In our September 2022 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Samantha Sheoprashad, of Trifinity Solutions in Guyana, and Steven Williams, of Sunisle Technology Solution in Barbados, the panel discusses:  gender inequality for women in the Caribbean tech industry; and the potential impact of data privacy in the Caribbean.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and Stitcher!

Without a doubt, we would all agree that technology has been evolving at a considerable pace, but in the Caribbean region, in particular, the supporting ecosystems may not necessarily be evolving at a comparable pace. Deficiencies, inconsistencies and a variety of difficulties will be experienced, and as a result, we will not realise all of the benefits envisaged.

In this month’s Community Chat, a common theme for the two topics discussed is the fundamental change in attitude that still seems to be needed, in order for us to truly leverage some of the developments that have occurred in the region’s tech space, but which may challenge some of our core beliefs as individuals and as a society.  

 

Introducing our guests and their topics

Samantha Sheoprashad

Samantha Sheoprashad is an Ecosystem Developer at Trifinity Solutions, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Youth Ambassador, Co-Founder of the digital platform, Eco-naire, a Former Facebook Developer Lead, a Queens Young Leader 2017 recipient, an Institute of Caribbean Studies 30 Under 30 Honouree and an Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Sustainable Development Movement  Ambassador. She spends a great deal of time working with clients to develop digital strategies to launch their online businesses with the aim of driving more customers, purchases, and revenue.

Samantha has a  background in Computer Science, which she uses to develop software and social innovations programmes that change lives. She has worked with communities in several capacities, including youth development over the last 20 years, and has made an impact on education, entrepreneurship, and the use of technology to resolve social challenges in Guyana and the wider Caribbean.

Samantha as a young woman in tech and a young tech business owner has become acutely aware of the challenges women in tech face, thanks to her own personal experience and those reported by those she has taught and mentored. She thus submitted the topic, Gender inequality for women in the Caribbean tech Industry, for discussion. However, the conversation that ensued was multi-layered, as some of the inequality highlighted are not driven solely by the tech industry, but also reflects some of society’s values and norms on the role of women and the role of women in the workplace.

Steven Williams

Steven Williams is a Director of Sunisle Communications Inc., which does business as Sunisle Technology Solutions in Barbados, and offers computing and managed IT services. He also serves as the company’s Business Development Director. In addition to his academic qualifications, Steven is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer and a Certified Data Privacy Officer.

Thanks to his knowledge and experience in Information Security and Data Privacy, Steven is concerned that Caribbean businesses and organisations have been resistant to implementing data privacy frameworks, though their systems and networks are vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can result in individuals’ personally identifiable data being compromised. He thus led a discussion on The Potential Impact of Data Privacy in the Caribbean, which touched on, among other things:

  • the change in mindset that must still happen to foster data privacy;
  • the critical first steps organisations can take to begin to become data compliant; and
  • some of the likely challenges when there is a need to have a more harmonised data protection framework across the Caribbean region.

 

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Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit: S Sheoprashad; S Williams; Mary Taylor (Pexels); Rajesh Kumar (flickr)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez