As international development agencies increasingly come to recognize the correlation between the adoption of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and economic development, we need to understand that a social investment is required for the services available in a telecentre to take root and offer benefits in the developing world.

Telecentres offer a promising route for rural communities of the developing world to break out of their isolation.

To learn more about how telecentre more...

The project is developing a community multimedia centre (CMC) from an existing telecentre in the Sitakund sub-district in Bangladesh. It aims to raise awareness in the community of the potential benefits of a community multimedia centre and to train the local community in community media skills; it also intends to increase the amount, quality and diversity of local content production and local distribution in Sitakund. It will pay particular attention to poor and marginalized youth, indigenous p more...

Dimitra is an information and communication project which aims to highlight rural women's contribution to their community and their country. It is implemented by the Gender and Development Service (SDWW), of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The project is coordinated in Brussels, with support from Rome and Accra, and relies on the active cooperation of a large network of local partners in Africa and the Near East.
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and its network ar more...

The OrphanIT website showcases some of the best resources on the Internet if you are a budding ICT entrepreneur and want to get an IT related project up and running fast. Most of the resources are completely free and are easy to use. OrphanIT assists ICT projects and entrepreneurs by providing mentorship using these tools and access to jobs.

To learn more about this potentially strategic partner for telecentre social enterprise initiatives, visit the OrphanIT website here: http://www.orphan more...

A conference and workshop programme has been conceptualised to bring the international and Indian practitioners in a platform for learning and sharing the experiences, and to address critical issues of content, collaboration, sustainability and up-scaling. Further, issues relating to monitoring projects that have been steered by external financial support, be it from the international development agencies, or from governments in Asia, require close assessment.

To learn more about the 2006 Ind more...

The Centre for International Private Enterprise's Virtual Business Association helps business association leaders develop both the necessary skills for managing voluntary organizations and an understanding of the basic principles of the market and democracy. CIPE is expanding the reach of the VBA into Africa, providing a means for African business associations to exchange best practices and jump-start their presence on the Internet.

The individual Web sites provide associations with a forum f more...

The telecentre.org Americas workshop was held at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue coinciding with the end of the Pacific Community Networking Association (PCNA) summit. The opening exercises were followed by a presentation on early (and quickly evolving) thinking about telecentre.org. Based on a request from the group, this fed into a circle where all of the networks in the room had a chance to introduce themselves.

Some 15 networks in the Americas were briefly described; ranging from local to re more...

This document identifies essential training needs of Last Mile Initiative operators such as info-kiosk operators, telecenter staff and micro-telcos as well as existing training materials related to public access center management and organized these materials in a useful manner. Download this article here: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/resourceptrdb/uploads/partnerfile/upload/349/ICT_Resources_Matrix_9-14-05.doc

Being an effective Internet and ICTs trainer requires more than just being familiar with the tools. Developing a good training programme takes careful planning and an understanding of the organization's and individual learner's needs and context. The site draws on the ItrainOnline partners' experience in training and materials development and offers a collection of resources for trainers which focus on Internet and ICTs training in NGOs and community organizations. The site also lists resources more...

Social Signal are experts at turning site visitors into site contributors. Their practice is based on extended research into online participation, experience in online campaigning, and years of collective wisdom on social marketing, strategy and communications. They put knowledge that work for building online communities with active, engaged audiences. Social Signal work to create a snowball effect; where a contribution from one sincere, articulate user sets off a chain reaction where other use more...