In Pharoah's land

I spent the third week of November in a land that is very popular for ancient civilization and stuff like that. Don't tell Greece. Anyway I was in Cairo, Egypt for a Telecentre Leaders Forum for Middle East and North Africa at the invitation of telecentre.org.
For starters, Egypt i think is a land of many surprises. From the architecture. I wondered how the brief invasion by Napoleon could have such a huge effect on them.
It feels so out of Africa yet of course it is apart of Africa. They have very good road network but the motorists remind you that they are truly African. Old cars are used for taxis and everyone seems to be in a hurry changing lanes at the slightest opportunity!
But of course their services are far much better than expected.
While here I was staying in the upper class side of Cairo, but I got a chance to visit the down town side as well. Well old ramscackledbuildings with somepeoplesleeping in incpomplete houses and stff like that. This especially on the highway that talkesyou to the pyramids at Giza.
Talking about Giza, there is one ancient wonder that stands in this ancient town. the Pyramids.
I thought i would have handed myself a raw deal if I visited pharoahjs land and didn't the so calledwonders of theanciet world.
But what a wonder they are! How didthose grandfatehrs of ours carry those huge stones to put up such a structuteabout 35m tall?
How did they do so with bare hands when in this day and age we need all the technology we can have to make a tunnel infrom of a hut?
If it is true that these structures are over 4000 years old, then they may well satnd for more than 4000 years to come and yet look as strong as they did when they were first erected!
Nowonder they are wonders of the ancient world.
I had read about allthese things in history, seen the pictures in the history books but seeing them face to face brings a new reality that you can never get in a history class. No wonder millions pay money to comeand marvel in the name of tourism. and in millions they come.
On the day I was there, tehre were probabbly 10.000 of us from everywhere including Egypt.
And Egyptians are sosmart at making money. They have tourism police in palce to direct visitors. How brilliant!

Telecentre Leaders forum - MENA 7 days to go

The telecentre movement in the Middle East and Northern Africa is steadily growing. From the 19th – 20th November 2008, over 40 telecentre leaders from Egypt, Sudan and Yemen will meet at Air Defense House and Hotel, Nozha Street, Heliopolis Cairo, Egypt to discuss ways of strengthening the telecentre movement in the region. This Telecentre Leaders Forum is organized by Egypt ICT Trust Fund in partnership with UNDP –Egypt and telecentre.org as part of the project Empowering Communities through telecentre networking. The objectives of the TLF Include:
o To bring together leading telecentre practitioners as a strategy to build relationships for addressing challenges telecentres face

o To share opportunities that telecentres can use to increase efficiency and sustainability

o To discuss ways of improving networking and knowledge sharing within telecentre practitioners in Egypt, Sudan, Yemen and across the MENA region

Networking and knowledge sharing are central to the growth of any ecosystem and the telecentre movement is no exception.

I will join participants and the knowledge sharing team at the Egypt ICT Trust Fund to share experiences on how the telecentre.org portal, mailing list and Telecentre Times can be used to strengthen the telecentre movement in MENA. Thanks to telecentre.org.
But just before we meet at the TLF, I would love to read how best you think such knowledge sharing platforms can be used to strengthen the telecentre movement in MENA region.

Hard to Say Good Bye

A fairly sized baby faced girl walked to my desk one warm afternoon in 2004 and asked if I could read through the story she had on her diskette. I was society editor then and she was a budding features writer fresh from University. I took a few hours before reading through her story. All that time she simply watched me as I click the mouse, cut, copied and pasted as all editors do on a daily basis.
After taking my page to bed, I got the time to look through her work and boy it was a well written piece. That’s when I asked for her name and she politely informed me that she is Maryian Alowo.
Fast forward two years later, we all moved to different workplaces and as chance was to have it, we became friends. We enjoyed tea together with other girl friends every Friday at a small swanky restaurant in Kampala. Soon the tea parties became home visits and I can’t explain how we became the best of friends.
I loved Maryian’s indefatigable nature. Little wonder she quickly rose through the ranks at the New Vision newspaper.
Today she left for Sweden for an MA in Global Journalism. As all girlfriends do, I had to drop her off at the airport. I never understood why people wiped away tears when they bid farewell to loved ones even if it was for a few months. I always thought they shouldn’t cry because though they are not like the Terminator, THEY WILL BE BACK!
Maryian will be gone for years. Though I didn’t shed a tear, my heart was breaking and bleeding with lots of unshed tears and pain as I gave her the last hug, peck and watched her role her bags into the check in area. I felt this emptiness as I drove back to Kampala. I will surely miss the tea parties, the hug and above all her cute smile.
But there is nothing better in life than improving on your status, educational level etc. For Maryian, that time has come. Being the bright girl that I know she is, she will make the most of her time in Olebro, Sweden. We are glad to have a blue print to follow.
Anyway that is too much for my girl friend. I recently landed on a nice book How to stop worrying and start living. Let me see if I can pick it from a bookstore here. Am not such a fun of self help books but It seems a nice book to read. I will tell you about it soon. It could help under the circumstances am in. What do you think?

Are we safe on the Internet?

When a malicious person or person (s) got into my mail and solicited 1200 pounds from my contacts, I sent a warning message to all my friends telling them about the ‘hacker’. But Peter a good friend of mine corrected me saying that is a ‘cracker’ and not a ‘hacker’. Anyway I got to understand the two words just the way am learning how to keep my email more secure.
Just recently an organisation I was doing some work for got the whole website cracked into and erased or something like that. What I know is when we tried to log on there was nothing except empty pages.
Through my status updates on Skype and Facebook, a friend notified me that it is the age of hackers and crackers.
But just how secure can we be on the internet. A lot of my friends from around the world wrote or called to find out where exactly I am. That means most of the people I know are Smart in today’s speak. I have been doing some research on the internet to find out how we can increase our internet security. I got 99 tips that I think can be helpful to everyone. If you have more tips on how we can increase our security on the internet, please share with us.

Citizen Journalism: Organisations benefit from user generated content

In a fairly old, semi permanent building on Hoima Road, just off Rubaga Road-Bakuli, are hundreds of manila papers with information about women empowerment and entrepreneurship pasted on the walls. There are also art pieces and pictures from trainings conducted over the last 22 years. Only one newspaper clip about one of the beneficiaries is pasted on the door.

But in these humble settings lies the story of the Ntulume Village Women's Development Association (NVIWODA ). NVIWODA aims to build the capacity, support and encourages indigenous women groups working in communities to grow.

As we sit to talk about NVIWODA, Cissy Nyarwa, the Programme Coordinator tells us one success story after another. She talks about the women’s lives that have been changed, enterprises started, skills built and confidence rejuvenated as a result of her organisation’s work.
But the where-is-all-this-information-documented look was on everyone’s face.
“Documentation is our biggest challenge,” Nyarwa explains.
But NVIWODA and so many other organisations are in the same boat. Documentation is a challenge.
But now the citizen journalism genie is out of the bottle and is the answer to the documentation challenge that organisations face.
Big media houses are taking advantage of content submitted by the lay-man who in most cases is not a trained journalist. CNN for example has the iReport whose pictures have sometimes been their only source of information in some situations.
The value of user generated content is undeniable. A lot of information is lying idle in annual reports, notice boards and files all stacked in the organsiation resource centres. Very few people have access to this valuable information.
This poses a risk of reinventing the wheel, duplicating and wasting resources.
For this reason, Citizen Journalism Africa (CJA) is giving organisations a chance to take advantage of citizen journalism and the benefits Web 2.0 can provide.
“If people can be encouraged to share more about who they are and what they do, they will become more visible and will not be misunderstood” explains CJA’s Noma Ronghana.
Noma is in the country to oversee the program ahead of the citizen journalism workshop in September.
CJA is partnering with the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and Busoga Rural Open Source Initiative (BROSDI ) as the focal points for the programme in Uganda. 15 other organisations are expected to participate.
The program is covering six countries including Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The training will focus on among other issues the basics of journalism, interviewing, photo journalism, digital storytelling and writing press releases.
“Part of the training will focus on how you can use Web 2.0 tools to enhance the work of your organisation,” Noma explains.
This is bound to change the knowledge sharing in many organisations.

Kampala’s weird signposts

Every city has its own uniqueness. But for Kampala, it is the bad roads, polluted air (though nothing compared to Beijing), noise, bad traffic, name it. Having lived here fo so long, some of these may pass me by unnoticed. But recently there is something that caught my attention and that is the sign posts.
For starters, everything in this city from a Rolex making stall to the statehouse has a sign post. It is the class that differs.
But when I recently found banners and roadside adverts calling people to gain weight quickly without any side effect, I was puzzled. I literally stopped in my tracks.
Which century are the people in this country living? But given the fact that men love small women for fun, to be seen around with a portable girlfriend, the opposite is true when it comes to the one they take home for keeps – what we call wives.
Moving on Kampala road the busiest street in the city revealed so much. First was the ‘gain weight quickly’ which I quickly justified as explained.
But a few meters down the same road was another advert signpost for ‘gain bums quickly’. Being the lanky type, I thought that would be the solution to my ‘bumlessness’ and ‘hiplessness’. But a Muzungu ‘white’ friend I was with quickly told me that he finds me attractive and any additional bums or hips would break his heart.
Well that consoled me but considering that he won’t marry me, what is the next thing.
Well there was more to come. ‘Enlarge your breasts, or manhood’ now that was the kicker for me. I want to know how many men are flocking these offices to have their manhood enlarged given the stereotype that size is what matters in the bedroom. I won’t go there.
I talked to my workmates to find out what they felt about the signposts.
“Its all about the money. People are looking for quick ways to get dime,” Ssozi said. I didn’t ask if he visited the offices in regard to his manhood. Oh, I can’t believe I even thought about that.
But Silvia says she was as surprised as I was.
I will visit these offices and may be next time you visit my blog, I will give you a success story.
But those are not the only weird signposts. Look at the one on the left. What the hell did they want to mean.
I tried to think about it but couldn't figure it out. If you do, leave me a comment.

So am the new signing...

Finding a new job is fascinating – you get to meet new people, new friends, new environment, name it. Everything is as it is supposed to be. Everyone is smiling and looking every inch like an angel.
And so it was at the Women of Uganda Network where I started working in the Information and knowledge sharing department.
When my boss introduced me to the other staff members, Ssozi the cheeky one it seems said, “oh! So she is the new signing” and went ahead to tell us about a new deputy headmaster at his high school whom students referred to as “the new signing”. May be they didn’t know his name but since he was new in the school, he was ‘the new signing’ and the name stuck.
But being a new signing comes with its fair share of challenges.
Who do I ask if I can’t find the coffee maker? Who can I share this joke with first before everyone writes me off as a chatterbox? Etc.
The small things that make life in a new office really fun. Well the staff here is smart and friendly. I easily fit in. I have only been here for 16 working hours but it feels like home. And the good thing is no one called me ‘the new signing’. Even if I really am.

Artists take Kampala by storm

Uganda is not a very famous African nation. I don’t mean to say this in a bad way but if you ask people which African countries they know, South Africa and Nigeria would come first. Until the movie Last King of Scotland was shot here, Uganda was only synonymous with Idi Amin Dada. Other people will ask if it is one of the states in Nigeria! Ignorance!
This beautiful country which as we like to say here in Kampala-the capital city by the way-is ‘gifted by nature’. But in the recent past, it is more than just nature gifting us.
Am sure you don’t quite understand yet what am talking about.
Well to hell with the preamble and let me get right to the issues.
Imagine this, in a space of five months, we have had huge international artists including Kirk Franklin (I started with a personal favourite), Akon, UB40 (who apparently held their last concert as a group here in Kampala, Uganda. Am not sure whether it was a marketing ploy); KC and Jojo (whose show flopped because the heavens let loose and it rained. But didn’t we say we are gifted by nature?).
But now to this list, in come Wyclef Jean and Shaggy in August and all in a space of two weeks!
What changed in the pearl of Africa.

Well, I gave it a few thoughts. First Ugandans love having fun- pretty obvious, yah? Who doesn’t? Well now they are parting with large sums of money. Paying more than 15 to100 dollars for a single show! Is that a sign of improved standard of living. Am not quite sure about that especially in country where the minimum wage is yet to be set!
Do artists just love coming down here? Well, we are gifted by nature, warm sunshine, which everyone falls in love with as soon as they set foot here. Some even never want to go back. Ask former German Ambassador Klaus Holderbaum.
But this can’t keep these millionaire artists here? I talked to a few friends;
“I think companies just learnt to get hold of the artists that people want. Now that Ugandans are willing to part with any amount of money in the name of having fun, artists will continue streaming to Kampala,” Patrick told me.

As a society reporter with one of the leading publications in the country, I talked to visiting Kenyan artists Red San and Nameless about what kept bringing them back.
For Nameless, the answer was simple “the Ugandan crowd knows how to have fun and just wows you along,” he told me.
But that was 2005. This is 2008. Did the crowd even become more electric?
Innocent a close friend and advertising officer with a big publishing company thinks so and in his words, “it is just the beginning”. If that is so, then I will let you know who comes after wyclef Jean and shaggy. Watch this space

Kirk Franklin stomps Kampala

We screamed our selves hoarse. We moved so close to the stage so we could catch a glimpse and may be touch him. We were all star struck.
The ten thousand people gathered at the Lugogo Cricket Oval booed most curtain raiser because they couldn’t wait any longer. Curtain raisers came from as far as Nairobi, Kenya. No alcohol was sold. It was an event like no other before. Kirk Franklin the renown gospel music maestro was in Kampala.
9:30pm on the dot, Kirk in a white sleeveless, blue jeans and boots leaped on stage and declared “aint no superstar here except Jesus Christ.” We screamed even louder.
Though Kirk appeals to both ‘world’ the born again Christians were the majority here.
It was more like a praise and worship session at church.
He sang, prayed, danced and the crowd followed along faithfully.
Highlight of the event: Performance by the African Children’s choir with some proceeds of the show going to them.
Favourite song(s): It was Stomp and Revolution. This was a predominately young crowd so you understand why.
Bad points: The sound system was good but the microphones sometimes let us down. The cordless couldn’t work! Kirk had to use the alternative which limited his movements.
Imagine this: Kirk whi;le performing Imagine me one of his latest singles, gave the audience a chance to sya bye bye to any issues that try to bring them down. He screamed issues like ‘bad people, bad habits, insecurities, etc and we faithfully sang bye bye bye bye bye bye bye byeeeeeeeeeee
But soon enough it was time for him to say bye and he couldn’t get himself to leave the stage. It was close to midnight but still the audience wanted more of the superstar – or I forgot he said he isn’t a superstar.
He waved until he was led away by one of his people.
It was a show like no other. It had a positive message and there was no doubt the crowd loved him and so did I.
I nursed a backache for two days but I wasn’t complaining. No wonder when they said he would be at Kampala Pentecoatal Church for the Sunday Morning service, the church was full to capacity. Many people were duped and I was one of them. We never seem to get enough of stars. Or do we?

But one song I learnt
"aint no party like a Holy Ghost Part coz a holy ghost party don't stop"

Ol' school meets new school

The telecentre movement is just about two decades old so one can say it is still in its infancy. Some of the people who started the first telecentres in the world are still actively involved.
When I joined the telecentre movement about two years ago, there were names I couldn't run away from and one such name is Richard Fuchs.

It is difficult to talk about the telecentre movement without Richard Fuchs.

When I first heard about him, he was the director of ICT4D at Canada's International Development Centre (IDRC) but he is currently IDRC director for South East and East Asia.

At the Telecentre Leaders Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia December 2007 organised by telecentre.org, I was excited to meet all the participants but what I didn't know was that Richard Fuchs would be present.

When he was introduced to the crowd, you could see the visible friendly smiles, nod here and there from the participants coming from 42 countries around the world.

All of them had in one way or another met, interacted, or been affected by what Richard Fuchs had started more than 20 years in a small Canadian village where the first telecentre was opened.

I didn't think I would have a chance to talk to him. When 'donors' are in the vicinity, everyone wants a piece of them and so Fuchs was not different. Everyone wanted to talk to him

My Chance came during in the telecentre village at the GK3.
He came to chat with Community Content Facilitators working with telecenrte.org website of whom am among.
It was like 'old school meets new school'

The guy who started the first telecentre and many others around the world talking to the young generation which has been impacted by what he started.

And the excitement was visible. My friend Leonce Sessou from Centre Songhai in Benin told me to take as many pictures as possible as Fuchs explained the new technologies that telecentres can sue to attract users - The V Phone.

To demonstrate the technology, he let Leonce talk to his son.
'I love you son, I was demonstrating to friends how to use the V phone," Richard told his son at the end of the conversation.
It was from his articles in the Telecentre Times that I knew about the history of the telecentre movement. Still meeting him in person, I learnt something new - new technology for telecentres.
It is no wonder taht who ever meets Fuchs never stops talking about him. Am not different.

It was nice meeting the 'grandfather' of the telecentre movement.....

Of me and my passwords...

This technology era (you can say web 2.0) comes with lots of advantages. We have YouTube, Facebook, flikr,Gmail, yahoo and blogs just name it...we have all ways of sharing, storing and getting information and makes networking easy.
But for me this comes with one huge problem- so many accounts and therefore so many passwords as well.
That may not a problem and don't be tempted to think am a lazy being.

A techie friend advised me to use different passwords to avoid being predictable by the spammers and hackers of this century...

Can you imagine there are people who derive satisfaction in spoiling what others spend hours building? Beats my understanding but that’s for another day.

Today I just wanted to tell you about my password dilemma

One day and I actually mean most days my head just goes kaput and I can't remember which password is for which account.
So I have to send YouTube the I forgot my password email and the same for yahoo, Gmail, flikr, Face Book teh list is endless. May be I have subscribed to anything I can possibly subscribe to under this sun as long as it guarantees easier access to information and networking.

But it is for a good reason.

How else would I get to see that short George Bush jibe if it was not for YouTube.
How would you expect me to survive 10 hours behind a computer with no joke...
I need a life and YouTube is part of my life now....

Hey I was talking about clicking on the I forgot my password tab....

Why because we want to avoid being so predictable by the hackers we end up using different passwords and at the end of the day we can remember which password is for which account. Then we can't read no mail, see no videos on YouTube, or post friends pictures on Facebook

What do I do then? Don't give me a solution coz I got it

Hit the I forgot password tab. But I dread it

Telecom war in Uganda: Survival for the fittest but who gains

The Telecom war in Uganda is getting rather interesting of course depending on which side you are. If you are a user like myself, you must enjoy this. With the cut throat competition, we stand to benefit more.

Since the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in Uganda, more and more Telecom companies having been licensed to operate.
First was Celtel which came with an image that has mostly worked to their disfavour now if you ask me. Airtime was sold in dollars. This being a young economy meant most people were left out.

Enter MTN that appealed to all wanaichi with stacks of dollars or not. If you were in Uganda, you can vividly remember the shoe shiner who called his boss to tell him he had finished shinning the shoes so he can pick them.
It looked like everyone could be subscribed.

Enter 2007 and two more Telecom companies - UAE based Warid telececom and Hits telecom are liberalised.
Warid launched just this month January 2008.

A look at their outlets reveals long queues of hopeful subscribers who dream that their rates might be better.

In response MTN, Celtel and Uganda Telecom have invested heavily in advertising. Of course media houses and advertising firms win here.

But as the telecom companies continue fighting for customers, Ugandans hope the tariffs will be reduced.

A friend said she can't wait to make a call for at least 200 Uganda Shillings as compared to the 350 now on average. It costs about 0.67 cents to make a three minute call in Uganda.

So as the war rages who will benefit....
It will be me I hope....
Lets wait and see

My birthday and my job

I have a kind of job which my father can't understand. All he sees me do is click, click and click. My 15 year old stubborn nephew says I just like to 'smooch' (am not sure if he used the word correctly) my laptop all the time. Never mind that he can at least send mail, chat with friends but he is yet to hear about YouTube...

In this part of the world, such kids refer to themselves as the 'dotcom kids'....though they still don't know that YouTube exists!
Anyway at least they are better off than my father who at the age of 73, the most he has touched a computer is 5 minutes on my laptop when I asked him to type his name so I could show him how the computer works (by the way he is literate and speaks better English than I do because he went to school during the colonial era when Uganda was still under the British colonial rule. He says his English paper was marked in Great Britain......Whatever!)

But at least he can use a mobile phone anyway, but he is yet to get the full benefits that the dotcom era can provide.
So January 11 was my birthday. And it still feels good to wake up on yet another birth day an you are still on the good side of 20 by the way.
It being a working day, I hurried off to work with the hope that I would leave early and treat my girlfriends at least to a small party with a fine cake...
But come afternoon and my skype just won't shut down. All my friends from around the globe are calling and others chating all to wish me a happy birthday.
Time check 7 pm and am still chatting and talking.
Dad calls to wish me a happy birthday ...and it is indeed a happy birthday. After talking to my friends from around the world, the world feels like one village....
Such benefits my father may never enjoy
But just thinking, if a telecentre was availed in the village, he could may be skype chat at least with me my next birthday
If nothing is done, rest assured the digital divide will become wider...

Here comes 2008...

Happy new year everyone........
I don't know how long it takes before people stop wishing others a 'happy new year' ...
Because I thought I had only stopped saying happy New Year 2007 when I discovered 2008 was already knocking.
The images of the fireworks lighting up the midnight sky to usher in 2008 are still vivid in our minds because it has been only a fortnight since.
But before they completely disappear, and maybe we stop saying happy new year, I just would like to recap 2007.
An eventful year if you ask me
In the East Africa region, we saw the birth of new telecentre networks in each country - the Kenya network of telecentre, the Tanzania Network of telecentres and the Rwanda network of telecentres.
The knowledge sharing was strengthened with the start of a collaborative knowledge sharing project between telecentre.org and UgaBYTES which I work for.
So I hope 2008 means strengthening of these networks and therefore better performance of telecentres which UgaBYTES and telecentre.org ultimately craves.

2007 also saw the definition of the telecentre ecosystem with a charter that was drafted by the participants of the Telecentre Leaders Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
With a clear definition of values which include the passion to help empower the poor, marginalized and underserved utilize technologies to assist in improving their lives, openness to sharing experiences, information and knowledge, transparency, inclusiveness, technology neutrality, innovation, collaboration, respect for diversity, equity, continuous learning, localisation and local content creation.

If the philanthropists continue to put the money in such real issues which could bridge the digital divide then ultimately 2008 will be great. Let us keep our fingers crossed…

Telecentre Leaders Forum December 9-10, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Part 11

The seven areas outlined below were discussed extensively during day two of the Telecentre Leaders fourm organsied by telecentre.org in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 2007.

1. Network capacity building and peer to peer leaning
2. Sustainability Research Scope
3. Telecentre.org training academy
4. Products and services for telecentres
5. Developing training materials for library
6. Developing a cookbook for national networks
7. Volunteer exchange program

Strengthening and expanding telecentre networks. This aims to build the capacity and knowledge of network leaders through peer-to-peer sharing, specialized training and through collecting and disseminating the knowledge of network leaders.
This will be done through building the capacity of networks, strengthen telecentres to better serve people and communities. Strengthen national, regional and global networks.
To strengthen the capacity of telecentre networks, participants identified face to face meetings and workshops, Online forum like blogs, Mailing list, Online support, Staff exchanges, internships for emerging, develop materials “how to manuals, curricular for leaders”, scholarships for short trainings among others.
Emphasis was placed on measuring impact and performance, coordination and recognition of performers.


Strengthen the capacity of telecentre managers through the global telecentre academy. telecentre.org through its partners (telecentre networks) is working on establishing a virtual telecentre academy for telecentre practitioners. Some of the issues to be looked into include certification and development of a curiculum.
The academy will cover such issues as management among others

Telecentre Leaders Forum December 9-10, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Am always excited about the Telecentre Leaders Forum (TLF) whether it is a regional one like the East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum organised by UgaBYTES or a continental one like the Africa Telecenrte Leaders Forum or better still the global one like the one I attended in Kuala Lumpur, Malysia that was organised by telecentre.org.
For starters, such events come with a lot of excitement. As a person interested in travel that is just a tip of it. But also as a person who is involved and interested in the knowledge sharing in the Telecentre ecosystem (or is it movement...take your pick) . At such events, I put faces to names, promote knowledge sharing platforms in the Telecentre movement and so on.
With more than 90 participants from over 42different countries spanning 5 continents
the Telecentre Leaders Forum organised once in two years by telecentre.org has established itself as the conference on shaping the future of the telecentre ecosystem.

So with the diversity of the participants, tehre is a lot of sharing and information exchange expecetd and definately there a lot of expectations and indeed there was a lot to write home about. I will just let you in

The two day Telecentre Leaders Forum at the GK3 attracted over 90
participants from over 44 countries around the world to map the future of
the telecentre ecosystem.

The participant expectations were diverse. They touched on

* the role of telecentre.org,
* role of *national telecentre networks
* Importance of Knowledge sharing in the telecentre movement
* Sustainability issues

* Social enterprise

* Technology, policies and regulations and

* the telecentre.org academy.



As the agenda shaped from the participants expectations, seven areas were
identified for further discussions and concretization. Among these;

1. Network capacity building and peer to peer leaning
2. Sustainability Research Scope
3. Telecentre.org training academy
4. Products and services for telecentres
5. Developing training materials for library
6. Developing a cookbook for national networks
7. Volunteer exchange program


on day two of the event, these seven areas were discussed indepth. I will give you updates in my next post...