Key Speakers & Panelists

Shankar Aggarwal Joint Secretary Department of Information Technology	Ashis Sanyal Senior Director, DIT Government of India	Naimur Rahman Director OneWorld South Asia & MD OneWorld Foundation India
Peter Mozelius Lecturer Department of Computer and Systems Sciences Stockholm University Sweden	Niranjan Meegammana Director/Team Leader Shilpa Suraya Project Kandy, Sri Lanka	Ajay Kapur Senior Director Oracle Education Foundation
Dr Kamolrat Intarat Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University Bangkok, Thailand	Mukesh Hajela CEO Network for Information & Communication Technology	Peter Mozelius Lecturer Department of Computer and Systems Sciences Stockholm University Sweden
		more speakers..

Introduction                                                       

Of the numerous efforts at making information and communication technologies (ICTs) a tool for socio-economic development and in pursuit of a knowledge society, telecentres have apparently been playing a dominant role. Telecentres, also known by various names such as information centres, knowledge centres, info-kiosks, community service centres, etc, as they provide services in the areas of health, education, public service delivery, social security services and livelihoods, hold tremendous promise for bridging the digital divide - the key barrier in reaching the twin but interrelated goals of achieving socio-economic development and knowledge society.

India is home to one of the largest number of ICT4D initiatives in the world, and the telecentre landscape in India is bubbling with new energy after the launch of the national programme to set up 100,000 Common Service Centres, and it is the appropriate time to take stock of the developments. Indian Telecentre Forum 2009, organised by Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), in its sixth year, is going to do just that by providing an opportunity to telecentre stakeholders, both regional as well as global, to meet and deliberate on the issues facing the telecentre movement, the journey till now, and devise new plans for the future. This forum, expected to follow a consultative mode, will also act as a platform to share experiences in order to come up with tangible solutions to the the issues raised.

Key Themes

• A Review of the CSC Programme (A status update)
• Telecentre Movement in India: Issues, Lessons and Best Practices
• Capacity Building and telecentre.org Academy India: The Task Ahead
• NEGP and Other National Level Development Programmes vis-a-vis the Telecentre Movement
• People's Participation and telecentres: The Indian Experience
• Telecentres in the Age of Mobile Phones
• Content, Services, and Connectivity: Taking Stock of the Indian scenario
• Knowledge Sharing Among the Telecentre Stakeholders
• Localisation of Content, Services, and Grassroots Innovation

Who will attend

• Telecentre Leaders and Telecentre Practitioners
• Technology Service Providers
• Social Investors
• Researchers and Project Implementers
• Private Sector Investors
• Government Implementers
• Funding Agencies
• Content Developers and Consultants
• Community Mobilisers