Community Network Webinars and Events!

Many CNs use or plan to use educational platforms in their communities.

One of the widespread open source tools that exist out there is Kolibri, and they would be doing an open webinar this January 28th.

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As a part of Learning Equality’s mission to build community and share learnings within the Kolibri community, we are launching Kolibri virtual learning spaces. These virtual learning spaces, the first of which will be a webinar, will engage the global Kolibri community in sharing promising practices and becoming more familiar with the possibilities of using Kolibri in your own programs.

Join us on January 28 from 9:30am - 10:30am EST for our first session which will focus on how organizations have adapted their educational programs using Kolibri during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited to hear from speakers represented by the following organizations. Each of these organizations was using Kolibri before the pandemic, but with social distancing and school closures, they each took different approaches to adapting their programming, which will be shared during this discussion.

TAKMIL; Pakistan
ThinkZone; India
Shoulder to Shoulder; Honduras
Common Ground for Africa; Kenya

Whether you are a seasoned implementer of Kolibri or just becoming familiar with its possibilities, we welcome all to join us for this community gathering.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Y_Smnn_YRg6Fh0L0dc9IcA

This 90-minute session about “Alternative infrastructure, digital safety, and community networks” brought together a diverse group of speakers from different regions during the 2021 World Social Forum (WSF) on 26th January.

Webinar Invite - Inside an African Community Network

Hi All,

Français ci-dessous.

Please join the fifth session of the Virtual Summit on Community Networks in Africa on 24 February 2021, starting from 12:00 - 14:00 UTC.

“Inside an African Community Network” session focuses on two community networks: BOSCO Uganda and PAMOJA Net. They will showcase their respective and practical approach to connecting the unconnected.

During the webinar, participants will get unprecedented access to the governance, business, and technical operations of these community networks via a series of short videos.

The Virtual Summit on Community Networks in Africa webinar series is organized by the Internet Society and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in partnership with other organizations working to build and strengthen Community Networks in Africa.

Register now: Inside an African Community Network | Internet Society

Regards,

Virtual Summit on Community Networks in Africa Secretariat

Bonjour à tous,

Veuillez vous joindre au webinaire intitulé « Au sein d’un réseau communautaire africain” qui se déroulera le 24 février 2021, de 12h00 à 14h00 UTC.

Cette session se focalise sur deux réseaux communautaires: BOSCO Ouganda et PAMOJA Net qui présenteront leurs pratiques respectives.

Pendant le webinaire, les participants auront un accès sans précédent à la gouvernance, aux affaires et aux opérations techniques de ces réseaux communautaires grâce à une série de courtes vidéos.

Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant : Au sein d'un réseau communautaire africain | Internet Society

Bien cordialement,

Secrétariat du Sommet virtuel sur les réseaux communautaires en Afrique

Today, the last session of Virtual Summit on Community Networks in Africa showed the amazing experiences from BOSCO Uganda and PAMOJA Net. They presented and discussed their governance, business and technical experiences: https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/1zqKVXbPWLnJB

This free online course promoted by ITU will address female leadership in the telecommunications and ICT sector. The activities will be in Spanish, and the deadline to register is on February 26. More information here: Liderazgo Femenino en el sector de las Telecomunicaciones y las TIC | ITU Academy

CoolabCamp is an event organized in Brazil to discuss community networks, tools for autonomy and digital sustainability. In the context of the pandemic, the event will be online this year on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of April, always from 10am to 6pm (Brazilian time zone).

The schedule is decided collectively between the participants on the first day. Registrations can be made online by entering your name and email at this link: CampDigital

A ITU webinar of Road to Addis Series addressed the specific needs for Digital Inclusion of women and girls, youth and elderly, persons with disabilities, children, indigenous people and people living in remote areas to achieve true and meaningful universal connectivity: The Road to Addis - Connect2Include (Part 1) - YouTube

At part 2, Lissette González Romero discussed the experience of Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias A.C. in Mexico: The Road to Addis - Connect2Include (Part 2) - YouTube

UN will promote a High-level Thematic Debate on Digital Cooperation and Connectivity in April and released a provisional programme. The inscription for the list of speakers in the plenary segment is now open: High-level Thematic Debate on Digital Cooperation and Connectivity (Provisional Programme) | General Assembly of the United Nations

Reimagine the Internet is a virtual conference co-hosted by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the soon-to-be-launched Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In six sessions over five days, there will be more than a dozen speakers whose work hints at what the internet could become over the next decade.

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This year RightsCon Internet Access, Education, and Inclusion sessions
https://www.rightscon.org/program/?fwp_session_category=internet-access-education-and-inclusion

For those interested, the videos of the High-level Thematic Debate on Digital Cooperation and Connectivity are available here:

http://webtv.un.org/search/part-1-high-level-thematic-debate-on-digital-cooperation-and-connectivity/6250730905001/?term=&lan=english&page=2

http://webtv.un.org/search/part-2-2-high-level-thematic-debate-on-digital-cooperation-and-connectivity/6250765120001/?term=&lan=english&page=2

And here joint letter calling on governments, industry, multilateral institutions, civil society, and international financial institutions to close the digital divide by putting people at the centre of our approach to achieving meaningful connectivity for everyone: Leave no one behind: A people-centred approach to achieve meaningful connectivity | Association for Progressive Communications

Towards a Licensing and Shared Spectrum Framework for Community Networks in Kenya

Public consultation webinar in Kenya

"The Communications Authority of Kenya has formulated a draft Licensing and Shared Spectrum Framework for Community Networks. This webinar is meant to introduce to stakeholders and the public the proposed draft framework. KICTANet organised this webinar to farmiliarise the public on the draft framework. More details on the framework are available on this link: Public Consultation On Draft Licensing And Shared Spectrum Framework For Community Networks In Kenya - Communications Authority of Kenya - Communications Authority of Kenya

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The launch of “Technological Autonomy as a constellation of experiences. A guide to collective creation and development of #training programmes for technical community promoters”.

:arrow_right:If you missed it, you can see it here:
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-msMJgpLTA
Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E06L6SGUueI

:arrow_right: Download the guide here:
Spanish: https://bit.ly/3u5pWMJ
English: https://bit.ly/3v349Xr

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Community Networks and education: where do they intersect during covid times?

Please see below an invitation to the Community Networks Tech-Talk webinar that the LocNet team will be facilitating this week on Friday, 28 May, at 15 UCT. We will have community networks builders sharing their experiences on ensuring education rights.

The 16th Wireless Community Weekend happened from 14 to 16 May.

A panel discussion on women in mesh networks is available here: media.freifunk.net - Women* in Mesh networks

Other panel and videos are available on Freifunk’ YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/c/freifunkTV/videos

And the full conference schedule is at https://pretalx.freifunktag.de/ffwcw2021/schedule/

Osmocom, one of the projects that is leading the open source mobile telephony technologies that community networks are using, is having regular calls about how the software is progressing.

Their recordings can be found here:

Particularly, the last one was a presentation from one of the well-known community networks TIC A.C from México by Keith about “Screen Sharing peek at TIC A.C. infrastructure in Oaxaca”

TIC A.C. is an operator of Osmocom based community cellular networks in
indigenous communities of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Keith works with
Rhizomatica and TIC A.C. and will give us some live insight into how
they operate

More information about OsmoDevCall, including the schedule for further upcoming events can be found at OsmoDevCall - Osmocom Conferences (OsmoDevCon, OsmoCon, OsmoDevCall) - Open Source Mobile Communications

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The Second EU-Brazil Conference on Digital Economy and Innovation: Connectivity and New Digital Infrastructures, organized by the Center for Technology and Society at FGV, in partnership with EU institutions, happened on 18 June.

It is possible to watch it at FGV’ YouTube here: https://youtu.be/7XxYPteYo40

Further information on the participants and topics covered is available here

Essential Tools and Resources for Community Networks
Dear All,

French below

This is a final reminder to join the first session of the Summit on Community Networks in Africa season 2021/2022 tomorrow, Wednesday July 28 at 12:00 UTC.

The event, organized by Internet Society and the Association for Progressive Communications will share important tools, resources, regulatory and policy insights.

The session will give participants an opportunity to share some challenges and recommend tools that may be needed to address those gaps. Our thanks to Mozilla for supporting this session.


Chers tous,

Ceci est un denier rappel pour rejoindre la première session du Sommet les réseaux communautaires en Afrique de la saison 2021/2022 demain mercredi le 28 juillet à 12h00 UTC.

L’événement, organisé par Internet Society et l’Association for Progressive Communications, partagera des outils et des ressources importants ainsi que des idées sur la réglementation et les politiques.

La session donnera aux participants l’occasion de partager certains défis et de recommander des outils qui pourraient être nécessaires pour combler ces lacunes. Merci à Mozilla d’avoir soutenu cette session.

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This master class during the Africa Law Tech Festival 2021 discussed how regulators can better support community networks that are working to connect themselves, and the roles lawyers can play in pushing forward innovative and inclusive frameworks at the national level.

Taking place on the 5 July, it highlighted that the digital divide shows that the current approach to access is leaving too many behind. Remote regions or those with low population density, and low-income rural and even urban areas, are not profitable for large operators.

The video is available here: Africa Law Tech Festival 2021 Day 1 Live Recording - YouTube

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