Next Generation Telecentres May 3, 2010

There is so much here in your blog about Next Generation Telecentres  that I would love to discuss with you, about the history of ICT for under-served communities, that I don't know where to start. Maybe....right at the beginning, then jump to the end (what is happening now) and see if I can come back to "the middle" (lessons learned, analysis etc) at a later date.

So - right to the beginning. You mention "Moving beyond simple access to providing means for effectively using this access" - and that links us to a paper you wrote in First Monday back in December 2003

In there you wrote "What has been lost is the vision of achieving the widest possible distribution to communities and individuals ...of the remarkable opportunities for .... innovation; for active participation and devolved control; for an amplification of creativity and an intensification of "voice" which ICTs are making available.

Also, in the public discussions around the WSIS there is little sense of the Internet as a network, a network of networks, a technology with the capacity to engage and enable interaction across geographies and boundaries, both physical and cultural, and to support initiatives from the "bottom up" as well as the "top down". Nor, and finally, is there the sense of the creative ebullience that the Internet has let loose... alternative patterns of governance and consultation, new forms of services and production opportunities and new styles of knowledge creation and effective use."

As I read that immediately in my mind I was back in 2003. I remembered a list called (I think) "Voices of the South" which was an attempt to get the those voices heard at WSIS.  At one point people were discussing "community" and I posted an email that I had recently received from Chief Gbade Adejumo. The email described how the local community had celebrated the opening of the "Community Digital Information Centre" at Ago-Are (in June 2003). I gradually shared more about this and thus entered into discussion with Krishna Alluri of COL (Commonwealth of Learning) about realities on the ground. As the "Voices of the South" discussion continued, and we explored practical issues, I discovered that the problems I described for rural Nigeria were echoed by other members on the list - even as far away as rural India.

Back in 2003 I was so ignorant that I thought the Ago-Are Info Centre was a Telecentre - I didn't realise that "real telecentres" were government funded. Given the Ago-Are Info Centre was somewhat different I should probably describe it a little more.

The Info Centre was the vision of a local man - the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale - son of an illiterate farmer. Against the odds Peter got an education and then an IT training in the navy. I knew him from when he was living in London, married to a friend of mine, and trying to set up an ambitious digital inclusion project in his home area. Tragically Peter was killed in Nigeria in December 2000, in the early stages of implementing his project. All the equipment he had taken with him from the UK to launch the project was stolen, and, through his death, all the skills, knowledge and time he intended to give were also lost. However his friends and supporters carried forward fragments of his vision to see what could be achieved. As a result VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer David Mutua from Kenya came to Ago-Are to work with Peter's Uncle Timothy, with support from Chiefs Adejumo, Adetola and Mojoyinola, and also from Peter's widow Agnita, and me in the UK. The Ago-Are community provided the location for the Info Centre, and VSO had been able to help David to find money for three refurbished computers, a photo-copier, a printer, and a temperamental second-hand generator. There was also free training on a one-week computer course for two members of the community - who, in return, were to work as volunteers for the centre for three months, while it got on its feet. There was no external funding.

So the Info Centre was launched, back in 2003, and those ideals that you were thinking and writing back in 2003 have also been in my heart, and influencing my activities, through the intervening years. I knew back then that I didn't know exactly what Peter wanted to happen, and so, somehow, I had to discover the details of his vision alongside his contacts in Nigeria. Over the years I have been taught and supported by many generous and patient "cultural mentors" online and F2F during visits to Africa. I have experienced first hand all that you described back in 2003 regarding 'the remarkable opportunities for .... an intensification of "voice" which ICTs are making available.' the 'sense of the Internet as a network, a network of networks, a technology with the capacity to engage and enable interaction across geographies and boundaries, both physical and cultural, and to support initiatives from the "bottom up" ' and 'the creative ebullience that the Internet has let loose'

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to learn so much thanks to my Internet-enabled ongoing connections with the network of people I have come to know in Africa. I have struggled to share what I have been learning with established institutions "on my side of the digital divide" (in the "bandwidth rich" world) - but have usually found that established institutions prefer top-down information flows and it is hard to feed any "bottom up" information in against that current. I remain hopeful that  ' alternative patterns of governance and consultation, new forms of services and production opportunities and new styles of knowledge creation and effective use." ' will be recognised as desirable and valuable and when that day comes Dadamac will be ready to provide information from the "bottom up" and to enable the powers that be to engage in genuine consultation with people on the ground who really do know that realities that "development programmes" and "poverty alleviation initiatives" claim to want to address.

Enough of the starting point. Now back to the present, and all that you are trying to address with your ideas for Next Generation Telecentres.

I don't have time here, now, to share all the observations that your blog post has raised in my mind. Instead I am simply sharing some fragments of information that would frame a discussion with you if I had the opportunity.

• I have mentioned the starting point. 
• It led to what I now do with John Dada in rural Nigeria and online as Dadamac
  
• I would also like to also point to what people are doing now in Ago-Are with mobile phones - while still waiting for "usable access at a low enough cost" 
• The situation of Zittnet is relevant, at the forefront of Internet connectivity in rural Nigeria
  
• This well-informed viewpoint on what is happening regarding mobile phones and their impact on cyber cafes (typically in cities or large towns) is also relevant - Are mobile phones pushing cyber cafes our of business? 
• It is worth realising that the quality of mobile phone network availability and reliability that we tend to take for granted in most of UK is not necessarily replicated in rural Africa, even if there is, in theory, the possibility of using phones.