Oestmann S. and Dymond A.C. (2001) Telecentres - Experiences, Lessons and Trends, in The Commonwealth of Learning,  in Latchem C. and Walker D.(eds) Telecentre: Case Studies and Key Issues. The Commonwealth of Learning.

online: http://www.col.org/telecentres/chapter%2001.pdf

Authors define telecentres and their purposes as follow:

Telecentres may be defined as strategically located  facilities providing public access to ICT-based services and applications. They are typically equipped with some combination of:

• telecommunication services such as telephony, fax, e-mail and Internet (via dial-up or ISDN, high-speed telecommunications network);
• office equipment such as computers, CD-ROM, printers and photocopiers;
• multimedia hardware and software, including radio, TV and video; and
• meeting spaces for local business or community use, training and so on.

They delineate the basic milestone in the history of telecentres, starting from Sweden in 1985, the spreading of the initiatives in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the USA. And finally adaptation to the needs of emerging markets and developing countries.

The authors focus on the differences in services and equipment provided by telecentres, going on delineating the purposes:

• expand access to ICT-based services;
• extend the reach of public services such as education, health and social services; provide information of general interest to the local community, including government information, and of special interest to specific groups such as farmers, local businesses and non-governmental ogranisations (NGOs); and
• provide access to infrastructure, technology support and advice for the development of businesses.

And for what they can help:

§         develop rural and remote infrastructure;

§         provide rural regions with better public services and improved local administration; generate employment and foster socio-economic development;

§         integrate relatively isolated communities into the national and international information network and thus accelerate exchange of private goods and services;

§         transfer expertise in a number of areas, such as agriculture, to and from the community; and

§         give local producers access to market information, thus reducing the need for middlemen and increasing rural incomes.

Authors focus on the lack of evaluation of socio-economic impact do to the very early stages of most of the projects.

However they trace some key trends:

• services provided by telecentres vary according to the degree of development of the country
• limited content on the Internet relevant to the needs of rural users in developing countries.
• Examples of e-commerce applications in telecentres, especially in rural regions, are limited to date, but the development of Internet-based transactional services is coming more into focus.
• Telecentres are set up by: international organization, national organization and educational organization.
• Experience on sustainability of telecentres in developing countries is very limited, as most of the projects are recent. Currently, there is no multipurpose telecentre in a developing country that has proved to be self-sustaining when all the financial factors are taken into account.
• Ownership: while telecentres vary in many aspects, one common characteristic is that they are virtually all initiated by development agencies and run by local NGOs. (on business man running them lead to a problem)