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...