Journey by Dmitri Dawkins

Caribbean BETA, Showcasing ICT in the Region

// November 28th, 2011 // No Comments » // Technology

Sitting at the judge’s table listening intently to 17 Caribbean startups are the four judges: Marc Canter, Michelle Messina, Chris Reckord and Anthony Chang. In case you don’t know by now, this is Caribbean BETA 2011.

The inaugural conference which was a first of its kind in Jamaica, took place on Friday, November, 25th, 2011 at the Jamaica Pegasus. Caribbean BETA is “a regional technology entrepreneurship conference that brings together global experts and the best Caribbean minds on the leading edge of the tech business boom.”

In the second half of the event, startups were given a chance to pitch an idea, in the hopes of getting feedback about their concept and beating out the competitors for first place.
Dubbed “PITCHfest” by Connectimass Founder, Ingrid Riley – the pitch lineup included: Mobile and Web Apps, eLearning, Social Media, and Online Advertising.

Each startup was given a strict 5 minute limit to present, with an additional 2 minutes to field questions and receive feedback from the four judges. Each event in the BETA series encourages elevator pitches from startups – but this event was different – the audience was bigger and the best 3 pitches would receive a prize.

After approximately an hour of deliberation, the judges listed 3rd place to Socialite JA – a startup founded by Christopher Crawford and Klieon John. Socialite JA offers a range of services including: event marketing, on-line ticket sale management, banner ads, contributor space rental and engaging target audiences for their clients. Their ultimate goal is to help small organizations improve their promotional activity through on-line marketing.

The 2nd place winner was the mobile-application startup, TUMP – a startup founded by Rory Burchenson, Ramon Dunkley, Christopher Hinds, Omarie Case and Glenford Dickson. TUMP is a geo-location mobile application that connects users to business, events, discounts and deals in Jamaica. The app has features that include:

• Around me
• Nightlife
• iWant
• Freenis
• Map it

DmitriDawkins.com is proud to announce that 1st place went to DM3 Media for a pitch on a Social Data Network and business intelligence web application/ERP designed to reports and make better decisions.  Please see the embedded presentation at the end of this post.

We caught up with Ingrid Riley at the ConnectiMass follow up “Digital City Mechanics Workshop” held on Saturday, 26th November, 2011 at the JAMPRO headquarters in New Kingston, Jamaica. When asked about the inaugural Caribbean BETA staging and future events she had this to say:

“We surpassed even our own expectations. We had just over 200 attendees and the instant feedback on Twitter and Facebook showed that we were successful in serving up an experience that people learnt from, were inspired by with this conference that also providing amazing network opportunities. Caribbean BETA will be annual, we will continue with our Kingston BETA bi-monthly meet-ups and we’re about to stage Jamaica Startup Weekend which is a 54-hour experiential entrepreneurial education event. And that’s just the events side of ConnectiMass. We’re on a mission to grow tech entrepreneurship in Jamaica and across the Caribbean we have much more coming in 2012.”

This article features content originally featured on the Silicone Caribe website, for more information on this and other events, please visit: www.siliconcaribe.com. We thank Silicone Caribe and its parent company Connectimass for encouraging growth and innovation in the Jamaican ICT sector by hosting the series of BETA events.

12 Dozen places to educate yourself online

// November 10th, 2011 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Life

Just a quick post sharing a link my friend @skreech2 sent me recently.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/12-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

It features 12 dozen places to educate yourself online. Personally I am a fine of MIT’s Open Courseware, but the link lists several other sources covering:

• Science and health
• Business and money
• History and world culture
• Law
• Computer science and engineering
• Mathematics
• English and communication
• Foreign and sign languages
• Plus More

Hope you enjoy!

Free Idea: What is your HWT Street Hustle

// October 31st, 2011 // No Comments » // Technology

How many of you have heard the song Street Hustle by Specialist? If you haven’t I have embedded it below.

I like it because it captures the street hustle mentality in Jamaica. Which brings me to my idea. While waiting  by Pavilion Mall in Half Way Tree, Kingston, Jamaica yesterday I saw trends. I was intrigued at the diversity of people walking around and as usual thought to myself what would I sell to suit the different groups. So then came up with an idea for a website or fb app for people to input data (their personal preferences) and an algorithm would decide what they would sell based on what products they use and their personality.

Personality questions would decide how much risk a person is willing to take and if they are looking for a long term or short term hustle. The products they use determine what they would sell preferably, because why would you sell a product that you wouldn’t use or endorse?

So if you use a lot of phone cards and drink soda, the app should recommend you sell soda and phone cards in HWT. However if you believe in health foods and need a hustle you can sell callaloo, banana chips and bag juices. Alternatively if you want to get rich quick then it may suggest you run a “cash fi gold” scheme. I think it would be fun, hilarious and share friendly once the algorithm and interface is well designed. No two people should get the same result once you include a wide range of products. Don’t forget to include social media share buttons!

I get ideas all the time and most I don’t have time to develop. Ideally I would like to give away an idea once a week for others to develop. It should be a crime for a “good” idea to go to waste. Good idea of course is based on opinion. If you use it please let me know!

Using Social Media to Activate Communities

// April 13th, 2011 // No Comments » // Social Media Marketing, Technology

Yesterday I presented at the Junior Chamber International St. Andrew general assembly. I spoke about Using Social Media to Activate Communities and Organisations. Unfortunately my talk wasn’t recorded, but please see my slides below with the main points, I suggest you view it on full screen:

A Campaign Like No Other – Developing Jamaica through Social Media

// October 10th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Social Media Marketing, Technology, Vision 2030 Campaign

Recently I blogged about a recent discussion about Information Communication and Technology development in Jamaica. I found the discussion so remarkable, that there were so many people who were passionate about the cause. The fact is, just talking about it doesn’t help we need greater awareness and action. The more people who know about the plan, the more people discuss it creating a ripple effect for the cause across society. The aim is to create awareness via social media, have it spread to standard social interactions and media to create change. Once the campaign reaches the decision makers: politicans, business leaders, voters, customers, people can demand and expect change. If people don’t know the possibilities or plans in place how can they be executed? This is way bigger than the government, this is about the way society operates. Society needs to adjust their views to the economy, environment, government, ICT use, media etc. The only reason why people settle for the current state of Jamaica, is because they think they cannot change it. One can change it, when we all work together!

Vision 2030 Campaign

The first stage is to create awareness. This is a call to all the bloggers, twitter users, Facebook users. Share the Vision 2030 campaign online and talk about it with your friends, family and coworkers in person. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, many of your suggestions are already outlined in the National Development Plan prepared by the Planning Institute of Jamaica. You can view the development plan at the following locations:

On this blog: http://dmitridawkins.com/2010/10/jamaicas-vision-2030-national-development-plan/

On Scribd : http://www.scribd.com/doc/39056939/Vision-2030-Jamaica-NDP-Full

On Jamaica’s Vision 2030 website: http://www.vision2030.gov.jm/NationalDevelopmentPlan/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Ask your online social community to at least read the outline, send links to it as an email to all of your address book. The aim is that people can make decisions in accordance with the 2030 plan. This is not just a government venture, as individuals we all need to promote the development of our country. Share the link once a week, or even just once a month. It will help.

Corporate and Organisation Support

Every business and organisation has a core and followers. We need to spread the Vision 2030 plan to all involved, not just creating awareness but also making decisions according to it’s contents. Let employees and members know that they are responsible for executing the plan, that they each need to be a leader of change.

Greater Social Responsibility

As leaders of change for our nation, we need to hold companies and the government responsible for not following the plan. If a company’s business practices are not in line with the plan then support a competitor who is. If a government office or official is making decisions contrary to the plan then petition them, “loud it up”, or don’t re-elect them based on their policies. The only person in control is you.

Remember this is a people driven change, it starts with you, read the relevant sections to you and decide how you can make changes in your home and office. For this to work it has to be an effort from all involved.

I will write another post about this soon, please subscribe to my blog or just keep checking this category : http://dmitridawkins.com/category/making-jamaica-a-developed-country-by-2030/ for information related to the campaign.

This is a call to action for YOU to make a difference.

Thank you,

Dmitri Dawkins and future generations.

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