PacInet 2004 - Annual Meeting Organised by PICISOC
August 23-27, 2004, Port Vila, Vanuatu
APT-PITA ICT Workshop for the Pacific Islands
25th - 27th August 2004, Nadi, Fiji
Press Releases
Vanuatu to Host Pacific Internet Conference
The Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC) will be holding its annual PACINET conference at Chantilly's on the Bay hotel in Port Vila, Vanuatu from August 23-27, 2004. The theme of this year's conference is Education and the use of Internet and Communications Technology (ICT).
PICISOC is the regional chapter of the Internet Society, a non-profit, non-governmental, international, professional membership organization with more than 150 organizations and 16,000 individual members in over 180 nations. PICISOC serves the Internet Society's purposes by representing the interests of the global Internet community through its presence in the Pacific Islands. It focuses on local issues and developments, and acts as an impartial advisor to governments and the people of the Pacific Islands on issues relating to ICT and the Internet. The PICISOC Annual General Meeting will be held on the final day of the conference.
PACINET is an annual forum where everybody can speak freely and share views on ICT. This year, 40 delegates will be coming to Vanuatu for the conference, in addition to another 30 local delegates. The Internet Users Society of Niue sponsors PACINET every year (www.niue.nu). Other ongoing sponsors include PATARA Communications & Electronics Ltd. This year, additional sponsors include: CityLink, Internet New Zealand, UNDP, UNESCO and Netsafe (www.netsafe.org.nz). In Vanuatu, the conference is being sponsored by Chantilly's on the Bay Hotel (www.chantillysonthebay.com), Computer and Network Systems (www.cns.com.vu), Datec Vanuatu Limited, and Telecom Vanuatu (www.tvl.net.vu).
Workshops on Education and Mapserver
The Internet Users Society of Niue is funding a free workshop to promote safe use of the internet and e-mail. Teachers, police, business people, government supervisors and parents will be invited to attend. Liz Butterfield and Claire Balfour from NetSafe, an Internet Safety group in New Zealand, will facilitate the workshop from August 26-28 at the USP Emalus campus in Port Vila.
The South Pacific Applied Geo-Science Commission (SOPAC) will also be conducting a Map Server workshop as part of the European Union (EU) funded project "Reducing Vulnerabilities in the Pacific Islands ACP States". This workshop will review the implementation of web-based interactive map servers in 8 Pacific Island countries. Discussion topics will include: lessons learned form the installation of the map servers; building an online GIS community; and how to improve the current interface. As most of the information provided by this project is based on maps and geographical components, providing a way for the general public to access this information using the Internet is important to the success of the project. For more information, see the SOPAC website: www.sopac.org.
The organizing committee includes members of government, business and NGOs, although all members are acting as individuals and do not officially represent the interests of their organizations.
For more information about PACINET 2004, please visit the PICISOC website: www.picisoc.org.