Over the last few years, whenever I’ve had to give a local dev talk, I’ve donned one of these tees.

The ideas attempt to find a nexus between technology and Trinidad and Tobago, in a slightly quirky way. I’ve got a few more over here on my store. The slightly more serious take on this kind of creativity is based on something I thought was far away but is much closer than I realize.

iGovTT has a service called ttConnect. ttConnect seeks to democratize access to government services, by literally bringing the services to the people. There’s a portal, which includes a chatbot that enables natural language engagement about available government services.

More than that, ttConnect has service centers at 6 points across Trinidad and one in Tobago. All that to say, they get out there and seek to get people on board with a clear track on how to consume government services in the digital era.

My tees came to mind looking at this service because more than consume digital services, I can see them being beacons for how to become producers, how to take from the narrative ideas on finding and/or building solutions to local problems.

Every contact ttConnect makes with citizens empowers them to access government services on their terms, and gives them a window into new world. The service delivery team travels to locations in remote and/or rural parts of Trinidad and Tobago.

That idea I had years ago, of standing in a community center in Union Village, or Tabaquite, or Plum Mitan and describing how to create services to solve local needs has a home in ttConnect, and I look forward to seeing it come to life.