Telecentres to meet in Budapest

The conference to be held on the theme 'A Global Telecentres Union: Possibility or Need' will take place from 22 - 24 May 2008 in Szazhalombatta, Budapest, Hungary.

The conference is being organised by The Global Telecentres Alliance (GTA) and the Central Hungarian Innovation Centre.

The statement said that during the course of the event an exhibition will be organised as a means to facilitate exchange of experiences, ideas, solutions and other resources.

All interested parties should register on the conference website http://www.chic.hu/gtaconference.

Keynote presentations would include telecentres as public facilities, telecentres as business facilities and telecentres as social networks.

Panel discussions would include national and local telecentre networks, focusing on key success factors, problems and solutions for the operation and services of telecentres and telecentre networks.

Other topics would include telecentre business models, the world telecentre movement that would focus on needs, goals, activities and structures of the telecentres movement: 'What works and what does not work'. The second day will be the first general assembly of the Global Telecentres Alliance and day three for organised trips in Hungary.

The statement said that efforts by central and local governments, non-governmental organisations, international agencies among others in support of the transition towards an information society do rely to a large extent upon digital inclusion programmes and the development of telecentres.

Yet these efforts usually lack an effective and direct participation of those most directly concerned, the communities themselves and those helping them to take advantage of ICT's, essentially the community telecentres.

GTA's mission is to allow telecentres operating throughout the world to form a horizontal network of cooperation with a view to strengthen their services to disadvantaged communities through the use of ICT to support socio-economic, cultural and public administration services development.

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