Hi Klaus, >> I confess, I was one of the India Joneses, hunting for years after the holy grail of financial telecenter sustainability (snip)
As always, great to read your thoughts and insight - So weren't we all before realization hit home? I have a similar trail of debris on the topic scattered over the 'net :-) My understanding of the true meaning of sustainability for some (not all) Telecentre's came through an involvement with helping to build one Telecentre in particular. This was a small low-key venture started with no funds, built from the combined efforts of local visionaries and carers working with donor organizations to gain equipment, services and facilities. This Telecentre is one of the 'mission specific' kind focusing solely on an identified community need, in this case youth issues (street kids, drug dependency and suicide etc.). This Telecentre does not charge a fee for services because it is not a venue for adults to surf the 'net or for businesses to seek training or development (we have another Telecentre suitable for these purposes) - it is a venue for homeless children to seek counselling, help and encouragement from people engaged in community development. The network of computers (freely donated with no-cost Internet connectivity) is used by children and carers to socialise and learn and forms just one small part of the overall offerings of this Telecentre. Sustainability for this Telecentre is measured by such factors as: Reductions in street crime, lowered rates of suicide, literacy, numbers of impoverished children entering or remaining at school, numbers of homeless children finding somewhere to live. Financial sustainability only extends as far as finding sufficient money to keep the electricity turned on and pay a nominal stipend to our local youth councillor. Aspects such as computer and equipment upgrades are all managed by community donation and do not require funding. The reason this Telecentre can exist without achieving "financial sustainability" is because the Telecentre forms part of the community itself - and this is where I must disagree with a definition of all Telecentre's being "just a tool" - any financial shortfalls are met by the community in acknowledgement that this Telecentre is not just a tool, it is the community itself caring for our young in a most tangible fashion. The tools are the equipment and facilities (computers etc.); the community is the Telecentre. Perhaps this definition of "a tool" underpins the need of many Telecentre's to achieve financial sustainability - Telecentre's that are "just tools of the community" are commonly multi-function centres with a focus on business development. Not the least being a focus on their own business development. These Telecentre's must achieve financial sustainability in order to exist and promote the core objective of ICT's as a tool for Community Economic Development. On the other side of our Telecentre spectrum, task-specific Telecentre's (Youth Caf�'s etc.) formed by communities to meet a specific social need are often not required to be financially sustainable because these Telecentre's are an extension of community, and as such, fully supported and sustained by community. Tools must be bought and paid for; communal social investments are inherently sustained by the community itself. Rgds, Don _______________________________________________ telecentres mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/telecentres To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
