This edition of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) seeks to understand the constructive role that technology can play in confronting the crises. It disrupts the normative understanding of technology being an easy panacea to the planet’s environmental challenges and suggests that a nuanced and contextual use of technology is necessary for real sustainability to be achieved.
This thematic report highlights community networks as a people- and environment-centred approach to connectivity:
Common Room and their incredible work are highlighted in Internet Society!!
2021 academic article:
Re-imagining Communication in Africa and the Caribbean - Global South Issues in Media, Culture and Technology | Hopeton S. Dunn | Palgrave Macmillan
Book Chapter: Decolonising in the Gaps: Community Networks and the Identity of African Innovation Nicola J. Bidwell
Three new community networks are helping safeguard communities in rural Brazil
Zimbabwe officiating the Murambinda Works Community Network:
ISOC just published a piece highlighting the work of the Digital Empowerment Foundation in India, including how they are building CNs (150 of them and counting!) and training people in the country.
Just came across this article (in Spanish) on San Pablo Libre in Colombia San Pablo, la vereda que se conecta a internet sin ayuda de operadores | EL ESPECTADOR
Their website: San Pablo Libre – Red FusaLibre
Thanks for sharing @infrared !
Speaking of Colombia, have you seen this methodology wiki put together by Colnodo in their experiences of accompanying some of the community networks in the country?
https://wiki.redescomunitarias.colnodo.apc.org/index.php?title=Metodología
I love how they start the discussion with this …" una red comunitaria es más que un proyecto, es un tejido que está compuesto por personas, tecnologías, acuerdos, que se entrelazan en relaciones que constituyen la red."
This report looks at the impact of COVID 19 on women in Kibera, provides key recommendations and highlights the role of community-centric approaches, such as community networks and communities of care, in supporting women during and beyond the pandemic 
https://www.kictanet.or.ke/mdocs-posts/gendered-impact-of-covid19-on-women-in-kibera/
Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) is a partner who are pushing efforts for enabling the community network ecosystem.
Find out more about REDES A.C projects in the field of wireless networks, community intranets, WiFi and community GSM networks at this blog from 48percent:
Hi @joao, I also found this one about Dr Kanchana Kanchana Out works to connect rural communities in Thailand very interesting:
This article from Karla Prudencio and Peter Bloom brings important reflections and invite us to rethink internet governance frameworks, and human rights frameworks more generally, to be more inclusive of the complex, intersectional issues regarding connectivity access:
Also available in Spanish: Mantenlo análogo: parámetros para una exclusión voluntaria de la conectividad // rhizomatica
This statement from CITAD highlights community networks as an important and innovative approach to be considered as part of the licensing review planned by the national regulator:
And it is getting considerable media coverage in the country:
Course guides Brazilian community networks on how to get legal recognition
This piece from CITAD brings the highlights of a civil society consultative meeting on community networks convened by them. The meeting, attended by over 40 CSOs from different parts of the country was held online using zoom on July 27 was meant to sensitize them on the importance of community networks as a tool for addressing the digital divide.
The Murambinda Works community network connects the district headquarter offices and spans a radius of 40 kilometers up to Nerutanga along Chivu Road. It has earned the name Murambinda Works through a public communications access system that reaches beyond the town itself, covering a population of 108,000, and providing accessible and affordable Internet to underserved communities in Buhera North and West.
A politics of difference: This article from REDES A.C. reflects on the scope of the Mexican Supreme Court thesis against the charge for spectrum use rights (available in Spanish):
On 13 January 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the communities, in a unanimous decision that they would be exempt from such charges, in a legal challenge brought by Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias A.C. (TIC AC).
18 August 2021 event
Asia-Pacific Regional Community Networks Summit
“In the shadow of the continuing global pandemic, and the heavy reliance on digital technologies that has created for all sectors, ESCAP and ISOC is reconvening the 2021 edition in support of the implementation of pillar 1 (Connectivity) of the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) initiative.”