C@ribnet demo makes impact at ICT Ministerial meeting

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Ministers and delegates to the Caribbean Community’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), led by the Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr the Rt Honourable Keith Mitchell, were given a demonstration of the cutting edge of technology in the Region.
The opening in Grand Anse, Grenada of the 48th Special Meeting of the Council on Friday, featured a demonstration by C@ribNET a high capacity broadband research and education network implemented by the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network Agency (CKLNA). In conjunction with the University of the West Indies (UWI), C@ribnet presented a virtual classroom lecture in surgery featuring the use of robotic technology. The demonstration was linked to a similar network in the United Kingdom displaying the reach and linkages of the regional network which is tied in to similar research and educational networks in the United States and Europe.
The Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Professor Nigel Harris, using the link from Jamaica, told the meeting that the University was linking with CKLNA to pilot projects leading to the establishment of a Single Virtual University Space at his institution. The projects completed so far had been a success, he said, with the pioneers being the Hugh Winter Fertility Management Unit at the Mona Campus of the UWI in Jamaica which had broadcast a live surgery lecture to the other campuses at Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
Chief Executive Officer of CKLNA, Mr Ken Sylvester told the Meeting that the idea was to create a Single Virtual Learning Space that would link all the education and research institutions in the Region and by extension the global network.
The Prime Minister in his address at the ceremony, pointed to the C@ribnet experience as an example of what could be achieved with the establishment of the CARICOM Single ICT Space which is one of the goals outlined in the Community’s Regional Digital Development Strategy. The Strategy and its Action Plan is being considered at the one-day Ministerial meeting which is addressing ICT issues to make recommendations to the Heads of Government at their Intersessional meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines at the end of next month. That meeting will have ICT as one of its main focus areas on the agenda.