Show and Tell – Building Telecentres That Matter

Recent turmoil in the global economy has brought with it aftershocks to several development activities. Resources for health, education and poverty eradication are constantly being re-assessed. ICT for development is back on the chopping board. Once again, questions are asked of telecentres: do they contribute to development and how? Should scarce resources be allocated?

If asked, I would say – as sure as sunset. Telecentres are a major engine for development. Sad part, many will not take my word for it. And yes, many to think telecentres are a luxury. I can understand that too. In their defense, the connection between telecentres and development is not obvious. Read, has not been made that natural. Telecentre proponents have yet to make a solid case in plain language that those who matter understand. In several countries, rural communities, private sector, government and others have not placed telecentres (and ICT for community development initiatives) as response to key questions of our time.

I believe this must change or telecentres will struggle bit time. I talk to old friends across Africa, Asia and MENA and the common theme is the challenges of putting telecentres on the development agenda today. The situation will not get better until telecentre practitioners approach their trade differently.

To start with, I submit that telecentres need to be built around a community’s needs. It is back to the basics – getting early planning right. Literally starting from a needs assessment where community’s development activities, challenges and opportunities are identified. This has to be matched with understanding of ways skills are developed and information is accessed as well as associated challenges. “Cooker-cutter” type telecentre services have had their day in the sun. We all know that such services have led to telecentres that attract very little interest because – simply they often do not meet the needs of the community.

Let’s try this out in plain English. For a farming community – we would need to identify the crops, farming practices, pests and disease, harvest seasons, post harvest issues and marketing. The telecentre would then seek to position itself to finding solutions to issues around the farming community.

There would be several ways too. Say, working with local farmers (there is always the best of them all), extension support services, civil society organizations and unions. The telecentre would help farmers to access information they need and develop skills. If the telecentre provides answers to issues of the time, there will be loyalty from the community. Money will come to the community and directly to the telecentre. Development partners will notice because the telecentre will document and share stories of concrete changes in the farmers’ output. Remember that the telecentre provides information on pests and diseases, post harvest management, improving farming practices (controlling erosion and loss of soil fertility).

The story of impact will show and be told. It will include things such as …the telecentre doesn’t have to pay for all this information or expertise because it can connect with various experts whose job is indeed to impact on farming practices in the community. That the experts are always lurking in the community – looking for opportunities for outreach and impact. It would add that the local government provided additional resources to help the telecentre deliver services because the connection to community’s development objectives was crystal clear. In fact, the local government found out that supporting the telecentre was good for the next elections since the farmers frequently use the services.

Telecentres will find it more profitable to work with others – a.k.a. telecentre networks. Needs surveys, identifying community partners and building value-added partnerships are better done with peers. I believe that consolidating the community of practice, pooling resources and working together will make Show and Tell bigger and louder.

An interesting read about connection to community needs: http://www.pdf-finder.com/Sustainable-Telecentres?-Two-Cases-from-India-by.html

Show and Tell – Running Telecentres That Matter

Recent turmoil in the global economy has brought with it aftershocks to several development activities. Resources for health, education and poverty eradication are constantly being re-assessed. ICT for development is back on the chopping board. Once again, questions are asked of telecentres: do they contribute to development and how? Should scarce resources be allocated?

If asked, I would say – as sure as sunset. Telecentres are a major engine for development. Sad part, many will not take my word for it. And yes, many to think telecentres are a luxury. I can understand that too. In their defense, the connection between telecentres and development is not obvious. Read, has not been made that natural. Telecentre proponents have yet to make a solid case in plain language that those who matter understand. In several countries, rural communities, private sector, government and others have not placed telecentres (and ICT for community development initiatives) as response to key questions of our time.

I believe this must change or telecentres will struggle bit time. I talk to old friends across Africa, Asia and MENA and the common theme is the challenges of putting telecentres on the development agenda today. The situation will not get better until telecentre practitioners approach their trade differently.

To start with, I submit that telecentres need to be built around a community’s needs. It is back to the basics – getting early planning right. Literally starting from a needs assessment where community’s development activities, challenges and opportunities are identified. This has to be matched with understanding of ways skills are developed and information is accessed as well as associated challenges. “Cooker-cutter” type telecentre services have had their day in the sun. We all know that such services have led to telecentres that attract very little interest because – simply they often do not meet the needs of the community.

Let’s try this out in plain English. For a farming community – we would need to identify the crops, farming practices, pests and disease, harvest seas http://www.flickr.com/photos/marksurman/148160517/in/photostream/#/photos/marksurman/148160517/in/photostream/lightbox/ons, post harvest issues and marketing. The telecentre would then seek to position itself to finding solutions to issues around the farming community.

There would be several ways too. Say, working with local farmers (there is always the best of them all), extension support services, civil society organizations and unions. The telecentre would help farmers to access information they need and develop skills. If the telecentre provides answers to issues of the time, there will be loyalty from the community. Money will come to the community and directly to the telecentre. Development partners will notice because the telecentre will document and share stories of concrete changes in the farmers’ output. Remember that the telecentre provides information on pests and diseases, post harvest management, improving farming practices (controlling erosion and loss of soil fertility).

The story of impact will show and be told. It will include things such as …the telecentre doesn’t have to pay for all this information or expertise because it can connect with various experts whose job is indeed to impact on farming practices in the community. That the experts are always lurking in the community – looking for opportunities for outreach and impact. It would add that the local government provided additional resources to help the telecentre deliver services because the connection to community’s development objectives was crystal clear. In fact, the local government found out that supporting the telecentre was good for the next elections since the farmers frequently use the services.

Telecentres will find it more profitable to work with others – a.k.a. telecentre networks. Needs surveys, identifying community partners and building value-added partnerships are better done with peers. I believe that consolidating the community of practice, pooling resources and working together will make Show and Tell bigger and louder.

An interesting read about connection to community needs: http://www.pdf-finder.com/Sustainable-Telecentres?-Two-Cases-from-India-by.html

Tools for planning collaborative events with impact

If you ever need to mobilise minds, pool ideas or engage an audience as you plan a presentation, Google moderator http://www.google.com/moderator/ might be what you need. Like most things Google, it is a free applet. It promotes the concept of learning together. We believe that this is a key component of most productive events. It all starts at the planning stage and the way organizers can engage the audience before, during and after the event. It helps organisers to stay away from talking to issues that do not interest the audiences.

Google moderator provides enormous opportunities for running collaborative events with impact. It allows you to set up a question, describe it, attach a video and invite people – openly on the internet or by invitation only (accessible by a directly provided link). Those who visit the page may share new ideas, contribute to existing thoughts or cast a vote. No one can vote more than once, clever eh?

Google moderator also helps in synthesising thoughts to create a pattern. The initiator of the discussion maintains control while providing space to audience (target group) to be heard. So, go on. Make your events truly collaborative. Engage your audience in deciding the talking points at your next event.

Learning from Kids

Next time anyone describes your approach to doing things as "childish", take pride. It means you are ambitious, creative and brave. Yes, I know. Being "childish" used to mean silly and devoid of imagination. Not anymore. We know a lot better now why.

I believe this has been a very unfair way to characterize the kids' way of doing things. You can say its egoistic on the part of adults. For I would not describe my kids as anything less than innovate and seeking to the push boundaries of knowledge - all the time. Impossible is nothing to them. It is perhaps true about your, his and her kids.

Adora Svitak - a prodigy kid with enormous profile for her boldness on reading and writing says as much. At seven she had written and created thousands of blogs. Adora invites adults to stop constraining kids thinking with limitless "not possible comments" but instead adopt the kids' fearless, creative approach to doing things. Adora is a huge ambassador for literacy. Read more about this paradigm shift at: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html

When you thought there is nothing to learn from kids. Approach any encounter with kids as a learning opportunity.