Question 1: What new themes do you think telecentre.org Foundation (TCF) should be working in the future?

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Permalink Reply by Mahmud Hasan on November 12, 2009 at 5:24am

Thematic Areas could be:
1. Capacity Building
2. Content for Telecentres
3. National and Global policy like Connectivity, Electricity, Funding etc.
4. Academy
5. Fellowship and National and Global Exchange Program
6. Service inventory of Telecentres

Permalink Reply by Niranjan Meegammana on November 13, 2009 at 4:57am

1. Promotion of Telecenter Movement at Global, National and Local Levels

2. Recognition of Telecenter Initiatives, Best Practices

3. Providing a platform for sharing ideas and knowledge

4. Facilitation of Networking of Telecenter Professionals

Permalink Reply by Sulah Ndaula on November 16, 2009 at 6:12am

Let me start by asking what have been the previous or "OLD" themes of telecentre.org. I ask this because I can see many (if not all) of the themes that has already been noted by Muhmud and Niranjan are among the old things that have been done by tc.org 1.0. ....Partha, this question needs a benchmark of tc.org 1.0 themes.


That said and waiting for Partha's feedback... I can note that much of the previous themes focused on "Mentoring and Facilitating roles" but in Africa the "Coordinating roles" were also eminent. tc.org 2.0, the first evolution of the original concept, will need to consolidate the Facilitator, Mentor and Coordinator roles, which I believe is the reason to why the first contributors repeated the themes that tc.org 1.0 engaged. But beyond that and the themes of tc.org 1.0 being used as a benchmark, tc.org 2.0 will need to engage more and more into "Broker and Innovator roles" with the aims of developing services and relations (including lobby and advocacy) that create better services, great impact and appropriation at the grassroots level - this shld form the cornerstone of global telecentre networking and indeed the focus of tc.org 2.0.

But on the other hand, tc.org 2.0 should begin tapping into the centre piece of tc.org 3.0, which should be about creating common global goal and purpose and ensuring that telecentres globally have common standardises and deliver on what they say they deliver - at this stage tc.org would be able to play its real roles that is "Producer, Monitor, Coordinator, and Director roles" while pushing the(or play less of) "Broker, Innovator, Mentor and Facilitator roles" to the grassroots networks.

Permalink Reply by Niranjan Meegammana on November 16, 2009 at 10:11am

Dear Sulah

Thanks for your comments!
But, I wouldn't agree with you on is concept of "Producer, Monitor, Coordinator, and Director role for telecentre.org even in an ideal telecenter movement. Practically it's pushing back to a centralization mode we are trying to change with telecenters. Centralization is not possible in a participatory heterogeneous telecenter world, which also places too much burden on the center, and quite possibly exclude more people unknown (Minority Languages, Small Telecenters etc.)

So centralization favors exclusion and against inclusion!

The best form is de-centralized participatory platform to drive more local efforts that involve grass roots in the movement.

Further ...

If we take Producer role as an example - what we need to produce during next 5 years
- Content, Software, Standards are creating issues in multiple languages , vertical social segments , open and closed software platforms preferred by different people

- Monitor role includes evaluation, reporting and subsequent capacity building , can Telecentre.org undertake such a big task around the world.

- Coordinator - Imagine ordination between an African Telecenter and Telecenter in Sri Lanka from Philippine, and think thousands of projects, people, initiatives and research involved

- Director - This requires authority , regulations, disciplinary and corrective action

So we can see that telecentre.org can not take the role of "Producer, Monitor, Coordinator, and Director",
(Not possible even with the power and resources available to United Nations)

But "Broker, Innovator, Mentor and Facilitator" is a good target to set..

Currently we are only a knowledge sharing community,
I am not sure that we exactly have statistics of "how many telecenters in the world?"
The best way for planning is not to overestimate our capacities..

So we should not push Philippine effort to archive what's not possible in 5 years, like millennium goals to be archived in 2015, yet we can set a direction towards future goals.

In Sri Lanka we have 600 Telecenters struggling to survive; it's the government and civil society efforts mainly keep them motivated, I think it's the same thing anywhere in the world. We are only moving forward with what we believe, We haven't still have a hypothesis for "Telecenter for every village" like a well, community hall or a school. In my estimate the people served from Telecenters are less than 0.3%.


I think telecentre.org has been successful as a facilitator for knowledge sharing among top telecenter professionals, the grass roots are yet to embrace telecentre.org. Among 35000 or more telecenters in the , we are only a less than 2000 members in English community. 10000 members with in 5 years would be a great achievement.


So from knowledge sharing to a Broker, Innovator, Mentor and Facilitator role is not going to be leap jump, it's done through emergence, evolution and transformation and not to forget stagnating budgets and shrinking finances of the world. It;s not only telecentre.org key team, but rest of the people in the telecenter movement have to fall in line with new goals.

Therefore I think telecentre.org should not look at tc 3.0 right now, it has done 1.0 a good job. It's the simplest reason you and me able to communicate and share our ideas. And planing telecentre.org 2.0 on learned lessons is a better approach rather than building castles on sand.

Also although we would be moving forward, better not to drop our basics of knowledge sharing.

Thanks
Niranjan Meegammana
Shilpa Sayura Foundation
http://www.shilpasayura.org

Permalink Reply by Partha Sarker on November 24, 2009 at 12:30pm

Thanks Sulah. I'm a bit late to join this. But your point is right. Few areas mentioned by Mahmud and Niranjan are already into the basket of telecentre.org 1.0 (BTW, you mentioned upto tc.org 3.0). For example, capacity building, academy, fellowship and national and global exchange program, providing a platform for sharing ideas and knowledge, promotion of telecenter movement at global, national and local level etc. have been covered to certain extent during the era of 1.0. Certainly there are rooms to improve and to take it to the next level. telecentre.org currently has 5 major themes of pillars: Networking, Academy (capacity building), Content & Services, Research as vertical pillars and Knowledge sharing as the cross-cutting or horizontal pillar. Hope this information helps.

Permalink Reply by Niranjan Meegammana on November 24, 2009 at 2:02pm

Thank Partha
What's been successful we have to carry forward

Vertical

-Networking
-Academy (capacity building)
-Content & Services
-Research

Horizontal
- Knowledge sharing
- Services - enable making revenue from services
- Marketing - pushing telecenter movement & fund raising
- Innovation - most needed activity in all areas

Niranjan Meegammana
Shilpa Sayura Foundation
http://www.shilpasayura.org

Permalink Reply by Jimmy L. Calata on November 24, 2009 at 11:33pm

If I may add these too:

a. Governance (for the local and regional networks, and the global telecentre network per se, including networking with key players within the local and international telecentre ecosystems)

b. Finance (includes fund generation and fund management)

Permalink Reply by Sulah Ndaula on November 17, 2009 at 4:30am

Dear Naranja,


Plainly put our goal is planning for tc.org 2.0. And that is where my arguments for the Broker, Innovator, Mentor and Facilitator roles are being furthered. Luckily, tc.org 1.0 has been doing many programs in almost each of the above roles. But like you note first tc.org needs to consolidate around what has been done good in these role then fill the gaps - this can make good and comprehension themes of operation.


But like they say "the one who doesn't know where he is; coming from, standing and going, is simply dead", so was the basis of the reflection on tc.org 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The issue of de-centralisation is a legitimate one (I can't agree more on this), but we should recognise that de-centralisation or centralisation is not seen in what we say but what we practice. Although evidently to note, irrespective of the system in action these roles will emerge when true leadership has been found - it is an issue of debate I guess and I would avoid this here.


The best ideal and reality could be to recognise that we will need these specific roles to give out results and to grow as a body of practice and thereafter devolve roles in a way that decentralises telecentre ecosystem's actions, responsibility and accountability. But devolving power mayn't mean relinquishing it off but allowing each member of the ecosystem to play more of the roles that create more results and impact and less of the other roles (not leave). I guess the entire ecosystem cann't play the roles equally and I believe you would agree that we shall need to play these roles in order to deliver impact.

Permalink Reply by Sandra Nassali on November 17, 2009 at 6:01am

Hi,
1. Develop a communication strategy that addresses awareness and publicity of the telecentre concept globally.

2. Development of concepts that train telecentres/ telecentre networks in social marketing and sustainability

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Cuchie Echeverria on November 24, 2009 at 8:27pm

Hi Sullah.

I totally agree with you about the exigency of first knowing where one is coming from and identifying the gaps that need to be filled before plunging ahead to the next phase.

As we move to tc.org 2.0, the devolution should pave the way for other members of the ecosystem to play more important roles so that together we can produce better results and deliver greater impact, thus exploring the full potential of this global telecentre movement.

Permalink Reply by Nune Srinivasa Rao on November 17, 2009 at 6:18am

Provide Country specific Material, resources
Develop Business modules / Toolkit for Operators
Organize National & International Workshops / Trainings
Database management for Resource Persons, Business experts

Permalink Reply by Tarek Fahmy on November 17, 2009 at 8:31am

My opinion is :

1-solve the unemployment problem in all our countries
2-eliminate eliminate computer
3-every member must have two new languages
I know well it's a hug problems even many countries didn't solve them till now but no country can succeed in that without people help plus even the telecentre achieved only 40 % from all it will be so great
We should discuss every point for 2 weeks then we should have a procedure plan to applying
1-First point (solve the unemployment problem in all our countries)
Small business is the solution after good training with help the youth in marketing too
2-second point (eliminate eliminate computer )
All youth must have ICDL certificate at least during next 5 years
3-third point (every member must have two new languages )
All youth must learn new two language for him specially any language will just need 6 months to learn and we have 5 years

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