Sam Morgan at a telecommunications forum in Lisbon.

The Fourth International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication Policy Forum in Lisbon ended on April 24. For Jamaican Sam Morgan, the event will be an important memory.

Morgan was invited to the forum as one of five winners of an ITU-run video contest titled 'Future of ICTs Challenge'. His video, 'ICT4Humanity', called for greater use of ICTs to improve the situation of poorer communities through education and development. It was shown at the forum. "I believe that the people who watched the video truly understood and appreciated the model," he told The Gleaner.

Taking no time to rest on his laurels, Sam is already laying the groundwork for putting his proposal into practice. "It is my intention," he said, "to start an ICT4Humanity Initiative in Trinidad and Tobago (where he currently lives) and I've already gotten a pledge of support from the current minister. I want to do a pilot project based on the flow of the model - provide access to ICTs, use it to educate, empower, and hopefully create some kind of sustainability." The target for his project is the community of Laventille.

ICT development

While the computerised world whisks him along at serious speeds, Sam has not forgotten about home, and hopes that ICT development can make Jamaica a better place. "I would like to see every child in Jamaica have the same access to the Internet and to information that children in the developed world currently have," he said, "and to see the creation of valuable local content from Jamaica broadcast to the world via the Internet in efforts to continue promoting our unique culture."

He also said that Jamaica is not embracing the potential of ICTs enough: "(There is) a lack of support structures for ICTs innovation and so I would like to challenge the Government and financial institutions to provide an environment suitable to these kinds of innovation."

Since graduating from the University of the West Indies in 2006 with a double major in computer science and mathematics, Sam has founded or co-founded two companies, IDream Jamaica, a destinations marketing company, and TryCatch Interactive for the provision of web development and software services in the Caribbean. He is currently a software developer for Medullan Inc in Trinidad and Tobago.