Gáspár M. (2001) Telehouses in Hungary, in Journal of Development Communication: Special Issue on Telecenters 12[2]

online at http://ip.cals.cornell.edu/commdev/documents/jdc-gaspar.doc

The first telehouse in Hungary was set up in 1999, in 2001 there were more than 250 centres. The article outlines the history of the telehhouse movement. Some relevant features of the telehouse movement in Hungary have been the support from the government, the high local participation, the strength of the network, the stress on job-related services, the willingness of creating accreditation program to joing the network and the collaboration of the Hungarian network with former socialist countries.

Telehouses have to provide services tailored made for the needs of the local communities, however there are 10 basic services which each telehouse has to provide:

§         attendance to local civil organizations a

§         aids citizens in handling official matters

§         provides access to the Internet and ensures that those in need of such services are provided assistance

§         e mail services must be made available

§         dissemination of information of public interest

§         Local center for advertising and information

§         Providing of office commodities: faxing, photocopying, printing

§         use of multimedia

§         Processing of computer work, distance jobs included

§         Extensive coverage of computer games

The authors cites some of the problems faced by telehouses: to find ways to achieve long term sustainability, the lack of training of staff which leads to the not fully uses of technology, the lack of scientific research on impacts, tensions among the growing number of stakeholders