[Telecentres] Re: telecentres Digest, Vol 1, Issue 43

[Hakikur Rahman]

At 12:38 AM 9/30/04, Andy Carvin wrote:

"community + knowledge production + learning + ICTs = telecentre"

Perhaps a better starting point as a base definition of telecentre, around 
which services, information dissemination, and knowledge networking should 
build up.

Community-> services;
Knowledge production-> knowledge network;
Learning-> formal and non-formal;
ICTs-> information and content.

Regards.
Hakik.





>I think one of the many exercises we will have to explore is mapping out 
>the diversity of telecentres -- from rural telecottages to urban community 
>ICT production centers, to everything in between -- and what other 
>activities would we consider (or not consider) within our frame of work.
>
>The wireless example is a good one. I'm at MIT this week, and it's a 
>pleasure taking my laptop anywhere on campus and being fully connected to 
>the internet. Other neighborhoods in Boston have free public wi-fi as 
>well, and the city of Philadelphia is building a city-wide wi-fi network. 
>Does this make it a telecenter? No. Does this mean it's not an important 
>aspect of bridging the digital divide? I'd say it's quite important. But 
>it's still different than a telecentre. It's more like ubiquitous public 
>computing, minus the curriculum and community.
>
>To me, telecentres, telecottages, CTCs, etc, provided added value beyond a 
>PC connected by a wire (or a signal) to the Internet. It's their people, 
>their educational courses, their community activities, their civic 
>engagement, and their neighborhood leadership that make them a telecentre. 
>I think in an ideal world, we would all have equitable, ubiquitous access 
>to the Internet at home and wirelessly, but even if we did, telecentres 
>would still serve as community institutions in which people could come 
>together to get hands-on training, learn about new technologies, 
>co-produce community content, and other activities you would associate 
>with a non-ICT community center, but in an ICT context.
>
>Or, to offer a gross simplication:
>
>community + knowledge production + learning + ICTs = telecentre
>
>
>Perhaps what we would eventually want to do is offer a broad concept of 
>what telecentres and related public community ICT centres can contribute 
>to the world, then outline related activities that are somewhat different 
>from telecentres but still within their sphere of interest, such as 
>ubiquitous public wifi, community networks, etc.
>
>ac
>
>Taran Rampersad wrote:
>
>>Random thought: What's the difference between a telecenter and laptop
>>computers/portable computers (such as the Simputer) with wireless
>>internet access? Is a telecenter really limited to a geographic center,
>>or is it instead a virtual center of which we speak. I think the latter
>>gives us more options, but I'm not 100% sure it's a telecenter.
>
>--
>--------------------------------------
>Andy Carvin
>Program Director
>EDC Center for Media & Community
>acarvin @ edc . org
>http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
>http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
>--------------------------------------
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