One of these was the e-Chutney project, an initiative undertaken by women of Navua, Fiji.
Dev Nadkarni
The showcasing of successful, homegrown Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects involving women was one of the highpoints of the annual Pacific Internet conference (PacINET 2006) held in Apia, Samoa, in August.
One of these was the e-Chutney project, an initiative undertaken by women of Navua, Fiji. This project has demonstrated how ICT can be used to generate income for rural women. From selling products on the roadside, women in Navua are using ICT to market their products to civil servants and others in Suva.
Another project is Samoa’s Fesootai Project, which is a rapidly growing nationwide network of telecentres that is revolutionising the way people communicate with each other and the world.
Many of these centres are implemented and run by women’s groups within Samoan communities. Samoa’s success has generated interest from other regional delegates for a similar model to be implemented in their respective countries.
The Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC) used PacINET 2006 to formally give women the platform on which they can launch initiatives to collaborate in meeting the challenges of increasing number of women in IT in the region. There were presentations on creating awareness among women about career paths within the ICT industry in the Pacific islands.
PacINET is a yearly conference that discusses ICT issues within the Pacific Islands region and involves governments, the private sector, technologists and Internet enthusiasts from all over the world. Delegates from a number of countries both within and outside the region, some from as far away as Europe and the United States attended this year’s conference.
Internet co-inventor and Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist Vinton Cerf was a star attendee just as he was at last year’s conference in Tarawa, Kiribati. He delivered the keynote address at the Apia conference, which outlined the evolution of the Internet and his ambitious vision of inter-terrestrial communication.
Over the last two years, Cerf has expressed his abiding interest in working with the islands region’s ICT programmes.
As part of the proceedings, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s ICT specialist John Budden presented updates on the Forum’s Digital Strategy and expressed optimism that the strategy will achieve its goals as it sets out clear guidelines on what each country needs to do in order to achieve the region’s ambitions in ICT.
Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Director-General Dr Jimmie Rodgers gave a Pacific perspective on the Internet and what the region needs to do to embrace ICT.
Other discussions and presentations touched on blogging and online safety, among a variety of other technical topics, centered on building communities using blogs by providing timely news and information and at the same time promoting local content.
There is an upward trend in blogging including other social applications on the Internet, consequently bringing with it security issues that threaten cyberspace and its users.
Conference participants were also given an opportunity to participate in the set up of a wireless network for the small island of Manono that lies between Samoa’s two larger islands of Upolu and Savai’i. This is a project initiated by PICISOC in partnership with the New Zealand-based 2020 Trust and a consortium of project sponsors.
Technical sessions such as the tutorial on IPv6 proved useful particularly to ICT technicians from the Pacific Islands region.
The conference was also followed up with a one-week workshop on FOSS (Free Open Source Software) that was attended by 22 participants from the Pacific Islands countries.
The course was held at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) premises and was organised by the Samoa Information Technology Society (SITS).
Solomon Islands members of PICISOC have won the rights to host PacINET after members unanimously supported the country’s bid to host the event. The conference will be held in Honiara in August 2007 and delegates from the Solomons hope it will spur greater interest and investment in the ICT sector in the country.
They also hope it will lead to the formation of an ICT strategy, bringing it in line with other Forum countries that are already implementing their own individual strategies in tune with the Pacific Plan’s Digital Strategy.
Dr Cerf as well as some of the other high profile delegates at this year’s conference have expressed interest in attending next year’s conference.
Earlier PacINET conferences have been held in Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati. Islands Business, October 2006
