In our August 2025 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Financial and Impact Innovator, Digital Economist and Digital Transformation Expert, Telly Valerie Onu, who is based in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and  IT Specialist, Researcher and Digital Analyst, Matthew Cowen, who is based in Martinique, the panel discusses: Cyberlibertarianism; the impact of ubiquitous ready-to-hand video recording devices on our societies, and digital colonialism.

 

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

Whether we believe it or not, the world seems to be at an inflexion point. The vision of technology leading us to a fairer and more equitable society has been overtaken by money and power plays in several quarters. Are we the dystopian societies described in books such as Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell or Divergent by Veronica Roth? No, not yet, but it could be argued that we are getting there.

Hence, the topics of this month’s Community Chat were quite weighty and intense, and in some instances, we had not broached them on the Podcast before. However, they reflect important yet complex issues on the impact of technology on our societies.

 

Meet our guests

Matthew Cowen

Matthew Cowen is an IT veteran who has over 30 years of experience in the industry and has been based in Martinique for over 20 years. He specialises in researching the digital ecosystems of the Caribbean. He founded a boutique consultancy called dgtlfutures that helps micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) develop and implement digital transformation strategies and works closely with companies digitalising their operations chain.

Matthew is also involved in Internet Governance in the region and is an American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Fellow. He authors a newsletter called The Future is Digital, which you can find on his site, matthewcowen.org, along with a regularly updated blog on his current work. Matthew also teaches various tech-related subjects at the degree and master’s levels in three further education establishments in Martinique.

Telojo Valerie Onu

Telojo “Telly” Valerie Onu has been at the forefront of digital financial innovation and ecosystem building with over 20 years of experience as a Financial and Impact Innovator, Digital Economist and Digital Transformation Expert. She is a thought leader and a co-author of The Insurtech Book and The Wealthtech Book.

She is the Head of Governance and Execution for the Bantu Blockchain Foundation, a Seychelles Foundation with offices in Lagos, Nigeria, which governs the Bantu Network Infrastructure. She is also the Governance and Execution Lead for Interstellar Inc., a technology company that powers critical blockchain infrastructure for digital payments and financial institutions in Africa.

Telly is the Founder of Valerie Capital (formerly Beyond Capital Market), a digital financial market infrastructure (DFMI) and digital asset management firm focused on embedded and alternative finance.  She is also the Founder of Quintessence Consulting Inc., a global strategy and management consulting firm that has led multimillion-dollar investment facilitation and transformation projects and their implementation.

 

The topics discussed

First, we tackled Cyberlibertarianism, which is an ideology that believes the internet and digital technologies should be spaces for individual liberty and markets that are free from government control, or otherwise bypass traditional systems of power. However, in a world that seems to be moving towards suppressing free speech and individual freedoms, eroding privacy, and increasing mass surveillance, regardless of one’s stance on the relationship between technology, freedom, and power, it is undeniable that our societies are changing—whether for the better or the worse.

The impetus for our second topic was the recent scandal that emerged following a Coldplay concert in New York City, which highlighted the impact of ubiquitous ready-to-hand video recording devices on our societies. However, the Coldplay situation, which ended up having very real-world consequences for the parties involved, was not the focus of our discussion, but rather the changing of the times, which has become increasingly evident.

Finally, we returned to a topic that was first discussed in 2023: digital colonialism. At that time, discourse on that subject in the region was virtually non-existent. However, over the past few months, concerns about digital colonialism have been expressed in some quarters, which suggests a growing awareness of the issue across the region.

 

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 were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise might be useful.

 

 

Images credit:  T Onu;  M Cowen;  Drazen Zigic (Freepik);  Freepik;  rawpixel.com (Freepik)

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

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez