In his first press conference as newly appointed chairman of the NPCC, J-N. Humbert announced in February 2004, that the dominant theme of his chairmanship would be innovation. It was also an opportunity for him to announce the setting up of a KIZ (Knowledge and Innovation Zone), meant to be an idea generating and testing area. The aim of the KIZ is indeed to implement the following agenda items:
The KIZ would:
Applying ICT for Productivity Improvement
Promotion of Open Source software
In August 2003, Mr Atul Chitnis, Director Execore Ltd, India and Mr Andy Kiloh, Director DireqLearn, South Africa delivered talks to IT teachers and CPP (Computer Proficiecny Programme) trainers on application of OpenSource for Business and for Education sector respectively. A diskless openlab for the education sector was showcased. The application has been installed at NPCC for demonstration purposes.
In June 2004, a presentation on open source software was made to 40 teachers of primary and secondary schools of Rodrigues, in collaboration with the Human Resource Centre of Rodrigues.
Collaboration for Content development and Community building
The KIZ would, in a nutshell, foster Collaboration for Content development and Community building. This 3cs concept is in line with NPCC’s objective to develop a productivity culture at family, school and community levels.
In January 2004, the 3cs concept was introduced to CPP (Computer Proficiency Programme) trainers. An online discussion forum (http://www.npccmauritius.com/forum) was also launched to facilitate ‘collaboration’’ among the trainers. 40 CPP trainers attended the presentation.
The same approach was adopted for the third CATs’ convention, targeted at the education sector, whose theme was “Put Your ICT Skills to Work and Contribute to Build the New Cyber Mauritius”. Prior to the convention, a three-day course was organized on web technologies including website development, use of multi-media and web communication. 60 persons including deputy head teachers, teachers and students attended the course.
ICT for Women Empowerment
At the exhibition, organised by the ministry of Women's Rights, Child Development and Family Welfare, to commemorate Women’s Day, the NPCC showcased the various uses of ICT for women's development in the field of science & technology. These examples are available online at http://www.npccmauritius.com/womenlinks. As a follow-up a proposal related to training on ICT was sent to the ministry.
Support to CPP
(a) Preventive MaintenanceIn April 2004, a two-hour training session was conducted for IT teachers, lab attendants, CPP trainers, students from State Secondary Schools of zone 2 ( Flacq, Rose Hill, Beau Bassin) on preventive measures so as to ensure the smooth running of computer labs.b) Literacy and numeracyNPCC staff used three open source applications aimed at identifying the level of literacy and numeracy of the students of the prevocational school at IVTB, Ebene. 15 students participated in this exercise.
Platform to showcase ICT applications
77 senior executives and managers from the public sector attended a presentation on Improving productivity within the organization through better Knowledge Management, carried out in collaboration with GS Informatique ltée. The objective was to demonstrate how ICT can be used for knowledge management and for this purpose GS Informatique ltée presented the ZeDoc software.
Research and Analysis
The main objectives of the Research and Analysis agenda are:
Building Competitive Intelligence
During its four years of operation, the NPCC has been working with various audiences to Develop a Productivity Culture. The field work and the direct contact have surfaced high quality information, knowledge and experience. It was felt that it would be appropriate to process, structure and enhance all this raw stuff so as to develop a diploma in Productivity management. In this context, a meeting was organized, in January 2004, with the University of Technology Mauritius. Dr R. Ramsay, international consultant in Productivity Science and Management and president of RIPER International, attended the meeting and would be a party to this knowledge-building-and-sharing approach. Modules in productivity science may also be developed and included in on-going training programmes.
This exercise would also enable enlightened decisions and policy formulation.