IF we know each other, it will be easier! Telecentre.org Academy Global Meeting Who is Who

We are here Who are we and where are we from Country: India Leading organization: M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Agents involved in the NTA: Multi-stakeholder partnership (Major: GGA Secretariat, MSSRF, Telecentre.org,, IGNOU, ISRO, etc.) Working languages in the NTA: English

What do we do M S Swaminathan Research Foundation 100Coastal Systems Research 200Biotechnology 300Biodiversity 400Ecotechnology 500Food Security 600Education, Communication, Training and Capacity Building Founded in A Not-for-profit Research and Development Foundation

>300,000 Number of telecentres in your country Which are the most outstanding telecentre networks or actions in your country? Grameen Gyan Abhiyan (Rural Knowledge Empowerment Movement – Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre) Does the NTA leading organization manage a telecentre network? If so, how many telecentres are in the network? More than 400 organizations; More than 200,000 telecentres What are the most popular tasks and usages in the telecentre? Providing locale specific need based information / knowledge in different thematic areas such as agriculture, fisheries, microenterprises, government schemes, civic services, market prices and market linkages for locally produced commodities, weather, and weather crop related advisories, etc. Which social groups use the telecentre most frequently? Under privileged groups who are also economically poor; most of them living below poverty line (i.e, an income of USD 1 or less than per day) Telecentres in your country

What word do you use to refer to a motivator in your country? Knowledge Workers, CIC operators, sanchalaks, CSC managers, etc. How is a telecentre motivator’s professional profile in your country? Technocrafts or Social Workers or Subject Matter Specialist Facilitators >10,000 umber of potential motivators who could be reached in the future

What is your experience on motivator training up to now? About motivator training Needs of the communities Locale Specific Demand Driven Content Awareness and Training Programmes Linkages Knowledge - Action Extensive discussions – Policy makers, research institutions, panchayat leaders, community based organiztions, academics, etc. Document – Village Profiles, Time Line Series Using different participatory rural appraisal techniques - focus group meetings with different sections of the community, transect, time and trend analysis, social mapping, wealth ranking, resource mapping, venn diagram, seasonal diagram, problem matrix, house hold sample surveys, etc.

Trainings for KWs on General Management of VKCs oConcept of VRC and VKC oMethodology of collection and dissemination of need-based content oManaging users and visitors oHow to maintain the user register which contains name of the user, age, education, occupation, the kind of services expected from VRC/VKC oBill books and other records pertaining to VKC oHow to build rapport with users and community members oGender concerns oBasic hardware and software training oDocument frequently asked questions, collection of feed back in the form of case studies, identifying their skills and aptitudes, etc. oVRCs also conduct quiz programmes for KWs based on the availability of content in VKCs oSome of the Knowledge Workers have developed a few training materials related to VKC management based on their field experience and VRC trainings

Indian Telecentre Academy – Jamsetji Tata Training School oDifferent kind of trainings – Knowledge workers / Telecenter Managers / Social Workers / Traditional Knowledge and innovative practitioners oDocumenting their expertise and expectations through Participatory knowledge management workshops oManuals, face-to-face meetings, outside experts, video conferencing and learning modules oUsing different ICT and non-ICT tools – VHF, WiFi, Internet, Satellite Based Video-conferencing, Community Newspaper, CDs, Publications, etc. oDeveloping tool kits for different ICT-models oRunning a peer-peer help desk for Telecentres / VRCs / VKCs managers and operators o Conducting studies for different telecenters models to assess the relative advantages and disadvantages of various rural connectivities, contents and business models o Developing a certification and scaling-up program of telecentre training with support from the Indira Gandhi national Open University (Telecenter Managers Certificate Based Curriculum Course)

What are your expectations from the meeting? What is your motivation? What needs are you expecting to fulfill? Learning from other telecenter networks; How Global Telecenter Academy will play a role in improving regional telecenter managers capacity; Knowing methodology of functioning of other telecentres What could you contribute to the meeting? What are your organization’s strengths? Sharing our experience; Involved in ICT-enabled development activities since 1992; our pilot experiment has become a national movement; addressing the sustainable rural development using different ICT and non-ICT tools Motivation, needs, contributions

Thank you Telecentre.org Academy Global Meeting