Andrew Berquist

Andrew Berquist moved to American Samoa in 2004 from Oregon, he attended Leone High School and graduated in 2006. While still in high school he was an intern for the American Samoa Department of Homeland Security (ASDHS) during the summer of 2006, mapping tsunami evacuation points for the Territory. In January of 2007 he started at the American Samoa Department of Commerce (ASDOC) as a GIS intern in the Coastal Management Program and by the end of 2007 was the IT Specialist for the Department. In may of 2009 he was hired (jointly) by the American Samoa Economic Stimulus and Recovery Office (ASESRO) and ASDOC; assisting ASESRO with broadband stimulus grants and IT needs and assisting ASDOC with IT needs as well as acting in place of the GIS Planner at ASDOC. While coordinating broadband efforts the establishment of the Broadband Working Group was made of which he was the sublead for. The Broadband Working Group would go on to write the draft Americna Samoa Strategic Plan; which was instrumental in reinforcing the need for improving information technology in the Territory. The Broadband Working Group was successful in getting several economic stimulus grants for the Territory, including $93 million grant/loan the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority recieved in mid 2010 for improving broadband infrastructure; as well as $1.2 million for broadband mapping. In October of 2009 he was detailed to the Emergency OPerating Center to co-manage mapping efforts for the Territory after the September 29th earthquake/tsunami, where he stayed until the end of 2009 assisting both local and federal agencies with recovery efforts. In September of 2010 he joined the newly formed American Samoa Department of Information Technology as the Lead IT Project Manager and Geospatial Divsion Manager. He is currently attending Oregon State University via internet based courses, studying Policy with an influnence on Information Technology Policy. He resides in Leone, American Samoa.

Rakesh Chand
1986 – Current - Regular member United Blind Persons
1996 Current Regular member Fiji Disabled People’s Association
199 – current Active participation during the Annual international white cane celebration.of UBP
March 2004 Received Certificate of Appreciation for outstanding volunteer contribution to the work of the Association.i
Jan 2002 – March 2002 - Participated in the Technical Aid and Equipment’s for Visually Impaired personsOrganised by Japan International Corporation Agency in Japan.
March 2002 to current - Involved in computer training for other blind and visually impaired persons.
November 2000 - Observer World Blind Union General Assembly, Melbourne Australia.
November 2000 - Attended Westpac Community Award And received gold award for outstanding volunteer support to the Association function, Sydney Australia.
1999 August Was elected the first President of Fiji Island Blind Sports Association
August 1999 Involved in the formation of Fiji Islands Blind Sports Association.
May 1998 - Participated in the Fiji Games/National Disability Games.
October 1996 - Won the Managing Director Silver Award, Sydney, Australia
October 1996 Attended the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Association of the Blind and partially sighted.
1994 – 1996 Secretary Fiji Disabled Peoples Association
September 1992 - Attended six weeks course on Institution Management Development training held at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
1989 - Served on the Board of Pacific Island Council for the Blind as Vice President.
1989 to date - Resource person during the Association’s empowerment training workshops.
1989 to date - Has contributed to all fundraising and awareness programme of the Association.
1989 to date - Assisted in brailling/transcribing UBP documents.
1993 – 1997 - Vice President UBP
1989 – 1993 - First President UBP


Siaosi Sovaleni

1995-2005 - Ministry of Finance, Tonga
2005-2009 - ICT Adviser, SOPAC
2009-2010 - ICT Coordinator – Outreach, SOPAC
2010 – to date - ICT Outreach Coordinator, SPC

Currently working on implementing the strategies of the ICT Framework.
Focus areas include e-Government, Capacity Building, Policy and Legislation
Very supportive of PICISOC and believe in a multi-stakeholder approach to ICT development and in particular ICT for Development

Ellen Strickland

I believe PICISOC serves an important role in bringing together expertise and experience from a wide range of specialties vital to sustainable Internet for the Pacific Island region and I would be honoured to serve on the Board if elected.

I have worked since 2000 as a communication advisor in research and government, being a champion of Internet based communications. I have been involved in Pacific Island internet research, training and community projects since 2003, when working for the NZ UNESCO National Commission and completing a Masters in Communications at Victoria University on Pacific Island Telecentres. In 2008 I also completed a Masters in International Development at the University of Manchester, drawn by the expertise at the ICT4D ‘Development Informatics Group’
based there.

I am now a PhD researcher, part-time lecturer and tutor with the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland. My current ongoing PhD research is on Pacific Island regional Information and Communication Technology Policy, where I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and learning from many people working on various Internet related issues at the regional and national levels.

If elected to the Board, and with professional experience in international partnerships, funding, and project management, I am enthusiastic about the idea of supporting Chapter Member collaboration and potential initiatives, through avenues such as the ISOC Community Grants.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenstrickland

William Tibben

After serving on the board for one year I am seeking re-election. My first year has given me an inside look at the work of PICISOC. I have been active on the PacINET2010 Program Committee and worked with others to produce the PICISOC submission to the ICT Ministerial meeting in Tonga this year (in record time!).

PICISOC is unique because it has a membership of IT people at all levels throughout the Pacific . More work needs to be done to make PICISOC a serious player in regional affairs. I see two problems that have prevented this to date and I am committed to have this issue addressed if I am elected

1. The board would be more effective if it met at regular intervals every month. If I get elected I will be pushing hard for this to happen where reports are given about finances and activities of board members and members .
.
2. I think that PICISOC needs a business plan which will help it manage its finances over the yearly cycle. I think we are missing out on a lot of funding opportunities because we are not aware of opportunities in time. Most things need to be done in a rush. With a business plan at least we can plan for things that we know about (e.g PacINET) leaving us more time to deal with the really urgent matters.

Also....

3 I would like to make PACINET more appealing to the academic community in the Pacific. This can be done by adding a new process for submission of papers where the papers can be reviewed anonymously if the author wishes.

If you want to find out more about me you can go this this website... http://www.dsl.uow.edu.au/~wjt/

---