[VBbuilders] [Network] An Idea for Community Cultural Showcase Exchange at TeleCentres

[Franz Nahrada]

I post this answer also to two other mailing lists because its suitable.
Please do not crosspost the answers unless you really think its meaningful
and you are member of all groups involved.


Richard O'Farrell <richard.ofarrell at voxworld.coop>  -
http://www.voxworld.coop/ - wrote:

>Dear fellow Telecentre-Europe members, 
>We are travelling through a period of great change together. We have
>witnessed the emergence of Information, Knowledge, Smart and Innovation
>Economies at various stages since late 90's. All fellow members have
>crossed the Digital Divide together. Telecentres have struck a cord at
>the heart of Communities the world over, and they are now asking for more
>- to use what they learn so as to make greater impact on their lives,
>working at home with online opportunities. Its only a small step away
>from the point to which Telecentres have already reached. ICT was and is
>the starting gate for Enterprises and we have seen Social Enterprise
>Centres grow around Telecentres. 

Thanks Richard!

I totally agree. telecentres are less the places that put us in initial
touch with technology, although this function was important at times and
might still persist - Telecenters should NOW be the places that put us in
touch with each other!

Thats simple and logically consistent: the more the workplace is at home,
the more we need a place to do our vital networking, learning, exploring,
socializing!!

This is why we at GIVE have focussed on the teclecenter/re as "village"
center/re and from the early nineties on looked at the possible relations
between Telecenter and community.

We see a convergence of patterns here: no matter where we start from, we
will end up in a similar configration.

We need 
* Local centers that are places of meeting and learning (and access)
* an awareness of these local centers that they are not just "telecenters"
but in servidce to their locality, especially to people that are
"isolated" by telehomework
* a new focus on the opportunity of part time working  ("Coworking) in
telecenters, marvelously demonstrated by the Hub movement
*  all that sums of in social entrepreneurship: having community
development in mind when doing business.

There are great opportunities that I am chasing personally 
* Create a virtual network of learning places and connect their best
events that focus on improving community life
* use digitalö video as a very attractive means to stream the best local
ideas everywhere. free like in cooking pot and fair use!

We have completed a workshop on this in Vienna in January this year and we
are ready to expand our community:

http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?VideoBridge/GrundtvigWorkshop

It would be great to team up with telecentres and repeat and improve this
workshop. We are still planning a preparatory visit this summer for future
endavours.
>
>
>Within Europe we are fortunate to, perhaps more visibly, possess an
>especially rich, exciting and priceless Culture within every Community,
>one which we should and now can choose to Showcase in the surrounds of
>our fellow Telcentres members. Communities can showcase aspects of their
>Culture, tell their story to the world through Trade rather than Aid now;
>be that through Hospitality Centres like Coffee Shops, Internet Cafes,
>Hotels etc or elsewhere where Telecentres operate. These showcases would
>offer Special Value in latent demand products and services to those using
>the Telecentres in a reciprocal arrangement with their fellow members
>cross-border through a Community Cultural Showcase Exchange. The world
>needs healing more than ever now, and this is a time of very great
>once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for every Community to empower and
>advance. 

Yes we can create a community powered unified network of enormous market
impact and strength - but:

There is also a third choice beyond Trade or Aid, and that is Share; there
is an increasing numbers of knowledge resources that can hepl us to
intensify and augment each local community experience and if we decide to
address that in a sharing way, an enorm,ous opportunity unfolds.

If we use Trade, Aid and Share accordingly and wisely, we can create some
real change.

>This is most likely to be best achieved when Communities of every ilk
>come together virtually to obtain a better understanding of each other,
>while at the same helping to meet each other's needs. I believe that the
>potential for impact on lives of everyone involved is enormous,
>especially with arrival because of technology advances of virtual
>offices, virtual workshops and virtual new eBusiness models such as those
>operated by VoxWorld.Coop, where you can do it yourself and build your
>own interactive Community Brand.

Remember: we can also live on doing less and sharing the work of
developing content. Not everything has to be done with more efforts, more
shops, more brands and more marketing outreach. In contrary: We can decide
to target and focus into local life support systems and create a "virtuos
cycle" away from market dependency.

at least this is what I and GIVE stand for.

And  still even this de-monetisation is a gigantic task that makes also
lots of business opportunities.

I welcome resonance.

we are gathering in two NINGs and due to the suicidal announcement of NING
of going "Premium only" we will have to change locations in the not too
distant future.

plese use them still to conect to us

http://globalvillages.ning.com/   --Research about the highest potentials
of local communities in the age of digital technology and virtual
cooperation.

http://videobridge.ning.com/
* building a bridge between learning communities
* enabling groups in small and remote locations to participate in a wealth
of education
* creating a network of sharing content and learning-in-parallel
* creating an ever growing repository of learning material.
* motivate participants to contribute excellent lectures and events.

hope to see you there!


all the best


Mag. Franz Nahrada
GIVE research association - Laboratory for Global Villages
Jedleseer Strasse 75
1210 Wien
Tel. 01-2787801
Mob. 0676 9133961
http://www.dorfwiki.org
http://www.globalvillages.info
>