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

[Sandra Nassali]

Good issue rised there Polly. While at Nabweru Telecentre last year, the
telecentre manager Ivan Gaayi highlighted that as one of the main challenges
they were facing i.e interferance from the local Government. The goverment
most times use these telecentres to promote thier interests other than those
of the community and where does this leave the people and the telecentre's
impact??

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 10:24 AM, Polly Gaster <polly.gaster at uem.mz> wrote:

> 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
>
> ----
>
> 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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-- 
Sandra Nassali
Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiative (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentre.org  (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Plot 2218 Ggaba Road,
2nd Floor Kangave House
P.O. Box 6081 K'la
Email  snassali at ugabytes.org
chat    (skype)- n.sandra.
Tel      +256-414-370163