Seminars@Softfair

Abeer Hasan, assistant editor, Daily Janakantha, BIJF President Ahmedul Islam Babu, its General Secretary MA Haq Anu and Golap Munir, editor-in-charge, The Monthly Computer Jagat spoke.

"To give journalism the benefits of technology, internet service has to be improved. Bangladesh railway has a 1,800-kilometre fiber optic network throughout the country, which GrameenPhone and Bangladesh Railway use. But this internal high-speed network is of no use without the gateway connection. The delayed decision of getting connected to the fiber optic channel is making us suffer with low speed internet service," said Abeer Hasan.

On March 27, Bangladesh signed a contract with 15 other foreign telecoms operators to hook up to submarine cable. The service is expected to be available by mid 2005. This installation will provide us with about 10-gigabytes/second data transfer rate, which would be 68 times the current speed.

Mobility is one of the key factors in journalism that has to be ensured. The seminar focused on such important factors in modern journalism.

WSIS Consultation: Roadmap to Tunisia
A seminar on World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) consultation and roadmap to Tunisia was on Softfair 2004's second-day agenda. Syed Marghub Morshed, chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), chaired the seminar while Abdullah H Kafi, member, World IT and Services Alliance (WITSA) public policy committee, Reza Selim, member secretary of Bangladesh working group on WSIS and Professor Faruk Ahmed of computer science and engineering department, North South University were present as special guests.

The seminar focused on the initiatives that the country should take for developing the ICT sector and the roadmap to the next WSIS at Tunisia in 2005.

The first phase of the summit at Geneva pointed a declaration of principles and a plan of action.

"We must take every step for developing the ICT sector and prepare ourselves with more skilled workforce for the next journey to Tunisia for WSIS," said Morshed.

He added media is one of the most important role-players to push the ICT sector. "We have to be proactive. We must remove the digital divide as soon as possible."

Global Opportunity for Youths in ICT
A seminar on 'Global opportunity for youth in ICT' was held on the third and closing day of the fair. It focused on the youth rights and opportunities that could be a high point in forming a nation treasured with education and knowledge-based society.

Syed Jaglul Pasha, secretary, Bangladesh National Commission for Unesco, was present as the chief guest at the seminar along with special guests Prof. Fayyaz Khan, head of CSE department, University of Asia Pacific, SM Iqbal, president, Bangladesh Computer Samity, and Akhter-uz-Zaman, president, Bangladesh Youth Forum (BYF).

"Poverty is the denial of basic human rights. Education has become a global product. It is possible to access global education through ICT," said Pasha.

"The youth can make the most positive contribution to the society. Computer education should be made compulsory from the preliminary stage of education. It is our duty to motivate youths in ICT education," said Fayyaz.

Iqbal suggested developing an online and personal discussion group where youths could share their views with senior and professional experts.

The seminars made the three-day Softfair 2004 an eye-opener. It tried to shed light on some important issues and the present status of the ICT sector.