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I find this topic quite interesting because of a few things: IT Society and our current state of Technology.

First, I want to know what the "IT Society" is. It may be ridiculous to ask such a question but I am wondering if this "IT Society" really mean an organization or some kind of an Association of IT professionals. If that is the case, I really think its a good to thing to explore. If this is a government idea, it is a bad idea! IT Professionals should operate outside of any political influence and should be allowed the chance to form their own associations that give them the opportunity to share resources and to improve their IT skills.

Secondly, I am quite appalled that the SIG doesn't ease up its monopoly on telecommunication to allow investors, big IT and Communication businesses to operate in Solomon Islands. The single supplier of Telecommunication and Internet Networking is taking Solomon Islands backward instead. The best thing that our govenrment should do is to encourage foreign IT companies and Communication businesses to compete in Honiara so that the costs of IT services, Internet, and Mobile services go down.

Finally, our SICHE should come up with an IT or Computer Science department where local people are trained to a more competitive level. I am willing to head this department! haha. What do you think? 

grafixfarm have this thread posted on other SI public forums Tutuvatu, PFNet and other social groups. IT is and currently a basic utility.

It is a driver of all sectors thus evryone should be interested to know what is happening.

I lift my hat to your intrimcom

cheers

ITCOM

IT Society should be a body that takes care of the interest of IT Professionals within the country. A body that controls what we should practice & what not to practice. Has policies in which IT professionals or IT businesses should comply with but is suitable & reliable for Solomon Islands as well as meets the international standard. Provides benefits for it's members. Body that assist to improve quality IT service. Body that assist and search for fundings for it's members to upgrade their skills in IT.

A body that is managed by SI IT professionals and recognized by SIG.

To sum it up. Hem papa blo IT Industry in the Solomon Islands.

Hi ITCOM,

I am not a member of Tutuvatu but if anyone else is, can they post there and refer people back to this site and thread?  PFNet I think the forum is officially dead and I do not know of any other forum.  thanks for support

@conservative - great insights.

just a basic overview - the initial objectives of the IT society is to set up an association (if you like) or body representative of all IT professionals in and from the Solomon Islands.  This society will be affiliated to government purely on an advisory role but its priority is to ensure that IT professionals have a voice in all issues related to ICT.  It must also ensure compliance, uphold standards, promote ethics and educate all Solomon Islanders on the benefits of developments in ICT.  It must also tap into opportunities both financial and training that exist in ICT from overseas development partners for its members and actively involve in the promotion of local IT professionals.

We will share more on the initial discussions as soon as the minutes of our first meeting is finalized.

@Tech, thanks for your views - we are working towards that.

regards,

Grafixfarm, I am very critical of this idea because once the government comes out with IT regulations that IT professionals should adhere to, our IT standard will deminish. I want our IT professionals to form their own Associations and work on sharing resources and help improving our IT private sector without the government's influence. Trust me, anything that the government regulates will never move forward simply because of politics, special interest, and string attached. It is my personal view, that an IT Association free of government's influence is the right thing to do if we want our IT professionals to share, and to explore more opportunities outside the realm of government without any restrictions or regulations. 

My fear of political involvement is that, when IT professionals do what they do best without conforming to a set of rules set down by the government, IT sector bae hem improve tumas. IT Professionals could form an association and a political action team (PAT) which may lobby our government on regulations: ensure that rules are favorable to the Association, seeking provide funds for the Association form the gov and outside sources, and also to look for opportunities abroad.

We also discuss software piracy in this forum, and the admin raised the idea that selling software at a ridiculously high price may be a crime! which to me is true. But whose fault is it? Someone in the government told me that Software and Computer electronics are amongst the government's biggest tax income! software vendors in SI laik meke mane tuya. So we consumers have no choice but to buy software in our own shops that are five times more than any other country in the region and beyond. It would be a biggest mistake to form an Associate in cahoots with the government which may then regulate the IT sector with unintended consequences. Dont get me wrong, it may be good for the Association, but for the health of the entire sector hem wan bad idea.

This is my view and I am very critical of the idea of forming an IT professionals Association with the government.

Stop fastaem long hia....

@conservative, allow me to clarify.

We are going to be independent from government but we hope to play an advisory role TO government on issues of compliance, ethics, policies etc.  We also hope to be established in such a way that one of our objectives is to coordinate developments in ICT in the Solomon Islands.  At this present time any donor agency, any individual who wishes to establish something on IT in the Solomon Islands virtually does it without even a whimper from government.  The result is many of these initiatives either duplicate existing efforts or pave the way for expensive TA who then do not leave much to be utilized and enjoyed by Solomon Islanders when they leave.  I think this is an important role of this body.  But on the question of regulation, I hope we will be an independent body which only abides by the rules and laws of the land, not a body regulated by government.  There are benefits to affiliating to government in some capacity and that will be seriously considered.  But we are still in consultation stage so it is good to air all our views now.

Thanks for the clarification. That goes alone with my line of thinking.
Looking forward to it.

Such an organisation for the IT professionals of Solomon Islands is long overdue. I, like one of commentator mentioned in his/her post, however, do not wish to see government's direct involvement in this organisation. Such an involvement, I feel would compromise one of the functions I feel the IT association stands to play in the country.

One of the functions already mentioned is looking after the interest of the IT professionals. It certainly will be ensuring that the country's IT people are kept abreast with changes in technology and cutting edge technology in the field. It can do this through seminars (inviting experts from the field), trainning workshops or even arranging placements for its members in the IT sector in metropolitan countries such as Asia or IT savvy countries such as Japan and South Korea.

I feel the IT association should not be lame duck by being involved in mundane exercises but also play an active role in the development of the IT sector in Solomon Islands. I feel such an organisation will be well placed to provide valuable advise and feedback to the government in developing the country's IT sector. The development of the country's IT policies now and in the future will be one area that the association would play and important role. They have the expertise and if the government of the day is wise, it should seek their advise. This brings me to the point why I am against government involvement in the IT association. If they are to provide valuable and a neutral advise, then the association must be seen and perceived to be an independent body.

As I've alluded to earlier, this a great idea and one the country's IT sector could only benefit from in the long term.

thank you, I am getting some very good insights from everyone.  I am seriously thinking about putting the first draft of a concept paper as a publicly available wiki where contributors like yourselves can contribute your thoughts directly on the wiki page.  in that way we can have a truly collaborative piece of work which will be presented to the great IT community on November 17th 2009.

Keep the feedback coming.  I am almost ready to provide the first draft of a concept paper.

Just a thought. I wish this IT Association also gives the opportunity to Solomon Islands living and studying IT abroad to be part of it. Have these IT men register and open up a website whereby all Solomon Islands IT across the globe come together and share ideas and updates on IT stuff. This will strengthen, not only our IT professional in Honiara, but also Solomon Islanders living and working abroad with IT stuff. I don't know how many, but I assume there are a few wantoks out there doing IT.

Just a thought.

Good Ideas oketa wantok!

Nothing more an IT society can be than providing a quality services to its country. Improving the economic growth and wellbeing of its people. Having an association of IT profesionals  will be such a good idea for SI. Unfortunately, at the moment SI is not ready to accomodate this Profesionals so there is this higher migration to other countries in search for suitable pay packages. So the question is where and when do we need to start?

The answer is, we need to start NOW and Right HERE. This is where this idea fits in very well. By forming this community that binds IT professionals together can influence the interest of those that are moving out the country with their huge IT resources. Bring them in and start manipulating necesary IT services that can be offered to/for  the active sectors of the economy.

And This association must be responsible for best and quality IT services. A good reputation and "WHITE HATS". Hacking is your own technical skill and must not be done to those whom our services offered. Basically, we must operate in the IT Code of Ethics.

Finally, we will fight for computing Science to be taught in our high school syllabus. We will also teach both Linux and Windows to our high school children. we want more computer geeks and literates.

                                 " This is just my view"

My question: How many Local Programmers / software engineers do we have in our country at the moment? Graduating with either a Degree or higher.

I know just one.

@Bush Boy, we only have IT Graduates (BSc or MIT) in CS, IS or IT. Programmer & Software Engineer are specialist titles far beyond the degree or post-grad degree you get. We have IT people who know a little bit about everything (programming, network/system/DB admins, hardware tech, support services, etc). Maybe because our organizations are not too specilized in a specific IT field, so an IT person should know little about everything to be competent at work. Think about those people working at Silicon Valley, developing software as the programmers & software engineers. We do have such titles though in some work places in Solo mainly to create and maintain simple Database Systems.

My little contribution to this discussion would be to have a IT Body that validates or accredits all certifications provided by local IT training schools in the country. When a student receives a Certificate or Diploma in IT (note a school in honiara is already offering dip. in IT), this body can validate if the knowledge acquired reflects the title. If accreditted by the IT Body then recruiting companies can be assured that the person has acquire relevant knowledge to be competent at work. This means all local IT training schools, including SICHE or any other vocational schools (if they're offering IT programs) need to affiliate to this national body, to analyse and accredit certifications so they can be recognised by local and oversea organizations. In this way we have a set standard, considering equivalence with other regional countries. (Note, this is the standard practice in Aust. - ACS plays this role)

Software engineering is basically Computer Programing... this is an exciting field that Solomon Islanders need to explore that is why we are suggesting ways to influence our government to invest in technology.  I don't know if IT students do Java or C++, but I know those studying Information Systems learn  basic HTML, XML, AJAX or some JavaScript; simple languages extracted from Java for web devopment, but as you said ... our IT graduates probably learned alittle bit of a lot of things, don't know about "everything though".

The idea of certification is very important Net. It would be nice to see how many wantoks who claimed to be IT technicians actually passed the A+ certification and above. Olketa wea pasim diswan sapos yumi garem certification program, should be sent abroad to broaden their knowledge.

Setting up an IT Association is the right thing to do because this body will be able to influence government on policies that will support a better technology sector.

Adios

Programming is only part of Software Engineering. It comes only in the implementation part of the software development life cycle. S.E is the systematic approach to development, operation & maintenance of software. You can be a non-programmer and be part of a SE team.
HTML is not a programming language, it's a markup language. But students do learn about some programming languages, but is not the only thing taught at the Uni. A degree should basically give students a broader view in the different fields in computing studies, so as to be able to easily understand any new technologies encountered. The higher you go up, your field of study will be narrowed.

Phew ....! that was in 2009. I missed this thread. Its ok, I have no time but will read through all post herein before I will disappear again for a few years! Keep our post interactive wantoks.