Telecentre.org

"Telecentre.org is envisioned as a collaborative initiative involving social investors, networks, innovators and others with a stake in the telecentre community. This collaboration will be built on the common belief that locally-driven technology initiatives have the potential to empower individuals and strengthen communities." In this context, telecentre.org's primary strategy is to catalyse and strengthen telecentre networks around the world. The idea is to use communication to help the people who make telecentres "work" to collaborate in solving problems, sharing resources, and - in general - supporting each other. Telecentre.org will support networks through:

1. Consulting support, business planning resources, online infrastructure and "how-to" resources that strengthen new and existing telecentre support networks. Example: A new, locally-driven network of 500 telecentres wants to offer training and support in a region that currently lacks these services. Telecentre.org supports the development of their business plan and provides an online platform for the delivery of support services.
2. Development, testing, documentation, and sharing of new service concepts that can be implemented by local telecentres. Example: A small national network creates a formal training and certification programme for telecentre managers. Telecentre.org invests in a pilot and helps to package the results so other telecentre networks around the world can use and adapt this training programme.
3. In-person knowledge sharing: Face-to-face workshops, peer-learning events, and staff exchanges that support the initiative's networking aims. Example: workshops are set to be held at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Tunis, in November 2005. The gatherings are designed to provide an opportunity for telecentre practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to learn, share and collaborate in advancing the effectiveness and social impact of telecentres around the world. (Click here for a summary of this forum in the Awards section of The CI site).
4. Online knowledge sharing: Services and documentation development that provide people in telecentres with free curriculum and other resources, help on management issues, and connections with each other to collaboratively develop projects and share information. Example: A partner network develops a toolkit illustrating telecentre social enterprise models. The toolkit is based on the results of a participatory "think tank" that brings together social entrepreneurs working on community technology business concepts. Telecentre.org will support these activities by providing consulting, resource materials, and infrastructure to partner networks.

Advocacy and policy-related activity to build the telecentre movement are also components of this programme's strategy. Telecentre.org will undertake research, social marketing, and awareness raising designed to help policy makers, funders and others understand the development potential of telecentres. As consistent with the above-described networking strategies, information and communication technology (ICT) will be part of this advocacy approach: Part of the initiative's online strategy will involve promoting and celebrating the work of specific telecentres around the world. Another proposed tactic is convening a meeting of funders and policy makers to explore long-term options for sustaining telecentres around the world.

Technology.

This initiative is motivated by the conviction that "there are still many disconnects that limit the potential of telecentres - disconnects between practitioners and policy makers, between networks in different regions and even between people who have different ideas about what a telecentre should look like. telecentre.org hopes to overcome these divides by creating the connective tissue that helps the people who run telecentres and telecentre networks to learn, share and collaborate with each other."

The programme is organised around the premise that there is a need not only to build and strengthen networks of telecentres, but also to get actively involved in promoting innovation and facilitating knowledge sharing within the telecentre movement as a whole. The vision is that all of the initiative's activities will together "create something bigger - a virtuous circle, where good ideas can quickly scale and evolve as they are shared across the telecentre.org community."