Pacific Internet Partners - PacINET 2006 Report
On the week of 21-26th August 2006 the Samoa Information Technology Society (SITS) hosted the 5th Annual Pacific Regional ICT Conference – “PacInet 2006 - The Digital Pacific”.
Background
PacInet 2006 : PacInet is an annual Information Communication Technology (ICT) conference which focuses on ICT developments and issues within the Pacific Region. PacInet 2006 is the 5th conference of its kind hosted after Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Kiribati, and this year’s theme is “The Digital Pacific”
PacInet has been setup and organized by the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC). The Samoa IT Society (SITS) is hosting this year’s conference on behalf of the host country of Samoa. SITS is a member of PICISOC.
SITS – Samoa Information technology Society. This is a local society of ICT professionals in Samoa, with its mission “To develop and promote professional excellence in Information Communication Technology” in Samoa.
PICISOC – Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society. PICISOC covers 22 Pacific Islands Countries with a membership of more than 300 individuals in the regions. This Society serves the interests of the global Internet community through its presence in the Pacific Islands. It focuses on local issues and developments, and as an impartial advisor to governments and the public on matters of significant interest to Pacific Island people. PICISOC is affiliated with the Internet Society (ISOC).
ISOC – Internet Society. ISOC is a professional membership society with more than 100 organizations and over 20,000 individual members in over 180 countries. It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
Overview
It is recognised that ICT plays an important role in assisting developing countries like Samoa to lift educational standards, employment opportunities and grow GDP. This conference dealt with ICT developments within the Pacific Region covering 22 Pacific Island Countries including New Zealand and Australia and was an exciting opportunity to showcase Samoa and our development and use of ICT for the benefit of our country.
There was about 110 participants registered with about 70 from overseas attended including over speakers.
Programme
The Honorable Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, who is also patron of SITS officially opened the conference on Monday. He also addressed the conference on Wednesday preceding the keynote speaker – Dr. Vinton Cerf.
We had interesting speakers from various countries and sectors who delivered and spoke on topics which include Internet, E-Pacific, E-Health, Voice over IP (VOIP), GIS (Geographical Information System), GSM, Network and Systems, and so forth. These were covered in 6 full days from Monday to Saturday with some parallel sessions.
There was a Welcome Cocktail on Monday evening to welcome the participants especially from overseas, hosted by our Prime Minister. The conference was also officially closed by the Prime Minister at a Farewell Fiafia Dinner on Friday evening at Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.
SITS & SPREP hosted a free training course on FOSS (Free Open Source Software) training provided by IOSN-PIC on the following week after PacINET2006.
Honored Guest & Speakers
Through the personal invitation of the Prime Minister, we were especially pleased to have as our keynote speaker one of the worlds foremost experts, Dr Vinton Cerf, an American Scientist who is widely regarded as the “father of the Internet”, founder of ISOC, current Chairman of ICANN, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google.
Dr Cerf spoke on the current trend and penetration of the Internet worldwide as well as looking into the future.
We were also fortunate to have Dr Jimmie Rodgers (Director-General of SPC) back for his second consecutive PacInet conference as well as Prof. Kenji Saga of the Pacific Islands Digital Opportunity Committee.
An ICT Project for Samoa
During the conference, there was a project carried out to install a wireless broadband connection for some remote schools and communities. The partners for the projects were 2020 Trust, Rural Link, GKP, CSL and Patara.
There were trips to one of the 2 remote small islands with participants who want to participate.
By the end of the week that island was able to connect to the internet via this wireless project.
Sponsorship
The conference is free to attend so the host has to seek funding from sponsorship to fund the event. The major expenditures are the welcome cocktail, farewell dinner, morning and afternoon tea for the 6 days and transportation.
We thank all the sponsors for helping out and SITS specially thank the Pacific Internet Partners, our only overseas sponsor for giving us financial help.
Without your support financially we would not been able to host this conference and we believe this is the best PacINET so far.
Samoa IT Society (SITS) www.sits.ws