PIP Report PacINET 2008
The National Auditorium Rarotonga Cook Islands
Lynnold M Wini Assistant Engineer – Webmaster Our Telekom, Honiara Solomon Islands
Introduction
PacINET 2008 was held in the National Auditorium in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. It was a 5 day conference beginning on the 1 st to the 5 th of September 2008. The conference was attended by approximately 30 overseas delegates with the remaining delegates’ local IT professionals in Cook Islands representing government and private sector. The conference was officially opened by Prime Minister Hon Jim Marurai.
General Impressions
I was very impressed with the organization of the conference. However, I was disappointed with the turnout of overseas delegates and a considerable drop in technical workshops in comparison to PacINET 2007 in Honiara, Solomon Islands. However, I believe the organizers at this year’s conference did an outstanding job to ensure everything was in place before the conference proper.
ICT Initiatives | Cook Islands
I was surprised to see the progress and many different initiatives that Cook Islands have made in ICT. I attended only three of those presentations.
Programmes and Possibilities for IT in Education, Ana Pokino
This presentation provided a very quick overview on how the Ministry of Education in Cook Islands is using ICT to manage certain aspects of its education services. A point of interest for me was the apparent use of Joomla as a CMS of choice for a lot of Cook Islands websites including the one demonstrated for the Ministry of Education.
Using the Mapserver in the Cook Islands, Timoti Tangiruaine
Cook Islands was one of the beneficiaries of the initiatives taken by the South Pacific Geosciences Commission, SOPAC, to deploy Mapservers within the region. Presentation focused on the experiences of Cook Islands in using this technology.
Using IT to manage a Crisis in the Cook Islands, Charles Carlson
This presentation highlighted the need for cohesive collaboration between different sectors of society and how ICT can be used to achieve that. Practical examples of how that was done in Cook Islands was also presented. During discussions the role of the media in crisis was also highlighted and emphasized that the media should be involved in these initiatives prior to any crisis and not only during the crisis.
Other presentations I attended were:
The politics of mobile phone competition in Papua New Guinea – Andy Nathan Kwasam
With competition looming in the Solomon Islands, it was interesting to see how Digicel had managed to establish its foothold in our closest and largest neighboring country, Papua New Guinea. It was interesting to hear about the politics involved and the impact Digicel has had on the local telecommunications industry since the markets were opened to competition.
GreenIT – How to achieve sustainable Computing, Al Blake
Personally, I do not tend to think much about the correlation between IT and the environment. But Al Blake did highlight simple initiatives that can be taken to ease the stress we have already placed on diminishing resources.
ICT Governance – Managing Identity, audit and compliance, Al Blake
Area of interest for me was the discussion on ethics and personal responsibility that employees should take in a corporate environment. I believe in certain circumstances, employees grossly abuse privileges accorded to them and employers also sometimes cross the boundaries on how much “snooping” they can make on their employees. The emphasis on providing a visible Acceptable User Policy that clearly outlines the responsibility of all employees and the extent of intervention by the employer was very important.
Internet security workshop, Chris Hammond-Thrasher
I have always had an interest in networking and security. This was perhaps the highlight of PacINET 2008 for me because I had missed this presentation in PacINET 2007. It was very interesting to learn about what range of possibilities there are for people to attack and compromise a network and also the possibilities that exist to defend against those threats. Privacy was a contentious issue during this presentation and again the emphasis on an Acceptable User Policy was brought up. But this presentation was the best presentation of all those I did attend.
Presentation | Theming Drupal for beginners
I made the decision to do a workshop/tutorial on theming for Drupal. Drupal is one of the leading open source Content Management Systems (CMS). My approach had been to share my experiences in theming with participants with a practical emphasis. Unfortunately, I did not prepare enough practical exercises that could have been very useful.
The number of participants throughout the week was small so I guess my presentation was well attended. 8 people attended, and at least 3 people were late but took my presentation anyway.
A quick overview of participants
- 1 Drupal experience
- 3 had experience in Joomla
- 3 had no experience in any CMS
- 1 with DotNetNuke experience but was looking for an alternative CMS
The experience taught me a lot. Many of the participants were eager to learn but I had not prepared enough materials and made a lot of assumptions that should not have been made.
Assumptions
I assumed that all participants were Drupalers but clearly the vast majority had web development experience and would have really benefitted if I spent a bit more on Drupal as a CMS. I did, however, emphasize that the principles and concepts learnt in my tutorial can be applied to other open source CMS such as Joomla.
Areas for improvement
More practical emphasis on concepts discussed during the practical.
A more generic approach to delivery with consideration for those with no prior Drupal experience.
I hope with the lessons learnt I will continue to develop or customize Drupal tutorials to suit Pacific Island Drupalers and perhaps make a better presentation in future PacINET.
Conclusion
I feel I have taken a gigantic step in my participation in PICISOC & PacINET by opting to be a presenter in PacINET 2008. That experience has boosted self-esteem, confidence and helped me ascertain how I can use my experiences to assist other Pacific Islanders who share my enthusiasm. My focus in PacINET 2008 has been on Drupal and I believe I can contribute more in the future as Drupal becomes widely used in the Pacific Island region.
Recommendations
Unlike past PIP Fellowship awards, this year’s awards were received late by recipients. Having said that I strongly support the continuation of this fellowship scheme as it continues to assist geeks from around the region to attend IT conferences that we would have otherwise been unable to attend.
I suggest starting an alumnus as a way of keeping fellows in contact with each other.
Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the kind assistance rendered by Pacific Islands Partners and co’ordinator Don Hollander for making my attendance at PacINET 2008 possible.