Gomez R & Ospina A. (2001) The Lamp without a Genie: Using Telecentres for Development without expecting Miracles, in Journal of Development Communication: Special Issue on Telecenters 12[2]

Online: http://ip.cals.cornell.edu/commdev/documents/jdc-gomez.doc

The critical basic thesis of this article is that the initial euphoria that new information technologies generated as a panacea to development problems is now over. The authors criticize, giving examples, the assumption of the intrinsic benefits of the new information economy and of the role of telecentre in the information economy claiming that “There is little evidence of telecentres being meaningfully used by tele-workers, or of telecentres becoming important actors in e-commerce transactions, online procurement, or other opportunities in the information economy”

Authors challenge the technocentric perspective in the field of economy, education and governance, explaining what telecentre have or have not done in those fields and what they can do. The paper goes on reporting lesson learned by the Latin American network of telecentres, Somos@telecentros: community participation, training of users and staff, awarness of policy makers and adaptability to the local context. They conclude stressing the importance of a social perspective: the promotion of telecentres that respond to a social vision of ICTs implies programs aimed not at the installation of infrastructure but at the improvement of people’s capacity to effectively use ICT resources and combine them with other appropriate forms of communication, implement them as tools to resolve practical problems and improve people’s living conditions, as well as provide follow-up and evaluate actions, results, and lessons. They finally claim that despite the great possibilities offered by telecentres and ICTs, who, up to now, mostly benefit of new technologies are the elite.