Some reasons to work on net: from Florencio Ceballos blog

This is a very interesting blog post from Florencio Ceballos, some of us found it very inspiring. So this is my best effort in translation, sorry in advance for the mistakes that you may find.


Over the past years I have had the good fortune, along with colleagues and friends across the world, working to promote networking of telecentres. From Sri Lanka to Chile, passing through Egypt and the Caribbean, more than forty national and regional experiences of telecentres exist today in partnering networks.

During this process, I could benefit from learning, successes and mistakes, we have lived together for hundreds of activists of the movement of telecentre around the world. I would try to put some order in these apprenticeships, and I invite all of you to comment and enrich them here.

Start from the beginning. Perhaps it's appropriate to ask ourselves what a network is. A few years ago, a network was what was used to chase butterflies or whatever allowed the trapeze not be against the floor, now the word has become fashionable and it looks like everything was a network: it speaks of computer networks , Neurological networking, social networks, networks of relatives, road networks or even mafia networks.

Put simply, a network is a system of interconnected elements. Which interest me are the networks of individuals or social networks, that is to structures in which people (or institutions) are related. A network is made up of "nodes", where points are linking the different actors. Imagine a fishing net, with each node is a person or institution, and the strings are the links between a node and another. Social networks operate in this way. People are interrelated, placing at the disposal of other resources, their contacts, their knowledge, but also their doubts, their problems, their limitations ... But a network is more than just contacts. It is a way of working Socially, collaborate, share, to face the world hand by hand.

Then let me suggest some reasons why it seems to me that networking is important, even essential, for the telecentre movement today. There are ten reasons that come to mind, but maybe you were to occur and others can add to this list.

1. Synergy

Look at the stone bridge in the photograph, and ask: is the bridge that holds the stones or stones that make the bridge? In reality it does not matter, the parties are necessary for everything and everything is much more than the sum of its parts.
By working in network synergies generated, that is integrated elements that result in something bigger than its simple addition. They take advantage and maximize the qualities of each element of the network, its strengths are replicated to other members, its weaknesses are declining thanks to the strengths of the rest.

2. Legitimacy

Three years ago, when there was talk of telecentres in Chile, they e was considered a small network of activists who were working on them since a decade ago. The only player in telecentre subject was the state. After that civil society come together in the Association of Chile telecenters Asset, ATACH. A year later, when the President of the Republic of Chile announced the new digital strategy of the country, only one person accompanying the announcement: it was not the director of a company or a minister or an expert in computer science, it was Manuel Morales, President of ATACH.

By working in network adds legitimacy to the action of the telecentres. They are not isolated initiatives which can be regarded as obvious or the utopia of a group of enlightened. By working in each telecentre network becomes a link (or node) indispensable to a string longer and powerful. Put this in other owords , when the mouse are held even the cat was scared!

3. Scale

We live in a globalized world, but the problems and needs remain local. That, the telecentres will know better than anyone. And networking is a way of being "great" while being "small", being in a place in the world without losing sight of the daily needs of the people.

While we are bigger is easier it is to negotiate better conditions. We know that large organizations (such as governments, corporations or international agencies) find it easier to communicate with organizations of a certain size: why give up playing in that stadium if we have the capacity to do so?

4. Cooperation

Spain confronted for four or five years the challenge of having to train several thousand telecentre operators a year. The Foundation ESPLAI had the mission to develop courses, develop methodologies, identify technology providers, design evaluation models. A year ago, when Colombia faced the same problem, ESPLAI was able to transfer this knowledge to the Foundation COLNODO, and enable them to mount in six months so that they take years. Today COLNODO prepares to train operators and train them for the social appropriation of telecentres across Colombia .

The needs of the telecentres are many, but many times there are also similar. What for someone today is a necessity, for others it may be a problem for which they found a solution. How to be sustainable over time? How to establish good relations with the community? Where do you get interesting materials for users? How generating local content? What new initiatives can be taken? How to improve the skills of operators? Some are already on the path of the answers, and are willing to share them.



5. Creativity

I come from reaching a workshop organized with Academies of telecentres in Spain. 40 brilliant minds, familiar with local realities in 15 different countries, locked up for three days trying to imagine a global system of generation, distribution and certification courses for telecentre operators. I feel that we have made progress in those three days of semi-chaotic planning, more than two years of organized thinking and lonely. The best solutions are those emerging from a process of collective creation, as they consider greater number of points of view, make use of a greater amount of experience, and above all, because the solutions are based on collective agreements and consensus, and therefore are more achievable. There is no doubt: two minds are better than one, and a hundred better than two!

6. Opportunities

I have seen our friends in Poland announce opportunities that serve the telecentres in Spain, and the latter, opening up opportunities for their peers in Malaysia. A greater number of persons or organizations working together, more and better information is that it is possible to achieve, and hence a bigger and better opportunities can be accessed. In an area where funding opportunities, support or dissemination are not many, you better be sure that the information reaches everywhere, don't you?

7. Diversity

I have had several discussions with some friends, about the conditions of entry to a network. Must be only for operators? Or just for coordinators? International organizations must pay for the part? Businesses must stand aside so as not to pollute the social nature of the networks?

I think all the above, the answer is NO. Because in a network not all equal, not everyone have the same objectives or missions. A network is a fairly diverse group of actors. When working on a network, organizations can be linked telecentres with other organizations that do additional work: health organizations, social organizations, enterprises, research centers ... That diversity is a platform to grow and to enrich the supply of telecentre. Our friends in Bangladesh have understood, and have achieved an unprecedented alliance for their country.

I think the photo of our last meeting of global call centers in Kuala Lumpur, says that diversity. Not only of cultures, languages and nationalities, but also and above all positions in the ecosystem of telecentres, as they would say my friend Mark Surman.

8. Working in network is more entertaining

Marc bottle ESPLAI often said that telecentre operators are like Robinson Crusoe, alone on their islands. Working in isolation is often frustrating and boring. And it can discourage even the most enthusiastic. When working on a network, are generated spaces where share successes, ideas and concerns. Working in network is far more fun!

9. There are tools to do it (technology)

Not so long ago, networking requires a substantial effort and resources. The communications were expensive, the possibility of building collective knowledge and manage common resources were just a few. Today, a number of applications and tools intended for them, such as blogs, wikis, and others, allow us to do so easily and efficiently. In the case of telecentre.org we have opted for a NING platform that allows the formation of social networks. I think it will be a success. And we put the following challenge: how to exchange more, traveling less.

10. The networks are made of people who want

What are the telecentres but groups of motivated individuals who seek collectively solve community problems? A telecentre does not need to really be "tele" to operate. But it needs to be "center", a place where people get togather. Because teecentre, like the networks, are organizations of people. That is their wealth. That is also the basis of any cooperative work.
And I still believe that without people motivated to share with others, with respect to differences, with curiosity, with affection, no network is possible.