telecentre.org has metamorphosed into telecentre.org Foundation and shifted from Ottawa, Canada to Manila, Philippines. From a social investment programme, conceived and implemented by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Microsoft Corporation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), it has now become an independent, not for profit organisation hosted by Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) in the Philippines. 

The transition was well planned, timely, efficient and a major achievement for all associated with it. From time to time, news about it appeared on the www.telecentre.org website, but it was coming after long gaps and was fragmented too. Therefore, for the benefit of our readers, for the first time, the telecentre magazine has attempted to put together the telecentre.org story, its achievements and challenges, the transition process, and some success mantras from its former programme heads and social investors for the Foundation to succeed.  

The transition story is supplemented through a Face2Face with Basheerhamad Shadrach, who has taken over as its Executive Director. Over the years, he has demonstrated unique institution building abilities and launching the telecentre.org Academy in partnership with several reputed academic institutions across the world stands witness to it. In this section, he shares his vision for the Foundation, the challenges lying ahead and the strategies for overcoming them. He also provides a glimpse into the Foundation's Business Plan that is still under review. All these make the current issue of the telecentre magazine a special one, a collector's item. The telecentre magazine, itself, has undergone a makeover to complement the transition.

Apart from these special features, we are also starting a new section on 'South South Exchange' to showcase the knowledge exchanges taking place in the telecentre world. This time, we have featured two such exchanges: one from India to Latin America and another from Africa to India. Moreover,  Richard Fuchs, Regional Director, IDRC, Singapore, has agreed to write a regular column for the telecentre magazine. It will start from the next issue.

The Country Focus section would be of special interest to telecentre magazine readers, as it focuses on the Thai telecentre models, which are very innovatively categorised into Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large sizes, depending on the number of computers they have. These features are accompanied by other regular stories from different parts of the world.

In the end, I would like to congratulate all the telecentre leaders, who led the successful transition and also offer my best wishes to the Foundation in its future endeavours. I am also looking forward to a more gratifying partnership with the Foundation for the telecentre magazine in the coming years.