As of today there are 535,980 Jamaicans are on Facebook, 408,120 Trinidadians and 110,280 Barbadians. All this against the background that of the 40 million Caribbean people living in the region, only 10,055,240 are Internet users as of June last year, a 24.2 % penetration rate, according to internetworldstats.com. What are they doing online? Are they just cruising Facebook? Playing Farmville and Cityville? Are they thinking how can I use the Internet to start a business, make money that’s NOT dependent on their own narrow national economies. Are Caribbean people wasting their time online?
Couple that fact with the just released report that Jamaica currently ranks 73rd amongst 138 countries in terms of Global Technology Readiness, having dipped seven places in one year and 28 places over five years from 45th amongst 122 nations in a 2006-2007 report.
According to the Jamaica Observer’s own report ” Jamaica’s technology decline is amongst the top-10 worst in the world, according to Thierry Geiger co-author of the Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 published yesterday by the World Economic Forum (WEO).” Further, no Caribbean nation appears in the top 30, with Barbados ranking 38th. the annual Global Competitiveness Report and the Global Enabling Trade Report.
If South Africa, Chile and Brazil can, why can’t the Caribbean?
So what are we going to do about it? Right now South Africa, Chile and Brazil are kicking our Caribbean ass in terms of innovation using technology, businesses started because of technology. We seem to talk alot more than we do in this region. We seem to be content to be consumers of technology and not creators of technology and the wealth that comes with that. Will the Kingston BETA, Slash Roots, GramStep communities prove us wrong? Will the Developers Associations, Webmasters Groups, Developers Meetups prove us wrong? Or will they just talk some more?
I’m betting on some massive action over the next two years.
What do you think?
