Community networks on the web

A lot of things are happening all the time in relation to community networks and it is difficult to keep track of or to know what is out there.

There are some sources of information that someone could follow to be up to date like APC’s community networks newsletter (shameless plug: I’ve been its author for the last year).

I think we can do it better. That is why I would like to open this space were we can post links of weblinks that we find around the world (news, resources, papers, new CNs, …), so we can collectively track them.

The proposal would be: one link per post, and a comment about it if we want.

From there if there is a discussion we could have about it, we can open a new thread and refer to it so we keep this thread clean.

I will start doing it here, so expect a lot of links here.

It will happen that from now on you will probably see this links featured in APC’s CN newsletter… that is because I will be following this thread :slight_smile:

Hope this excites you as it does to me, and that we can share this experience of learning from each other’s steps together!

3 Likes

The Community Network Portal sem Porteiras in Brazil, were @hiure and @marcela are from, made this video: “Nodes that Bond”:

1 Like

CommonRoom from Indonesia shares a bit of their story in this video:


They have also written a articles in indonesian of their experience throughout the year that you can check in here.

Coolab published about their experience with the LibreRouter:
https://www.coolab.org/2020/01/perspectivas-acerca-do-libre-router-no-brasil-onde-estamos-e-para-onde-vamos/
@hiure and @troian are part of it!

Hackergram share their reflections on the Indian workshop " “Regulating For Inclusion"
http://blog.hackergram.org/wp/blog/2019/12/15/band-aids-for-bullet-wounds-worrying-about-the-affordable-access-discourse-in-india/

Women and the Spatial Politics of Community Networks, a research paper written by Nicola Bidwell. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3369457.3369474

1 Like

Infrastructure that supports the work of our communities allows communities to get to massive media, being able to sensitize the connected world about the issues that happen behind their backs.

Till February 15, if you know a digital equity champion, you can nominate them for the 2020 Digital Equity Champion Award!
https://www.digitalinclusion.org/blog/2020/01/15/submit-your-nomination-for-the-2020-digital-equity-champion-award/

The second chapter of this thesis talks about the Community Cellular Networks that are being deployed in the Phillipines.

Digital Empowerment Foundation did a writeup of the last Community Networks Exchange 2019 in India.

https://defindia.org/cnx-2019-can-community-networks-become-internet-of-people/

Apply for solar energy funding:

Bruna Zanolli, Mozilla fellow working on Community Networks, shares her experience in working on connectivity projects in the Brazilian territory:

The 5th MENA Spectrum Management Conference is happening in Abu-Dhabi this 12th February.
These spaces tend to be useful to engage with regulators and discuss the relevancy of considering rural connectivity as a space that needs to be understood in its own way:

the 6th Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference will take place in Indonesia from March 31 – April 1, 2020

These spaces tend to be useful to engage with regulators and discuss the relevancy of considering rural connectivity as a space that needs to be understood in its own way:

A brief in spahish of the gathering that DW Akademie organized during the IGF for supporting discussions of Community Networks

https://www.apc.org/es/node/36009

Brief (in portuguese) of the project “Nos por Nos” ran by Marcela from Coolab (cc @hiure, @troian)

https://www.coolab.org/2020/01/mulheres-na-rede-noticias-da-psp-ii/

APC submission to the ITU Council Working Group-Internet Open Consultation on “International Internet-related Public Policy Issues on Harnessing New and Emerging Telecommunications/ICTs for Sustainable Development” has many contributions on Community Networks and their life in the telecommunications ecosystem.

https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/apc-submission-itu-council-working-group-internet-open-consultation-international-internet

A video showing what Portal Sem Porteiras, the Community Network that @hiure is part of, has been doing:

2 Likes

This is an exploration of challenges for distributed technologies, as well as some considerations for what they do and don’t provide, from the perspective of someone working on user-focused mobile communication.
Distributed technologies and P2P technologies promise to leverage the local network and empower communities.