Community-centred connectivity
Imagine you are in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. There is no mobile coverage or internet access. The long distances and rugged landscapes make communication highly challenging. These communities are precisely the ones Rhizomatica aims to support when building new technologies that connect people.
Internet user growth is slowing and varied attempts to address the problem of access – through traditional telecom models, private sector initiatives, state-led measures, philanthropy – have met with limited success. We must rethink how networks are built, owned, operated and utilised, and empowering local communities is key to this.
The aim of this project is to build local capacity to catalyse more affordable and inclusive connectivity for underserved or excluded communities in low-income rural, urban and peri-urban areas. It aims to highlight the identified needs for changes to national and local regulations in order to help create an enabling environment for these complementary models, such as community networks.
Welcome to the 49th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks and community-based initiatives. In this edition, find out more about women's engagement in community networks in Africa and much more.
Discover what the story of 28-year-old Shibani tells us about the women weaving connections and finding self-expression through community radio stations in India.
Risper Akinyi from the Tunapanda Institute in Kenya will be weaving connections among women engaged with community networks from different countries in the region during this year's Africa Internet Governance Forum, taking place 19-21 July in Lilongwe, Malawi.
This guide to selecting an internet service provider emphasises that there are other dimensions to consider if we are concerned with more than just prices and speed, such as the effect our decision has on local supply and the market, and environmental impact considerations.
The project envisages the implementation of a Wi-Fi community network in quilombo Ribeirão Grande/Terra Seca by actively encouraging the involvement of the entire region in multiple workshops and knowledge exchanges. In this article, we focus on the gendered and racial aspects of our journey.
When the pandemic challenged the world, the experience of communities in the remote Ciracap sub-district in West Java, Indonesia, showed the importanceof building a local response to the crisis. Common Room fostered the deployment of the "Ciracap Sub-district Community Network", a connectivity infrastructure, in a region where people face many challenges to accessing information.
Within the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, APC was invited to be part of the "Empowering Communities" focus area lead. In that role, we have been highlighting the importance of commitment to policy, regulation and financial mechanisms to enable bottom-up and rights-based initiatives.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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