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What are The Roles of TeleCenters in 2008?

I have just been searching the Web for the latest information about the roles of telecenters in community development. There appears to be many new articles about the utilization of telecenters. However, many people still seem to be struggling with basic issues associated with the actual roles and expectations of telecenters. For instance:

"I believe most people in the telecenter movement think of telecenters as empowering their users with information, enabling government to reach into the telecenter neighborhoods with online services, and enabling the private sector to achieve commercial purposes via the connected users. All great ideas."

After several years of experience are we still not certain?

"Telecenters are evolving. They are part of a complex technological system which is evolving about them. Some people feel confident that the best practices will bubble up from experience and come to dominate the telecenter movement by an evolutionary selection." (Ref: John Daly, 2007)

Bubble up, great! But what is the situation in the field?

"Findings show that while the intensity of the changes experienced cannot support the claims about the transformative role of telecenters on the rural poor, these have some positive implications on certain aspects of rural poverty." (Ref: Exploring the ICT and Rural Poverty Reduction, 2008)

In most articles it still appears to be that the main role of telecenters is providing access to computers, Internet and printing facilities. This raises the question, what are the differences between Internet Cafés & TeleCenters?

In one article somebody mentioned profit as being the main difference. However, the long-term sustainability of telecenters without at least some profit is yet to be seen. I think it is noteworthy that some people I know personally earn embarrassingly-high salaries working for non-profit organizations. So what is profit? The main difference from what I have read appears to be the noble cause associated with those people promoting the development of telecenters. Otherwise most facilities and the general objectives, access to technology, information and communication appear to be the same.

I did ask this question to a local proponent of telecenters here in Indonesia recently and the response was basically thier name.

in Desember 2005 I attended a local BAPPENAS-UNDP 2 day seminar and I was very disappointed with the event. For two days all they talked about, other than some specific cases of where telecenters appeared to be useful (mainly in India), was technology issues. To me, a technologist and educator, technology is the least of the problems. The main problem is how we train and supply human resources that are highly skilled to man the telecenters and provide creative solutions for people in our communities.

After the seminar, at which most of the key presenters were from IT and communication businesses, I came away with the impression that the primary objective "Partnerships for e-Prosperity for the Poor" had somehow been lost, and the main objective appeared to be Partnerships for e-Prosperity for the Rich (IT & ISP Business Owners). So much for noble causes!

Putting noble causes aside, what are the differences between Internet Cafés & TeleCenters? Quite frankly I find it very difficult to distinguish any key differences. However, I am sure that there are some basic differences in terms of philosophy, however they rarely appear to emerge as actual outcomes.

As both Internet Cafés & TeleCenters must focus upon meeting business objectives for sustainability, why not just encourage and support the growth of Internet Café businesses. As part of this support provide free professional training for the Internet Café staff and certain tax concessions for the Internet Café owners themselves. They are providing a valued community service, correct?

In general I prefer to encourage the Internet Cafés in Indonesia to elevate the skills of their staff and participate more actively as community telecenters, rather than place my trust in corporate organizations, or those on noble missions.

Phillip Rekdale October 12, 2008 After 3 years observing the effects and affects of telecenters upon our communities.

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