Dear Philippine CeC partners, members, and friends:
Since the Philippine Community eCenter (CeC) Program was implemented in 2008, through the Philippine CeC Roadmap (2008-2010), much has happened. We have celebrated accomplishments, learned some painful lessons, gathered insights, and came together as a community of institutions, agencies, organizations and individuals all working towards a common cause -- to provide access to information, services and knowledge to the unserved and underserved.
The last two years of the roadmap saw the attainment of several significant milestones. We have set up an independent, multi-stakeholder organization - the Philippine CeC Network (PhilCeCNet), gathered the community through online forums such as [the PhilCeCNet Online Community in Ning], saw the expansion of CeCs into more municipalities, had more partners involved in the work of the CeC Program and of the network. We've had successful Knowledge Exchange Conferences. The CICT has also continued and strengthened its commitment to the CeC movement and has ably steered all its members towards the goal of inclusion, interdependence and sustainability.
We have all gone in the same direction so far, working and forging ahead together. We are now at a very important milestone. The current CeC Roadmap is ending this year. Thus, as a community, we all need to reflect and look back at the last three years. We need to see what we have done well, and what we should have done better. With these personal learnings and realizations, we should now focus our sights on the next five years.
The CICT is preparing to draft the so-called "successor" plan for the Philippine CeC Roadmap for 2010-2016. This important document, once finalized, will be crucial for us - as a community, as a network, to continue with our important work in providing ICT-enabled access and opportunities for our fellow Filipinos. With elections looming, and a new set of national, legislative and local officials taking the helm by July 2010, we need to come up with a document that will be the basis for a more informed decision-making and as a convincing narrative that will help influence policy. The successor roadmap will also serve as a guide and platform for our continuing work on CeCs for the next six years.
Therefore, I am inviting everyone in our CeC community, to each take an active role in making your voices heard. In the next few days, we will be starting online consultations with all CeC stakeholders, using [the Ning] platform.
We will be posting questions that we would strongly urge you to reflect on, ponder and respond to. Use the "reply" function in the discussion threads, so that your inputs will be recorded and included. All replies, be it comments, critiques and recommendations will be considered in the drafting of the official roadmap document. The draft of the roadmap will be reviewed and validated by CICT, all members of the Philippine CeC Program and PhilCeCNet, before we come up with the final document.
This document will ultimately be presented to the new administration, the new secretary and commissioners of CICT, and to pertinent national government agencies, local government units and organizations.
As a starter, please refer to the Philippine CeC Roadmap. Look at it, and then ponder on these two global statements:
What has the Philippine CeC Program and the Roadmap done for me?
More importantly...
What have I contributed towards the fulfilment of the Philippine CeC Roadmap?
As mentioned, we will be posting discussion questions in the next few days. Look out for them on [http://philcecnet.ning.com].
Thank you and God bless.
Mabuhay ang mga CeCs!