Community Networks and Local Access Monthly Newsletter - Number 24

Welcome to the 24th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

We have created a new platform for community networks to share our experiences and grow together. Please join us at https://communitynetworks.group/

1. Resources from past events

•  [En español] Los materiales del Workshop para América Latina y el Caribe (WALC2019) ya están disponibles en su web. Leer más.

• [En español] Taller en Costa Rica reflexiona sobre importancia de redes comunitarias en Latinoamérica: El taller tecnológico Regulando para la inclusión, organizado por Asociación para el Progreso de las Comunicaciones (APC) y Rhizomatica, que se desarrolló en Costa Rica los días 26 y 27 de septiembre, trató temas relativos a la necesidad de las redes comunitarias para conectar Latinoamérica. Leer más.

• The European Community Networks Summit “Community Networks: Connecting the Next Billion” took place in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 14-15 November 2019. Read more.

• Report on the Asia-Pacific Regional Community Networks Summit 2019. Read more.

• [Em portugués] Encontro de Redes Comunitárias e Tecnologias Sociais. Ler mais.

• Report from the Third Ordinary Session of the African Union's Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and Information Technologies in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from 22 to 26 October 2019. Read more.

• To help address the growing need for communication and broadband access in rural areas, the Internet Society and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in partnership with the University of Dodoma hosted the Fourth Summit on Community Networks in Africa in Dodoma, Tanzania, from 28 October to 2 November 2019. Read more. Some presentations given at the summit are available here. You can see all the media sharing on Twitter here. Read more on the event here, here and here.

• The discussion on community networks at the Deep Learning Indaba 2019 dubbed “A Multistakeholder Approach To Access For All”, with representatives from several countries, took place on 25-30 August in Nairobi, Kenya. Read more. You can see all the media sharing on Twitter: #dlindaba #DLIndaba2019 @deepindaba #deeplearningindaba. If you want to see how it was computed check #dataviz.

• The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT), in partnership with the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA), successfully hosted a Southern Africa Regional Dialogue on Internet Access in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 5 and 6 November 2019. Summary of the dialogue here. Watch the conference video here.

• [Em portugués] Em Monteiro Lobato, casa da Portal sem Porteiras, acontece um encontro de Redes Comunitárias promovido pela Coolab. Ler mais.

• Following the Third Indigenous Connectivity Summit, a community in Hawaii started its own community network. Watch here.

• Nicolás Pace did a demo of the LibreRouter that can be seen on YouTube. Watch here.

• [En español] Fotos de la Primera Cumbre de Redes Comunitarias en Argentina. Leer más.

• Photos of the 4th Community Networks in Africa Summit. Read more.

• At the most recent Internet Governance Forum, there was strong participation by community networks, which were addressed in many sessions and workshops. Read more.

2. Community networks in news and blogs

• Building the People’s Internet: In this article, Greta Byrum tells the story of efforts made by communities to build their own networks by seeking more resilient and responsive infrastructures that are more closely aligned with their commitment to common resources and mutual aid. Read more.

• [Кыргызча] "Cуусамырда ишке кирген SuusamyrNet" : Кыргызстандын алыскы аймактарына жогорку сапаттагы, арзан баадагы интернеттерди жеткирүү иш-аракеттери жүрүп жатат. Республиканын шаар жана райондоруна коюлган  интернеттер мамлекеттик мекемелер же менчик секторлорго тийиштүү болсо, алыскы аймактарга коюлуп жаткандар ошол жердин жашоочулары тарабынан башкарылат.  Мындай тоолуу аймактарга багытталган интернеттин алгачкысы Кыргыз Интернет коому тарабынан – Суусамыр айылына орнотулган. Кененирээк маалымат.

• [En español] Mariela Baladrón, investigadora y periodista, nos cuenta sobre Atalaya Sur y AlterMundi en Argentina. Leer más.

• [En español] Debate 22: ¿La tecnología 5G cerrará la brecha digital? En esta ocasión nos acompañan Peter Bloom, coordinador general de Rhizomatica, Loreto Bravo, consultora en seguridad digital y derechos humanos, y Mayeli Sánchez, investigadora "Técnicas Rudas". Leer más.

• [En español] Hiperconectados, el mundo que viene. Leer más.

• [En español] El modelo de redes comunitarias genera autonomía: consejera de Rhizomatica. Leer más.

• [En español] La inclusión digital requiere de políticas públicas y ecosistemas normativos transversales que hagan de las nuevas tecnologías una herramienta valiosa para el desarrollo sustentable y la igualdad en México. Los problemas de México no los resolverá “el 5G”. Leer más.

• [En español] Acceso local y redes comunitarias en el Foro de gobernanza de internet 2019 (parte I). Leer más.

• Local access and community networks at the 2019 Internet Governance Forum (Part 1). Read more.

• Sonaksha created visual representations of the different talks at the IGF 2019:

* Intermixing of humans and technology has the potential for empowerment
* Community networks
* Data economics

And some from Malwine:

* Gender and access
* Community networks

• [En español] AlterMundi es una asociación civil que nace ante la ausencia de un derecho: la conectividad. José de la Quintana y la red Quintana Libre son una especie de laboratorio a cielo abierto, donde se conjugan procesos técnicos y sociales. Leer más.

• In this blog post, Jim Forster discusses how good quality and affordable internet connectivity could be brought to most rural places in India, Africa and Southeast Asia. Read more.

• Catalytic intervention grants, part of APC's "Connecting the Unconnected" project, aim to support a more sustainable community network environment. Eleven community network projects were selected to receive grants and are described in this article. Read more.

• [Em português] Comunidades da Terra do Meio instalam sistema de rádio inovador no Pará. Ler mais.

• [Em português] Coolab: LibreRouter – a tecnologia que sonhamos. Ler mais.

• Imagery about community networks in comics. Read more.

• Sarantaporo.gr was chosen as the winner in the "Demand generation and take-up of connectivity" category at the European Broadband Awards. Read more.

• IntraBACH, an intranet to promote Tzeltal language and culture. Read more.

• Internet Society's Chapterthon on community networks is over, and these are the winners. Read more.

3. Gendering community networks

• [En español] Mujeres y redes comunitarias. Leer más.

• [En español] Fanzine: cómo montar una servidora feminista con una conexion casera. Leer más.

• The latest edition of the GenderIT.org newsletter, "Intentional infrastructures: Feminist Principles of the Internet and community networks", attempts to reflect the many tongues and modes of communication that women resort to while performing their skilled labour in creating, sustaining and building community networks. Read more.

• Conversations with women in community networks. Read more.

• [En español] Karla Velasco nos comparte sobre las redes comunitarias en México desde REDES, y sobre FUXICO red libre feminista. Leer más.

• Nontsokolo Sigcau spoke to APCNews about her experience with the Zenzeleni community network in her home village of Mankosi, South Africa. Read more. You can also listen to her answers to the interview questions in her own unique voice here.

• In a series of interviews with women who work in community networks, APCNews spoke with Marcela Guerra of Coolab in Brazil. Read more.

4. News on policy and regulation

• The 2019 Affordability Report: An in-depth annual research initiative produced by the Alliance for Affordable Internet. The report represents part of ongoing efforts to measure policy progress toward affordable internet. Read more.

• [En español] Los operadores quedan satisfechos con propuesta de canon de infraestructura; los gobiernos locales la cuestionan. A las municipalidades no les complace el rebajo, el cual estiman alcanza hasta un 99% menos. Leer más.

• Promotion of community networks made it to the approved declaration of the African Union Interministerial Conference! Read more.

• [En español] Secretaría de Hacienda concede una a los operadores indígenas. Leer más.

• In this article, Peter Bloom, general coordinator and founder of Rhizomatica, discusses the challenges around 5G connections and what this means for its future in Latin America. Read more.

• [En español] La inclusión digital requiere de políticas públicas y ecosistemas normativos transversales que hagan de las nuevas tecnologías una herramienta valiosa para el desarrollo sustentable y la igualdad en México. Los problemas de México no los resolverá “el 5G”. Leer más.

• Research ICT Africa released a policy paper about "A Global South Perspective on Alternative Spectrum Policy". Read more

• Mobile access won’t fix the digital divide. Fixed-line is needed too. Read more

5. Research

• "Rural wireless deployments in India" by A. Bajpai. Read more.

• "Experiences: Design, Implementation, and Deployment of CoLTE, a Community LTE Solution" by Spencer Sevilla et al. This paper introduces CoLTE, a solution for LTE-based community networks. Read more.

• "Connecting Africa Through Broadband: A strategy for doubling connectivity by 2021 and reaching universal access by 2030". Report by the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. Read more.

• The ITU’s "Measuring Digital Development" series of statistical and analytical publications, which replaces the annual "Measuring the Information Society" report, has been released. Read more.

• "Broadband Business Blues": In a new study funded by the United Soybean Board, 60% of farmers in the United States say they don't have good enough internet to run their business. Read more.

• Media Monitoring Africa has published a seven-point implementation plan for universal access to the internet and free public access in South Africa. Read more.

• "Telecommunications Reclaimed: A Hands-On Guide to Networking Communities". Read more.

• "A Monitoring System for Distributed Edge Infrastructures with Decentralized Coordination". Read more

• "Building community network policies: a collaborative governance towards enabling frameworks". Read more

• There are conversations around including a synchronisation mechanism for the web that would allow more bandwidth-efficient and delay-tolerant interactions. Read more.

• A new web standard is being discussed to bundle websites in a shareable format that can contribute to have better sneakernet style exchanges, like sharing already loaded websites over Bluetooth. Read more

6. Tools and toolkits

• Spectrum: Everything you need to know about Icasa’s big plan. Read more.

• The Open Telecom Data wiki offers examples of good practice in transparency in the telecom sector. It also features country profiles of regulations as they relate to community networks and small-scale operators. Read more

• The DWeb Camp took place and the mesh team wrote a document about how to deploy a mesh network for camps and similar activities. Read more

• Learning Equality released a new version of Kolibri, "The offline app for universal education", with many features related to offline and p2p implementations ahead. Read more

• The Policy Hackathon Toolkit aims to serve as an interactive “how-to” guide for both organisers and facilitators who are interested in holding a Tech-Policy Hackathon. Read more

7. Funding opportunities

• IBF Classic offers support to filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe for the development and production of films that use strong visual treatments to tell compelling stories and have the potential to reach a global audience. This could be used to support the production of compelling stories on community networks. Read more. 

• Yunus&Youth supports passionate entrepreneurs building social businesses around the world. Read more. 

• Nominations for the Abie Awards 2020 are open, celebrating the achievements of women in tech. Read more. 

• DRK Foundation is looking to fund exceptional entrepreneurs with potential for scale. Read more. 

• The UNICEF Innovation Fund supports open-source solutions that can improve children’s lives. Read more. 

• [En español] El Programa para América Latina de Open Society Foundations financia a activistas de derechos humanos. Leer más.  

• [En español] Organizaciones argentinas pueden solicitar hasta ARS 100,000 para explorar la autosustentabilidad a través de la iniciativa de Proyecto Pura Vida. Leer más. 

• Ford Foundation’s JustFilms supports artist-driven film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality, as well as the organisations and networks that support these projects. Applications are accepted year round. Read more. 

• The Mozilla Open Source Software Fund supports open source projects used by or related to Mozilla’s mission. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and are reviewed monthly by an expert selection panel. Read more. 

• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supports early-stage research for which private or government funding is hard to obtain, and early-career (tenure-track) researchers. Read more.  

• Funding opportunities are available from the NLnet foundation, which has been financially supporting organisations and people that contribute to an open information society. The procedure is fast, competitive and open to anyone. Read more.

• The Grant for the Web will open soon, in order to boost open, fair and inclusive standards and innovation in web monetisation. Read more.

• The Awesome Foundation gives small grants for crazy ideas on a rolling basis. Read more.

• NSPF Grant Program strengthens and enriches the hacker community through small monetary grants.  Read more.

8. Previous editions

• Previous editions of this newsletter are available here.

This newsletter is part of the project titled, “Local Access Networks: Can the unconnected connect themselves?” carried out by APC in partnership with Internet Society and Rhizomática, with support from Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in 2017/2018 and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in 2019. 

Invite others to subscribe to this monthly newsletter here!

One more thing! If you have comments about the newsletter or information relevant to the topic that you would like us to include in the next edition, please share it with us at localaccess.newsletter@apc.org.

November and December 2019