Corporación Encuentro - Chile

The telecentres, such as that in La Faena de Peñalolén, are designed to be places where people not only access the Internet, but learn to use technology appropriately and in ways that strengthen the relationship between users and their communities. This strategy is approached by providing opportunities for people to learn together and learn from each other. Internet beginners receive instruction from their peers, which is intended to enable a more friendly, realistic, and productive approach to computers and the network. Users are invited to serve as trainers in exchange for free navigation time and a percentage of the money earned from the training. This group has been joined by computer science students from the community who need to practice.

Organisers developed this system when they realised that many telecentre users could not afford to pay for time on the computer. However, in the words of the founder/president, "I'm convinced that people attach more value to what they must pay for; saving their pennies ("juntando las chauchas") to be able to navigate they consider the place their own and feel they have more right in demanding to learn". It is for this reason that organisers imposed an hourly navigation rate of CLP$500; training fluctuates between CLP$6,000 and CLP$13,000. These amounts are adaptable to each client's particular situation. It is in this context that the Telecentre in La Faena de Peñalolén became financially self-sustaining.

Strategic aims are also supported through a radio project, which was launched in 1998 on a community frequency not in use (107.3). Broadcast in the evenings, Radio Encuentro has a young radio controller and is broadcast in real time on the Corporación Encuentro site. As the founder/president describes the process of getting the entire population involved in the project, "In the beginning social organizations came simply because they wanted to show what they did, later people came with certain interests, wishing to make a program, which then united more people and transformed them into organizations."

Technology, Economic Development.

In Chile, those with higher incomes, which correspond to 26% of the total population, make up 68% of the population that has access to the Internet. 57% of the connections are in Santiago. 84% of the consumers are under 34, and 65% have some kind of higher education.

Organisers have established 16 Internet telecentres in 11 communities in the metropolitan area with 48,000 navigation hours, 30,000 consumers, and over 1,200 training sessions.