Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 2007: While the mainstage at last week’s Asian Telecentre Forum was interesting, there was also a great deal going on in the hallways and hotel rooms. Of particular note was collaboration amongst EUTA, the Philippines CECNet and others on the ‘world telecentre academy’ initiative. The idea behind the academy is to create an alliance of organizations working in the field of telcentre manager training. The alliance will provide a platform to share curriculum and develop a common quality seal amongst these programs.

While this effort is interesting in its own right, it is even more notable because it demonstrates how sophisticated telecentre networks around the world are becoming. The players involved in the telecentre academy initiative understand that they can move farther and faster with their telecentre manager training programs if they work together. They also know that a lightweight, flexible global alliance can lend alot of credibility to the capacity building work they do at a national level. It seems the spirit of (peer to peer) networking is really growing in the telecentre movement.

PS. Don’t surprised to see significant developments from this alliance over the coming year. There is a reat deal of promise here.