Thursday August 02, 2007

IT in Panama

It has been 3 years since I returned from a year long student internship in Panama. I was working on the premises of the former US military base "Fort Clayton", which was converted into a technology park "Ciudad del Saber".

In my feeling in spite of a booming economy Panama was technology desert at that time (2003-2004). Unlike in many other developing countries, technical studies in Panama were not very popular. The few IT companies that existed tended to spend money on expensive software of dubious relevance from brand name giants such as Microsoft or Oracle than to pay their engineers a decent salary. Bigger IT projects were conducted by 100% foreign companies.

Things seems to changing now. There is a growing interest in Open Source and Java, local technology firms start looking for developers. Arististides Villareal, the author of the biggest blog on Sun Java technologies in Spanish started a JUG and is putting together a Java conference in December. There is a good chance I will attend it and get opportunity to reassess my views.

Unwanted reptile intruders can be a problem in an office surrounded by tropical rain forest. A proven workaround: keep some garlic next to your feet, it worked for me!

See more pictures of mine from Panama at http://tomslot.fotopic.net