Enchanted by Telecentres

1
Enchanted by Telecentres

• Ricardo Gomez, IDRC
• New IT and Inequality Conference
• University of Maryland
• Feb 1999

2
Information Technologies at IDRC

• IT is a core theme in development research
• Program initiatives
• ACACIA
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• PAN
• Asia
• Latin America Caribbean

3
The Euphoria of ICTs in Development Discourse

• New magic bullet
• Electronic agora, online democracy
• Leapfrogging development process
• Focus on telecentres as gateways for Universal
  Access

4
A closer look at Telecentres

• Diversity of experiences definitions
• Public Access
• location, membership, cost...
• Electronic communication
• at least basic e-mail

5
Telecentre Typology (tentative)

• Basic Telecentre basic service
• Telecentre Franchise chain
• Civic Telecentre on-the-side
• Cybercafé global elites
• Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) high
  end

6
What is the social impact of Telecentres?

• No systematic evaluation yet
• anecdotal, case studies
• not as bright as promised...
• Evaluation frameworks emerging
• ITU-IDRC-UNESCO MCT
• ACACIA - Telecentre Research Network
• Latin American Telecentre Network

7
Research Agenda

• Demand by people for telecentres
• community involvement, participation, use
• gender, cultural issues
• training needs and materials
• marketing and operation
• policy, trade, regulation
• technological choices and developments
• sustainability
• social impact contribution to human development

8
Telecentre Resources

• www.idrc.ca/pan/telecentres.html