Increasing Broadband Internet Penetration

In the OIC Member Countries

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Among the entrepreneurship services that the digital centers can provide are

employee training, modern office space, technology expertise and business consulting,

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Put in place a full technical service team that ensures that all equipment is always

working properly,

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In terms of advertising and promotional activities, the center should post monthly

newsletters on its website, addressing issues for small businesses, such as fundraising

opportunities, or dealing with foreign worker authorization permits, and

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Consider outsourcing some of the center functions to facilitate its sustainability.

Complementing these activities, it is important to conduct periodic monitoring:

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Ensure that centers issue annual or semi-annual reports informing about activities

being held, courses, results, topics taught, number of participants, etc.,

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Conduct internal evaluations of access centers every six months, measuring and

comparing indicators such as number of visits per month, number of users per month,

indicating gender, age, email accounts, blogs, and websites being created.

If the digital access centers are set up based on a public and private partnership, it is important

to set up an overseeing structure, such as a Management Board that meets regularly to discuss

and manage progress of the program. The Board should comprise a senior executive from each

of the partner’s organizations, plus a representative from the community. Additionally, the

community should have a coordinator from each center, all of whom meet regularly to discuss

issues faced in running their centers.

Tackling digital literacy

Targeted digital literacy programs are of a wide variety, potentially addressing a number of

objectives, not all necessarily consistent. In designing such programs, policy makers need to

consider what are the goals of the program, since these goals will frame the methods of

intervention. Among the goals to be considered in designing a digital literacy program, the

following issues need to be considered:

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What is the overall objective of the program? Digital literacy, conceived as a skill,

represents the means to achieve a varying set of goals, such as improvement of quality

of life, develop citizenship and promote democratic participation, or social inclusion.

By outlining the ultimate objective, policy makers will help framing the program.

As expected, digital literacy programs could have more than one objective, partly

driven by the population being targeted. For example, if targeting the rural poor, the

purpose of the digital literacy program could include providing access to broadband,

improving quality of life to prevent rural exodus to cities, and promoting social

inclusion. As Hilding-Hamann et al. (2009) mention in their report to the European

Commission, that differences in program objectives could “reflect different policy

domains” (e.g. education, economic development, social welfare). Program objectives

could also be driven by the potentially different constituencies sponsoring the

program.