Telecenters of the Americas: A network of networks supporting, community development, access

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Telecenters of the Americas A network of
networks supporting, community development,
access management of assets and human resource
capital development through telecenters
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Agenda

• Community Telecenters (Kavita Singh, Community
  Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet)
• TAP Vision and Mission (John Zoltner, CTCNet)
• How TAP assisting telecenters in low income
  communities can become a vehicle for
  community/national/regional development
• Community Development, Access Management of
  Capital, Klaus Stoll, President, Fundación
  Chasquinet,
• SME's John Broomfield, Social Venture Partners
• Education Human resources capital development,
  John Villamil-Casanova, Executive Vice President
  CIO, The Aspira Association
• Questions and Answers

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What is TAP?

• The Telecenters of the Americas Partnership (TAP)
  brings four leading networks of community
  technology centers, or telecenters, in the
  Americas and the Chasquinet Foundation of Quito,
  Ecuador together to form the largest organized
  network of telecenters in the world (a network of
  networks).
• The goal of the TAP is to develop collaborative
  cross-border initiatives, which can scale to make
  telecenters throughout the hemisphere more
  effective, and to implement projects that would
  be unlikely for individual networks to accomplish
  alone.

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Telecenter Assets

• Telecenters are key to international development
  strategies today
• Community gathering places
• Paid or volunteer staff
• Power and computers
• Usually, an Internet connection
• Skilled at training novice users

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Complementary to Other Efforts

• Telecenters are able to achieve outcomes that
  schools and libraries cannot.
• Telecenters can help other social interventions
  be more effective

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Telecenter Effectiveness

• Depends on
• Model of organization
• Capacity of staff and volunteers
• Community participation
• Ability to market implement services
• Level of resources and ability to use resources
  efficiently

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Metcalfes Law

• The usefulness or utility of a network equals the
  square of the number of users.

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TAP Members

• Aspira Association, Inc. (established in 1961)
  a network of 155 telecenters serving Latinos in
  the United States and Puerto Rico
  (www.aspira.org).
• Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet,
  established in 1989) a network of more than
  1,000 independent telecenters throughout the
  United States (www.ctcnet.org)
• Fundación Chasquinet (established in 1997 in
  Quito, Ecuador) an operating foundation devoted
  to promoting the strategic use and development of
  the Internet in the social sectors of developing
  countries (www.chasquinet.org)
• Pacific Community Networks Association (PCNA,
  established in 1993) an organization of 28
  local networks consisting of over 1,000
  telecenters in British Columbia and the Yukon,
  Canada. (www.pcnahelpdesk.ca)
• Somos_at_Telecentros a knowledge and learning
  community based network of 2,232 telecentres in
  Latin American and the Caribbean Region.
  (www.tele-centros.org)

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TAP Goals

• Supporting Network and Center Sustainability
• Sharing Network Resources
• Supporting Public Policy
• Engaging in Cross-border Work

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TAP and Community Development

• Hemispheric Telecenters and Cybercafes Network
• The term telecenters refers to all points of
  public access of the Internet
• TAP Assets Information from throughout the
  hemisphere regarding the number, location,
  structure and function of the telecenters and
  their users information priorities is a critical
  set of inputs for planning TAP international,
  regional or national initiatives
• TAP Network over 4,000 community public access
  centers from Canada to Chile and the Caribbean.

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Community Development, Access Management of
Capital

• Attention should be focused on remittance
  receiving countries' financial and
  telecommunications regulatory norms that
  facilitate or inhibit lower cost remittance
  transfers and communications among families
  allowing for the adoption of state of the art
  digital technologies.
• The administrative information systems and
  software employed by participating telecenter and
  the cost, licensing rules, security and privacy
  aspects, plus open source software options
  suggest the need for a multi-stakeholder portal
  that synthesizes these data and their respective
  training programs to enhance awareness and their
  effective use.
• Incentives must exist to catalyze the
  considerable training of relevant personnel that
  must occur among all those telecenters
  participating in any lower cost configuration of
  diverse institutions using available and emerging
  digital tools.
• Additional services may be linked to a generic
  transfer platform/infrastructure system and the
  institutional network created thereby.
• These actions should be embedded in a
  comprehensive development strategy, rural and
  urban, that optimizes remittance resources,
  migrants social capital and the political will
  of countries administrative and telecenters
  leadership.

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TAP, Telecenters and SME Development
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Key Challenges

• Revenue generation
• Access to capital
• Cost reduction
• Skills and knowledge
• TC financial sustainability
• Platform sustainability
• Complexity

For SMEs
For TCs
For the platform
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Key activities revenue generation

• Provide access to new markets AND provide active
  business development services (sales, marketing
  and product identification).
• Move beyond the shopfront
• Actively marketing in new markets
• E-commerce platform and electronic payments

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Demand Generation
NA European Markets
Local/National Markets
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Key activities cost reduction

• leverage the buying power of the network to
  negotiate cheaper prices from suppliers.
• Make it easier for SMEs to do business
• Reduced time to source products
• Make comparison shoping easier
• Incease choice
• Make it easier for suppliers to sell to SMEs

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Supplier Management
National/ International Suppliers
Local/National Suppliers
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The Platform
Potential Suppliers
Government
Potential customers
Revenue Generation Activities
Cost Reduction Activities
Skills and knowledge transfer SME Training
Macro
SME Support Platform
Micro
Local Environment
SME Local TC Training
SME
SME
SME
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Government
Potential customers
Potential Suppliers
Legal and Regulatory Framework
Import/Export
Suppliers
SME Support Programs and funding
SME TC Training
Order Aggregation
Demand Generation
Affiliate Programs
Supplier Management
Product Identification
SME TC Training
SME TC Training
SME Support Platform
SME TC Training
SME
SME
Local Environment
SME
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TAP Educational Initiatives Human Resources
Capital Development

• TAP will enable social, and economic development
  of communities by providing a technological
  infrastructure, capacity to manage financial
  resources
• The above requires organizational capacity
  development (governance, technical, managerial)
  of local, regional and national organizations
• TAP network members have proven capacity (decades
  of experience) in delivering educational programs
  through their networks
• The synergistic effect of the combined
  educational programs of TAP members provides an
  unsurpassed capacity to develop human resources
  capital in low income communities throughout the
  hemisphere.

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TAP Educational Initiatives Human Resources
Capital Development
Post-secondary EducationPrograms
OrganizationalCapacity Developement
Technical Training
Financial Education
TAP Members Technical Infrastructure