Just to add to this small? contribution to the discussion. I am not exactly sure what we are supposed to be doing right this moment on the list I have been busy but I wanted to post some useful? information especially the instruments we used to collect information on our Telecentre research in 5 African countries (on Tuesday but that slipped past me).
But the whole document/Book "ICT4D: Lessons form Community Telecentres in Africa" can be seen on the IDRCsite: www.idrc.ca/acacia.
What is a Telecentre?
A telecentre is an integrated information and communication facility that houses a combination of both new and not-so new ICTs (e.g., television, video, facsimile, telephone, computers with Internet connectivity, and sometimes books). This type of facility in which a number of different information and communication technologies are housed and used in an integrated manner is seen as the modern telecentre and is called a multipurpose telecentre. There is, however, a certain variety in the form, facilities, and functions available at telecentres, from the simple telecentre with only one or two telephones and no link to the worldwide web, to a centre with numerous telephones, facsimile machines, printers, and computers connected to the Internet. Ownership and management patterns in addition to primary motives also confer other layers of differentiation on telecentres and on the taxonomy.
The nomenclature of telecentres is consequently (diverse) coloured by these and other differences e.g. geography. In some places they are called tele-cottages, tele-boutiques, and tele-kiosks in others, cyber cafes. Simple telecentres are popular in Senegal whereas, multipurpose (community) telecentres are a recent creation of development agencies and although their financial sustainability is an ongoing concern their validity and utility have become firmly rooted.
Definition and Development of Telecentres
Nomenclature
The Telecentre movement is not at all old having been born only in 1985 (less than twenty years ago) in Velmdalen a small farming village in Sweden. The concept is recognised and called by a large number of very different names: Telecentre, telecottage, telekiosk, teleboutique, phone shop, infocentre, telehaus, telestugen, digital clubhouse, cabinas puiblicas, multi-purpose access centre, community technology centre, multi-purpose community telecentre (MCT), community access centre, multi-purpose community centre (MPCC), community media centre (CMC) or community learning centre (CLC), community multi-media centre, electronic village hall, tele-village or cyber caf�. There is little doubt that the names by which the telecentre is known will change (grow or shrink who can tell?) as the movement matures and globalizes. To date the idea has been generally adopted in the United States, Canada and Australia, whereas in Africa and Asia the notion is still only taking root.
Taxonomy
As indicated in chapter 1, the form and functions of these various facilities subsumed under the umbrella notion of telecentre vary. This is understandable and in some way to be expected because the telecentre is a phenomenon still in discovery and in the various places where it is recreated, the context colours its final form. It is an adaptable instrument of development, whose adaptation and mutation is far from complete and perhaps never will be. As a result, attempts to classify the currently existing types are still pretty unsophisticated.
Gomez et al (1999b) identify five types of telecentres:
� Basic telecentre, usually located in rural marginalised areas where there is limited access to basic services in general where training of potential users is a popular service in addition to internet access.
� Telecentre franchise, a series of independently owned and managed interconnected telecentres usually supervised by a local organisation which that technical and on occasion, financial support.
� Civil telecentre, usually the most common, where a public organisation such as a university opens up its facilities like computers for use by the public and the telecentre services tend to be an addition to the other day to day activities of the organisation.
� Cybercaf�, commercial in nature and found in affluent neighbourhoods or hotels and in major towns and cities; and
� The multi purpose community centre, one of the newer models recently introduced in a number of countries offering more specialised services such as tele-medicine.
The difficulty with the classification by Gomez et al is that the distinguishing criteria are mixed and the logic hard to comprehend- in one instance it is based on location (cybercafe), in the next, on the nature of ownership (civil telecentre) and in another, on the type of services offered (Basic telecentre). The classification attempt by Collee and Roman (1999) shows the complexity and identify the dimensions that any taxonomy would do well to consider.
On this basis it is possible to distinguish the following types;
� Public/private,
� Publicly or privately funded,
� Commercial (fee-based)/free
� Urban/rural
� Narrow-focus/ multi-purpose
� Independent/networked, grouped
� Community / establishment-based
� Stand alone/attached
� Profit/service
� Thematic/universal
It is easy to see that there is still work to be done in order to arrive at a satisfactory classification of telecentres. Like the naming and grouping of telecentres, the nature of the development and evolution of these facilities is still being created.
Evolution of Telecentres
While there appears to be a general consensus about the basic function of telecentres, there is a debate around the nature of optimal ownership, management and operations. Fuchs, (1997) suggests the function of telecentres to be the provision of �public access to communication and information for economic, social and cultural development..� and Zongo, (1999) concurring states that the telecentre � provides telecommunication and information services for a range of developmental aims�.
It is suggested that the ownership, management and operations evolve in time and three stages have been described. Fuchs (1997) has identified the investment, contract and user fee stages.
� The investment stage is seen as characterising the early state where a non-profit making organisation forms a partnership with a local community, attempting to capacity build the community by encouraging them to participate in the information society. At this stage the organisation finances the information technology initiatives, provides equipment and training for local partners, key persons and staff, as a way of demonstrating the practical utility of information.
� In the contract stage the telecentre has gained autonomy from the �parent� organisations and starts to make contractual agreements with other agencies such as government departments or other organisations e.g. hospitals or schools building up a clientele to which it provides services as well as technical support in the setting up of their facilities.
� By the time the telecentre gets to the user fee stage donor dependency is a thing of the past since by this time the communities are well aware of the products and benefits of the telecentre and are therefore willing to pay for services.
The implication of an evolutionary view is that it is only a matter of time and maturity before telecentres become independent and self-sustaining or in more popular language sustainable. However there is some difficulty with this position. The evolutionary thesis, gives slight attention to the motivational basis and the wide variety of telecentres appearing to pertain more to one type of telecentre; the public development-oriented telecentre. To be fair, these were the types that Fuchs investigated. The preoccupation with sustainability and economic independence of this particular type of telecentre has continued to dominate discussions partly on account of the current predominance of market logic and the business model. That few examples of telecentres at the user fee stage have been described in the literature is perhaps proof that not enough time has elapsed or that other models need to be constructed to explain and account for the full spectrum of experiences. On the other hand the reality of many more failed telecentres underscores the importance of economic viability. How to achieve this remains a big question.
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