Nurturing Caribbean ingenuity: Technology Innovation Forum heads to St Vincent

Eastern Caribbean small-island developing states face the threats of rising crime, porous borders, climate change, the flight of intellectual capital and the dismantling of preferential trade arrangements for agricultural products, spurred by the contagion of the global financial crisis.

But if necessity is the mother of invention, then adversity seeds an abundance of human resourcefulness. Significant challenges have not prevented the sub-region’s governments from working together to equip their citizens to discover, create and exploit opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation.

OECS leaders, seeking to identify new sustainable models for development, have recognised that telecommunications technologies present new opportunities for fostering social and economic development. The governments of St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Grenada are finding new ways to harness the sub-region’s innate creativity and stimulate a culture of innovation through the application of appropriate technology to real-world problems.

On February 26th, stakeholders from various sectors of St Vincent and the Grenadines will gather for a national technology innovation workshop, as part of the ongoing Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Programme (CARCIP), coordinated regionally by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU). Roxanne John, based in the Ministry of Telecommunications, Science and Technology, is coordinating CARCIP in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“We are very proud to host this Innovation Workshop and look forward to discovering new ways to apply technology to everyday challenges,” John said.

The workshop is the second in a regional series. On February 10th, St Lucia held the first workshop, coordinated by its Ministry of the Public Service, Information and Broadcasting. The inaugural event brought together some of the region’s leading minds in the fields of entrepreneurship, information and communications technology, leadership development and innovation.

Through CARCIP, the governments of the three countries have been working toward harmonising the development of their telecommunications infrastructure to maximise synergies and avoid inefficiencies. CARCIP addresses gaps in submarine cable infrastructure and landing stations, domestic backbone networks and national Internet exchange points (IXPs).

CTU Project Coordinator Junior McIntyre described the scope of the overall CARCIP project as “comprehensive”.

"The ultimate aim of CARCIP is to improve the efficiency of telecommunications infrastructure development not just in St Vincent but across the whole Caribbean. The lessons we learn in St Vincent will benefit the entire region,” McIntyre said.

The World bank-funded programme was allocated a total disbursement of US$25 million, including loans to the three countries and a grant to the CTU. In recognition of the critical requirement to promote innovation in Caribbean societies, the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank is working along with the CTU and other stakeholders within the Caribbean region to support a regional approach towards technology-driven innovation.

Boosting regional resourcefulness: St Lucia leads off Caribbean innovation workshops

Caribbean history is the picture of a region lacking in physical and financial resources, but constantly finding ways to confront those realities through human resourcefulness and ingenuity.

St Lucia, like many Caribbean islands, does not have a history of economic reliance on extractive industries based on the abundance of indigenous minerals. Instead, the country has relied on tourism-related service industries as a main pillar of its national economy.

But a new project from the Ministry of the Public Service, Information and Broadcasting is encouraging non-traditional enterprise through sustainable innovation that incorporates new technology-driven approaches to business.

“Entrepreneurs need to eliminate the fear of failure and instead think of failure as a lesson in what not to do. Failure is not the end; it’s just another node on the learning curve,” said Christopher Roberts, St Lucia Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Programme (CARCIP) project coordinator, based in the Ministry of the Public Service, Information and Broadcasting.

Roberts was delivering remarks at a workshop on technology-driven innovation, held in Bay Gardens Resort, Castries on February 10^th and 11^th. Like several other speakers, he underscored the difference between systemic, sustainable innovation and personal spasms of creativity.

“Innovation represents a change in thinking, not just the creation or development of a new goods or products,” he said.

The workshop brought together some of the region’s leading minds in the fields of entrepreneurship, information and communications technology, leadership development and innovation. Keynotes were delivered by Bevil Wooding, an Internet Strategist with decades of experience bringing technology-driven approaches to Caribbean development, and Dr Farid Youssef, expert in neuroscience based in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

The workshop is part of St Lucia’s deployment of CARCIP, which aims to harness the country’s innate creativity and stimulate a nationwide culture of innovation through the application of appropriate technology to real-world problems.

Funded by the World Bank, the US$25 million project includes loans to the three countries and a grant to the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), the Trinidad and Tobago-based organisation coordinating the project across the region.

The CTU met with government officials from the three countries and representatives from the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) in early February to share insights into how each country is tackling the region-wide challenge of developing its telecommunications infrastructure.

The ongoing series of workshops on technology-driven innovation bridges the gap between establishing critical Internet infrastructure and creating social impact in the countries of the region. The workshops will continue in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the next two months. Governments of the three countries have been working toward harmonising the development of their telecommunications infrastructure to maximise synergies and avoid inefficiencies.

Delivering opening remarks at the workshop, Junior McIntyre, CTU CARCIP Project Coordinator, recognised the efforts of Ministry officials behind the St Lucia project, including Minister James Fletcher, Permanent Secretary Phillip Dalsou and the Director of Public Service Modernisation, Dr Cletus Bertin.

CARCIP’s scope is comprehensive. The first phase focuses on gaps in submarine cable infrastructure and landing stations, domestic backbone networks and national Internet exchange points (IXPs). The project is now in its second phase, which focuses on building regional awareness among governments, private sector and civil society of the potential for innovative and effective use of technology.

CARCIP also seeks to identify opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship through the development of business incubators and technology centers in the Eastern Caribbean. But its ultimate aim is the whole sub-region.

"CARCIP will improve the efficiency of telecommunications infrastructure development across the entire Caribbean. The lessons we learn here in St Lucia will benefit the whole region,” said Junior McIntyre, CARCIP project coordinator for the CTU.

Creating Caribbean content: BrightPath, Columbus hold mobile app workshop in Grenada

A new initiative from BrightPath Foundation is taking a radical approach to Caribbean digital content creation. Called TechLink, the new project is already being described as a revolution in community-driven technology-driven education for the region.

On February 1, BrightPath Foundation, in collaboration with its corporate partner Columbus Communications, brought TechLink’s second mobile app development workshop to St George’s, Grenada.

Stephen Lee, technology trainer for the TechLink progam, said what the 20 college-age participants lacked in experience they made up for in enthusiasm.

“Most of the participants, I would say 75 per cent, had little or no prior app development experience. But many were actively pursuing an interest in mobile apps and saw the TechLink workshop as an opportunity to learn more and develop expertise,” he said.

The workshop syllabus included sessions covering the overall app development process, from idea to publishing, and a live walkthrough of Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone development environments. Lee also presented an overview of game development frameworks and did a walkthrough of online app builders: Appery.io and MIT App Inventor 2.

Participants of all levels were directed to online training resources and encouraged to keep developing skills and innovating. Kensuki Morris, a St. George’s University Student who attended, said, “This initiative is awesome. It encourages young people to empower themselves by taking advantage of what is available through broadband and skills. I will definitely attend future sessions.”

This programme focused specifically on youth from local communities. Fifteen participants were return attendees, who were joined by six new participants. They were exposed to a vast amount of information on the development, design, coding and production of mobile applications.

“The workshop is specifically designed to ensure that all participants, regardless of their entry-level, get a solid introduction to mobile app development and leave with a robust set of resources to start their mobile app development journey,” said Bevil Wooding, Founder of BrightPath Foundation.

At the regional launch of TechLink in Grenada on November 30, 2013, more than 100 young people and small business entrepreneurs participated in a full day of workshops. Many walked away energised with new ideas and ways that technology could be used to develop their communities, businesses as well as their career plans.

Gail Purcell, country manager for Columbus Communications Grenada, said, “Since its debut in Grenada, TechLink continues to attract audiences from all sectors--young people, parents, educators, and small and micro-business owners. At Columbus, we are proud to know that our company is associated with such a program that maintains our corporate social responsibility to all our customers, while truly affording our staff who support, and the participants who attend, such a rewarding experience."

Grenada is just the beginning. BrightPath is already partnering with on-the-ground community leaders in St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Montserrat, Wooding said.

“The goal is to see TechLink run in countries across the region from Belize to Suriname, targeting youth, parents, seniors, educators and small business owners,” he said.