AT a time of increased emphasis on finding technology solutions, it is heartening to learn of the work that many Caribbean experts such as Michele Marius lend to the effort. A Jamaican-born technology expert, her career path includes experience in the telecommunications and ICT fields, particularly in policy and regulation, regulatory administration, technology and governance. She has filled critical positions in both the public and private sectors in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

In conversation with The Digital Life, she recounted technology’s impact in responding to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don’t think we can refute the impact technology has had on the Caribbean region. During the pandemic, many of us became more aware of how sophisticated today’s mainstream technology is. Modalities, such as remote working, and even digital events – which many organisations had previously baulked at implementing – were readily embraced. There would also have been a marked uptick in digital transactions, such as for banking or retail purposes. And we also ought to acknowledge the new businesses that were launched last year: some to capitalise on the opportunities that had emerged, others out of desperation in order to adapt to the changing environment in which we were living,” Marius said.

Over two decades she demonstrated the value of international exposure and its impact on regional development. She held chief executive positions in the telecommunications regulatory offices of Saint Lucia, and Samoa in the South Pacific. As an experienced regulator and consultant Marius advised governments, as well as regional and international agencies, on a wide range of regulatory issues to facilitate telecommunications liberation and the introduction of regulation. She has also advised on the content of legislative amendments and new legal instruments and drafted sample provisions and laws, especially regulations, to improve existing regulatory environments.

Specifically, Marius served in senior policy, consulting, regulatory and implementing positions in the Government of Saint Lucia, the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Saint Lucia, the Government of Samoa, and the Jamaica Promotions Corporation, as well as in private firms EMPAC Services Limited (Saint Lucia) and Network Strategies (New Zealand).

With all that experience under her belt, Marius remains cautiously optimistic. “I am still concerned that the Caribbean region is not leveraging technology as it should. Yes, we have become more knowledgeable and empowered – as consumers – but not so much as creators or innovators; but correspondingly, the enabling environment to truly support tech innovation and entrepreneurship is still underdeveloped,” she said.

Today at home in Jamaica, Marius’s title is director of ICT at Pulse Consulting Limited, a research and advisory firm specialising in a broad range of ICT and telecommunications issues. “As horrible as 2020 was for so many of us, it was a watershed year for technology which I think has changed the trajectory of technology adoption and use, not only in the region, but also worldwide. And it is virtually impossible for the pendulum to swing all the way back to how things were pre-COVID-19,” Marius noted.

Since January 2011, she has been the publisher, editor and primary contributor of ICT Pulse (www.ict-pulse.com). This well-respected online publication discusses topical telecommunications and ICT issues from a Caribbean perspective, and has wide readership across the region and internationally.

As the host and producer of the ICT Pulse Podcast, she takes her audience on a deep dive into important ICT/technology issues in the Caribbean with relevant experts and resource people. Marius is also the founder of Project Calls (www.projectcalls.com), an online platform which collates Caribbean tender opportunities.

She is future-proof in her outlook for the region. “Going forward, once we have a better handle on COVID-19 with regard to managing infections and having effective treatments, we may need to think carefully and be more intentional about the role of technology in our lives, and what boundaries we might need to put in place. Over the past year so many of us have become so tethered to our devices: work life and home life have become very intertwined, and many of us are suffering from varying degrees of burnout. Among teens and young adults, yes, they are proficient in the use of social media and instant messaging platforms, but their in-person social skills may be suffering. I thus wonder whether in the not-too-distant future some of those social skills, which would have developed naturally, will need to be taught,” Marius mused.