Last week, I had the unique opportunity to be a part of the first technology delegation to visit Iraq which included new and old friends from Google, Twitter, YouTube, Automatic/Wordpress, Meetup, AT&T, Blue State Digital and Wired Magazine.  The U.S. Department of State hosted the trip and put together an action packed agenda which gave us the chance to meet with many including President Talabani at Dar-as-Salam Palace, the Chief Engineer of the Iraqi National Museum at the newly opened museum, the President of the University of Baghdad at the University and most importantly students.

I was able to see first hand how Iraqis are dealing with the challenges of limited Internet accessibility (only 5 percent penetration) and huge growth in mobile phone usage (~ zero to 17M active cell phones in just 5 years).

While Iraq has countless challenges ahead (major problems with the electrical grid, continued suicide bombings, lots of government red tape, etc.), we were encouraged by the passion the people we met with have for technology and how it can be used to help overcome some of their challenges (ie. jobs creation, government transperency, etc.).

To hear more about the trip and how it came together, what we learned and how we plan to make sure we don’t let this opportunity go to waste - please check out an interview i did when i had one foot of the plane with Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider.

I also wanted to share some pics:

Our meeting with President Talabani

Meeting with Students at The University of Technology