Community Networks and Local Access Monthly Newsletter - Number 23

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Image: Coolab camp 2019, courtesy of Monique Cabral.

Publisher: APCNews    

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Welcome to the 23rd 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. Events and conferences

  • [En español] El 30 de noviembre y 1 de diciembre se realizará la Primera Cumbre Argentina de Redes Comunitarias en Cordoba, Argentina. Leer más. 

  • The 3rd Indigenous Connectivity Summit will be taking place on 12-13 November. Read more. 

  • The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be held in Berlin, Germany from 25 to 29 November.

    • APC has produced a set of materials that include the community networks-related events. Read more. 

    • The schedule can be found here. 

  • From 13 to 15 December, the Community Network Xchange 2019 will take place in India. Read more here and here. 

2. Resources from past events

  • [En español] La segunda Cumbre Latinoamericana de Redes Comunitarias sucedió en Cundinamarca, Colombia, y estos son los videos que resultaron de la misma. Ver aquí.

  • The second Latin American Community Networks Summit happened in Colombia last month, and this is a brief of what happened. Read more. 

  • The 4th African Summit on Community Networks took place 28 October-2 November in Tanzania. Read more. Some of the presentations given at the summit are available here. You can see all the media sharing on Twitter here. 

  • [En español] En el marco de la 6° Conferencia Anual sobre la Gestión del Espectro en América Latina en Lima, la ITU en conjunto con Internet Society organizaron un Taller de Redes Comunitarias para reguladores. El resumen está disponible aquí. También se encuentra disponible un video de la participación de Mariela Baladrón. Ver aquí.

  • The Radical Networks 2019 edition was held in NYC, where many very interesting discussions took place. Some of them made materials available that can be accessed here. 

  • [En español] Reto de conectar con calidad a los no conectados a corto plazo, participación de Valeria Betancourt y Karla Velasco aquí. 

  • From the 2019 African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG), Thomas Sithole shares how community networks could be a solution for connecting the unconnected. Read more. 

  • The seedbed of community networks driven by AlterMundi and Rhizomatica gathered in Cherán, Mexico, and the outcome of the encounter is shared in many spaces such as here, here and here. 

  • [En español] El semillero de redes comunitarias llevado adelante por AlterMundi y Rhizomatica se reunió en Cherán, Mexico, y sus resultados fueron compartidos aquí, aquí  y aquí. 

  • [Em português] O canteiro de redes comunitárias realizado por AlterMundi e Rhizomatica se reuniu em Cherán, México, e seus resultados foram compartilhados aquí, aquí e aquí.

  • [Em português] O Encontro de Redes Comunitárias inserido na XI Mostra de Extensão – UENF/IFF/UFF/UFRRJ. Ler mais.

  • [Em português] Carla Jancz foi convidada pela APC em nome do Instituo Bem Estar Brasil para participar de duas atividades em parceria com a organização Colnodo no evento LATINITY. Ler mais.

  • The webcast from the Asia-Pacific Regional Community Networks Summit in Bangkok is now available here, here and here.

  • The Internet Society InterCommunity event, a one-hour virtual conversation about community networks, took place on 24 October. Read more. Watch here. 

  • The Internet Society Colombia Chapter, together with Colnodo, organised a multistakeholder event on community networks. Watch here. 

  • The livestream video for the Connecting Africa Through Broadband event (World Bank) is available. Watch here. 

  • The CooLab Camp happened in Brazil, and here are some photos of the event. 

3. Community networks in news and blogs

  • [Em português] IBEBrasil: Redes comunitárias urbanas – Novas conexões entre permacultura e tecnologias livres na perifa. Ler mais. 

  • [Em português] Oficina de matriz de escolha de tecnologias – Casa dos meninos. Ler mais. 

  • Zenzeleni Community Networks launched its new website, available here.

  • Zenzeleni Community Networks was featured in the 2018 APC Annual Report with highlights from its work last year. Read more. 

  • The new Mozilla fellows have been announced, and Jabera Matogoro and Irene Misoi from the community networks movement are among them. Read more. 

  • TunapandaNET from Kenya was highlighted in the ISOC Foundation’s blog. Read more.

  • NYCMesh, a community-owned network: Scott Rasmussen and Jillian Murphy, a radio program. Listen here. 

  • [En español] Valeria Betancourt de APC fue entrevistada por Asiet acerca del proyecto de redes comunitarias que APC está llevando adelante y sobre sus planes a futuro en torno a este tema. Leer aquí. 

4. Gendering community networks

  • An interview with Immaculate Laker from BOSCO Uganda: “I enjoy seeing the lives of the women in rural communities change after connecting to the internet”. Read more. 

  • News about the community network Portal sem Porteiras. Read more. 

  • Community networks for raising awareness of women’s rights: Interview with Chako Armant. Read more. 

  • Our routes: Women’s node – an illustrated journey of women in community networks. Read more. 

  • Josephine Miliza participated in the African School on Internet Governance that happened in Chad, and commented on community networks and her experience in this blog post for apc.org. Read more. 

  • [En español] GenderIT.org realizó una edición especial sobre redes comunitarias:

    • Desafíos para la inclusión de género en las redes comunitarias. Leer más. 

    • Nodos y radios en las infraestructuras comunitarias. Leer más. 

    • Cooperativas para la reapropiación sustentable de tecnologías y redes de comunicación. Leer más. 

    • Un debate tecnopolítico sobre el realismo mágico de las redes comunitarias. Leer más. 

    • Mujeres rurales en el despliegue de redes celulares y de acceso a internet. Leer más. 

    • Viaje ilustrado de mujeres por las redes comunitarias. Leer más. 

    • El espectro femenino en ámbitos regulatorios. Leer más.

5. News on policy and regulation

  • On 12 December, Colombia will hold an auction of 4G frequencies. Read more. 

6. Research

  • Development and management of collective network and cloud computing infrastructures, by Roger Baig. Read more. 

  • African Great Lakes Rural Broadband Research Infrastructure. Read more. 

  • Tanzania rural connectivity projects overview. Read more. 

  • “Barefoot women wireless engineers creating socially viable community networks in India”, by Ritu Srivastava. Read more. 

  • “Traditional approaches to driving internet network roll-out and uptake are failing to reach the remaining half of the global population still lacking online access,” according to a new report issued by the ITU-UNESCO-founded Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. Read more. 

  • “Scoping new policy frameworks for local broadband networks”, by Sharon Strover, Martin Johannes Riedl and Selena Dickey. Read more. 

  • “Towards scalable community networks” (doctoral dissertation, UC Berkeley), by Shaddi Hasan. Read more. 

7. Reports and publications

  • NYCMesh has published all the documentation of what they do. Read more. 

  • Internet Society has opened their training on wireless networks. Read more. 

  • Become your own ISP, an infographic. Read more. 

  • Setting Up Wireless Networks: A course for barefoot wireless engineers, by Vasanta Akondy and Ritu Srivastava. Read more.

8. 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. 

  • The Women’s World Summit Foundation recognises women working in rural areas, drawing international attention to their contributions to sustainable development. Read more. 

  • Until 15 December, EQUALS Digital Skills Fund is accepting applications for grants up to €15,000 to support a range of capacity-building training to advance women’s digital skills, active citizenship, and civic participation through technology. Read more. Apply here. 

  • The Core Infrastructure Fund supports the “building block” technologies, infrastructures, and communities relied upon by digital security and circumvention tools strengthening internet freedom, digital security, and the overall health of the internet. The next deadline for applications to the fund is 1 January 2020. Read more. 

  • [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. 

  • The Nansen Refugee Award is granted every year to an individual or organisation who has dedicated their time to help people forcibly displaced from their homes. The winner receives USD 150,000. Read more. 

  • In 2019, Google opened a 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.

  • The Africa50 Innovation Challenge invites parties that expand connectivity in Africa to apply to this initiative before 31 December. Read more. 

  • 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. Application is open 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. 

  • UNDEF supports projects that strengthen the voice of civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. Its next proposal window will open on 22 November 2019 and remain open for a month. 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.

9. 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.

October 2019



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