Daniel Pimienta wrote:
>All very good points Taran and a hand to me to start telling more
>about CARDICIS2 (although, of course, some is already said in the web site
>http://cardicis.org, in http://cardicis.org/index3.htm
>in French, but translation are still underway).
>
This is a good start. I shall look in on it as I can to see progress. :-)

>CARDICIS2 is not only another meeting.
>There is more in the menu and the process has already started.
>
>1 - CSA2005 in Santo Domingo.
>CARDICIS has a panel with Deirdre Williams, Reyna Raveles,
>Raymond Noël, PR and myself. Pedro Ureñ a met us. And, as
>usual, Margarita and Javier supported us.
>
A great team!

>I invite again the colleagues to check the panel presentations
>in the web site. I was personally not very happy with CSA.
>I found it too much pure research and not enough research-action.
>I found it not enough sensitive to cultural diversity.
>I found it too remote from Information Society issues in spite
>that was the title of the whole Conference.
>As a fisherman looking for ICT4D specialist from Caribbean
>diaspora I went back with ... an empty basket :-(
>
I have the philosophy that making one small step is better than
discussing a journey that is never made. :-) I worry that you did not
even find bait, Daniel.

I was recently contacted by the University of the West Indies to help
them dredge up the undocumented things in regional ICT... where people
are forced to break laws to communicate. Perhaps I will have some
information on that to share, though the information would have to be
generalized so that people aren't prosecuted.

This is the hidden layer of ICT where people are doing what they have to
because of lack of action of governments, and perhaps because lobbying
governments through NGOs has not been effective.

>Yet I got the feedback that who came to listen to our panel were
>very satisfied but not too many people came and the organization
>did not care too much about our panel and follow-on.
>
Interest is always a problem. :-( Maybe we need to give away free beer.

>2 - Support for CARISNET project in term of multilinguism.
>A budget provision of 10Keuros has been assigned which allow
>the CARISNET team (http://carisnet.org) to translate documents
>and improve automatic translation in CIVIC virtual community.
>
I look forward to seeing the results of what CARISNET is doing.

>3 - I just come back from a CARDICIS mission in French Guyane.
>The objective was two-fold: a) try to secure some additional funds
>to organize the next CARDICIS meeting in Cayenne (the additional
>cost compare with doing it in Santo Domingo is about 50% higher
>due to air transportation and cost of life); b) try to integrate
>French Guyane to our activities and motivate them in a longer
>term to host some event.
>I will come back in a separate mail and report on the outcomes.
>
I hope this went well. I am next door to them right now.

>4 - What's coming next and as a preparation step (a warming
>like for the athlets we all are ;-) )is a survey on CARDICIS
>member. We want to check what was the impact of CARDICIS1
>and give you an opportunity to feed back the group on your
>views. Obviously, Taran's mail and thread is right on target.
>I need now to organize a questionnaire, put it on the web
>and become overly insisting so that 99% of you answer this
>survey. This is very important top define the next steps
>of the project, including the next meeting.
>
OK.

>5 - CARDICIS2 meeting
>
>Will be held in Dominican Republic, first week of December.
>We will haved precise dates in the coming days.
>The idea was to make a meeting a bit shorter, more
>concentrated and more focused to action.
>It is still a will to turn the focus to Caribbean
>diaspora but this will depend on the capacity to do it.
>I will also come backon that subject.
>
It will be good to visit DR again, but more importantly it will be good
to hear from the people I do not hear from regularly.

> >It must be my fault, because in
> >a participatory democracy the majority rules.
>This I tend to disagree taran. The majority rules the
>representative democracy;in participative democracy who
>rules is the minority of active persons...
>
In practice, yes. :-)

> >http://www.knowprose.com/caribbeanbloglist
>This is a wonderful clearinghouse. You should circulate the
>reference. I will forward to you some references which
>were circulated about Dominican Rep. in the socinfodo list
>(http://socinfodo.org.do).
>
Thank you for that. I pointed to BlogsDominicano solely from what you
sent - where there is an aggregator for blogs of the DR, I do not feel
the need to confuse issues. :-)

-- 
Taran Rampersad
Presently in: Georgetown, Guyana
cnd@knowprose.com
http://www.knowprose.com
http://www.easylum.net
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran
"Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo