ICT-BPO International Conference and Youth Engagement Summit Open in Balaclava

Mauritius, Balaclava

The ICT-BPO International Conference along with the Youth Engagement Summit were inaugurated by the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Mr Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum at the Intercontinental Hotel, in Balaclava.

The two three-day events were organised by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in collaboration with the Board of Investment and Extensia Ltd.

Youth today expect quick responses to their activities on social and mobile media – which call for responsive infrastructure solutions, community engagement models, and new career paths. As digital infrastructure continues its rapid evolution, higher-level issues of Internet governance, security and the Millennium Development Goals also need to come into play for youth. It was through this conference that open movements e.g Wikimedia and Mozilla Foundation showed their presence as well to build networks with other ICT stakeholders, promote and share free knowledge initiatives, innovation and openness to technology towards the development of African countries.

Mozilla Rep - Workshop Outcomes

"We don’t just build products that make a better Web. Mozilla is an organization that is fundamentally about people, and we want everyone globally to make the Firefox experience their own" stated a Mozilla Rep when giving insights of the workshop.

The engagement between youth and ICT must be nurtured, encouraged and developed but for parents and teachers to feel confident in encouraging children to use ICT and for children to feel safe using it, we must create a safe and secure environment and that is why Mozilla avails the Web to people by creating opportunities and making it open to everyone. However Mozilla Foundation had a chance to share insights on projects which are mainly focused in community building and user engagement e.g Webmakers, L10n as way of recruting children to be fully nurtured through open movement to gain more skills to benefit the ICT sector.

In other words, youth will be truly empowered if they have affordable access to digital media, content generation tools, community support, incentives to contribute to the knowledge society, pro-active culture of collaboration, and capacity building for entrepreneurship.