Ladyrene Pérez, Rosa Miriam Elizalde
The First National Workshop on Informatization and Cybersecurity that will session in Havana next week is an inclusive gathering that will welcome specialists of that field in order to get to a collective definition of the policy that the country will implement in that scenario, assured to Cubadebate the Doctor of Technical Sciences Ailyn Febles Estrada, vice-rector of the University of Informatics Sciences (Spanish: Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas UCI).
The next February 18, on the opening session of the Workshop, more than 11 000 Cuban computer specialists will participate, most of them connected online by videoconference with the Convention Palace of Havana, one of the venues of the gathering with a three days agenda.
According to the Vice-rector, the connectivity is granted for videoconferencing in the 21 venues in all provinces and the participants will receive firsthand information on the policy bases for the improvement of a safety informatization of the country, the national priorities, in addition to details on the beginning of the process of constitution of a new social organization that will gather professionals related to the ICTs.
“Simultaneously, an online discussion forum will be opened in the web site www.mincom.gob.cu, where every person interested in the topic may express its opinions or ask the experts”, added Ailyn.
The idea of this process is to encourage the collective analysis on the institutional capacities and the human and technological resources the country has to grant a safety informatization of the society, highlighted the specialist.
The event will session on February 19 and 20 in the Technologies Investigation Center (Spanish: Centro de Investigaciones de Tecnologías Integradas, CITI), in the Polytechnic University José Antonio Echeverría. Around 260 experts will debate in commissions four essential subjects: the human and scientific resources the country has, electronic government, information security and economy and legality.
Details on the organization
Aylín Febles confirmed that this Workshop has been in the making since last August and they have try to establish some basic elements that Cuba needs in order to put new technologies nearer to the people, a purpose endorsed in the Social and Economic Guidelines.
Initially, a large group of experts worked in 11 commissions, now assembled in the Workshop in four groups. The result of this process is what will be presented next week in the Convention Palace and in the CITI.
“The Organizing Committee for the Workshop and the experts involved started from the concept that is not possible to have a prosperous and sustainable society without subordinating to such objectives the tools that guaranty access to knowledge, efficiency, productivity and excellency”, she assured.
- Who will participate in the Workshop and how was the selection?
- In the 21 venues will be almost the 50% of the specialists of the country related to the ICTs –not only informaticians, but others related to the use and development of the New Technologies. A survey on the human resources potential in this field was performed so that most of them may assist to this event. There are no more participants in the plenary session because of the capacity in the provincial venues, but actually everyone would be able to participate on the discussion forum in the MINCOM web site. All sectors of the country, including the non-state one, will be represented.
-Will all the sessions of the Workshop be transmitted via video conference?
-No. The mass participation in the Workshop will be on the 18, in the morning, in a session that we foresee should last two hours and a half, which will be transmitted completely via videoconference, so those who are not at the Conventions Palace can see it. A Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Communications will present the bases of the informatization policy of the government, and the preliminary ideas of the new social organization that will group professionals from the whole country linked to the ICTs. The event continues in the CITI with expert guests and will conclude on February 20, but the discussion forum will be open to opinions and questions from everybody all three days.
-Does the Debate have any restriction?
-Not at all. We will take note of all opinions, and we will be open to suggestions regarding the design of the informatization policy and the cybersecurity of the country, as well as the perspective of implementation. We are sure it will be a rich process of exchange that will allow carrying out more effectively this policy in the country.
-What will exactly happen in the morning of February 18?
-The provinces will participate; an audiovisual on the importance of the informatization process in Cuba will be presented. Then a Deputy Minister will present the bases of the policy, the national priorities of this process; will also be able to watch an audiovisual with the preliminary ideas for that new social organization that will group computer specialists of the ICTs.
-Can you give us some details regarding the organization?
-We are talking about the first steps to create a social organization, which will group every professional linked to the ICTs. Who? The graduates of the related majors – Informatics, Computer Sciences, Telecommunications, Automatic and others who show a sustained activity with results in that field. The idea is to unite all scattered computer specialist around one objective: to collectively contribute to the development of the country, and facilitate spaces for professional gathering, training and debate. The dream is to have an organization that identifies and promotes knowledge management, which knows who knows what, and integrates our specialists.
-What is the leitmotiv of the Workshop?
-To communicate that the country’s informatization policy to be approved will have an inclusive, modern sense and will facilitate processes sustainable in time, and that all opinions of those linked to this sector matter in order to define and implement that policy.