Community Networks and Local Access Monthly Newsletter - Number 21

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Memory Jere is the first interviewee in a series we will be publishing to highlight the journey, struggles and achievements of women doing work in community networks.

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Welcome to the 21st monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

1. Events and conferences

  • [En español] Este 6 y 7 de septiembre tendrá lugar Latinity sobre mujeres en tecnología, organizado por el miembro de APC Cooperativa Sula Batsu. Habrá un panel sobre redes comunitarias organizado por IBE Brasil y Colnodo. Leer más.

  • From 4 to 9 September, the Seventh African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) will be held in N’Djamena, Chad. There will be a session about community networks. Read more.

  • Our Networks is a conference taking place in Toronto from 20 to 22 September, focused on all aspects of the decentralised web – from mesh networking to P2P applications to commons governance. Read more.

  • [En español] Del 11 al 15 de septiembre, el Taller sobre Tecnologías de Redes Internet para América Latina sucederá en Guatemala. Leer más. 

  • From 11 to 15 September, the Workshop on Internet Network Technologies for Latin America (WALC) will be hosted for the first time in Guatemala, to meet the training needs of networking professionals and technicians in this country and the neighbouring ones. Read more. 

  • [En español] La Cumbre Latinoamericana de Redes Comunitarias sucederá del 23 al 29 de septiembre en Fusagasuga, Colombia. 

  • The Indonesia IGF National Assembly will take place from 26 September to 3 October 2019. There will be a community network multistakeholder event to coincide with this event. 

  • Registration for participation in the 2019 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Berlin is open until 1 November. Read more. 

  • The Third Indigenous Connectivity Summit will take place from 12 to 15 November in Hilo, Hawaii. The summit will hold some preliminary training sessions online. Read more. 

2. Resources from past events

  • En el Foro de Gobernanza de Internet para America Latina y el Caribe hubo una sesión sobre "El reto de conectar a los no conectados en el corto plazo". Ver el video. 

  • The Global Symposium for Regulators had Erick Huerta and Steve Song facilitating some sessions on community networks in coordination with ISOC:

- Connectivity for all: Do the basics still apply? Read more. 

- Information session: From the first mile to the last mile – thinking outside the box. Read more.   

- Last Mile Access: Solutions involving community. Read more. 

  • [En español] Durante el 14° Taller Internacional de Regulación (#TallerCRC2019) tuvieron lugar interesantes ponencias:

- Presentación de Carlos Rey-Moreno sobre redes comunitarias. Ver el video. 

- Resumen de Philippe Defraigne de Cullen International mencionando la relevancia de las redes comunitarias. Ver el video.

  • Slides and videos of presentations at Battlemesh V12, a conference on wireless networks and open source software held this July in France, are being uploaded online. Check them out here.

  • [En español] REDES A.C. participó del Congreso de Investigación sobre Comunicación y Media, presentando el trabajo de las redes comunitarias en Latinoamérica, resultado de la investigación realizada junto a APC y a ISOC. Leer más. 

  • [En español] ISOC Colombia llevó a cabo un webinar sobre redes comunitarias. Ver el video. 

3. Community networks in news and blogs

  • Janastu's community mesh radio network was featured by TheBetterIndia. Read more. 

  • As part of the “Connecting the Unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives” project being implemented by APC in partnership with Rhizomatica, Sarbani Banerjee Belur of Gram Marg recently visited the Janastu Community Mesh Radio Network initiated by Servelots in the village of Halekote, Karnataka, with the support of a community networks travel exchange grant. Read more. 

  • [En español] APC republicó el artículo de AlterMundi sobre su participación en el Congreso Latinoamericano de Telecomunicaciones. Leer más.

  • [En español] Colnodo fue entrevistado por APC en relación a su acompañamiento de redes comunitarias en el Cauca, Colombia, y también publicaron un blog en su sitio web al respecto. Leer más aquí y aquí.

  • In an interview with APCNews, Colnodo shared its experience with community networks in Cauca, Colombia. Read more. 

  • TakNet, a mesh community network in Thailand supported by the Asian Institute of Technology, was featured by APNIC. Read more. 

  • Pamoja Net, part of Ensemble Pour La Difference, has a website full of stories featuring their experience and their partners. Read more. 

  • The Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific at the Internet Society, Rajnesh Singh, talks about how community networks can be the tool to bridge the digital divide in Asia. Read more. 

  • [Em português] O co-Nectar é um coletivo que incentiva a disseminação e integração entre os saberes tradicionais e novas tecnologias no Brasil. Ler mais. Estão fazendo uma rede comunitária! Ler mais.

  • TunapandaNET from Kenya was featured in an article by KICTANet. Read more.

  • The Internet Society's Asia Pacific Regional Bureau newsletter featured "The Case for Complementary Local Access Networks by the Community, for the Community". Read more.

  • Questions raised by the Takeover of SNET, Havana’s community network. Read more. 

  • [En español] El gobierno de Chihuahua, Mexico, impulsa el desarrollo de redes comunitarias. Leer más.

  • [En español] NuestraRed.org fue premiado por el Programa Frida. Su video aquí.

4. Gendering community networks

  • This is the first in a series of interviews we will be publishing that highlight the work, struggles and achievements of women in community networks. We will document their experiences to provide them with a platform and to inspire more women to get involved in this field. This month we are featuring Memory Jere, from CYD Malawi. Read more.

  • Kondoa Community Network: Breaking gender digital divides. Read more. 

5. News on policy and regulation

  • The director of ITU-R, Mario Maniewicz, gives a glimpse of what will be discussed at the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference in Egypt in November 2019. Read more. 

6. Research

  • Report from the Alan Turing Institute on the “Data Science for Bridging the Digital Divide and Beyond” workshop. A highlight: it mentions Steve Song's work on open telecom data. Read more. Read also:

- Josiah Chavula's presentation at the “Data Science for Bridging the Digital Divide and Beyond” workshop includes the Inethi community network. Read more here and here. 

- Steve Song's presentation on open telecom data at the “Data Science for Bridging the Digital Divide and Beyond” workshop. Read more. 

  • “Towards Scalable Community Networks Topologies”, a paper from Leonardo Maccari and others, presents a novel methodology and its implementation through an automated tool that enables the exercise of [light] centralised control of the dynamic and otherwise spontaneous growth processes of community networks. Read more. Maccari also gave a presentation about this tool in the last BattleMesh. Read more. The journal where this article was published might also be interesting for community networks enthusiasts. Read more.

7. Reports and publications

  • The Redecentralize movement has created a monthly newsletter about the “redecentralisation” of the internet, the technologies, the discussions and the events related to this. Read more. 

8. Articles on technologies related to local access networks

  • TV white space commercial deployment has started in South Africa. The use of this technology is key for increasing the coverage in rural areas, where the territory is broad and the terrain is uneven. Mozambique is also exploring this field, approving a TV white space standard covering the 470 MHz-694 MHz band. Read more. 

  • [En español] Argentina está preparando su regulación sobre espacios blancos de TV para noviembre. Leer más. 

  • The Google Summer of Code has finished and Freifunk has published reports on the different projects that were developed regarding community networks. Read more. 

  • African telecoms at a crossroads: What needs to happen next. An opinion piece by Russell Southwood and Steve Song on the future of telecommunications regulation in the region. Read more. 

9. Tools and toolkits

  • The Cybermoor Cooperative has produced a guide on how to create a broadband initiative based on their experience in rural United Kingdom. Read more. 

10. Funding opportunities

  • All throughout 2019, Google has an open call for policy fellowships in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the US and Latin America. Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organisations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and creativity, consumer privacy, open government, government surveillance, data security, data innovation, free expression and more. Read more.

  • Her Abilities is the first global award that honours women with disabilities who have achieved greatness in their life and field of work. Read more. 

  • The Mozilla Open Source Software Fund funds 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. 

  • RIPE NCC will provide EUR 250,000 per year to support projects of value to the operation and resilience of the internet. The call for applications is open until 1 September 2019. Read more. 

  • The United Nations Democracy Fund invites civil society organisations to apply for funding for projects to advance and support democracy. The next call for applications is expected to be open from mid-November 2019. Read more. 

  • Until 1 October 2019, IDRC is accepting proposals for "Strengthening education systems with proven innovations in developing contexts", in which community networks could be involved. Read more.

11. 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.

August 2019



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