the policy for introducing new gTLDs is trying to do. As such, the proposed recommendations #6 and #20 re: new gTLDs are the ones generating the most controversy

    • #6 : “Strings must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order that are recognized under international principles of law.”
    • #20 : “An application will be rejected if an expert panel determines that there is substantial opposition to it from a significant portion of the community to which the string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted.”

    What are your thoughts on this? Read the reports on the proposed policy and edit the wiki page
    at http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/New-gTLDs with your proposed questions for the ICANN workshop for October 29th, 2007 (edit the page by clicking on the “edit page button” ; the password is “ttcswebwiki”)

    If you’re willing to meet in person to debate/discuss this issue over the 20-21 October weekend, email me at admin a.t ttcsweb d,ot org. If enough persons are interested, the TTCS could arrange to meet on a Saturday or Sunday.

    Relevant links :

  • Summary of GNSO report on policy for introducing new generic Top Level Domains

    (Update 17th Oct : see new blog post which has more details)

    The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) has released a summary of the report on the Introduction of new top level domains for the At-Large community’s consideration and use at the GNSO’s New gTLD Workshop at the ICANN Los Angeles meeting on Monday, 29 October 2007.

    This document is meant to provide a concise and easy to read summary of the key elements of the Report, and is organized to correspond with the Workshop sessions. At-Large participants (such as the TTCS) are encouraged to consider the summary, and the Report, and submit questions in advance that they would like the Workshop panelists to address on the
    29th.

    The TTCS wiki page http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/New-gTLDs has more background information about gTLDs.

    The summary of the report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains :
    http://ttcsweb.pbwiki.com/f/New+gtlds+nnnworkshop+document.pdf (PDF ; 191K)

    The Actual Report on the Introduction of new Top Level Domains is available in two parts :
    Part A – http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/pdp-dec05-fr-parta-08aug07.htm
    Part B – http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/pdp-dec05-fr-partb-01aug07.htm

    (Update : The At Large is creating a short term working group to discuss and generate comments for input into the process and transmission to the Board of ICANN. The Working Group will work via a mailing list, and interested persons can
    subscribe to this list at http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-liaison_atlarge-lists.icann.org

    The timeframe for the working group is short, with a deadline of October 25th, 2007.

    A suggested work plan has already been posted to the Ad-Hoc Working Group on New gTLD mailing list.)

  • MPAI RFC on “Draft Policy on the Universality of telecommunications service provision in Trinidad and Tobago”

    The Ministry of Public Administration and Information (MPAI) is inviting comments from interested parties for a second round of consultation on the draft policy on the Universality of Telecommunications Service provision in Trinidad and Tobago. A discussion of the decisions made subsequent to the comments and recommendations received is also available. The public is invited to submit comments to further aid the development of a methodology for ubiquitous access to telecommunications services by August 31st, 2007.

    Excerpts from the Draft Policy :

    The aim of this policy is to promote universal access to telecommunications services for all persons in Trinidad and Tobago by facilitating the orderly, systematic, dispersed development and provision of telecommunications services at affordable rates in Trinidad and Tobago in a manner that facilitates access by all citizens while encouraging innovation and incentive for investment in the ICT sector.

    The major objectives of facilitating access to telecommunications and wider Information and Communication Technologies to all communities and thus all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are:

    • to encourage full participation in Twenty-first Century society by members of Trinidad and Tobago’s society;
    • to promote political, economic and cultural cohesion;
    • to bridge the digital divide in the country;
    • to encourage a more balanced distribution of access to digital technology among all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago
    • to promote economic development; and
    • to enhance the competitiveness of Trinidad and Tobago

    Under the summary of Policy Prescriptions, which is interesting given the recent TSTT/TATT spat over TSTT proposed introduction of a Single Rate for fixed lines :

    4. The [Telecommunications] Authority [of Trinidad and Tobago] shall determine the public telecommunications services to which universality shall apply to provide the requisite benefits to society. Such services shall include at a minimum:

    • affordable Domestic call origination and termination;
    • affordable narrowband public data services of throughput no less than fifty six kilo bits per second (56 kbps);
    • access to international call origination and termination services; and
    • free 24-hour access to emergency call service

    Such determinations shall be subject to periodic review as defined by the Authority.

    8.2 Affordability

    5. The Authority shall ensure price for basic telecommunications access must be so structured as to meet recognised affordability criteria, individually or cumulatively.

    View/download :