EA-TLF 5 - 7th oct...

Last we attended the East Africa Telecentre Leader's Forum (EATLF), which was hosted at Ridar hotel, situated in Seeta - Kampala, from the 5th - 7th oct '06. The workshop brought togather participants from all over East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania); Rwanda & Burundi. We had participants from other areas around the world including Mark Surman, telecentre.org (Canada); Meddie Mayanja, idrc.org (Canada); Muki hansteen, intel.com (US); Libby Linn, microsoft.com (US); Peter Cranstan, (OKN - UK)

The workshop was a great way to talk about the different technologies at our disposal, especially for rural telecentres. Technologies like wireless were mentioned. A case in point was the recently setup 8km wireless link to a secondary school at FADECO, Karagwe district, Tanzania
Many participants expressed ethusiasm at having wireless connections in their communities. For many, it was the first time to hear of accessing internet via a wireless connection.

Among the resolutions, was a general concesus to have a big wireless workshop in either Kampala or kayanga. During the workshop, participants would be educated more on how wireless can cut down on bandwidth costs, earn some income for the telecentre, create more employment, have more rural people access internet etc.

The full report of the workshop will soon be posted on the ugabytes website, http://www.ugabytes.org/

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