Re: Telecommunications and ICTs: Drivers of innovation workshop

From: Ish Sookun <ish_at_hacklog.in>
Date: Tue, 19 May 2015 22:30:38 +0400

Hello Shelly,

Local media outlets do not seem knowledgeable in matters pertaining to ICT
to provide proper coverage of such events. I wonder if any of the media
persons present there noticed that the Minister mentioned the Government's
vision about Open Source Software & Open Data.

I wonder if media could understand & sense the frustration expressed by
many who attended the workshop when the Acting Director of the Central
Informatics Bureau evaded my questions. The giggle from the audience said a
lot when I raised my mobile phone and gave him a "live" feedback of his
non-functional items from m.govmu.org.

I wonder if media could understand the questions that SM and I shot at the
various presenters.

I wonder if media is really interested in knowing about the skills &
expertise of the country. Maybe if the event was about foreign experts
showcasing something, there would be different spotlight. Sorry, but we're
mere Mauritians, so our words are not so meaningful.

At some point the Executive Director of the Mauritius Research Council
reverted to SM saying he could say the same for him, when SM said the MRC
has been a failure. The Director tossed the "failure" back at SM without
even knowing who SM is and what he does. I'm keen to see his face when he
learns about the one Mauritian[1] who makes Mauritius proud by holding the
"key to the Internet" :-)

Does the MRC makes Mauritians proud? When I questioned the Director about
what is the MRC doing to connect with professionals, the answer was
something "must be done". Damn! He does NOT even know we exist.

The Director could not reply to SM's question about Intellectual Property
Rights and if innovation in Mauritius could be properly measured. In that
sense, yes, MRC looks like a failure.

*Note: I am copying this email to some members of the press. Folks, in case
you're wondering what topic we're discussing, please consult the
archive[2].*

[1]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2858793/Guardians-internet-seven-people-control-safety-world-wide-web-literally-hold-KEYS-internet.html
[2]
http://lists.elandnews.com/archive/mauritius/internet-users/2015/05/subject.html

Regards,
-- 
​Ish Sookun
- Geek by birth, Linux by choice.
- I blog at HACKLOG.in.
https://twitter.com/IshSookun ^^ Do you tweet?
On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Shelly Hermia Bhujun <
shelly_hermia_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Interesting,
> http://www.lematinal.com/sci-tech/8670-les-tic-pour-stimuler-l-innovation.html
>
> They did not say anything about what happened there. It seems like they
> wrote an article just to mentioned it happened in Mauritius. That's it!
>
> Thank you for sharing your blog post Ish! (Y)
>
> My personal opinion: I would be really impressed if they do change their
> approach and help people with their projects.
>
> So, how do i proceed if i want to contact them for a project? Should i
> prepare a project file? Is there a deadline? Is there a budget or will they
> provide financial help depending on the project? How will i be sure that
> they won't sell my project? etc ... ?
>
> I asked those questions because i went on the NCB website and could not
> find any information about the workshop.
> http://www.ncb.mu/English/Pages/default.aspx
>
> Thank you.
>
>
Received on Tue May 19 2015 - 18:30:53 PST

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