> 3. Where should we focus our efforts during the coming 3 years? On ICT
> policy? Creating ICT projects with revenue-generation models that are
> quickly self-supporting? Demonstrating the value of ICT to developing
> country communities?

Universities in developing countries need to build their ICT capacity
for a variety of reasons. For the purposes of development, universities
potentially can contribute significantly to the nurturing and long term
support of community telecenters and related ICT resources. As partners,
for example, they can:

(1) Conduct continual research on community information needs so that
appropriate information resources can be developed.

(2) Conduct on-going e-Readiness studies at the regional and community
level and interpret their results for regional and local policy
formulation and action.

(3) Convert its own research and "academic" knowledge into education,
information, and training packages suitable for community use.

(4) Mobilize, interpret, integrate, and package information from
external authoritative sources and tailor it to the needs of populations
in surrounding communities.

(5) Train students in the application of ICTs to development problems
by: assigning them as student interns at community telecenters, having
them collect indigenous case studies and "lessons learned" related to
development initiatives, involving them in data collection and
processing related to e-Readiness and information needs analysis
studies, and training them in the process of information packaging.

(6) Design and execute ICT training programs for various community
groups, especially those that are likely to be by-passed by
conventional ICT training.

(7) Through their participation as students in this program, prepare a
new generation of professionals in various sectors (health, education, 
agriculture) to use and support the application of ICTs and telecenters
for community development and poverty alleviation programs.

(8) Experiment with innovation approaches to ICT4D.

(9) Actively contribute to the Country Gateway (information portal)
system. 

(10) Establish a community ICT access (telecenter) facility as part of a
university program.

We're working on this idea in China and would like to learn more about
other developing nations universities' experiences in these matters.
Would be happy to have messages directed to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Roy Colle
Cornell University



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