[Telecentres] RE: [Telecentre's] Basic Telecentre Items

[Don Cameron]

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 Café'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