FIRST MEETING
The inaugural meeting of the Information and Communications Technolgy Committee (ICT Committee) was held on 2008 May 14 in the Training Room at the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ).
The list of invitees included representatives of Information Technology Companies as well as the Jamaica Computer Society which represents about 200 Jamaican Information Technology companies.
Approximately 20 out of the 36 organizations sent their represenatives and apologies were received from 2 companies.
The Meeting Agenda started with opening remarks by Mr. Gladstone Rose (Senior Director, Technical Services and Deputy Director of the BSJ) who referred to the recent balloting on the OOXML Standards by p members of ISO JTC1. He emphasized that the committee that would be formally organized at this meeting would be the decision making body on how Jamaica would vote on International Standards as well as the body that would write local ICT Standards.
He was followed by Mr. Stephen Farquharson (Manager, Standards Development and Certification Division) who gave the welcome.
The executive Director of the BSJ, Dr. Camella Rhone gave an impromptu presentation in which she told the attentive audience that Jamaica has been inolved in standardization for many years and will emphaze its role a “standards setter” and not just a standards taker”
Presentations were done on “Information and Communcations Technology & JTC1” by Miss Tanille Latty (Standards Development and Certification Officer) also by Miss Vonetta Nurse Thompson (Standards Development and Certification Officer) on “The Role of Technical Committees”.
The meeting decided that it would appoint an interim executive committee. The Interim executive committee was charged with the task of immediately guiding the work of the full Commitee but also to do the ground work for the appointment of a permanet executive committee within a maximum of 6 Months which would also give the membership time to get to know each other. During this period the committee will seek to develop a terms of reference (TOR) and a Business Plan as well as convene the monthly meetings of the Full Commttee. Within the 6 Months period a new election will be called to determine the holders of executive positions.
The Interim Committee is as follow:-
Dr. Patrick Dallas - Chariman
Mr. Nigel Henry - Vice Chairman
Mr. Gladstone Rose - Technical Secretary
Miss. Vitra A. Gopee - Recording Secretary
It was also suggested that a weblog would be created on the Internet to keep the work of the committee going.
It was decided that the next meeting of the interim executive committee as well as main committee would be announced by the executive within one week.