It is an overcast and raining morning in Trinidad and I am here browsing the Internet Archive's wayback machine from around the year 2000 looking at some of the early websites from Trinidad. My morning started earlier when I emailed TSTT asking them what history they had for cell phones in Trinidad and also specifically the first cell phone used in Trinidad. In my search I was then reminded that we first had analog cell service. This was since December 1991 under the brand name Cellnet and was later upgraded to digital in 1999. The first phase of the upgrade cost 147 million dollars in those days. Then I ended up glancing at the history of bulletin boards in Trinidad and came across an early computer shop in Trinidad called Computerland (Trinidad Computers Limited). In trying to get more info about them I ended up on the list of eligible jurors from the year 2000 which listed profession and place of work. I searched for "computer" and came across a few more places like Computers and Controls, Computer Planet, Microcomputer Systems Limited and Creative Computers.
According to my friend Bard, the first website in Trinidad would have probably been UWI's website. I then started looking at the gov.tt website from the year 2000 and discovered that we had a ministry of communications and technology back then. I then ended up on the ittnt.com website and saw that they had listed some consultations: Development of a Science Technology and Innovation Park in Trinidad and Tobago, Potential Areas for Information Technology Research and Development in Trinidad and Tobago, and Developing & Selling Software to North America. One of the objectives listed was, "Produce high quality IT products/services for export." More than 20 years laters we are yet to make enough strides in this area. There is recent talk that coming out of DHub and the DHub Challenges we would have a Software Export Company. I like the following goal that was listed back in 1998, "Become a world-class leader in specific Information Technology areas".
One of the other items mentioned was "An Online IT Expertise Database" and this is something that the current DHub is looking to address. I also ended up on the Information Technology Professional Society of Trinidad and Tobago (ITPS) website from back in the day. I recognised a few names like Roger Morris, John Lewis, Rabindra Jaggernauth, Lorcan Camps, Marc Chin Aleong and Ian Galt. The ITTNT website had a list of local tech companies back then and I recognised Savannah Computing under Software Development. I contacted them and asked if they would be willing to contribute a few paragraphs describing the early days of software development in Trinidad. I pointed them to the series of blog posts I have started.
Doing this has made me nostalgic and a bit disappointed that I was not making notes and keeping memories from the tech space back in the days. I went to the national archives website and it is disappointing that much of our archives are not online. I would have loved to search the newspapers archives for tech related news and stories from back in the days. If I could go back I would have saved clippings myself. I like that our history teaches us. I realize that there are unrealised and good ideas and thoughts from the techies of the past. The history also allows us to appreciate how far we have come. In 2004 I shared this article I found on my blog about the future of the internet being the Quantum Internet. I hear a lot about quantum computing these days but not much about the quantum internet. The article points to a limit we would reach soon and I asked Bard about this and his response was, "No, we haven't reached the limit on how fast the internet could be, even considering the concerns mentioned in the 2004 article. While the internet based on classical bits and light pulses does face capacity limitations, advancements in technology and infrastructure are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible."
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