[UgaBYTES] Our discussion is on NOW please share with us

Sat Oct 11 09:53:38 GMT 2008

Dear Ahmed,

I acknowledge that I am not as regular as it has been the case before but
after we burned Kenya, it has become critical that we now change the model
to what many of us have been singing but with no dancers to a scenario where
there are not many to sing now since the government wants to have results so
that the next elections are based on what each of the partners in the
government delivered to the electorate. I therefore have found myself busier
than my life has never witnessed. This has been heightened by the desire for
the realization of the MDGs where ICT is central yet few care called to
address technology related innovation that addresses poverty.

To answer to your unceasing calls for involvement in this noble
teleconference, I claim ownership to the Wisdom
<http://www.vacidafrica.or.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5
2:getting-at-the-grassroots-for-real-ict-impact-the-experience-of-a-lone-voi
ce&catid=31:general-information&Itemid=46>  Model(referenced in the
hyperlink) which is based on the fact that processed DATA CREATES
INFORMATION, while SYNTHESIZED INFORMATION PROVIDES KNOWLEDGE, while WISDOM
IS THE PRODUCT OF INTEGRATED KNOWLEDGE. Of course there are some that argue
that wisdom comes from God while others argue that you are born with it. All
of them are qualified but the universal wisdom is based on this model

The one thing that makes users of the telecentre support centers a different
creation is the ability to reduce the data-to-wisdom cycle to a matter of
minutes rather than having to spend years sifting through data that makes no
sense on first site. 

To me, the support centers may not give all the answers but they are able to
trigger responses to may posts from the pool of knowledge that comes from
many, many knowledgeable people in the various lists. Few would for instance
have known what I have written on my websites without this post for
instance, our VACID Africa telecentre which relies on Synergies created out
of partnership with other institutions and community enterprises would not
make sense to have on our websites unless used as the basis of sharing the
experience with others.  The experiences in Asia and Latin America a nd the
provision of a knowledge hub for solutions cannot be taken for granted.

But we need to have many people sharing their experiences and giving to
others what they consider their own knowledge which the support centers can
then highlight. It reminds me of a story I heard from my priest one day when
he ended his life and was called to heaven but was also given an opportunity
to visit hell and see how life is there. When they landed in hell, they
found this emaciated lot of guys who had soup in a large container in a
central location and very large spoons which no one could use to feed
themselves because the spoons were too long. They then went to heaven and
found the same large container with the same long spoons but with very
healthy guys all seated because they had fed well. Then the priest enquired
from brother peter. "You have the same soup and the same container and
spoons but very hungry people on the hell side but very healthy people on
this good side. What is the secret"?

Peter was straight to the answer! "The guys on this side realize that the
spoons are too long for them to feed with so that they do is that they each
use the long spoons to feed those across them along the container's
diameter"!

And there lies the wisdom for the support centers - you need them to feed
your brother so that we can all conquer the hunger that we all go through in
our pursuits to knowledge. The centers synthesize the data through the many
practitioners and we feed on it for our health. 

My guess is that we need many, many specialists in ICT, in Agriculture, in
Business, in Finance and Policy etc, to be identified to so that we can have
more vibrant support centers. I find too much leaning and focus to providing
more and more data rather than information. We need to have more stories on
cases on impact rather than what has been said.

Kiringai Kamau

-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Ahmed Ndaula
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 10:29 AM
To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
Subject: [UgaBYTES] Our discussion is on NOW please share with us

Dear members,

This is a call to participate in this two weeks very important discussion

about the support centre. (Start and end when) Support for our

telecentres/communities has been a challenge and is continuing to be a

challenge. We all agree that this is the time to involve ourselves in

finding the best way we could make the available support centres (the

English, French, Portuguese and the coming Spanish) play a bigger role in

providing solutions to telecentre problems.

As mentioned above, we have three active support centres i.e;

English - http://www.ugabytes.org/supportcentre

French - http://www.fetema.org/aideenligne

Portuguese - http://www.caicc.org.mz/faq

As a user of one of above support centres, how have they helped you? What do

you think should be changed to improve the usefulness of the support centre

helpful to you and your community or telecentres?.

Since the establishment of the English version almost three years on now,

French and Portuguese version over a year and half, how has any of these

helped you or your community in your day-to-day activities?

This discussion is going to be guided by two key questions;

1. The impact of the support centres to you and your community

2. What needs to be improved to increase it's usefulness to you and your

community

Let us share our experiences.

 Best,

-- 

Ndaula Ahmed

Program officer,

Technology management

UgaBYTES Initiative

Plot 2218 Ggaba Road, Kabalagala

2nd Floor, Kangave House

P.O. Box 6081 Kampala, Uganda

Mobl: +256 773 066 343 / 702 066 343

Off: +256-414-267247

Check our web: www.ugabytes.org

http://www.ahmedpanel.com

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Together we can strengthen the telecentre movement. Have you used the online

support-centre: http://www.ugabytes.org/supportcentre today?

You can get help on any issue or review questions and answers by telecentre

practitioners. This service is a joint initiative of UgaBYTES Initiative,

telecentre.org, IDRC, SDC and Microsoft

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