TIMES Pieces: Connecting the World, One Telecentre at a Time

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Image courtesy of Telecentre.org Foundation

We chat with Executive Director of Telecentre.org Foundation, Miguel Raimilla, to look at how a group of organisations with high ideals took the idea of linking people in remote communities to the world wide web and other communications technologies and morphed it into a cornerstone of sustainable development.

Autor*in Anna Rees, 11.26.13

We chat with Executive Director of Telecentre.org Foundation, Miguel Raimilla, to look at how a group of organisations with high ideals took the idea of linking people in remote communities to the world wide web and other communications technologies and morphed it into a cornerstone of sustainable development.

Launched in 2005, Telecentre.org Foundation (TCF) is an organisation with global outreach, establishing and supporting telecentres in communities across the world. These telecentres help connect people located rurally and remotely to the internet as well as other technologies that help promote personal and social development.

Acting in the role of managing body, TCF oversees a vast network of telecentre outlets. They operate TCF bases in 18 countries; work with similar, grassroots-level partners in a further 98 countries; reach an audience of one billion people every day; and collaborate with around 2,500 different organisations in the field of capacity-building and development through technology.

Image courtesy of Telecentre.org Foundation

The launch of the foundation was at once both the culmination of a movement that has its roots in the early 90s and the beginning of a new, more interconnected era of the telecentre community.

Ambitious Ideals, the 90s Tech Boom and the Birth of a Movement

The idea of connecting remotely-located people and those in developing regions to the internet via centralised outlets began in the 90s, when the profileration of technology was entering a huge growth phase. “There was not a lot of clear understanding even in the early 90s. There was just huge enthusiasm around the world of technology” Mr Raimilla states. “We had an interest in tech, we thought it would help us. Now it’s become what we do.”

Mr Raimilla himself was among the first to get involved in what was back then a largely grassroots movement in the mid 90s. Towards the end of the decade, the movement had started to gather huge momentum with a number of private and government institutions deploying a huge number of computers to community-based organisations around the world in an effort to bridge digital divides.

Image courtesy of Telecentre.org Foundation

Around this time, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada was becoming very interested in learning how this technology could be made more accessible to people, especially at a community level, initiating a program from which TCF eventually emerged as an independent, non-profit organisation. Microsoft and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) were simulatenously starting to weigh into the field and “that is when we decided to move from a program to a global initiative,” Mr Raimilla says. “The founders of this movement are basically the SDC, IDRC and Microsoft. They put a lot of money together and they said ‘why don’t we do things in a more organised fashion. Let’s go and identify the best areas out there and try to work with all of them and see what we can do.'” IDRC and Microsoft remain key financial supporters of TCF to this day.

All Together Now

This collaborative approach helped streamline and centralise the entire movement so as to take a more targeted approach towards connecting people to the internet and providing tech-based tools for personal education and social improvement.

In the beginning, efforts were largely focussed on getting software and hardware to specific locations, establishing a physical, central spot where people could log on and encouraging local community members to get involved. The movement was quick to draw large support from organisations within the tech community. “In many ways there was a great rotation of players, initially because the focus was on deploying gadgets,” Mr Raimilla states “We had the support of pretty much everyone who was interested. Pretty much everyone was willing to donate their share, what they had, and over time that has changed significantly.”

Being pioneers in any field has its ups and downs. Of course there is the ability to explore unchartered waters and set the agenda for those that follow – but breaking new ground in any area brings its own challenges.

Image courtesy of Telecentre.org Foundation

“I would say that the fundamental challenge for this community is the fact that, in the very beginnning most of the organisations that ended up running these centres were not experts in technology at all.” Mr Raimilla muses “These were organisations [whose] main area of expertise was human rights, environment, social justice, peace and the like.”

“Very early on, people realised that someone had to pay the bills for the electricity, the paper, the ink – none of that was in the initial planning. Because of the structure of many of these organisations, they struggled to develop a business model that is effective and sustainable.

[The sector] has been changing a lot but the reality is that the number of telecentres doesn’t show any indication of decreasing. On the contrary, we see that more and more oganisations are opening these kinds of centres with a different name but the concept is basically the same. There are good lessons [that have been] learnt to prevent organisations from running into the same problems, [allowing them] the opportunity to become sustainable more quickly.”

The Main Drivers of Today: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Just as swiftly as technology evolves, so too has the telecentre movement had to adapt quickly in order to stay relevant. The initial focus of supplying computers and technology to remote and developing regions has given way to a new, more strategy-based goal: how can the technology supplied to a region respond to the needs of the local community?

“The days of just needing access are gone,” Mr Raimilla admits. “What people are looking for is relevant information, relevant content, relevant tools and for that, you have to become more serious about the expertise you want to share with your potential clients. As an organisation, we now work on how we can respond to the people in a more effective way. The main drivers among the telecentre community are innovation and entrepreneurship.”

TCF works with partners on a localised level to develop and deliver programmes that benefit local communities, including acting as a channel for exclusive, online educational resources, while on a broader, universal level, their website acts as a collaborative platform where participants from across the world can access an online, public library; upload relevant photos and videos; post blogs; and share ideas, developments and know-how.

Image courtesy of Telecentre.org Foundation

“One of the fundamental achievements of the foundation was to look at people that were using this technology in their countries and who now feel that they belong to a global family.” Mr Raimilla enthuses, “[The sense of] belonging has been crictical in the way we now see the future of this community and to better understand the power of this community.”

Next Steps

TCF has, to date, built a formidable platform that connects people and provides opportunities for education and knowledge building. The organisation’s plans for the future are to harness the direct channel it has to a large global audience in order to implement programmes for social good.

“The future of the telecentre as a global community is exactly that: we are a global community. We are able to run massive campaigns and provide massive reach and diverse data to stakeholders that are searching for effective ways to do this,” Mr Raimilla explains before outlining a recent programme the orgainsation ran targeting women. “We did an experiment that started last year with the International Telecommunication Union. We joined forces and we delivered our first global training curriculum for women. Just using the infrastructure of the telecentres, we were able to reach over 800,000 women.”

The advent of mobile technology has been a boon for the movement as more and more people become acquainted with and seek out ways of engaging with technology. While technology is obviously the foundation upon which the delivery of those lofty, mid-90s ideologies are hinged, it only makes up part of the picture. Without ideas – or, more precisely – without the human element (the desire to make a change and the inituition to use technology in a way that is meaningful), nothing would work.

“The idea behind the telecentre is that it is all about enabling other things to happen. Tech is just a tool but you have to get it right first if you want to talk about [using it for] community development and environment.”

Get further insight into Telecentre.org Foundation and its global network by visiting their website.

TIMES Pieces is a monthly editorial series on RESET.org where we speak with people who are employing TIMES principles (Telecommunications, IT, Mobile, E-Commerce, Service Provider) for social and environmental good. Read more in the series: TIMES Pieces

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