BEST PRACTICE GUIDE FOR TELECENTRES COORDINATORS Cornelia Popescu EOS Foundation – Romania

This Best Practice Guide was realized within the project “Shared Learning and Community Digital Inclusion through telecentre services” project financially supported by the Soros Foundation Romania through the East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program. It is a product of the visits and exchanges of best experiences and ideas that were realized between the telecentres coordinators from the 4 partners countries: Romania Serbia Latvia Moldova

Background/structure of the best practice guide Context of the country. Statistics about: Economy Population Percentage of the digital included population or excluded Broadband Unemployment  These statistics were correlated with the relevance of telecentres considering the context of each of the 4 partner country.  How were established the telecentres networks in each of the 4 countries and how they managed to survive, grow and develop in time.

ICT services in the telecentre networks Best services provided by the 4 telecentres network Beneficiaries of the services Suggestions from partners experience - for other telecentres in order to adopt/implement the Best services mentioned in the guide.  Which are the benefits of providing the services mentioned above and why other networks should implement/adapt them.  What made the networks be sustainable since their were established till now.

 How the services provided by the telecentres improved the life of beneficiaries  Best success stories from telecentres in Romania, Serbia, Latvia and Moldova

Across the wider European region, almost 300 million people live in digital exclusion. Map of digital opportunity in Europe, 2006

 where the values ​​ of the index are large, the access to new information technology is higher and the digital divide is lower.  Significant differences are between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, and also from urban areas to rural areas. Although some countries from Eastern Europe as Romania or Serbia have an IOD (Index of Opportunity Digital) higher than other countries situated in the same region (from 0.5 to 0.6), we see, however, the Figure 1 that Internet access is significantly reduced compared to other EU countries.

Percentage of Internet users in Europe, 2011

Cornelia Popescu, Project coordinator EOS Romania THANK YOU VERY M UCH!