Porto Novo, Benin – November 28, 2006: Leadership is not about being in charge: it’s about inspiring, supporting and serving those you have the privilege to lead. Luckily, the African telecentre movement is filled with people who understand this. These are people like Aminata Maiga Fofana who is heading up the development of a telecentre network in Mali and Ndaula Sulah who leads Ugabytes in Uganda. And, also, people who are newer on the telecentre networking scene: Telecentre Times editor Esther Nasikye; Afrilinks’ Mohamed Acharom; Silvie Niombo from Congo Brazzavile; Nayer Wanas from Egypt; and Paul Barera from Rwanda. All of these people have a talent for leadership, and a passion for the telecentre movement. More Emergent leadership→

Porto Novo, Benin – November 26, 2006: Rich was right: Centre Songhai in Porto Novo was the perfect place to hold last week’s African Telecentre Leaders Forum. More Telecentre ecology 101→

Madrid, Spain – November 22, 2006: The Spain trip provided a good chance to look at the best of what formal networks have to offer to the telecentre movement: things like training, support, funding and visibility with policy makers. Networks like the one run by Esplai and CTIC in Asturias offer these things in spades. More Networks, or networking?→

Madrid, Spain – November 21 + 22, 2006: Sitting in Madrid, I was overjoyed to find myself in a workshop entitled ‘el telecentro 2.0 o centro de servicios’. The session challenged telecentre leaders from across Spain to dream up a Santa Claus list of next generation community telecentre services. The result was a beautiful babble of ideas: medical and health services offered through videoconferencing; well trained student infomediaries who help seniors and others navigate the info society; participatory local democracy and urban planning using virtual reality. It was energizing to sit in a room filled with people who believe that we need to start thinking not just about community access, but also about community applications. For me, this is the essence of telecentre 2.0. More Telecentros 2.0→

Wow. I just saw that my last posting to this blog was September 3, 2006. And then silence. More Reboot.→

Ranjpur, Bangladesh + Delhi, India – August, 2006: The Telecentre Times – a collaborative newspaper for the telecentre movement – has expanded a footprint dramatically over the past two weeks. More Telecentre Times newspaper launches in Bangladesh and India→

Ranjpur, Bagladesh – August 26 – 30, 2006: In Bangladesh, telecentres are literally bring information to the people – by bicycle. D.net, a development research organization in Dhaka, has set up Pallitathya telecentres in four villages with the aim of offering a demand driven information service for rural people. Anyone in the village can come in and ask a question of the three infomediaries who work in the centre (two women / one man). Or, they can wait until one of the infomediaries drops by their house with her bicycle and mobile phone. In either case, the villagers get fast access to information about everything from farming to gynaecology to legal aid services. This information has already helped to save livestock, solve simple health problems and resolve conflicts in the villages being served by the centres. More Bubbling up from the grassroots: telecentres in Bangladesh→

Delhi, India – August 21 – 25, 2006: Watching her wander around Delhi with telecentre leaders from around the world, it was hard to believe that Mariana Posfai is new to the telecentre movement. She jumped right into the explorations of Indian telecentres, sharing ideas with her peers from other countries and musing about the global telecentre movement. Maybe it’s because she’s been doing grassroots networking on other issues for so long. She seems to have networking in her blood! More Strengthening global connections: telecentre leaders in Delhi→

Delhi, India – August 21 – 22, 2006: There was Muthu from WorldCorps bouncing a balloon on his elbow. The grassroots knowledge workers in the room looked around tentatively, slowly smiled … and pulled out their own balloons. This was a chance to play not only with balloons and each other, it was also a chance to play with idea of social entrepreneurship as a key element of running a telecentre. More Mission 2007 pilots entrepreneurship training→

Delhi, India – August 23 – 25, 2006: Ravi Gupta provided a clear mission for my valedictory address at last week’s India Telecentre Forum: talk about how the Indian telecentre movement has changed in the past year. More India’s evolving telecentre movement→