Jagodina Public Library and Beyond Access at Spark Conference in Granada, Spain 2013

Thanks to Beyond Access, the Jagodina Public Library had the opportunity to participate in Spark 13 Conference in Granada, Spain on 28-29 May 2013.

Spark conference was organized by Telecentre.org Foundation, Telecentre-Europe, Comunidad de Redes de Telecentros, la Red Guadalinfo, and the National Information Agency of Korea and had over 1,300 participants from private, public and non-profit organizations from all over the world.

 The tagline of the conference Technology is Magic suggests that technology can be a magic solution for social and economic empowerment programs and impact lives of millions of people every day and everywhere.

Spark had three themes: People-people are the main beneficiaries of telecenters where they can learn to communicate, create and connect with others.  Innovation- New ideas, tools and methods, projects used in telecenters; and Sustainability.-how telecenters continue to remain effective and important and financially sustainable.

 Participants had the opportunity to hear keynote speakers like Akhtar Badshah , the Senior Director of Microsoft Citizenship and Public Affairs;  Leila Janah, CEO and founder of Samasource; Ann Mei Chang is the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State an many more.   There were a lot of interactive sessions and spaces, including technology demonstrations, workshops, etc. Also, 1st Global Telecenter Awards were hosted this year at the event.

The Jagodina Public Library participated in one of the sessions-Rural Development, Agriculture and Telecenters with colleagues from Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. The AgroLib Ja project was presented to the audience, particularly the role it played in rural development and changing people’s lives.  After the presentation of the project, there were a lot of questions from the audience.

Beyond Access had its booth during the 2 days of the event. Therefore, Beyond Access Members (Melody Clark from TASCHA, Catalina Escobar - Executive Director of Makaia,  Jelena Rajic from the Jagodina Public Library, Romeo Rodriguez  from Riecken Libraries, Brenda Musoke  from Kitengesa Library and Chris Coward from TASCHA) had the opportunity to present Beyond Access Initiative to Spark participants.

On Wednesday, 29th the Beyond Access workshop was held. The members talked about the initiative itself, including research activities, opportunities for collaboration, the benefits of being a Beyond Access member, etc.