In our October 2023 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Christelle Vaval, a lawyer in Haiti, and Steven Williams,of Data Privacy and Management Advisory Services in Barbados, the panel discusses:  Digital inequality in Caribbean tech entrepreneurship;  Trademarks protection in domain names; Are we still underprepared for cyberattacks?

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!

Generally, we tend to focus on topics and issues in which we have a particular interest. This is especially true in the tech space where there are diverse subjects vying for our attention, and so it may even be necessary to be ruthless and limit the material we consume.

However, a downfall of that approach is we may end up having a very narrow perspective on tech, and more so the very issues that we have been focusing on. The truth is that tech areas or fields do not exist or operate in isolation from each other. Often they are linked, be they directly or indirectly, and often some kind of impact or influence each other.

It is thus useful to be pulled out of our comfort zone occasionally and explore topics that are not necessarily on our radar. Our Community Chat episode is one of these discussions.

 

Introducing our guests

Steven Williams

Steven A. Williams is a multi-faceted entrepreneur and business technologist based in Barbados. With an MBA from the University of Durham and specialized certifications in information security and data protection, he commands a unique blend of business acumen and technical expertise.

He is the founder and Executive Director of three companies: Sunisle Technology Solutions, a Managed Service Provider; Data Privacy and Management Advisory Services (DPMAS), a consultancy focusing on data privacy; and Sports Beyond Borders, a digital sports broadcasting network.

Steven has served as an IT advisor to the Government’s Law Review Commission and currently sits on the Board of Directors as a Fair Trading Commissioner. A sought-after speaker, he has recently spoken on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity.

 

Christelle Vaval

Christelle Vaval is an attorney-at-law based in Haiti. Her legal training and education were completed in Quebec, Canada, where she obtained a double major in Civil and Common Law. She is also a duly registered member of the Quebec (Canada) and Port-au-Prince (Haiti) Bar Associations. Christelle is specialized in Business Law and Intellectual Property and is also a certified .HT registrar.

Christelle advocates for better access to the Internet and promotes the usage of the .HT country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). In 2014, Christelle co-founded the first Haitian website that aims to promote and facilitate the purchase of.HT domains.

Christelle has been also actively involved in many non-profit organisations including the Canadian-Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIHC), the Haiti Committee of the Montreal Bar and AmCham Haiti. She has also served as a focal point for Haiti for the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in the Caribbean (OHADAC) project.

 

Our topics

First, cognisant that Caribbean countries want to be seen as hotbeds of tech innovation, we continue a conversation Steven began in a recently published article on Digital inequality in Caribbean tech entrepreneurship. There is considerable enthusiasm across the region for the various digital platforms through which wealth can be created, but constraints still exist – many of which are not readily discussed – that limit the success that can be realised. In other words, although the internet is seen as the democratiser and great equaliser, the playing field may not be as even as we believe.

Traditionally, owning a domain name does not accord any trademark rights to the domain name owner. However, thanks to the increasing value and importance of domain names,  systems are being put in place to better address this issue, which was the impetus for our second topic, Trademark protection in domain names.

Finally, industry experts have been reporting that there has been an uptick in cyber-attacks in the Caribbean region. However, there is an expectation that by now more organisations would have had adequate systems in place, noting the heightened awareness of cybersecurity for at least the past decade. We thus discussed, Are we still underprepared for cyberattacks?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select Links

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

 

 

Images credit:  C Vaval;  S Williams; William Hook (Unsplash); Markus Winkler (Unsplash); Saksham Choudhary (Pexels)

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

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez