[UgaBYTES] Fwd: telecentre.org newsletter, October 2009

Fri Oct 16 06:50:33 GMT 2009

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    [image: telecentre.org logo.gif]    * **telecentre.org newsletter *
 *October 2009*

*Recent Events*

*Telecentre-Europe Summit 2009, Istanbul, Turkey, October 14-15 *

The Telecentre-Europe Summit, organized by the Telecentre-Europe Steering
Committee and Youth for Habitat and sponsored by Microsoft and the Turkish
government, brought together more than a hundred telecentre network leaders
to build on the success achieved at the last leaders' forum, held in Riga in
2008. View the summit website for more details:
http://www.telecentre-europe.org/summit/2009/tes.php<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?IDRC/9119c5c13a/b80093e3fe/e26022c53b>

*Regional Workshop in Asia Pacific Region, Nanjing China, Sept. 8-10* Last
month, UN ESCAP, in cooperation with the Government of Jiangsu Province,
China, hosted the “Regional Workshop for Knowledge-hubs in Asia-Pacific
Region” in Nanjing, China.  The workshop looked at how knowledge-hubs or
telecentre networks in the region benefit from  knowledge sharing and
networking and how they can contribute to development and to our
understanding of mobilizing resources for sustainability. Representatives
from telecentre networks, like the Asia-Pacific Telecentre Network (APTN),
as well at those from government, the private sector, NGOs and international
development groups attended.

*Other News*
telecentre.org is currently updating its contact database to ensure that it
can best serve the needs of our important community.  If you know of anyone
that might be interested in learning more about us and would like to
subscribe to receive our communications, please have them to write to us at:
info at telecentre.org. telecentre.org is a global community that gathers
people and organizations that believe that telecentres have an important
role to play in development.  We matter because you matter. Let’s stay in
touch. * *

*Initiatives*

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*Progress towards a new home base*

There’s exciting news to report in the transfer of telecentre.org to its new
home in the Philippines by the end of the year. The
telecentre.orgFoundation, a new, non-profit organization based in
Manila, will soon be
legally incorporated and ready to start hosting telecentre.org starting
December 31st. A transition support team is also now working with current
telecentre.org staff to ensure the future success of the program and its
network of partners and organizations around the world.

The transition team is headed by Maria Teresa (Tess) Camba, the Director for
Field Operations of the National Computer Center, an agency of the
Philippine government’s Commission on Information and Communications
Technology. Tess was also instrumental in establishing the Philippine
Community eCenter Network (PhilCeCNet), one of telecentre.org’s main
partners in the region.

“We have a long history of working with telecentre.org in the Philippines
and believe strongly in its mission,” says Tess.  “We welcome the
opportunity to work with telecentre.org’s partner networks and organizations
to further strengthen the impact that telecentres have on social and
economic development around the world.”

Tess’ transition team is working closely with current telecentre.org staff,
located in Ottawa, Canada, towards the transfer of telecentre.org to its new
host country. Together, they have rolled up their collective sleeves and
begun work on drafting a business plan for the next five years as well as
developing a governance model that better responds to the needs of
telecentre.org’s partners around the world.

“Those of us who’ve been in on the ground floor of telecentre.org’s
development since 2005 are really excited about its future,” says Florencio
Ceballos, Program Manager for telecentre.org. “We are working with the
Philippines to position telecentre.org for its continued global success.
That means looking at what we do well as well as what we can do better or
differently in the future.”

And there is more good news to come:  we have already begun consultations on
the telecentre.org of the future.  To extend our reach further, we will be
launching online discussions in November.  We will be seeking your input,
particularly how to best position ourselves to realize our mission of
working together to increase the impact of grassroots telecentres on
development.

Visit our website (www.telecentre.org) for more details on the consultations
and other transfer news in the coming weeks and months.

    *telecentre.org Academy on target to improving the lives of one million
people around the globe*

The telecentre.org Academy is one step closer to reaching its goal  of
training one million telecentre knowledge workers by 2015.
telecentre.orgrecently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with
universities
from  eleven countries to accredit and offer the Academy’s global course
curriculum. The consortium of universities is led by the Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU), India´s leading ldistance education
provider.  IGNOU will collaborate with universities in Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Uganda, Mozambique, the Philippines, Hungary, Singapore, Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh, and Thailand to develop and strengthen the educational
partnership with telecentre.org.

Basheerhamad Shadrach, telecentre.org Senior Program Officer, explains that
skills training will be tailored to local needs, offered in the local
language of each region, and facilitated through telecentres in
participating countries. “Our skills development training has four component
areas – soft skills, management skills, private and public service, and
computer training”, he adds.

“The aim is to make rural people skilled. We will try to bridge the digital
divide among people and thus empower them,” says IGNOU Vice Chancellor,
 V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai. “It will be a hub of learning through Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs)—such as computers, the Internet,
mobile telephony and others - to empower and educate people in rural areas”,
Pillai said.

The MOU was signed at the Consortium of Universities, a meeting hosted by
telecentre.org and IGNOU in New Delhi last August. The universities are
committed to implementing quality capacity-building programs as well as
ensuring the participation and sustainability of telecentres in their
respective countries or regions.

The telecentre.org Academy is a skills development program that supports
actors involved in creating new and inclusive economies in developing
countries. It works especially at the grassroots,  taking advantage of
knowledge and information as tools for improving the lives of poor people in
communities around the world.
 To learn more about the telecentre.org Academy visit:
www.telecentreacademy.org<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?IDRC/9119c5c13a/b80093e3fe/4f1108a747>

*Key alliance in the Middle East and North African region strengthens
networks*

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telecentre.org and the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA) recently formalized a partnership that will see two
telecentre networks in the Middle East and North African region (MENA) merge
into one. The merger, which is comprised of telecentre.org and ESCWA partner
networks and represents about 1,500 telecentre members, will make the new
network more sustainable and improve efficiencies where the two networks
currently operate.   Knowledge sharing and local collaborations will also
improve, according to Karim Kasim, Project Manager for telecentre projects
at the Egypt ICT Trust Fund, a telecentre.org partner involved in the
alliance. Kasim explains, “We will provide support for all ESCWA events that
focus on telecentres in the region, keep ESCWA members in our network, and
target their participation at our events.” Joint participation in research
projects and training initiatives, such as the telecentre.org Academy, are
also envisioned.  The partnership was announced at this summer’s Telecentre
Leaders’ Forum (TLF) in Mashreq, Amman, Jordan, attended by more than 35
regional telecentre leaders. In addition to formalizing the alliance between
telecentre.org and ESCWA, the agreement also includes regional and local
partners.   “This is a milestone for our work in the region,” says Kasim,
“to be able to work closely with ESCWA, a UN agency that works with
governments and NGOs and which promotes development through research, will
allow us to expand as an organization.” ESCWA will also benefit, he adds.  It
will join a merged network of telecentres that telecentre.org and its
partners have developed, “a young, energetic knowledge network made up of
telecentre leaders from across the region working in Arabic”.

  *TLFs and their importance*   The TLF in Mashreq was just one of several
events recently organized by telecentre.org for telecentre leaders in the
MENA region, a reflection of both the region’s importance as well as its
size and diversity.  To best address the needs and specificity of the region
(i.e. social-economic and cultural realities and even the dialects of Arab
spoken), telecentre.org organizes events according to three MENA
sub-regions: Mashreq/East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine), Central
MENA (Egypt, Sudan and Yemen), and Maghreb/West (Tunisia, Algeria and
Morocco).   Last fall’s TLF Central MENA, held in Cairo, kicked off
telecentre.org’s series of events in that area. The TLF was the culmination
of telecentre.org’s work toward building a network and achieving a better
understanding between, and communications among, countries in the region.
The TLF MENA – Mashreq, mentioned above, focused on issues affecting
telecentres in the region: technology, networking, knowledge sharing and
peer support, management skills, content, services, and partnerships.    A
third TLF is planned in Morocco later this month for the MENA Maghreb/West
region. It will evaluate the needs of telecentres, help strengthen networks,
and plan for future activities in the region.    A final TLF closes 2009 in
December, when telecentre leaders from all over the MENA region gather to
examine progress and achievements in the region as a whole.   TLFs bring
telecentre leaders and partners together to share experiences and build
relationships that contribute to the kind of knowledge sharing and
networking opportunities that help make a difference to their work and to
the larger purpose of fostering development through telecentres.    Learn
more about the MENA network and its activities (website in Arabic):
http://mogtamaa.ning.com/

**

*Global Impact Study launches newsletter *

The first issue of the Global Impact Study Newsletter has arrived in the
electronic mailboxes of researchers and academics interested in getting an
insider view of the project, its progress, milestones, and outcomes. Like
the research project that inspires it, the newsletter will focus on
answering a central question in the ICT4D field:  does public access to
information and communication technologies make a difference in development?
Newsletter readers will sort through the evidence in research updates, field
observations, public access innovations and related research, as well as
other content.   The Global Impact Study newsletter will be published
quarterly and will coincide with milestones reached on the research field.
To subscribe to the Global Impact Study Newsletter, follow the link:
http://www.globalimpactstudy.org/resources/newsletter/  To learn more about
the Global Impact Study, visit: http://www.globalimpactstudy.org/      The
Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information and Communication
Technologies is a five-year, $7.2 million international research project
sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Canada’s International
Development Research Centre. It is managed by telecentre.org in partnership
with the Center for Information & Society at the University of Washington’s
Information School. Through telecentres, libraries, and other emerging
models of public access to information and communication technologies, this
project examines impact in a number of areas, including employment and
income, education, civic engagement, democracy and governance, cultural and
language preservation, and health.

**

*Insights into the future of telecentres at the 4th Cyber-Society Congress*

telecentre.org will participate in discussions about the role of telecentres
in the world at the 2009 4th Annual Cyber-Society Congress. This online
event will explore the impact of information and communication technologies
in six areas: education, communications, the economy, policy, science and
research, and culture.  Several working groups are focused on each of the
six areas, including one group dedicated to examining the role of
telecentres within them. Online discussions take place from 12-29 November.
 The Cyber-Society Congress is presented by the Observatory for Cyber
Society, an organization that promotes discussion of, and publish research
on, ICTs and their role in society, as well as  CitiLab-Cornellà, a European
institution dedicated to the creation, use and innovation of knowledge.   Learn
more:  http://www.cibersociedad.net/congres2009/ (information in Spanish)

      *telecentre.org is a global community of people and organizations
committed to increasing the social and economic impact of grassroots
telecentres. Working together, we provide the resources that telecentres
need to succeed: locally relevant content and services, support and learning
opportunities, and networks that help telecentre activists connect to each
other. With these things in hand, tens of thousands of telecentres will be
in a better position to enrich the communities they serve. Our founding
social investors include Canada's International Development Research Centre,
Microsoft, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.*

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