Welcome
Welcome to the InfoTimor website.
This website has been designed to keep people informed of Information communication Technology (ICT) issues facing the world's youngest nation, East Timor. The site is intended to provide you with information about the future social enterprise—InfoTimor—and its attempts to bridge the digital divide in East Timor. This site will personally introduce you to the East Timorese participants who will be building the InfoTimor social enterprise in just a few months.
The InfoTimor project has been developed to improve access to information technology in East Timor. The aim is to empower citizens of East Timor by enabling the exchange of information and ideas. The InfoTimor project provides young people of East Timor with advanced computer knowledge and skills, enabling them to pass these skills onto local communities, making positive social change and creating employment opportunities in their home country.
The InfoTimor project will provide a model of grassroots driven development—run by East Timorese people for East Timorese people—empowering local community members and creating local economic benefits.
Andrew Mahar
Executive Director
Infoxchange Australia
Technology for Social Justice
About the InfoTimor project
Infoxchange Australia with the support of the Victorian Government has created the opportunity for six East Timorese students to study in Melbourne and to be trained at Certificate Level III in Information Technology as part of the InfoTimor project. They are learning how to build computers and networks and observing how a social enterprise like Green PC is run, in order to replicate the model on their return to East Timor. The students are also studying English with the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) while they are in Australia, to enable them to network and communicate with Non Government Organisations in East Timor on their return.
The group is made up of six young people from East Timor's biggest cities Dili and Baucau and they're aged between 18 and 25. They are spending the next four months training at Infoxchange Australia's Head Office training centre and Green PC workshop. At the end of this time they will return to Dili, East Timor's capital, where they will continue to study for a further two months to finalise their qualification.
Infoxchange will support the participants on return to East Timor to set-up and run their own not-for-profit enterprise similar to Infoxchange Australia's Green PC. InfoTimor—a new social initiative—will provide local communities with affordable computers and ICT skills.
Eventually InfoTimor will train and employ local people who will deliver computer services to their communities, local businesses and government, such as computer refurbishing, helpdesk support and training. InfoTimor is an enterprise run by East Timorese people for East Timorese people.
“We want to set up a skilled workforce of half a dozen people who can also then provide support services to small businesses and generate an income from doing that, which will make the enterprise sustainable” said Andrew Mahar, Executive Director of Infoxchange Australia.
The InfoTimor project aims to address East Timor's low level of technological infrastructure and skilled IT staff and eventually address further issues such as unemployment and the digital divide.
“Training six East Timorese in ICT skills will be the first step in enabling many more East Timorese to access the benefits of new technology, communications and simply a pathway to employment” said Andrew Mahar. “It is a small step towards big change for the country.”
InfoTimor History
The InfoTimor project evolved after Victoria's Premier Steve Bracks travelled to East Timor in March 2005. Mr Bracks visited the Dili Institute of Technology (DIT) to learn about the learning facilities of the local students.
“The Premier saw that the technology they had in place was not adequate for the sort of things they wanted to do“; Infoxchange executive director Andrew Mahar said.
In February 2005 Infoxchange Australia carried out a consultancy in Dili, East Timor on behalf of the Victorian Government. Infoxchange placed a small team on the ground in East Timor and conducted an audit of the Dili Institute of Technology's Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure.
On return from East Timor, Infoxchange developed a report for the Victorian Government that outlined what was required to establish the ICT infrastructure so that it would be sustainable.
In 2006 Infoxchange was trusted to develop the InfoTimor project by the Dili Institute of Technology. This was due to the work that Infoxchange does across Australia in low-income communities and its well known commitment to social justice.
The Victorian Government agreed to provide funds to Infoxchange to conduct the training for the East Timorese students in Melbourne, to develop and implement a business plan for the establishment of the social enterprise and to implement a new computer network at the Dili Institute of Technology. Hardware, software and further support was to be provided by other sponsors and supporters. The Victorian Government is providing the funds as an important means of improving ICT skills in East Timor and public sector capacity building.
For 16 years Infoxchange Australia has run projects that use ICT as a tool to create positive social change in all around Australia. With InfoTimor Infoxchange extends its vision to East Timor.
Infoxchange is a not-for-profit social enterprise whose mission is to create social equality and opportunity by empowering people through access to information technology and enabling the exchange of information and ideas.
The East Timorese students are inspired by the same mission and will follow it when they return back home to create the social enterprise InfoTimor.