ICTlogy

Notes from Asian Telecentre Forum 2009 / eAsia 2009 held in the BMICH, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on December 2-4th, 2009. More notes on this event: easia2009.

Current status and future of global lecentre movement
Chairs: Aminata Maiga Fofana, Afriklinks GIE

If you have a telecentre you need:

Understanding sustainability of telecentres: The Egyptian experience of IT Clubs
Karim Kassim

Sustainability of a telecentre: the continuation of benefits of a telecentre after the initial donation. Sustainability is multidimensional

• Social and cultural
• Technical
• Policy/strategy
• Human rsources
• Financial
• Services ICT (computer access, Internet access, etc.), Funcional ICT (fax, phone, etc.), non-ICT (tea, sandwiches, etc.)

Many of them are related to knowledge sustainability.

The LAKapps Project. Making localisation effective: user guides and training
Sanath Jayasena, University of Moratuwa

Goal: facilitate the use of the Internet through local languages, by deploying Sinhala and Tamil email, web browsing and e-learning software and a selected set of sites (schools, Nenasalas): Firefox, Thunderbird, Joomla, Moodle, etc.

User guides and training material to run this software were also created to help users in their usage, including how to use keyboards to type Sinhala and Tamil characters.

Analysis of factors affecting the effectiveness of telecentres of Sri Lanka
L N A C Jayawardena

Telecentre operators: 57% operated by aged from 27 to 35 years, majority of high performing telecentres operated by males (see later for absence of cause relationship).

School students and leavers, and job seekers and employees, most of them have ICT training as the first utility, while businessmen and monks search more office-oriented services (photocopying, faxing).

Key attribute of high performing telecentres

• Social network
• Managerial skills
• Attitudes of operators towards business
• Educational background of telecentre operator

There is also a significant relationship of growth of telecentre and relationsihp of owners/operators with mother organization. No significant relationship with gender or age. Effectiveness is related with the kind of services provided by the telecentre. Relationship between growth of telecentres and knowledge about community.

Recommendation:

• Proper selection criteria for telecentres
• Establishing effective communication between telecentres and mother organizations
• Upgrading telecentre service is timely
• A responsible authority to coordinate Nenasala centres and use them as ICT education centres, or education hubs
• Rural schools, extension services, can use telecentres for profesisonal training, distance learning, farmer training
• Participatory methodologies should be used to evaluate the impact of telecentres in rural stakeholders

Back to the Community: the Future of Telecentres
Ismael Peña-López

Up scaling and replication? 150 experiences.
Niranjan Meegammana

e-Fusion phtv Initiative in Sri Lanka. After some pilot projects in 2007, success brough a huge demand that required an important change of strategy to make it possible to be scalable and replicable.

Design vs. implementation gaps: dynamic re-design, operation flexibility, learning from grassroots.

Continued existence implies maintaining your project team, maintaining demand and increasing social acceptance. To do so, you have to identify participation benefits, innovative partnerships, local support structures, etc.

Questions being:

• Social innovation or social entrepreneurship?
• How to integrate ICT4D with policy?
• Openness and ownership sharing?

Previous post: eAsia2009 (III): Telecentres and their role in socio-economic empowerment

Next post: eAsia2009 (V): The Asian telecentre movement: the role of networks and their future