[Telecentres] NGOs buying telecenter connect time to give away?

[Gáspár Mátyás]

In Hungary it is typical, that local governments are supporting
telehouses, partly susidising, partly buying services, particularly
computer and Internet education (e.g. for school pupils, also for
teachers). It is also can be organised by grants (e.g. Internet
education for adutlts). We in Hungary are standing for community access
as public task, which should be financed to a given extent (it is a big
battle to what level, most of local governments do it by their own
initiative now) by the governmental (central/local) budget. Matyas
Gaspar, Europen Union of Telecottage Associations, president

-----Original Message-----
From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org
[mailto:telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf Of Donald Z. Osborn
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 6:47 AM
To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [Telecentres] NGOs buying telecenter connect time to give away?

A correspondent with recent experience in Mali noted that many
telecenters "have
troubles 'selling' internet hours. So NGO's will buy large quantities to
give
away to the local population, especially to teachers, doctors and the
like...."

Is this a common practice in other countries / projects? What does it
say about
sustainability of a telecenter project? What ideas to make such practice
work
better or to avoid it enirely?

I'll BCC the individual who told me this. At a later time it may be
interesting
to share an ideas they are working on.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net






_______________________________________________
telecentres mailing list
telecentres at wsis-cs.org
http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres
To unsubscribe, send a message to telecentres-request at wsis-cs.org with
the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.