PIP funded a total of NZ$1000.00 to assist with accommodation costs for my participation at the 2007 PacINET conference in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
The PacINET 2007 conference attendance was made possible by support from my Organization – the Department of Petroleum & Energy and PIP of which I gained invaluable knowledge and experience with ICT in the South Pacific.
Attending the 2007 PacINET has been a eye opening experience, in that for the first time I was able to learn and experience first hand the developments taking places within the region, and more importantly how PNG was involved; or not, and what opportunities were available to use ICT as a development tool.
It was great to acquire new knowledge and the latest ICT developments both in the region and the world as was presented during the main sessions and various streams. Attending the information security sessions has assisted me a great deal in gaining more understanding in this area. As was the IPV6 – although nowhere near an implementation phase, I appreciated the being able to learn about the concept and the future of IP. I am also enthusiastic about the Women in IT workshops that were conducted and addressing the unique challenge women face in the Pacific scenario and to know that other countries have the same challenges.
Networking and meeting peers and those who have had much experience was valuable in forming a view of my own country’s development challenges. ICT in PNG does not appear to have the importance placed on the issues compared to other countries as was observed at the conference. Simply being interested to attend the conference were a large number of participants from island nations that were smaller in population and landmass in comparison of PNG. The mere fact that they showed the interest aside from the ICT activities that there county’s were engaging in prompted myself as well as the PNG participants to think seriously on PNG ICT and its’ direction.
Upon return from the conference the participants (5) had much discussion as to how PNG could be more active in the Regional initiatives that the country was either not aware of, or had been working isolated from the ICT community mostly based in the major towns. Following is a summary of the three projects that I am involved in;
1. The participants have formed an interim bid committee and have met monthly to solicit support for PNG to host the 2009 PacINET as well as promote the activities of PICISOC and generate interest amongst the ICT community to host a forum on PNG ICT. The membership has been steadily increasing with interest from ICT providers in Port Moresby. We have also started dialogue with the Government Department representatives responsible for Information and Communication as well as Universities and ISP’s. We plan to initiate communication with the regulating bodies in the coming weeks.
2. From the Women in IT workshops during the conference, I have initiated contact with Universities in the country to collect data on the number of females that have taken up IT as a course of study and also from networking, compiled data on females currently employed in the ICT industry. It is proposed to start a PNG WIT for females to use as a support network and promote female role models to increase the participation of women in the ICT field.
3. The bid committee has also planned to initiate and host a National ICT Forum in the first quarter of 2008 to stimulate debate on a number of issues that are relevant to the successful use of ICT in the country. A University has showed interest in supporting this forum, as have other ICT organizations to address issues of National interest and the ICT direction of PNG. The project is still in the planning phase to be firmed up by ecember, 2007.
To end I would like to sincerely thank PIP and Don Hollander for their support in enabling number of participants to attend the conference. I, as have others, have learnt much during the conference and will be making plans to attend again in future, now that I have experienced the benefits first hand.