How to generate income at the Telecenter?

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Permalink Reply by Miguel Raimilla on September 23, 2009 at 12:09am

Catalina. Conversemos. Tengo experiencia en situaciones similares. Cosas que implente en Mexico, Kenya, Filipinas e India... creo le pueden servir, con gusto las comparto.

Saludos

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Permalink Reply by Catalina Escobar on September 23, 2009 at 10:38am

Hola Miguel!
Como vas??? me encantaría conocer tus ideas, tienes algun doc para compartir? o hablamos por Skype?
Catalina

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Permalink Reply by Ananya S Guha on September 23, 2009 at 1:59am

We are experimenting with having vocational training in telecentres on different trades. What do you think of this? Suppose we choose a trade say maintenance of computer hardware, or electrical wiring and target the village population straddling across age then this might be beneficial to the population. We have experimented with this in a common services centre here in India, and integrated this with basic computer knowledge. We are planning to take this in a larger way in 60 common services centres in two states of North East India. I will continue to share this as our work progresses.

Ananya S Guha

Indira Gandhi National
Open University Institute
For Vocational Education & Training
Shillong, INDIA.

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Permalink Reply by Dibya on September 23, 2009 at 3:18am

madam,
telecenter can be used for all kind of activities like education, health care, etc in additon to revenue generation. But for that the services must be made avasilable ONLINE. Govt should work hard to develop central database and allow access to online serivces. There should be subsidy cpomponent to encourage rural youths and regular capacity develpment.

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Permalink Reply by Claire Peque Fernandez on September 23, 2009 at 4:51am

Hello there Catalina, some of the initiatives we have in our area, though I am not sure it might be applicable to your town, are the following:

-accepting thesis work, encoding of assignments, research through the internet which are typically needed by students or those studying, including the printing of these documents

- computer tutorials to neighbors/friends with as easy as increasing typing speed, basic office applications or how to surf the internet and join social networks and other online transactions. Also, one very rampant here is online chatting. There are available ebooks or step by step tutorials which can be easily followed.

-helping out in online transactions needed by your neighbors. In our case, online application of loans, booking on travels, queries to other agencies which can be done by chatting online.

-networked and online gaming, online shopping which are also cheaper compared to buying at a store and other interesting applications that might interest your neighbors :)
-CD Burning of music, videos or files
-transferring of pictures from cellular phone to a computer for storage or printing
-accepting cheap calls abroad through online applications or free applications too by charging minimal fees

at a higher level:
-putting up a mini call center or similar online office. There are some residents here who formed a team and have contracts abroad. This range from encoding of data to receiving customers from travel agencies and other service providers. Some also work on programming contracts.
-coming up with a website which will showcase your local products. Advertising online will give way to customers worldwide.
-joining blog contest to generate income wherein later, be hired as a blogger and get regular pay


I hope these inputs would be useful :)

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Permalink Reply by ROBINSON WIKANA MUKANGAYI on September 26, 2009 at 7:35am

Hello,

Just to add on the already rich debate is the idea of working on simple publications bearing local and international briefs, innovations, relevant sites among many others and selling them at affordable prices. Eventually after taking shape then you can venture into serious publication s and even coming up with a publication/ printing press.

Robinson Wikana

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Permalink Reply by homeless worldcup-association on September 23, 2009 at 6:42am

Thanks very much for your mail and message.
We also do the same selling of handcrafts and want to open again community school and internet i had some time in town now in low income community project.

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Permalink Reply by ANIL on September 23, 2009 at 8:28am

Dear Catalina
Good and very relevant topic for discussion, and we need to discuss and share our Exp. as the whole TeleCenter movement is facing this issue of sustainability.

Providng training, selling locally made handcrafts, community based tourism, participation in locally relevant commericla activities will surely add income to local centers.

We at eGyanKendra are trying to increase our income level by offering value education thru ICT based livelihood training and skill Develpment activities.

more later
Anil

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Permalink Reply by Ivan Chamorro on September 23, 2009 at 9:49am

Hola Catalina, mi nombre es Ivan Chamorro.
Trabajo desde hace 3 años en un telecentro en Ecuador.
Las ideas de Claire Peque Fernandez son muy buenas y la mayoria de ellas las usamos en nuestros Telecentros, pero por la situacion socio economica del sector rural marginado, muchas de ellas no aplican a la cultura y sociedad local y las que aplican no cubren los costos generados por el telecentro ya que la misma situacion hace que la gente no tenga el dinero suficiente para pagar estos servicios. Si es que no se tiene un auspiciante ya sea gubernamental o ya sea una ONG la perspectiva se pone muy dificil.

Puedes visitarnos en www.salinerito.com

Saludos!!!

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Permalink Reply by Catalina Escobar on September 23, 2009 at 10:37am

Dear All,

Thank you very much for your invaluable comments. I think the issue we are facing in this village is greater because the income needs to come from outside the village. We can train people, we can teach them many things realted to ICT but the question still is: for what? to do what?

This village is 2 hours away (by car and motorcycle) from the closest town and the people inside the village doesn´t have the income to pay for

Claire - your "higher level" ideas area exactly what we are looking for, what can these villagers do in their telecenter so they can earn an income by doing something over the internet? like digitizing information, creating a blog that generates income by advertising?

thank you all very very much!! any other ideas are more than welcome and we will also continue sharing any thoughts and actions!

Best

Catalina

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Permalink Reply by Claire Peque Fernandez on October 1, 2009 at 7:54pm

hello Catalina.

For some of my friends, they applied and had online interviews. They were hired as "on call" call center agents who worked in the comforts of their homes. Some had regular schedules while others are on a per customer basis. I also know of some friends who makes money online through freelance programming and yes, some by making blogs and articles on specialized topics such as IT and health. I do not want to post here online links :) but I encourage you to explore search engines using the keywords: online jobs, freelance. Please examine and help your community by verifying first the authenticity and veracity of the sites. I don't want your villagers to be victims of fly by night companies.

For some, if you have friends who live in cities hiring such online personnel, they can do the background checking and recommendations for the job.

I hope these inputs will help in any little ways. Regards.

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Permalink Reply by Emmanuel Bukari Bintin on September 23, 2009 at 11:21am

Well Catalina...these is a very Good topic that you brought up and am with you for these...i think member in the telecenter community irrespective the group are in, we should share common ideas that will be beneficial to members of these community these will trigger other people to join telecenter community when they hear existing members are living in a good life...the world is now a global village where one can site at one continent and work for other people in another continent at a reasonable given time....helping someone to secure a job online can help wipe out completely poverty in once family...and also considering the fact that the world is now under economic crises i think these can help...and will give people hope and a brighter future.

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