It's time to kiss stigma and discrimination goodbye

The Ministry of Labour and Social Services has extended the deadline for their annual poetry competition until Monday, January 30.  The competition is opened to employees in the public sector, statutory and quasi-govermental organisations.  For those interested persons who qualify, the theme is It's Time to Kiss Stigma and Discrimination Goodbye. 

The public sector department that wins will receive a challenge trophy and winning trophy whilst the individual prizewinners will receive a trophy as well as a Weekend for 2 at Divi Southwinds - 1st prize;  a $350.00 value gift Certificate from Columbian Emeralds - 2nd prize and an Atlantis Submarine Night Cruise - 3rd prize.

As part of the Ministry's outreach programme on HIV and AIDS, they are encouraging everyone to review their Code of Practice for HIV/AIDS and other Life Threatening Illnesses in the Public Sector.

BIM LIT FEST

Hot of the presses:

For all those writers out there check out this site for news about the inaugural BIM LIT FEST
http://www.bimlitfest.org/

Library of Congress Offers Congressional Record as iPad App

The Library of Congress, at the initiative of House Leadership and under the guidance of the Committee on House Administration, today announced it has made the Congressional Record available as an app to users of iPad tablet devices. The Congressional Record delivered through the app is a PDF document that can be shared via email and be able to be browsed by date and searchable by keyword within an individual document or section; documents can also be saved to the iPad. Content includes Congressional Record issues dating from January 4, 1995 through the present. Click here to read more…

Cloud Computing

Hello and Good to be here

After the weekend, we're back with the second in our series of articles looking at ICTs.  The following article deals with the explanation of "cloud" computing mostly in layman's terms. It will most likely be of interest to persons studying or working computer science/IT fields but it also holds relevance to those who are considering using cloud resources as well for those generally curious persons.

Here is the link to the article is as follows: http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,0

I Dare You!

Hello College Family

Welcome back from our Christmas holidays and here's hoping that you feel refreshed and ready for another semester as we've said goodbye to 2011 and ushered in 2012.
And what have we to look forward to in the Oughties.  My hope is that we will see less dialogue and more action on things that affect us; that there resides more integrity, fairness, justice, transparency and accountability in our institutions and relationships; that we set aside pettiness and indifference to engage in meaningful, dynamic, honest and realistic avenues to affect change and transform our lives and societies; that we love more and hate less; that in our getting and spending we do not lay waste to our powers.

Our Greatest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

For Your Information

The following correspondence was taken from

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

January 17th, 2012.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community

From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director

Date: January 16, 2012

on

Today, the Wikipedia community

Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you

can read the

proposed legislation in the United States—the

of Representatives, and the

seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature,

and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three

Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the

statement

 It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA.

announced its decision to black out the English-languagestatement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest againstStop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. HousePROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate—that, if passed, wouldpublic, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:

This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently,

We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it.

But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to. 

The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.

That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercially motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place—many do!—but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.

My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA—and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States—don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?

The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.

Sue Gardner,

Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation