[Telecentres] Introduction

[Chuck Sherwood]

To All:  I have been involved in the community media and technology
arena for nearly thirty years and have witnessed the development and
evolution of Public, Educational and Government Access Centers, Media
Arts Centers, and Community Technology Centers or Telecenters as they
have come to be called after the British and Canadian model.  The
beginning of all of these movements has been based on an understanding
that all people have a right to learn how to create and communicate
their own programming content, to develop their own work skills and
their own communications networks that are separate from but imbedded in
the dominate media, information and communications infrastructure that
are corporately or governmentally controlled.

Over the years there have been several attempts to bring folks together
from around the world to develop and implement a community based
strategy for community media and technology and thus far the WSIS
process seems to be the one that has actually been able to establish the
appropriate platform for realizing this goal.

I currently live in the Town of Dennis on Cape Cod in the state of
Massachusetts and for twenty-five years I have managed PEG Access
facilities in New York City, Cincinnati and on Cape Cod.  For the past
five years I have doing consulting work with PEG Access nonprofits and
with municipalities around the United States.  I am and have been a
member of the Alliance for Community Media, the National Association of
Media Arts Centers, CTCNet and the National Association of
Telecommunications Officers & Advisors.

I look forward to communicating with all of the participates in the
Telecenters Working Group.

Chuck Sherwood
Senior Partner
Community Media Visioning Partners
and
Senior Associate
TeleDimensions, Inc.
(508) 385-3808 (voice)