TechPlus+

Category: On-mission

  • Visa on Arrival

    Visa on Arrival

    My passport seems to profess a deep love for visa stamps. Every time the possibility of travel to another country arises, I can hear its excitement of filling yet another passport page with a brand new and (maybe) shiny visa stamp. The more, the merrier – although blank pages to host additional stamps are becoming…

  • Heading to Baghdad III: A time-space warp

    No one on the team traveling to Iraq was very excited about missing the helicopter. Most of them had slept close to nothing in the last 24 hours and were really yearning for a comfortable place to rest. I was a bit ahead of all of them -actually, 8 hours ahead, thanks to my own…

  • Heading to Baghdad II: So close but yet so far

    It still seemed like the middle of the night when we exited the plane and started walking on the tarmac. A UN security guide was leading us into the US Army base located at the airport. The base is called Camp Sather (see here for more details) and has been in place since the invasion…

  • Latinux Magazine Interview

    “Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are not an end in itself but rather a means to reach people and enhance their lives.” (Raúl Zambrano) Born in Colombia, Raul Zambrano is trained as an engineer, sociologist and economist. He currently works as ICT and e-governance policy advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) headquarters in…

  • South Africa BTOR

    1. The two day mission to Johannesburg/Pretoria on 14/16 May had two objectives: 1) To participate in the ICTD Strategy Task Force meeting that the Department of Communications (DoC) is leading with support from the Markle Foundation; 2) continued dialogue on the OS Resource Center with representatives of CSIR 2. The Task Force meeting took…

  • Mozambique BTOR

    Mozambique BTOR 1. The two day mission to Maputo on 12-14 May had three objectives: 1) assess the status of the ICTD programmes; 2) assist the CO in the ongoing ICTD mainstreaming efforts; and 3) discuss with GoM and the CO the planning of the ICTD Strategies workshop 2. The ICTD programme has been advancing…

  • Out of (South) Africa

    Flying from Maputo to Johannesburg, which takes 45 minutes, is an efficient gateway to easily notice the huge gap between the two countries. The same goes for most of the sub-Saharan African nations. It is almost like flying from Mozambique to a Latin American country at the speed of sound. The first time I visited…

  • Maputo in May, again

    Six months is probably not a long time to expect and run into major changes in most countries. Mozambique is, of course, no exception. Maputo is still an intriguing city with its beautiful geographical surroundings and coastline that hosts the grayish Indian Ocean. Unlike New York City, time in Maputo is less expensive and much…

  • Africa ICTD Strategies Workshop

    Today we had a lunch meeting with Salomao Manica (ICT Policy Commission), Laureno Chemane (ICT Policy Commission), Aeneas Chuma (DRR) and Violet Kakyomya (PO). Salomao started by explaining the reasons as to why they would rather not hold a meeting with 8 countries (one powerful being the issue of country selection, the second the issue…

  • Dominican Republic BTOR

    Back to Office Report Mission to Dominican Republic 21-25 April 2003 Garry Garriott, SURF Panam�, and I visited the country at the request of the CO who recently signed an MoU with INDOTEL, the Dominican telecom regulator. The main purpose of the mission was to kick start the process for the elaboration and finalisation of…

  • Dominican Republic

    This was my first time back in Santo Domingo since 1999. I must admit the city has changed quite a bit. The first thing one notices is the development of physical infrastructure, buildings and roads specially. The long and beautiful ride from the airport to Santo Domingo has now been transformed into a 6 lane…

  • Bridge-IT Global Support Team meeting in DC

    Nokia, IYF, Pearson and UNDP held its quarterly meeting on 4 April. The meeting concentrated on 3 central isssues: International launching for Philippines pilot in May; discussion on the guidelines for visual representation of the partnership including use of logos; set up of conditions for pilot scalability and replicability at the country level. The launch…

  • Meetings with WB/DGF in DC

    Yesterday afternoon I visited he offices of the DG at the WB. I met with Sid Kane to introduce me to gateway stuff. I also met Carlos Braga and Robert Valentin. The meeting with Carlos centred on OS. The WB is agnostic about OS but will advice governments on the advantages/disadvantages of OS if requested…

  • Visit to Microsoft

    Bruce Jenks, Stephen Browne, Sarah McCue and I traveled to Seattle to discuss with MS a potential partnership on e-learning and related initiatives. The meeting took place on Friday, 21 March 2003. Here are my notes. MS key ideas and issues – MS has rallied three parts of the company to work along the lines…

  • 2nd Open Source Conference in DC

    Atsushi and I attended the conference which went from 17th to 19 March. The focus of this one was on OSS efforts in the US, Europe and Japan. We made several contracts, including: – UNESCO: possible collaboration on OS, have a keen interest. A regional OS workshop in Perú is being planned by their regional…