Press Release
Minutes of the inaugural meeting of the Bangladesh IT Forum
October 1, 1999
Shahjahan A Khan
Courtesy
of: BIT Forum
The inaugural meeting of the Bangladesh IT Forum (BITForum), convened by
Shaheen Hossain, took place on September 25, 1999 at the Student Union building
of George Mason University, from 10 a.m till 12 noon. It was attended by IT
professionals (and other professionals with keen interest in IT related matters)
of Bangladeshi origin, living and working in the greater Washington area. As
planned, the discussions were centered around the following topics/agenda
items(the tentative agenda items were slightly re-ordered):
- Introduction of all the attendees (by themselves)
- How can we create a tech-support infrastructure for the working techies
like us?
- How often and when should we meet?
- Decide on the SIGs and the coordinators for those
- Coordinator selection for the forum, and its differnt divisions - ie
budget, fund raising, marketing etc.
- Open Discussion
(agenda item 1)
The meeting started with all the attendees introducing themselves and
speaking briefly about their backgrounds and areas of interest. (Given below is
the list of attendees, ordered alphabetically by their last names, including
their e-mail addresses:)
- Mohammed Ahsan
- Sheikh Akhter
- Tanzin Alam
- Mahmud Farooque
- Shaheen Hossain
- Aminul Huda
- Kamrul Islam
- Tariq Islam
- Sheikh M. Kabir
- Sheikh Kamal
- Jamil Khan
- Liza Khan
- Shahin Khan
- Shahjahan A. Khan
- Shadat Mahmud (Bitu)
- Shabbir Parvez
- Rehana Perveen
- Imtiaz Sultan Rocket
- Kalyan Saha
- Ahsan Ullah
(agenda item 2)
- Many attendees expressed their expectations from BITForum and what they
might be able to contribute, and related their experience with technical
professionals and entrepreneurs of other immigrant communities, especially
of Indian origin.
- Most BITForum participants felt that in order to reach full potential,
better networking opportunities should be created. They observed that not
much entrepreneurship was visible in this community even though the
potential for IT related business was booming, and consequently there was an
urgent need to fill that gap which was not being addressed adequately by
existing professional organizations.
- The attendees were appreciative of the inspiring work done by EB2000 and
techbangla both of which are global in scope. Also, it was noted that
several organizations such as SIPA (www.sipa.org) and "The IndUS
Entrepreneurs" (www.tie.org) - (which are non-profit entities aiming to
provide networking opportunities and promote information dissemination and
cooperation among the expatriates and with India), could provide the
BITForum with working models that resembled the aspirations of the members.
- Innovative ideas for creating a "tech-support" infrastructure
were welcomed from all members. Mr. Mohammed Ahsan (Rial bhai) volunteered
to write a white paper which would address some of the open issues (and is
expected to provide a framework for future activities of this forum).
(agenda item 3)
- Based on majority opinion, it was agreed that the frequency and venue for
this meeting should be decided later, after getting more inputs from the
Bangladeshi IT Professionals. Therefore, suggestions and comments from the
members should be e-mailed to the moderator.
(agenda item 4)
- After a lengthy but lively discussion regarding what should be the goal of
the BITForum and merits/demerits of forming of SIGs, the following consensus
was reached : more discussions should be held based on the ideas to be
presented in Mr. Ahsan's white paper(which would summarise this discussion
as well as add value by way of exploring new ideas), then, it was hoped, the
objectives and structure of this organization would take a more concrete
form.
(agenda item 5)
- Issues such as selection of a coordinators for the forum, and its
different divisions - ie budget, fund raising, marketing etc. would be dealt
with at a later date, suggestions and comments from the members were
welcomed, those should be e-mailed to the moderator.
(agenda item 6)
- Following ideas, suggested by the participants, were accepted for further
analysis and implementation:
i. form a steering committee
ii. create a website for BITForum where members can contribute
information and place their web pages
iii. BITForum should have its own domain
- Finally, following Action Items, to be pursued in September,1999, were
agreed upon:
i) Mr. Mohammed Ahsan (Rial bhai) will publish a white paper by 10/2/99
(as described above)
ii) Communications among the members, especially exchange of innovative
ideas regarding future events and framework of BITForum should continue
through e-mail.
The inaugural meeting of the Bangladesh IT Forum was formally adjourned
around* 12 noon.
*(However interested individuals hung around for some more time for informal
discussions, which indicates the socio-economic aspect of this kind of gathering
of like minded professionals).
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