UNESCO (2004) A guide to Community Multimedia Centres: How to Get Started and Keep Going, UNESCO

This publication is a guide for initiators and mangers of community multimedia centres. CMCs set up by UNESCO are a combination of rural radio and telecentres. The book first defines various typologies of CMC and different ownership models. The second chapter is dedicated to who want to start a CMC. The main steps taken into consideration are need assessment, clarify the mission and build a consistent business plan. The third chapter focues on the choice of the technology both for the rural radio and for the telecentre, both from an hardware and a software point of view. The forth chapter deals with the human resources topic. The fifth considers which skills are required to manage and run a CMC and the kind of training a CMC can offer to users and to staff. The sixth section describes how to handle a community organizational structure. The seventh chapter focuses on the role of the community and the importance of community participation. The eighth deals with the content issue: which are the types of information and content relevant for the community, how to gather and share information and the copyright problem. The ninth chapter focuses on sustainability. It considers three main sustainability factors: social, institutional and financial. Then it goes in detail on different business models, how to develop a business plan and hoe to raise funds. The tenth and final chapter explains why research is useful and what types of research can be conducted on telecentres.