Coming of Information Age in Samoa

Introduction

In mid July 2005 I made a nine day visit to Apia, Samoa. This was at the request of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). It was to conduct a five day workshop for staff from museums around the South Pacific region on the use of computer and telecommunications technologies. This is a technical travelogue of my impressions of Samoa, ICT for museums and the workshop. It is in the style of my book Net Traveller and a 2003 report on a trip to Beijing: Beijing By Bending Bicycle.

Getting there

On an average day in mid July 2005 I was about to get my hair cut at Enrico's barber shop in Annadale in Sydney's inner west. My phone rang and it was Dr. Brian Molinari, Director of Scholarly Technology Services. He asked I could fly to Samoa the following week to conduct a week long workshop on web design for museum staff. The person planned to conduct the workshop was not available.

There were a few problems with this: I was on my way from Canberra to Brisbane for a week, my passport was in Canberra and I didn't know anything about museums. After some thought I worked out I should be able to get someone to send me my passport in Brisbane by courier (this took two attempts as the first time they sent my expired passport). I had plenty of material about the web for libraries and archives and assumed a museum would have much the same issues and technology (it turned out museums are not as advanced with IT systems as libraries). So I should be able to assemble a five day course from the material I had for web design and e-libraries for ANU students.

Brian passed me over to Professor Amareswar Galla, Director of Graduate Studies in Sustainable Heritage Development at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at ANU. Amar is the Vice President of the International Council of Museums and was the one pushing to get the workshop going.

Apia

Apia Foreshore

Government Offices Across Harbor

Church

Bus

Bus Back

Apia Hinterland

Fale, Traditional House

National Museum of Samoa

Apia Library

Apia McDonalds

ANZ Mobile Bank

Apia Harbor Sunset

ISP Router

UN HQ

Workshop

The workshop ran from 11 to 15 July 2005 at the National University of Samoa (NUS). The University's computer laboratory was used, with technical support from the university's ICT staff.