[Telecentres] RE: Databases and Resource Centers for Telecenter Networks

[John Zoltner]

Hi Amy and Val:

I think this has already been resolved, but wanted you to know that I had
responded. Unfortunately, all my emails to the Corporation have been
bouncing back for months, but I talked to your IT department last week and I
think we finally figured out the problem. 

--John


________________________________________________

John Zoltner
Director of Strategy and Development
Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet)
1436 U Street, NW # 104 * Washington, DC 20009
www.ctcnet.org | jzoltner at ctcnet.org


Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:35:07 -0400
From: Andy Carvin <acarvin at edc.org>
Subject: [Telecentres] 	Identifying goals of the working group (was
	Telecenter Statistics)
To: telecentres at wsis-cs.org

Back in 2001, the Digital Divide Network partnered with CTCNet, Power 
Up, the American Library Association and about half a dozen other 
domestic US organizations to aggregate our telecentre data and put it in 
the Digital Divide Network website database. We managed to identify 
nearly 20,000 public Internet access points providing free Internet 
access and ICT training, the majority of which were hosted at libraries. 
We then partnered with Mapquest so Internet users (including prospective 
donors) could map the locations on a geographic map. <...>

The system worked great -- for about a month. Then the data started 
getting old. Libraries changing their operating hours, PowerUp centers 
closing their doors, others coming and going. Soon enough, about 20% of 
the data was totally wrong, and there was no mechanism for all of the 
groups we partnered with to resurvey the telecentres on a regular basis 
and update the database. We tried offering telecentres the ability to 
update their own data, but only a very small percentage ever did it. 
<...>

I think for countries with large numbers of telecentres, like the US or 
India, it would be difficult to host another database and keep it 
up-to-date in a rigorous way. So bringing it to scale and hosting an 
international database with telecentre data from everywhere would be a 
gargantuan, if not impossible task.

What I think would be more useful would be for us to start thinking 
about creating an online resource where national or regional 
associations of telecentres could share new research, best practices, 
calls for partnerships, curricula, etc.