They go by different names: telecottages, community access points, CTCs, community multimedia centres. They’re telecentres — places where the public can come together to access the Internet, learn new skills and tackle local problems.

Thousands of telecentres worldwide are helping empower communities,end isolation, create economic opportunity, give people a voice and educate the public. It is an international movement with one overarching goal: to help communities seize the benefits of the knowledge economy, on their own terms. This is the telecentre movement today.

This book provides a quick glimpse into the lives of a few of the people who are leading the telecentre movement in their own countries, and of the people who are benefiting from their local telecentres. Understanding their stories helps understand their passion — and paint a picture of a future where technology is driven by the needs of people and the communities they live in.

The PDF version of this book is also available in Spanish and English, and HTML versions in all three languages are available thanks to Archive.org: English, Spanish, and French.