Latin American community telecenters: IT’s a long way to TICperary

The report discusses the evolution of telecenters and collective internet connectivity across Latin America. The authors discuss the international development community’s support for evolving telecenters, with a focus on the Somos@Telecentros community, an online space open to telecenters, telecenter personnel, social activists, academics, and anyone interested in this phenomenon may join by registering on the web site.

The authors examine connectivity throughout Latin America, concluding that although Internet presence and use is by all yardsticks steadily growing, it remains very low compared to advanced countries and even some emerging countries of Eastern Europe. The authors point out that internet connectivity is going to remain beyond the means of individual families in the region for decades to come, so collective access is the only option. The authors conclude that for this to be realized there is the need beyond computer and information literacy; a proper articulation with other government, social or community efforts towards the creation of new opportunities for broad changes and improvements in the conditions of the poor people.