Open Data Key To Driving Digital Innovation In The Caribbean

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands. Across the Caribbean, governments are moving their essential services to digital platforms and generating more data than ever. Yet, much valuable public information remains locked away in proprietary systems, beyond the reach of Caribbean innovators and end users. A growing number of open data initiatives aim to change this, but it won’t be easy.

“The Caribbean can benefit tremendously from open data as part of its development agenda,” said Bevil Wooding, Internet Strategist, in a presentation on Open Data at the 13th Strategic ICT Seminar of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union held in Tortola, British Virgin Islands on 30^th September 2015.

His call to make more government data available was timely, as he addressed an audience that included several government ministers and officials from across the region. Extracting maximum value from data is increasingly becoming a base-level requirement, as governments aim to measure progress and demonstrate achievements.

“Transparency, openness and accountability are three of the main benefits of open data,” Wooding pointed out. “However, there are also significant social and economic benefits that can be derived from the development of new applications and services based on open data.”

The Seminar was also addressed by Anat Lewin, an ICT Policy Specialist with the World Bank. Lewin shared on the work of the Bank in open data projects in the Caribbean, including Open Data Readiness Assessments in Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica and St Lucia. She also announced that the Bank is supporting development of online open data portals in Jamaica and St Lucia.

In an interview following his presentation, Wooding noted that governments play a key role in collecting and disseminating data, but he said some are more open and effective than others.

“Open government is about more than a simple commitment to share data. It’s also about supporting a larger ecosystem for using data and spurring innovative new applications of data by tapping into creativity and resources that are not available within any single organisation.”

The process of making government more open, he said, is not an easy one, as it involves confronting tough questions, and unlocking entrenched mindsets concerning exactly what data should be open to the public.

“Governments are wrestling with the dilemma between promoting open data on one hand and maintaining data sovereignty and control on the other,” he said.

“The challenge has always been about where to strike a balance between the openness and information control.”

Privacy concerns are one of the most common obstacles faced by open data advocates. Even as the open data movement gains strength, difficult questions remain about how to protect information about private citizens. Without proper controls, such information could be used to shame, discriminate or cause other undesirable outcomes.

“In some countries, there’s simply not much data to share anyway,” Wooding said. “Data gaps are particularly acute in emerging markets that lack technology-powered systems, active research communities and strong institutional frameworks for data collection. Other countries have plenty of data, but don’t have tools, protocols or leadership motivation for using data effectively and ethically.”

To overcome these challenges, a growing array of stakeholders—including tech innovators, research institutions, governments, civil society, academia and individuals—are banding together to develop new models to promote and leverage open data. Theirs is a difficult but necessary struggle for the greater good of the region.

Kickstarting The Caribbean ICT Space: Caribbean Telecommunications Union Holds ICT Week In BVI

Countries of the eastern Caribbean are working together to promote more efficient use of their wireless communications frequencies, for greater social good. A new agreement has been drafted to minimize cross-border interference between countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Caribbean French territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The new agreement will aid in the roll-out of nationwide 4G mobile broadband telecommunications networks.

The draft agreement was developed at a recent workshop on spectrum management, hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) at the Radisson Grenada last month.

The workshop formed part of a Harmonised Caribbean Spectrum Planning and Management Project that aims to bring the spectrum policies of various Caribbean countries into closer synchronisation.

Participating countries are working together to develop a national frequency allocation table (NFAT) for each country and a regional frequency allocation table (RFAT) for the Caribbean. Among other things, the RFAT will facilitate the adoption of common frequencies and international protocols for disaster management and emergency telecommunications.

Countries are also working to produce a regional strategic plan for spectrum management.

The workshop was intended to build capacity in spectrum management in 14 Caribbean countries, including the OECS, as well as examine approaches for minimizing cross border intereference in wireless communications. It attracted a wide range of stakeholders, including academia, regulators, policy makers, operators and international subject matter experts.

The spectrum harmonisation project is being implemented by the CTU, with technical cooperation support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Compete Caribbean.

BrightPath holds TechCamp 2015

Exams are over, school is out, and parents face that familiar struggle to balance kids’ downtime with actual educational activity over the July-August vacation. What if, instead of just vegging out on YouTube clips, your kids learned to create their own artistic and educational short films? Rather than grazing Hollywood blockbusters blankly, what if your kids collaboratively crafted their own customised movie theatre, complete with silver screen and popcorn machine?

It’s not so far-fetched, says Bevil Wooding, one of the masterminds behind BrightPath Foundation’s TechCamp. In fact, it’s already here.

“In this TechCamp, if you want to watch a movie, you have to make your own movie theatre. You have to set up your projector, you have to create your customised lighting and set up your anti-reflective screen, then you have to put your high-definition surround sound system in place,” said Wooding, BrightPath’s Executive Director.

Since its inception in 2013, the local edition of TechCamp has earned a reputation for directing young people’s energies towards building solutions that are locally relevant but globally applicable.

The first two editions of TechCamp focused on digital content creation. This year organisers went one step further to create a camp that could only be completed by the campers themselves.

“If you want to fly drones, you first have to know how drones are made. This is TechCamp,” Wooding explained.

The idea is simple. Rather than sit around face-planted on digital devices all day, Tech Campers are taught to open up and take apart familiar gadgets, identify their internal parts, understand how those components work together, and then put them together again.

“It’s not sufficient to merely be the consumers of someone else's technology. But if we are to make the shift from net technology consumers to net producers, we must deal with deepening knowledge of core principles. At the same time, we also have to develop the mindset and discipline necessary to convert natural creativity into sustainable innovation. This is the essence of TechCamp,” Wooding said.

Over two weeks, campers are exposed to the fundamentals behind the tech that surrounds them in everyday life. Then they get to put those fundamentals into practice in highly collaborative group exercises. And of course they have a lot of fun in the process.

“At TechCamp, we create an environment where natural creativity intersects with engineering, science and art principles. We told them that for the Camp they are not children, they are Makers, and Makers make cool stuff,” Wooding said.

A day at TechCamp is pretty packed.

The smart class at the Cipriani College Of Labour and Co-operative Studies was transformed into the TechCamp Fundamentals Lab. Hands-on interactive sessions were held there covering some of the latest technologies, from three-dimensional printing and mobile software development to micro computing, drones and robotics. The kids also took part in expert-led presentations on the fundamentals of data analytics, mechanical and electrical engineering, animation, photography and videography.

To go by responses from the young participants, ranging from ages 10 to 15, the impact of the two-week experience was profound.

If eleven-year-old Amaris John has her way, she’s going to use what she’s learned at Tech Camp to transform her living room into a fully Internet-connected workspace where she can dream up other designs and work on bringing them into reality.

“I’ve already started working on it,” she said.

Old-school values TechCamp has made its name by giving kids a unique blend of technology education and life skills needed to take concepts in their heads and transform them into reality.

“The children just love it,” said Nyasha Pierre, executive assistant at the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, whose 10-year-old daughter took part in the camp. “The children find it mind-blowing, as they get to build things they never thought they could build.”

But what really sets TechCamp apart is its strong emphasis on imparting core values such as teamwork, discipline and respect for others.

Darielle John, 11, was part of a group that designed the floorplan for the TechCamp recreation room. At first, working in groups was “complicated,” she said.

“Everyone wanted to do what they wanted. Nobody wanted to cooperate.”

After a while, one of the TechCamp facilitators encouraged the group to listen to all the ideas and document them, and then work on blending them together.

“That’s how we started working together.”

She said their change in strategy produced a shift in attitude from “selfishness” to “other-mindedness,” which made a huge difference. As she described her personal process, Darielle’s friends Regan Wilson, 12, and Zéah Lamont-Harper, 10, looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

“I realised that I didn’t always have the best ideas, and other people had better ideas than I did, so we used other ideas instead of mine,” she said.

A number of participants are also children of BrightPath growing list of local sponsors, including Teleios Systems, Flow Trinidad, KR Consulting, K.Jameson and Associates, Heritage Wonders, Double X Workshop and the venue host, Cipriani College. Head of Stakeholder Relations at the College, Valene Mc Dougall, said, “We are ourselves intimately connected with the experience of discovering science, technology and the value of teamwork.”

The focus on character development issues is deliberate, Wooding said.

“We strongly believe that there has to be a values-based component to all learning.”

He explained that BrightPath Foundation is part of Congress WBN, a faith-based international non-profit with operations in 100 nations.

“TechCamp is designed to educate youngsters while exposing them to the things that they are interested in. Ultimately, however, the real education is to instill the values that can service them for life. We don’t want them to just be academically qualified or simply tech savvy. We want to ensure we are raising a generation of confident, creative and morally-centered citizens capable of being positive contributors to society.”

Originally published: Trinidad and Tobago Guardian