At 12:38 AM 9/30/04, Andy Carvin wrote:
"community + knowledge production + learning + ICTs = telecentre"
Perhaps a better starting point as a base definition of telecentre, around which services, information dissemination, and knowledge networking should build up.
Community-> services; Knowledge production-> knowledge network; Learning-> formal and non-formal; ICTs-> information and content.
Regards. Hakik.
I think one of the many exercises we will have to explore is mapping out the diversity of telecentres -- from rural telecottages to urban community ICT production centers, to everything in between -- and what other activities would we consider (or not consider) within our frame of work.
The wireless example is a good one. I'm at MIT this week, and it's a pleasure taking my laptop anywhere on campus and being fully connected to the internet. Other neighborhoods in Boston have free public wi-fi as well, and the city of Philadelphia is building a city-wide wi-fi network. Does this make it a telecenter? No. Does this mean it's not an important aspect of bridging the digital divide? I'd say it's quite important. But it's still different than a telecentre. It's more like ubiquitous public computing, minus the curriculum and community.
To me, telecentres, telecottages, CTCs, etc, provided added value beyond a PC connected by a wire (or a signal) to the Internet. It's their people, their educational courses, their community activities, their civic engagement, and their neighborhood leadership that make them a telecentre. I think in an ideal world, we would all have equitable, ubiquitous access to the Internet at home and wirelessly, but even if we did, telecentres would still serve as community institutions in which people could come together to get hands-on training, learn about new technologies, co-produce community content, and other activities you would associate with a non-ICT community center, but in an ICT context.
Or, to offer a gross simplication:
community + knowledge production + learning + ICTs = telecentre
Perhaps what we would eventually want to do is offer a broad concept of what telecentres and related public community ICT centres can contribute to the world, then outline related activities that are somewhat different from telecentres but still within their sphere of interest, such as ubiquitous public wifi, community networks, etc.
ac
Taran Rampersad wrote:
Random thought: What's the difference between a telecenter and laptop computers/portable computers (such as the Simputer) with wireless internet access? Is a telecenter really limited to a geographic center, or is it instead a virtual center of which we speak. I think the latter gives us more options, but I'm not 100% sure it's a telecenter.
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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
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