This year in technology in Colombia

As the year comes to an end I thought it would be nice to recapitulate a few of the most important events in the technology field in Colombia this year:

1. Free trade agreement between the US and Colombia: This was by far the most important news in this area in Colombia. Negotiations ended officially in February, but agreement on the text itself took until the midyear. The agreement covers extensively all fields of intellectual property, and imposes the obligation on Colombia to incorporate into national law many of the provisions that have been so controversial in the US. The agreement must be ratified by the Congress of both countries before coming into force. It’s definitely going to be very interesting for all of us to see and participate in the discussion in Congress. Stay tuned!

2. Science and Technology week in Colombia: For the first time in Colombia we had a very big celebration of Science and Technology. In the second week of November more than 800 events took place all across the country to celebrate science and technology. Libraries, public schools, entrepeneurs, governmental entities and the public in general participated in huge numbers. It was a great success, and hopefully will get many more initiatives going. The event was organized by the Colombian institution for science, called Colciencias, with the general coordination of the great french friend Philippe Boland.

3. Internet Access: Still growing slow. The statistics about Internet access in Colombia are not very encouraging. According to the official numbers by the Ministry of Communications, about 10% of Colombians have Internet access (about 4 million people) and less than 1% of the population have broadband access. The Ministry of Communications announced a big plan to promote broadband access heavily next year. We’ll see.

4. Creative Commons Colombia was launched! Ok I admit I’m biased because I’m one of the project leaders ;). After a year and a half of great efforts, on August 22nd Creative Commons Colombia was launched. We had two events. One in the morning with legal conferences and with presentations of colombian projects using CC, and one in the evening for artists. Professor Lessig was here and gave and made a great presentation. It’s been great so far!

5. 120 years of the Colombian Copyright Office: The Colombian celebrated 120 years of its foundation with a big seminar on authors’ rights and international trade.