[UgaBYTES] Support centre discussion summary

[NKURUNZIZA Jean Paul]

Hello Ahmed !

Thanks a lot for the summary.

Just to say that you forgot to mention the suggestion made by Meddie :
using the SMS on the support center.

Sincerely
> Dear members,
>
> This is a summary about the recently concluded discussion on the impact of
> the support centres to the telecentres.
>
> *>> *The impact of the support centres to you and your community
> Support centers may not give all the answers but they are able to trigger
> responses to many posts from the pool of knowledge that comes from many
> knowledgeable people in the various lists. The experiences in Asia and
> Latin
> America and 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. There is need for many specialists in ICT,
> Management, Agriculture, Business, Finance, Policy etc, to be identified
> so
> that we can have more vibrant support centers. I find too much learning
> 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 (by
> Kiringai, Kenya).
>
> Support Centre is very important for sustainability of Telecentres and it
> plays a key role in building the capacities of Telecentre managers and
> operators. Help desks are playing also a great role in knowledge sharing
> and
> it helps Telecentre managers and operators to manage their Telecentres in
> a
> quick way.  The remarkable statistics on the support centre displayed by
> UgaBYTES, is a clear indication that the there's a good use of it though
> no
> clear indication of it's impact on the telecentres.  I remember I wrote a
> message to my colleagues in TC-MENA three months ago about the online
> Arabic
> support centre, sharing the idea of UgaBYTES and I hope this is the right
> time to start one. It can be one of the agenda to setup one in Arabic
> during
> next month's workshop (by Ahmed Eisa, Sudan).
>
> Support centres have played a key role in the sustainability of
> telecentres,
> forinstance, the answers it provides for technical troubleshooting, helps
> telecentre to save resources that could be spent to pay for the external
> technicians. I support Cleopa's idea of Wiki-based help desk. I have made
> a
> look on the two help desks  ( English and French)and I got a question of a
> kind of "interoperability" between the different help desks. I think
> there's
> a need to translate questions and having all help desks databases holding
> similar questions. This means that a similar question can be found in your
> preferred language help desk (by Nkurunziza, Burundi).
>
> CAICC in Mozambique distributed a questionnaire aiming at finding out
> about
> the degree of satisfaction with the CAICC support centre and priority
> needs
> to all the delegates at the General Meeting of the Community Radio Forum
> (FORCOM) - in other words, representatives from radios and CMCs from all
> over the country. As soon as the responses are analyzed, they will be
> shared
> on the list.
>
> *>> *Suggestions:
>
> Each of the help desks ( Bengla, French, English, Portuguese etc) get a
> face-to-face small focus group of telecentre staff, network leaders to
> provide specific responses to the same questions asked here? I would guess
> that the  biggest number of practitioners who can use help desks may not
> be
> online on regular basis. They may not provide feedback for that matter (by
> Mayanja Meddie, Canada).
>
> The approach of having a few experts research and answer the questions
> posted on the support center is good because it takes relatively shorter
> time to have feedback.  However I am looking at a more democratic and open
> approach where we still have the team of technical experts but develop
> something like a wiki which is editable from all corners but moderated by
> the experts. This will be more inclusive and participatory (by Cleopa,
> Kenya)
>
> My suggestion to improve these help desks, is to add the frequently asked
> question   **FAQs** on top of the pages of help desks and that will save
> time (by Ahmed Eisa, Sudan)
>
>>> Way forward
> Because it's a multi-lingual help corner, I think it's necessary to have
> such discussions in other languages like French, Portuguese, Bangla and
> Spanish. This will help in getting a more detailed information on the
> impact
> and a clear way forward. It could be that there were folks who wanted to
> contribute but because of the language barrier they could not have their
> contributions heard.
>
>
> You reaction to this are most welcome.
>
>
> 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
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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-- 
NKURUNZIZA Jean Paul
Président du Réseau des Télécentres Communautaires  du Burundi
Secrétaire Général de BYTC
B.P 7031 BUJUMBURA BURUNDI
Tél: 00257 22 21 96 45
Tél Mob : 00257 76 60 49 46/00257 79 981 459
Fax : 00257 212485 ou 00257 222147
E.Mail : nkurunziza at bytc.bi ou
         jnkurunz at hotmail.com
Site web : http://www.bytc.bi