Category: technology

Are eServices Getting Better?

August 14, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

When SiliconCaribe writes about T&T lagging behind on e-services, I have to chuckle. I recall teaching my own father prior to 2005 how to use email - and he used email to try to contact various government entities. It didn't work out so well. After his death in 2005, I tried doing the same and came up with almost exactly the same results: crickets.

Where email addresses appear on government sites, they need to be not only checked but responded to. This has been lacking, though I have no evidence as of this year that demonstrates this particular problem. I will be delving into that as the year progresses.

But there does seem to be some form of a silver lining. As poorly done, poorly updated and as poorly communicative as many of the government sites are - the politicians found Facebook. Some even seem to read what others write, breaking the cycle of using social media for broadcast alone. See General Election Social Media Usage: The Missing Link.

More importantly, there seem to be more serious discussions about Trinidad and Tobago happening on Facebook - where people are kludging around the government's lack of responsiveness on websites and trying to get their say in.

Is it getting better? Maybe. But are e-Services getting better? I think it might be a good start to find what e-Services are actually available. In that there seems to be... nothing. Maybe they should start with a place for whistleblowers to submit information.

Life in a Small Market, Tickling the Global Market

February 22, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

I sat across from an attractive female academic not too long ago as she asked me about helping her find a USB mass storage device for her Apple laptop. Trinidad and Tobago, of course, is a small market - and the people who bring down hardware bring what is most likely to sell. And Apple compatibility is really not as big of a draw as the typical Apple user may think. The majority of the market in Trinidad and Tobago uses the PC platform - so when people bring in computing paraphernalia, it's basically for the PC platform.

It wasn't too long ago that a Bajan friend had problems with Apple- you can read about it here and here - but to save you the trouble of clicking the links, I can simply tell you that reading it will make you think different of Apple. But really, it is just life in a small market.

It doesn't just mean Apples and oranges. Automotive parts for vehicles pre-abused foreign ('foreign used', aka 'foreign abused') vehicles are known for unavailability of parts, black licorice is an oddity instead of a commodity and the author has pondered selling his soul for a pack of Nutter Butter cookies at some times. It isn't to say that there isn't some demand for these items - it's that, relatively speaking - there isn't enough demand for such items. One day they will be on a shelf somewhere, and when they are found they aren't reordered because the businesspeople involved don't necessarily want their money tied up on dusty shelves.

Magazines arrive 2 weeks late. Bookstores and music stores are subject to the ordering taste and whims of the owners of the stores. {Read more}

The CNMG experience: How to crash T&T's Carnival Big Truck

February 16, 2010 by Edmund Gall

A few weeks ago, the T&T government decided to award sole rights to distribute coverage of major Carnival 2010 events to its own media house: the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG).  On the face of it, this seemed sensible: award management of the distribution to a trusted partner.  However, though CNMG has been streaming its own programmes on the Internet for over a year at www.ctntworld.com, it proved to be completely unable to handle streaming of T&T Carnival.

First, we have to question whether the decision to manage radio, video and Internet coverage of Carnival 2010 was borne out of a wish by the government, through its Ministry of Culture, to really make the most of this tremendous marketing opportunity.  According to local photojournalist, Mark Lyndersay, it appears that the motivation was control rather than optimisation: see his extremely enlightening BitDepth article on the matter.

Second, the expected first step for CNMG would be re-licensing of other providers to share in the distribution of the events for a fee.  It did this with the radio feeds, since Internet users can listen to coverage of events via non-CNMG stations.  However, CNMG decided not to share Internet streaming with other distributors, as described in this When Steel Talks (WST) article on the exclusion of T&T culture media house WACK.  Given government's history of planned failure, folks involved in culture rightly became worried by this imposed single point of failure for video coverage. {Read more}

Better Websites in Trinidad and Tobago - Drupal Group's First Meeting

February 10, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Out of the blue, a message on the Trinidad and Tobago Drupal Group caused an impromptu meeting at Haagen Daz, Gulf City, here in Trinidad and Tobago. Being used to just Shivan Jaikaran and myself as being the Drupal-folk in Trinidad and Tobago, I was pleasantly surprised that there are many more of us.

If you've never heard of Drupal, it's the open source content management system that makes sites like this possible - and what makes Drupal possible is the great community behind it. Locally, one of the better known installations of Drupal is the Trinidad Guardian website. Shivan announced the launch of the Trinidad Guardian's main stage launch with Drupal. You can view it here. {Read more}

Apple's iPad & Trinidad and Tobago

January 28, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Karel (of the Caribbean Public Relations blog) was kind enough to point me at Apple May Face ''iPad' Legal Battle that states, "In July 2009, acting through a proxy, Apple first applied for the iPad trademark in Trinidad & Tobago, gaining it a 'priority date' to use in other international applications."

Colour me surprised. I've been watching and writing about patents, copyrights and trademarks for some time (normally on KnowProSE.com) and never thought that the grand multidimensional legal chess game of intellectual property would include Trinidad and Tobago. That'll teach me.

For those who are too lazy to click the links, Fujitsu has ownership of the 'iPad' trademark and Apple may face a legal battle if there can be confusion between the products. Of note as well:

...There are several other owners of 'iPad' trademarks around the world, including Siemens, which has the right to use the term for engines and servo motors; and Coconut Grove Pads, which since 2008 has had the rights to the term for padded bras.

Padded bras. And one of the nicknames that Apple's not-quite-a-netbook-not-quite-a-phone product has gotten is the iTampon. Some humor for you for bothering to read this: {Read more}

Blackberry and Facebook Save Life?

January 25, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

Two newspaper articles cover the same thing: 

• Blackberry, Facebook Save Child's Life
• Sleeping child rescued from stolen vehicle

While it is unclear why a mother would leave a child in a running vehicle for any length of time, the word did apparently get out through a Blackberry. How Facebook was specifically involved remains unclear.

The discrepancy in the reporting between the Trinidad Express and Trinidad Guardian is worth exploring.