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

Tue Mar 24 18:44:47 GMT 2009

Hi Meddie, Polly and all, 
The contriibutions in this discussion makes me to understand that the evolution of telecenters is making a mark in development worldwide. 
The recent points and reminders made by Meddie and challenges raised made by Polly are very important that Cybercafes will no longer be a question or threat to development of telecenters.    

Telecenters around the world operate under different environments and the points we learn from this discussion can also contribute to and make telecenters more competitive and sustainable than any other institution at local level. .    

What is interesting in telecenters are its features and position at community level that have a greater pontetial to attract any kind of either business or development partnership with different levels of organisations. The characteristics and features of telecenters make them more attractive to Private - Public sector Partnerships(PPP), that cuts accross all sectors. I borrow the following points raised from this discussion as important to telecenter development and sustainability    

Community ownership, "Who owns telecenters? Who are its users? What are the needs at a community level" (I understand that there are telecenters owned by private individuals)
Government paying for some services, " and through social contract delivery  services" 
Community meeting access costs, "Either through direct payment of user fees, membership or direct grant contributions. 
Private sector helping to create value added services, "Creation of Commercial service contracts" e.g MTN or ZAIN mobile companies demonstrating product marketing at the location of a telecenter. HP, Compac testing its products at a telelecenter" etc    
Civil society channeling content and services through telecentres etc. " E.g HIV/Aids health information resources through a telecenters" etc

All the above are all income streams that makes it greater for telecenters to beat cometitors at a local level. What matters are innovations and initiatives of manangement staff. 

However, in other regions, telecenters face immernse challenges as pointed by Polly but there is always a way out. Other options are to ensure that the government avoids direct intervetions in the operations of community institutions as their role is to create platforms. Direct intervetions by government breads spoon feeding and this may not be helpful to any other institutions be it a telecenters. .   

Thanks and hope this discussion is helping many of us.....

Dean Mulozi, 
ZAA-ICT/SATNET  
Lusaka, Zambia.

Mobile:                  260 978 034196

--- On Tue, 3/24/09, Meddie Mayanja <mmayanja at idrc.ca> wrote:

From: Meddie Mayanja <mmayanja at idrc.ca>
Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] Are n't Internet cafes becoming a threat to telecentres?
To: "ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org" <ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org>
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 6:03 AM

Polly presents some good issues here:

"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?"

"... Is the problem government/UN initiatives?"

In my view, much of the telecentre work - since 1990's - has been about
understanding how best technologies can support community development. We have
tried different ways, along this path, to make technologies accessible, empower
communities and build partnerships that create value around the tools
(technologies). In fact, the emphasis on networking is one that aims at making
telecentres sustainable while laveraging various social investments and
resources within government, civil society and private sector. In the overall,
it aims at building communities that will constantly review and innovate how to
be more effective. 

While we have made a lot of progress, it has not covered all fronts and
successes are not shared enough. 

We have learned that there could be mixed approaches including community
ownership, government paying for some services, community meeting access costs,
private sector helping to create value added services, civil society channeling
content and services through telecentres etc. 

Best, Meddie

-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Polly Gaster
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 3:24 AM
To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] Are n't Internet cafes becoming a threat to
telecentres?

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

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner,
and is believed to be clean.

_______________________________________________
ugabytes mailing list
ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org

_______________________________________________
ugabytes mailing list
ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org