On Thursday, 21 September, I had the honour of being the Keynote Speaker of the Telecentre Networks’s
“Innovation… more than a word – Conference 2006″.

The Telecentre program is an initiative of the West Australian (WA) State Government, with each Telecentre a friendly local community centre equipped with high tech facilities. A fuller description of Telecentres is below, and they are a great idea that can be duplicated across Australia and the world!

To see the presentation slides that I gave at the conference, you can right click on this link and from the menu that appears, left click on ’save target as’ to download it as a PDF to view on your computer. The file is 7mb in size.

According to their website, a typical Telecentre has computers the Internet and email facilities, two-way 128kb videoconferencing, photocopiers, fax machines, printers TV and video machines, decoders, scanners and much more depending on the needs of the community.

Some Telecentres also house local businesses and services. Every Telecentre is different – some are hubs for tourism and heritage programs, others house complementary small businesses such as secretarial, agribusiness consultancies or publishing services. Still other centres are part of local libraries, craft shops or venue hire.

Telecentres bring new opportunities to rural and remote people in Western Australia. There, you can:

Do a degree or TAFE course – Many Telecentres are linked to universities, TAFE colleges and adult education programs. Students use their Telecentre as a study base receiving lectures by video and completing assignments using Telecentre facilities

Do a professional development course – You can participate in professional development through video conferencing or the Internet. Many rural professionals such as doctors and nurses have found this very valuable

Enhance your job skills – In today’s workplace familiarity with current technology is essential. You can bring your job skills up to date by practising at your local Telecentre

Participate in a conference – All Telecentres have satellite receiver dishes that enable them to participate in conferences on a state, national or international basis (one way video two-way voice) through the State’s Westlink satellite service.

Publish a newsletter or local paper – Use your Telecentre’s desktop publishing facilities to produce a newspaper for your local community, club or special interest group

Start your own business – You can start a business using a Telecentre as your office. There’s no need to invest in expensive office equipment – just use your Telecentre’s

Do business with the government – Some Telecentres act as agent for programs such as Centrelink. Forms and brochures are stocked and referrals can be arranged

Do your banking – Some Telecentres act as agents for banks and can conduct a limited range of everyday banking functions

Email around the world – Tourists and visitors to WA as well as local residents can use their local Telecentre to keep in touch with the rest of the world.

I encourage you to visit their website, and if you live in WA, to visit one of the Telecentres in person. They are also a great model if you would like to do something similar in your area.

Many thanks to the Telecentre Network for inviting me to be the keynote speaker and I am looking forward to working with them (and similar organisations) in the future!

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Entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 1:10 am under Uncategorized.

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