USING TELECENTERS FOR DEVELOPMENT:

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USING TELECENTERS FOR DEVELOPMENT CAN WE MAKE
IT HAPPEN? Royal D. Colle and Raul
Roman Department of Communication Cornell
University Information Technologies Group
at CID Harvard University Cambridge MA, April
17th 2002
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A brief account of our involvement in telecenters

• A telecenter project in South India (IDRC)
• A Handbook for Telecenter Staffs (FAO, ITU)
• Experts panel
• Field research
• Field evaluation

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What is this seminar about?

• A brief introduction to the rationale behind
  telecenters
• Information needs assessment in India
• Some major issues in telecenter development
• CONTENT
• AWARENESS
• SUSTAINABILITY
• An invitation to discussion

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The telecenter movement

• A worldwide movement China, India, Mexico.
• I dont know what the Internet is or how it
  works, but it is changing our lives.
• A village chief in Cambodia

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Three assumptions behind telecenters

• Information and communication are important in
  development
• ICTs enlarge their impact
• Shared access a strategy

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Our research project in India

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Assessing community needs

• Qualitative data 20 focus groups
• Quantitative data survey (N750)
• Objectives of data collection
• strategic value project design and evaluation
• village awareness
• participation (telecenter steering committees)

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Some information about our villages
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Some information about our villages
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Some information about our villages
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The problem of content why is it important?

Trying to get information from the Internet is
like drinking from a firehose you dont even
know what the source of the water is.



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What we found out regarding content

• WHAT type of content? Differences depending on
  gender, age and occupation
• Health
• Government
• Employment
• Agriculture
• Through what MEDIA?

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Media use in villages studied
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Media use in villages studied
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Media use in villages studied
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Socioeconomic differences in the use of
information
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Socioeconomic differences in the use of
information
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WHEN? The right tempo of content
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Content creation the role of universities

1. Continual research needs assessments 2. Own
knowledge packaging 3. Packaging of information
from external sources 4.Training of students in
different aspects of ICT for development. 5. ICT
training for community groups 6. Orient
university officials and faculty to become
opinion leaders in this area.
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The issue of awareness an example from India


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How important are these services?
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How important are these services?
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How important are these services?
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Raising awareness the use of intermediaries

• Too often projects assume motivation is present
  too often it is not. In designing ICT systems
  within development projects it is critical to
  have an answer to the Why should I? question
  for all stakeholders Why should they learn ICT
  skills? Why should they access ICTs? Why should
  they use ICT-borne information?
• Richard Heeks
• The role of the telecenter champion
• The role of volunteers

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The issue of financial sustainability
Creativity in income generation Fees Contract
s Shared access Membership fees The examples
of Australia, Hungary and Bhutan. Still there is
some controversy around this issue...
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The controversy around financial sustainability

Soon we will be evaluating public libraries in
terms of their sustainability, not in terms of
the cultural and educational service that public
libraries are set to provide. I believe
telecenters should be a modern version of
public libraries. Alfonso Gumucio
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What are we learning? Willingness to pay for
services
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Some conclusions

• A demand-creating project
• No field of dreams
• Information necessary but not enough

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And many issues for discussion

• Are our projects contributing to equality of
  choices or are they favoring the already most
  advantaged sectors? In other words, are we
  widening the gap? Or are we maintaining a gap at
  a higher level?
• Are telecenter projects sustainable in the long
  term while providing affordable development
  communication services?
• What is the scalability of these pilot projects?
• Can THEY (the villagers) make it happen?

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A final note

• People in the West tacitly assume that their
  model or practice of decision-making is
  universal and it is not.
• The Western model includes
• Symptoms crystallized
• Underlying problem identified
• Evidence and information gathered
• Alternative courses of action evaluated
• Apply decision mechanism among alternative
• For example, what if decisions are almost
  exclusively based on personal power? There is no
  need for information. And what if there are no
  resources beyond pure survival? There is no need
  for information.

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THANK YOU!
Royal D. Colle rdc4_at_cornell.edu Raul
Roman rr66_at_cornell.edu