Is Your
Community
Smart?

Come and find out how to make our Communities Smart and People Smarter.

UWI Regional
Headquarters

Register

Smart Communities,
Smarter People

DevCa is the Caribbean's leading platform for exploring the intersection of digital technologies, today's biggest challenges and the future of the region. The two day Conference and Code Sprint provides a unique opportunity for technologists, organizations, researchers and entrepreneurs across the region to network while using tech innovation to solve some of the region’s biggest challenges.

The recent preoccupation with technology in Smart Cities may lead to government and private sector over emphasizing technical infrastructure; with insufficient focus on urban issues and less importance on public engagement. DevCa 2019 will emphasize the Caribbean reality of Community; and facilitate conversations and innovations that help to determine the impact of data on the day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens- where they live, work, raise families and do business.

Event Registration

Hackathon

MAY
16-17

Dominican
Republic

Conference Schedule - Jamaica

May 16th
8:30– 9:00  a.m.
Conference / Code Sprint Registration
9:00 – 9:05 a.m.  
Opening Remarks
Dr Maurice McNaughton
Director, Centre of Excellence & Innovation
Mona School of Business & Management, UWI
9:05 – 9:15 a.m.  
Official Conference Welcome
Dr David McBean
Executive. Director,
Mona School of Business & Management, UWI
9:15 – 9:30 a.m.  
Greetings and Remarks
Hon. Fayval Williams MP
Minister of Science Energy and Technology
9:30 – 10:15 a.m.
Keynote: The San Francisco Smart Cities Initiative
Dr. Sameer Verma
Professor, San Francisco State University
Finding the right balance between technological infrastructure and citizen-contributed data
10:15 – 10:45 a.m.
DevCA2019 Regional Hackathon Launch
David Soutar
Principal, SlashRoots Foundation
Overview and Official Launch of the DevCA2019 Regional Hackathon – “Smart Communities, Smarter People"
Remote video link-up reports from other Hackathon sites (Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Belize, St.Lucia)

COFFEE BREAK

11:00 – 11:20 a.m.  
The State of Open Data: Perspectives on AI, Data Literacy and the Role of the Private Sector
Tim Davies
Editor, State of Open Data: Histories and Horizons
State of Open Data: Histories and Horizons, is a major publication produced by the Open Data for Development Network, that will be officially launched at the  the Open Government Partnership Summit in Ottawa on May.

"State of Open Data" is, perhaps, the most important reference study to  emerge from the Open Data community to date, and features a total of 66 authors who have contributed to the 37 chapters covering 4 main sections: Open Data Sectors and Communities, Issues in Open Data, Open Data Stakeholders, and Open Data Around the World.
11:30 – 12:30 a.m.  
Panel Discussion: Smart Cities vs Smart Communities: What is the Right Model for the Caribbean?
The concept of “Smart Cities” has become increasingly popular, with the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, mobile phones, smart grid infrastructure deployed by electric utilities, public video surveillance systems and other kinds of pervasive sensor equipment combined with Open Data policies at the national, provincial or city levels. Jamaica has recently pronounced “Smart City” propjects within the business district of New Kingston, as well as in Montego Bay.

How ready are we? In a recent Gleaner article “Smart cities a pipe dream for Jamaica? - May 2, 2019”, several experts from Academia and Industry becried the state of readiness in relation to technology infrastructure, governance and policy frameworks.

REFRESHMENTS

1:30 – 2:00 p.m.  
DevCA2019 Hackathon Developer Briefing
David Soutar
Principal, SlashRoots Foundation
Venue: MSBM Executive Classrooms 1 & 2

A key enabler of the Treasure Beach “Smart Community”  initiative will be the development of a Community Tourism technology platform – SCOPE (Smart Communities Open Platform Ecosystem)  that will feature a portfolio of Open Data, MicroServices and APIs that can provide a catalyst for a scalable Tourism Open Data and Apps ecosystem in keeping with well-known platform business models such as such as Uber and AirBnB. Developers across the region participating in DevCA2019 will be able to “test-drive” the platform during the hackathon by creating a variety of Community Apps and Prototypes.

This briefing session will expose developers to the SCOPE Platform features and developer support components including: Open Data sources, API connectors, Functional Microservices, Sample Demo code (web, mobile), Mediawiki developer documentation, etc.

Conference Partners