Have you tried ALISON, a FREE online learning site that provides high-quality self-paced interactive e-learning for basic skills. ALISON has an excellent online certification called ALISON Basic Computing IT (ABC IT). Other free courses include: Financial Literacy, Health and Safety, Touch Typing, with Psychometric tests and more!

Kenya Telecentres link hosted a strategic plan workshop in Ugunja’s
Camunya Hotel on the 20th and 21st August 2009. Participants were drawn
from telecentres across the country and were mainly managers. The main
agenda was to discuss the strategic plan, updates from KenTlink and
other networks present (Ugabytes and KenDat), bloging and mailing list
participation. Thereafter the members shared their experiences, what
they do in their various Telecentres and the challenges they encounter.
In doing this they would learn from others members sharing and advice

KenTel, an idea conceptualized by telecentre leaders who attended and participated in Telecentre Leaders Forums held in Kamplala – E. Africa and Benin – W.Africa way back in 2006/7 is indeed an effort of IDRC through telecentre.org and Ugabytes Initiative to encourage the growth and development of telecenters across Africa for effective, efficient and equitable service delivery to diverse communities that telecentres serve today.

Nominations are sought for UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication
09-07-2009 (Paris)
UNESCO has launched a call for nominations for the 2009 UNESCO-IPDC Prize for Rural Communication. Potential submitters are invited to propose nominations in consultation with the National Commissions for UNESCO or with relevant non-governmental organizations maintaining consultative relations with UNESCO. The deadline for submitting nominations is 30 October 2009.

Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On

    * Title: Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On
    * Authors: Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle
    * Version: 1
    * Source: Web2Summit web site
    * Date Published: 11 July 2009
    * Contributed by: Giacomo Rambaldi
    * Download: Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On

The AFRICA KNOWLEDGE NETWORK was launched on 3rd July in Dar es Salaam/Tanzania. The Africa Knowledge Network is being implemented by United Nations in its five regional commission including Africa.

Tech savvies know very well what is at stake and already positioned
themselves or are in the process of doing so to fully utilize the
bandwidth capacity and opportunities that come with it. However for the
benefit of telecentre practitioners who may not necessarily be
technical and are wondering what to do or how to react, it is important
to highlight some of the benefits of the much talked about fibre optic
cable. it may just open some eyes somewhere.

Why are fibre optic systems revolutionizing telecommunications?

Kenya is now on the super highway to a major technological take-off after the much-awaited East African Marine System (Teams) fibre optic cable landed in Mombasa.
The cable, launched by President Kibaki a few days ago at Fort Jesus, connects the East African region to worldwide cable networks.
In Kenya, the cable will improve Internet connectivity and reduce the cost of data transmission — and create thousands of jobs, especially in the telecommunications sector.

Dear Kentel and Ugabytes Family,

Receive greetings from Abidjan – Ivory Coast.  We are here attending the
4th Pan African AMARC conference.  The conference started yesterday
27th, April and is scheduled to end on 30th April.  The conference is
bringing together community radio broadcasting stations, partners
working with community radio and development partners form Africa and
other parts of the world.  From the telecentres fraternity, UCRC
presented by myself from Kenya is participating and Joseph Sekiku from

Farming is the backbone of many economies in Africa, research and
development of new farming methodologies and practices have always
involved the farmer during the process, however most of the time these
valuable results/outcome do not reach the farmer who should be the
consumer of  this product. It is with this in mind that UCRC has
organized this workshop to educate farmers on use of FLD methodology to
document local innovations.