[Telecentres] Economist: skeptical tak on telecenters & ICT4D

[Barbara Fillip]

To me, the more important thing is not so much to respond to the article
and defend a position or another, but rather to really take a good look
at our own ICT activities and do a better job of documenting our
impacts.  We can complain all we want about the fact that it is
difficult to document the impact of ICT activities on development, but
then we should also refrain from making outrageous claims regarding the
somewhat magical potential of ICTs to solve all development problems. 
It's been said again and again..... there is little more than anectodal
evidence of the impact of donor funded ICT activities on development. 
There may be a few well publicized success stories and some less
publicized failures but no systematic analysis that would provide a
solid basis for countering the Economist's skepticism regarding
telecenters.

Barbara Fillip

>>> telecentres-request at wsis-cs.org 3/17/2005 7:02:04 AM >>>

Message: 3
Date: 17 Mar 2005 06:51:25 -0000
From: "Ashish Saboo" <apiap at rediffmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Telecentres] >>: Economist: skeptical take on
	telecenters & ICT4D
To: "Mikhail Doroshevich" <mikhail at e-belarus.org>
Cc: telecentres at wsis-cs.org 
Message-ID: <20050317065125.9768.qmail at webmail47.rediffmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

  Mikhail Thanks for sharing the news article . 
   Our folks may well counter the article by writing to editor, but
more important for the group is what do we learn from such skepticism. I
am sure all activists working at the grassroot level in the telecentre
arena must be facing similar questions. It would be better if members
can reflect & contribute their views . I am sure this will help all of
us even more. 

Its easy to make the Man and the Mule move around but difficult to make
information dissiminate to whom it is relevant. Perhaps Telecentre can
help people like Thillan by notify work opportunities around and
increase his productive employable day. imagine just 3 days work
opportunity can increase his income by 30%. 
   In developing countries justifying investments in telecentres over
health and literacy is difficult unless we proponents can help clarify
the very complementary nature. 
  & one final point the articles raises issue on need to understand
adaptibility of technology to the people instead of the other way
around. Like Community radio may make more sense in rural India then a
typical Cyber cafe type centre but unfortunately community radios are
not permitted in India
http://www.communityradionetwork.org/toplinks/archives/noronha 
  While even say in Urban India say Mumbai( Bombay ), where over 60% of
the population stay in hutments. Regularly a population equal to
Finlands population are displaced in Mumbai. But ICT initiatives like
Telecentres hardly attract attention or funds. 
   Under the ageis of WSIS we can highlight the anomalies and unshackle
the restrictions in free flow of information. This perhaps brings us
closer in defining the role of telecentres in different habitats and
identify as a vehicle of disseminating information. 

Sincerely 

Ashish Saboo 
President 
Association of Public Internet Access Provider (ApiAp) 
The voice of independent Cyber cafe operators 
URL: http://www.apiap.cybernook.net 
Blog: http://apiap.blogspot.com 



On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 Mikhail Doroshevich wrote :
>
>Behind the digital divide
>Mar 10th 2005
>The Economist
>
>
>Development: Much is made of the "digital divide" between rich and
poor.
>
>What do people on the ground think about it?
>
>IN THE village of Embalam in southern India, about 15 miles outside
the
>town of Pondicherry, Arumugam and his wife, Thillan, sit on the red
>earth
>in front of their thatch hut. She is 50 years old; he is not sure,
but
>thinks he is around 75. Arumugam is unemployed. He used to work as a
>drum-beater at funerals, but then he was injured, and now he has 


Ashish Saboo
President
Association of Public Internet Access Provider (ApiAp)
The voice of independent Cyber cafe operators
URL: http://www.apiap.cybernook.net 
Blog: http://apiap.blogspot.com 





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