The action consisted of approaching the decision-makers for the Colombian government’s project to supply community internet access centres in schools, through which close to 1700 new telecentres will be installed. Colnodo and the National Network of Telecentres (RNT-Red Nacional de Telecentros), members of AndinaTIC in Colombia, have been working with the government to promote models of social appropriation of the internet. In 2007 several organisations were able to insert demands for guarantees to increase their impact and long-term social and financial sustainability into public tenders for telecentre installation.
In this advocacy effort Colnodo and RNT met with government representatives and the companies that won the tender. There they distributed training materials, incorporated companies and operators into the network and planned courses for new administrators. Relations with the Ministry of Communications, which supported this experience, were thereby strengthened.