[Telecentres] Important: WGIG nominations must besubmittedbymidnight GMT

[David Leeming PFnet]

I would like to echo Tai's comments. Small Islands Developing States (SIDS)
suffer from enourmous challenges caused by small scale, lack of opportunity
to aggregate demand, high costs, vulnerability to natural disasters, ethnic
tension, lack of strategy and awareness at policy level etc etc. However, if
done correctly, "telecentres" can bridge these constellations of islolated
small communities in many ways. Also backing up Tai's comments further,
sustainability through multi-sector partnerships is an essential strategy,
that we have proven in the Solomons. We have self-sustaining Internet-based
community communications facilities that are sustainable with a monthly
income of not much more than it costs to buy a bubblejet ink cartridge (@
AUD 2,000 per litre of ink!!!! - so we use dot matrix printers.....). In
recent research, we showed that affordability was not a major factor
affecting utilisation of PFnet. The poorest of the 5 communities researched
showed the second most utilisation, and all five communities had an average
income of around USD1 per day or less. Therefore we need the SIDS
perspective recognised.

David Leeming
Technical Advisor
People First Network
Solomon Islands


 We do not have telecentres
> in the Pacific yet, other than the PFNet in the Solomon Islands. It is
very
> important that we include someone to represent the small island developing
> states. After all, telecentres will be one strong ICT initiative that can
> help bridge the digital divide in our countries that are made up of
hundreds
> of smaller islands. I have no objection to the nominated people so far.
But
> it sounds to me that while they are experienced in telecentres etc. they
are
> all from the "highly populated" developing countries. The digital divide
> cannot be bridged if small island developing states continue to sit on the
> sidelines. There telecentre issues that are unique to small island
> developing states. Thanks
>
> ----- Original Message -----