Virgin-Islands-On-Line's Coconut Telegraph

Busy Days In The USVI

Well it was a busy few days here. On Thursday Shaun Pennington of the VI Source on-line newspapers hosted a great event at the Marriott for what seemed to be hundreds of people. The event was called "e-volving" and was a mix of how to's and what's happening on the Internet, how it affects the way we work and get our news, and how it has changed and is changing our lives. It was a very informative event, and even this ten year Web pro picked up on some new tricks. Speakers included Jean Etsinger, the VI Source Senior Editor, Steve Parrish, the new VP of Operations at ATN (Choice Communications), Frank Barnako of CBS Marketwatch (but more importantly to me author and publisher of "News of St. John"), Evan Edwards of OnePaper (the back end system that runs the source) and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Antigua native and former VI resident Melvin Claxton, now an investigative reporter for the Detroit News.

The event was from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM with a very nice buffet lunch in-between. I didn't agree with everything Steve Parrish had to say on the evolution of the Internet and thought it was strange that he actually suggested using older versions of Windows (like 95 and 98) to avoid viruses and other security issues that the Web seems to be responsible for increasing. I wanted to tell him about another OS (Macintosh OSX) but he didn't seem like the kind of guy who was going to listen to that idea :(

Steve also touched on a pet peeve of mine when he said something to the effect that the Web didn't take off until a "free" graphical browser became available, Mosaic. I am going to go a little off the rails a little here so please forgive me. Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. This is a government funded lab (although there is a private sector component also), and most of the work and research carried out there gets done on the taxpayer's dime. To me, saying that Mosaic was a "free" product glosses over a huge problem with how business is done in the US and how tax payers get shorted when government sponsored R&D pays off. Anyone interested in the history of the Web needs to know the name Marc Andreesen (for background on what I am talking about see this bio). To oversimplify the story: Andreesen invents Mosaic while working at the lab, Andreesen leaves and ends up starting Netscape with Jim Clarke, and some of the Mosaic team get hired by Bill Gates and we end up with Internet Explorer. The big problem for me is that these guys basically took the technologies that they developed in the government labs on tax payers money and then went on to form one of the largest wealth creation machines of all time. Why wasn't the University compensated? Why weren't all US taxpayers given a dividend check? This is just one example of this perverse kind of corporate welfare. Like I said, it is a pet peeve, and I just think I guy like Steve Parrish, if he is going to be making public presentations should have a little better grasp of the facts or avoid spinning them is a silly and irresponsible way.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

I really enjoyed Frank Barnako's talk, he is very passionate about the Internet and really "gets" the potential of what it can do, and is always finding out about new things. I forgot to tell Frank that one of the technologies he talked about, Netcaptor (http://www.netcaptor.com/), is actually built into the Apple Web Browser Safari, where basically the same functionality is called "tabbed browsing". Maybe we can convert Frank to the Macintosh after we are done with Steve. He had the room scratching their heads with his talk of "blogs" and RSS feeds. After the presentation I was confronted by some people who wanted to know just what the hell a blog was - well, you're reading one!

Melvin Claxton's presentation was very interesting, but some people I talked to later (yes, anonymous sources, I sound like a journalist) found the fairly naked bashing of Jeffrey Prosser (owner of the Daily News and Innovative Communications) a little bit out of place (there is a fairly long and some bitter history between Prosser and many other Virgin Islanders involved in the news and communications industry).

Overall though a wonderful event, with something for everyone and a great turn out. Thank you Shaun Pennington!

Moving on to Friday, the Rolex Regatta began at the St. Thomas Yacht Club. My wife participated this year which was quite a challenge as I was attending the eleventh annual Virgin Islands Destination Symposium, an event that basically brings the top travel wholesalers together with Hotel Association members for a few days of not stop business and fun. The event is continuing on St. Croix today and tomorrow.

It began Saturday evening at the Great House with the Governor's Dinner hosted by Mr. Edward Thomas (when is he going to run for governor?) of the West Indian Company, and then was an all day affair on Sunday at the Wyndham Sugar Bay, with a sail on Bolongos Bay's Heavenly days stuffed in between dinner at Caneel Bay on St. John. About a 16 hour day for those who attended all events (and people think you don't work when you live in the Caribbean). Sunday's session at the Wyndham included and overview of the newly renamed Virgin Islands Hotel and Tourism Association Marketing plan, and overview of the DOT's marketing plan, and a best practices presentation and discussion given by many of the territories largest tour operators. Yesterday was the one on one meeting between wholesalers/tour operators and hotels, with the final night on St. Thomas dinner and Party at the Reef. The food and show were spectacular. They really have a great banquet staff at the Reef now, I believe the head chef is Kevin Goodchild, and they did an outstanding job. Whole roasted suckling pigs, whole fried Grouper and Snapper, Lobster tails, leg of lamb, sushi bar, and amazing giant cauldron of 4 kinds of curry and rice - the food was just fantastic as was the presentation and the service.

This morning delegates have a farewell breakfast at the Holiday Inn and spend some time shopping in town before heading off to St. Croix.

So that was what happened here the last few days that I know about. The Rolex ended Sunday. I have not seen my wife for more than five minutes since Thursday so maybe I will post an update with some details on the regatta if she has any for me.

Posted by afinta at March 30, 2004 10:47 AM

Comments

Posted by: RickG at March 30, 2004 10:56 PM

Posted by: Anthony at April 1, 2004 09:06 PM