[UgaBYTES] Are n't Internet cafes becoming a threat to telecentres?

[Polly Gaster]

Meddie _ I shd add one point. It sometimes seems to me that the main threat to
telecentres in the traditional meaning of the word isn't the private sector
but government - yet telecentre.org (to name but one) seems more and more
interested in working with largescale government IT initiatives - or UN or
whatever - which are being called telecentres, part of the network, etc, and
what's being lost is the community ownership, empowerment and participation
component. I'm not saying that government placing access points in rural
areas, etc, is a bad thing, just questioning that in view of this trend maybe
the whole telecentre movement needs rethinking?

It may be that this is more important for us in Mozambique than for other
countries because we are going down the CMC road, and it is certainly not
acceptable to have government running the community radios! At the same time,
we do say that citizens have a right to information and its part of
government's task to facilitate access to that right - but not through ownership.

This still bring us back to the same old question - is simple access to
equipment and e-government services enough? Who pays? Is the trend away from
community ownership definitive?

Polly

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Polly Gaster
TICs para Desenvolvimento/ICT4D
Centro de Informatica da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (CIUEM)
Campus Universitario, Maputo, Mozambique
e-mail: polly.gaster at uem.mz
cel: +258-82-3264540
tel/fax: +258-21-485779
Skype: polly_gaster


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