Above: Curacao (CJ Photo)

By Gerard Best
CJ Contributor

Caribbean people have an appetite for technology that rivals any other region of the world. But who is working behind the scenes to maintain and upgrade the Internet-based services on which we’ve come to depend?

On September 29, the answer to that question was to be found in Curacao, at one of the most highly anticipated gatherings of the region’s technology community.

Jointly hosted by the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) and the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), this regional meeting bears one striking difference from many other ICT-themed meetings in the region. It is widely regarded as a solutions-oriented forum.

“This is a place where issues relevant to the future of the Internet at a regional and global level are being discussed. It is not a talk shop,” said Stephen Lee, CaribNOG programme coordinator.

Lee was among a panel of experts to deliver the orientation and overview in the morning session. The panel included Shernon Osepa, manager for regional affairs for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, Bevil Wooding, founder and executive director of Caribnog, and Carlos Martínez, chief technology officer at LACNIC.

“Caribnog’s partnership goes much deeper than co-hosting this event,” Wooding said. “Lacnic covers Latin America and the Caribbean, and Caribnog is a key part of this technical community. We focus on the Caribbean but our concerns and interests extend to Latin America and beyond.”

Martinez echoed the sentiment.

“We found that working together with CaribNOG, Lacnic can effectively reach audiences in the Caribbean, which is an important subset of our service region.”

The weeklong event, which runs from September 29 to October 3, is being held at the Hilton Curacao in Willemstad.

The meeting covers a range of technology topics including cyber security, Internet exchange points, cloud computing, mobile broadband and other critical Internet infrastructure.