Hi dear
CNSIG Counsil,
THIS IS INTERNAL INFORMATION, PLEASE DO NOT
REDISTRIBUTE.
I must
first appologize for the time it took me too share this
information with you.
I haven't
been able to do a proper polishing, but wanted to release the
material asap because it might get outdated.
I must
say it is humbling how much we are doing.
Members I
interviewed:
altermundi
atalaya
grammarg
guifinet
ticac
rhizomatica
sarantaporo
coolab
fantsuam
nethood
zenzeleni
Members
we couldn't coordinate interview with:
ninux
peoplesopen
freifunk
The Questions that
were asked:
* What has
been happening lately in your CN?
* Where are
you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
* What are
your challenges in this following period?
I hope you can enjoy each other, and this
helps us get closer to each other, and see common ground to work
on.
Regards,
## guifi.net
### What
has been happening lately in your CN?
During the
last 2 years, we have been consolidating the learning we have
had during these years to maintain the growth rate, through
developing an economic and governance model.
Guifi.net
has grown a lot, and continues to grow.
They have
had to extend their connection to CATNIX from 10 to 20Gbits, to
the neutral point.
The local
interconnection for the other operators in Barcelona (not
international traffic), have to be extended from 10 to 20.
They
already had 20 Gbits international traffic.
Its
international traffic is via Jaztel and Cogent.
There
will be more than 100k people.
Especially
by fiber deployment. They do not reach the demand. the people
who see the community option through an operator.
We have
designed the community where infra is procomun, can be used by
local companies that commit service to users. If someone does
not work and does not want to do DIY, then go to a local company
that provides a service / fee to users.
Of these
there are about 35 that are doing operations, as a means of
subsistence.
Some have
grown quite a lot, with 20 or 30 employees, with some economic
power.
In the
foundation they were all volunteers and there was no
infrastructure.
The
numbers are getting more dizzy and generate conflicts. With
fiber deployments they are millions of euros.
As
operators are also investors, they want to keep the
infrastructure, and forget about the commons.
There
comes a time that a looting of the procomun is generated, they
rely on the procomun to be born, and then they want to
appropriate it.
Normally,
people put personal good before common good, with exceptions.
In the
foundation we have generated a cost center. just as they have to
pay the IXP and transit bills, they have to pay
Now they
have 7 people full time employees, with a majority of women.
Rouger
Bach was charging for European research projects. The problem is
that when these projects are over, it ends. That has been the
case with Rouger.
Rouger
was employed and now it is no more, and instead of the
operations we are now with girls, people who have an
administration / management / governance profile ... training
lawyer, specialization in conflict mediation, without
technological profile such as geeks from before, with a
management profile with which we are reinforcing.
We have
Mikel Martos in the technical part.
There are
7 people, a small nucleus compared to the monster we are
managing.
### Where
are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
We
believe we are in the right path.
At the
beginning we organized spontaneously and we started to organize.
Two axes:
*
Consolidate Guifinet
*
assemble a model
Extend
good practices to areas where they have not been implemented.
We have
been asked periodically, if guifi is doing well because we don't
make it grow faster?
As we are
developing good practices, we realized that we have developed an
economic model.
There are
investors who are willing to invest in these projects.
If all
families are guaranteed, people pay something reasonable.
Ramón
applied to the Ashoka scholarship, in order to help Guifinet
grow without stressing him: developing good practices so that it
does not depend on the organization growing so that the model
expands.
I trust
APC and the CNSIG ... we have been very focused on ourselves.
This will force us to change this attitude.
Before
2024, Catalonia will have fiber connectivity in all urban
communities where there is water and electricity.
I am not
talking about the socioeconomic part (sociological
organizations) as languages.
What I am
talking about, I am trying to simplify: electricity is volts,
water is a liquid, to think of the internet as such, as a common
good.
The
internet is a connection that allows us to talk in a chat, and
we have to make it reach everyone. for this to work there has to
be diversity ...
that the
internet arrives is cheaper than the light arrives. In many
places you will not need the internet to arrive. where there is
water and there is light there has to be broadband with fiber,
because it is cheaper than bringing water and light.
Organize
financing mechanisms to guarantee financing if things are done
in a certain way.
You
cannot have verbal agreements on larger scales.
It is
absurd to duplicate infrastructure.
The rest
of guifi will work to continue the consolidation of Guifi.net.
### What
are your challenges in this following period?
Modeling
needs everyone (APC, CNSIG).
It is not
about replacing APC, CNSIG, ISOC, but sitting down /
coordinating to make a leap forward all together.
The
challenge will be like finding a way to coordinate in a leap of
this dimension.
They have
decided to open up, work beyond their territory, get others to
take advantage of what interests them.
Many of
the lessons we learned have been selfish and we have applied
them to ourselves.
====================================
## Coolab
### What has
been happening lately in your CN?
In the
last 6 months, the structure of coolab has changed radically
since December, we try to restructure coolab in order to propose
new fund missions. Our original plan to receive the investments
of the communities did not work. the idea was that the
immunities would receive our work / equipment and over a year
return these investments, but none of the communities succeeded
... there was commitment but we did not achieve this result.
As this
project was part of an experimental laboratory we are not
dissatisfied with the work ... it is part of our learning how to
organize this work with the communities. I have a position to
work with communities through contracts. If we are working as
professionals, we expect communities to assume responsibilities
... not only in open meetings but in contracts with us. This is
a part of a professionalization step of our work. If we think
about the work we have done for a long time. Coolab is 2 years
old, but activists have been contributing for more than 10
years. Now that we are trying to organize things, contracts are
necessary, to restructure our work with communities,
professionalize our work, and to objectively receive the
investments that we propose to make as this circular fund, which
is a very good idea that needs mechanisms effective for the
circulation to exist. The community contractually assumes return
of the resource in the long term. This is a conclusion we have
but we have to work this with lawyers.
This is
part of the evaluation of our first year of work.
We are
also looking for more funds. Since December they are working on
new applications. With the APC project, they had confidence in
the work of Hiure and Marcela, which is the best case, since
there is a permanent investment in improving the service. Hiure
does both technical and community mobilization work, so it has a
very particular characteristic. It is easy to move between
communities. Like Troian.
From
December to here it is a stronger group, we are 8 people who
know and trust, with different geographical and activist
origins, and we complement each other quite a lot.
The Bruno
and Thiago are in Europe and the rest in Brazil, so they are
making contacts in Europe, which expands the capacity for
articulation and thinking with what they are doing.
Bruno
Vianna was with APC in Spain and Novaes in a spectrum meeting.
They participated there when it normally does not happen.
They have
a contract with APC until December with two full time hiure and
marcela.
We want
all coolab to have a minimum remuneration to make their work
more professional. We all have more than 30, we have a lot of
experience. Coolab is a mature organization conceptually,
organizationally and technically. We want to do professional
things, such as ANATEL, ministers, public power, large companies
... we are training ourselves to have a consistent and mature
discruse and practice, with a practical background of community
networks.
The
circular model is the same. When we started doing this, they did
not have the mechanisms to do this in a clear and organized way.
We want to continue with low-cost networks. the mechanisms were
not clear, the words of the communities were trusted, but
nothing happened. The issue is not to professionalize our
relationship but to create legal agreements, contracts.
Seek
financing to make fund lost. In the indigenous people there is
no point in proposing something circular with money for local
economic development, because that is not how they think about
development. We are very attentive for the different development
models with networks.
The
technical work is super good, the methodologies we put together
work.
We want
to start without internet connection, local connections for them
to learn. There is an opening for an experimental work of
methodologies. This interests us for the CNs.
Pluralization
of technologies: Radios are very important for orality, TV too.
Why not work with traditional networks. In Venezuela, Chaves
made a lot of investment in TV studios to generate another
speech. we have to think well how we get involved in this, in
analogue / digital communication.
### Where
are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
We are
with the APC Pathfinder for internal restructuring of coolab. We
have internal gaps. We need to improve the documentation,
improve the website, produce and organize content. as always we
did not have time for postproduction, document and communicate
to the general public. In the next 6 months we will be working
on postproduction and multimedia documentation. We have people
in the very competent technical part such as Hiure and Troian,
Marcela who is working on the gender issue, we will have
meetings, seminars, gender, communication.
We have
people with experience of multimedia material such as bruno who
is a filmmaker, has prizes, I think we will have very good
results with his ability.
Thiago
has experience with podcast and will produce podcast. Henrique
also works with approval.
We think
we will have a multimedia documentation in Portuguese. It is
planned to put subtitles. We will work on it.
We are
looking for, there are two very clear routes for this semester:
*
Hiure's work with librerouter, homologation, legal monitoring
with anatel, technical training.
*
Thiago and Troian infrastructure installation with the
indigenous people of Amazonia: they contacted 3 communities and
are looking for funds.
More than
50 interested communities, will depend on the availability of
the communities to receive equipment and training, we will work
in Brazil in general.
We are
also clearer in our institutional role, we are participating
more strongly in the IGF meetings, spectrum, we send a round
table proposal to the Brazil forum, we are with that more
institutional work quite advanced with a work front that
complements our work of countryside.
the theme
of FUST (universal telecommunication service fund).
We all
pay it, it keeps accumulating, and today it's billions.
There is
a law to set this fund in motion. I participated in a meeting in
Brazil where this was discussed. Companies want to use it to
migrate to digital TV, to help the telecommunication service,
and we as civil organizations want it for the universalization
of non-profit access.
Business
forces are much larger than ours. There are bureaucratic
obstacles that prevent companies from appropriating.
Before
Bolsonaro there was a dispute that companies were not going to
pay more fines, there was a big public fight in Brazil.
One way
to organize ourselves in the near future, the next step of the
community networks to occupy the spaces of APC, ISOC etc. is
very effective.
for the
future so that our guidelines, methodologies, so that we have
work strategies, we need a federation, with a legal form. Today
we exist we are occupying spaces adopting the existing forms,
the form that ISOC asks. The form of APC ... in one way or
another the form becomes a way of organizing and we put content
in this way. For the near future we should investigate ways to
organize more autonomously. We can have other ways of occupying
other spaces.
Today, if
we organize ourselves, we are as or bigger than the big global
NGOs ... if we get better involved with the communication groups
that already exist we can be next to APC, ISOC.
### What
are your challenges in this following period?
LACNOG
has the group of operators. There is an infrastructure issue,
and the financing issue. It's a technically cutting edge issue
too.
Joint
papers of collective work
A great
challenge we have is the issue of funds to continue doing our
work, which is primarily the installation of community networks,
that is why there is coolab, we get together to do field work
with autonomous tele-immunization facilities. For this we need
funds, such as to generate the new circular model. We can't go
back to the facilities now.
There is
a strong job to do in regulatory work, where it is integrated
into community internet networks.
The idea
of working with digital TV in Brazil. There is a migration
agreement until 2023. Until 2023 there is the possibility of
exploring ways of use apart from HD TV. 14mbps of communication.
Interactive TV will be in all communities.
He has
researched cell subject, they want to make experience. Bruno
started. More than the technical development is in the
development of methodology, content production using tools. have
funds to make investments not short term. It doesn't work well
like that.
The risks
will be that our discrimination and practices are captured by
great actors who do not have the same ideologies as us.
connecting
the disconnected must include human rights so that people have
access to a different way of communicating, they can change the
system based on the way they include themselves.
Challenge:
that the criteria for evaluating projects are not concerned with
quantity rather than quality of work being developed to connect
these people.
=====
## Atalaya
Sur
Damian
### What has
been happening lately in your CN?
They
received the technical resources of LACNIC: ASN, IPv4 and IPv6
public addresses.
They are
delayed with implementation.
Through
Nico Echaniz they contacted Telespacio, who give satellite
internet, and are going to explore an implementation of LACNIC's
technical resources.
The
meeting with Telespacio was not advised to publish the ASN, so
they proposed to make a tunnel through the connection they have
with Telefónica, make a BGP border with them and publish the
resources in that way.
When the
data comes and goes, it eats a lot of bandwidth so it cuts them
in half.
They are
seeing some other provider.
They were
talking with the provider that is also in Villa 20, and it seems
that through it they could publish the resources through them.
Technically,
they have always been working with a partner who knows about
pfsense which is the router with which they manage the network.
He knows him a lot and takes them out of the configuration
doubts. It has the ability to establish a BGP edge. With him
they will be solving this.
LACNIC
has in its regulations the allocation of technical resources to
non-profit organizations.
The idea
was to have a leg on the internet really from the technical, but
locally we wanted to have some kind of participation through
cabase, see how to get bandwidth too.
They will
not be associated with cabase because they cannot physically
reach the exchange point.
A
provider charged them almost the same transport as the internet.
There is a shared infrastructure regulation in Argentina that
would be good to explore.
We have a
free public network, which seeks to occupy public spaces in the
neighborhood.
Two years
ago we did a pilot test with 10 houses.
Since
this summer we are more re-stressed with bringing connectivity
inside the houses (in addition to public roads).
We are
wiring from house to house carrying internet.
Technology:
Ethernet With fiber we don't do it for a cost issue.
Watchtower
is quite over the net. The neighbors contact each other to see
if everything is fine on the trunk. once it does not work just
there they see what is happening, and finally you will see what
happens.
For fiber
they are thinking of media converters for converters to start.
Here
where we get the service we have from telephone we had until
recently this service as an option. Then another supplier passed
by, but not right here ... after they made the Olympic Village
in front of us, and thinking that the government wanted to use
this place for housing, now several companies pass by. They told
us they charged us $ 20 / mbps. at the wholesale level ... if
you go as a home neighbor there is not. You see tritubes and
fiber on the front of the house but they tell you there is no
service.
Technology
courses in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Development
of the Nation, presented a project two years ago and only this
year they approved it, so they are with these courses. Since the
agenda is quite vague and we have little freedom of action in
what we dictate, so we can meet the expectations of the agenda
and give an attractive course.
* Digital
literacy: with older neighbors
*
Intermediate course, designed for young people
*
Advanced course, which for now are getting into networks
In this
way they can meet the demands of neighbors, both those who know
and those who do not.
In the
network they are putting together small networks, there it is
planned and to see what has happened what other people have gone
through, using the videos that NicoPace put together.
The
objective is the popular appropriation of technology.
The
course is taught in two neighborhoods.
Universal
Access Service Fund, they will be lovingly encouraging ENACOM.
They had
a talk in NIC.ar referred to see what are the problems of
community networks, with a representative of the enacom, another
that was added that is permanent, and Nico Echaniz and Damian,
and cabase.
They
didn't want presentations from community networks, but they
wanted to get straight to the point to see what was going on
with community networks.
In
particular, we want to sweep it in public, it has been bicycling
for us two years ago, we are not moving forward in anything
concrete. We made numbers, we showed with graphics everything
that I had done with universal service was all fictitious
because what I was running only 1% was for ISP network
expansion, if you start seeing finite they are all friends.
What was
striking was that this management that was sending the part,
only 1% was what I had connected.
I was
embarrassed that I went to the IGF to say that it had done a
role of recognition of community networks, but did not execute a
weight.
### Where
are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
Try to get
something out of the enacom before they leave.
continue
with the line of what we have been talking about: increase
bandwidth, connect more neighbors, continue with technology
courses, and if something goes well.
They were
thinking about local services. Today the closest thing, when the
neighbors connect to the free public network a captive portal
with news of the neighborhood. Today it is housed outside.
They were
thinking of running an audiovisual service.
Telefónica
put a firewall on their connection.
We did
not see what would be useful within the network outside a
multimedia content server.
### What
are your challenges in this following period?
How to
get juice from public IPs?
Specifically
in the technical, what can be done to take advantage of that
resource?
Continue
to see how to make the network sustainable in the sense of how
to ensure that each neighbor you want can join the network, and
have available bandwidth, and costs can be covered among all ...
that scheme is always working to be able to give the discussion
too, and grow the network.
We do
open meetings, but the neighbors who have routers in the house
participate more. With those we make monthly meetings.
in those
meetings we commented on the news that has been, more neighbors
have been added through recommendations that in search of active
militants, it is the neighbors who propose to other neighbors to
join the network, and we do not make so many decisions About the
resources as a whole, we talk about the resources that we have
and expenses associated with the extension of the network. Each
neighbor is in charge of your router. when the possibility
arises for a grant, we don't involve the neighbors in that,
because they don't participate in it so actively anymore. It
implies putting a head, thinking, joining ... and that we have
not noticed that it is an activity to which the neighbors join
so much, and we do not demand them either, it is in the hands of
the companions, manuela for example who is the one who moves the
most In the presentations / awards ... we always end up doing
the same, advancing in the growth of the network, either buying
cables or equipment, or whatever comes up.
About the
activities we inform the neighbors, and we see that they have
more interest we invite you.
Actually
until the possibility of the technology courses arose, the
community network had not had much life, had been a little off.
With these courses, we managed to get the courses financed by
the Ministry of Education, especially at the time of teaching of
those who are teaching.
They are
giving the courses, chatting with the neighbors seeing how to
improve the network.
In order
for the network to move forward, we need colleagues to be
working hard on the network.
In Villa
20 there are many neighbors who would like to join the network.
The
neighbor who understands less sees us as an ISP, those who
understand most understand that it is a community network.
There are
expenses associated with the maintenance of the network that we
are trying to prop up.
if we can
incorporate all the neighbors who want to participate that are
very many, this can support the costs of the network itself as
well as a salary or periodic expense that may be taking care of
the network itself, how to improve it ... we are in that
situation we cannot make the network sustainable, but we see
that there is some way from which that may be possible, and it
is part of gaining scale.
For now
the problem is that we need more bandwidth. and if not,
historically the network was a social leg of the community
project, the political organization, a cooperative collective.
EVERYTHING:
contact with Tunapanda by local services, and contact with
Sarantaporo by digital Alphabetinzación
### CNSIG
Reflection
On the
one hand, we understand that we can help with contributing our
experience.
By
sharing our experience we can find coincidences from which a
specific action can take place.
We are as
listeners, we can say that we work on something specific.
That with
respect to P2P actions, issues touched on the same topic.
Something
that brings us all together may be something technical related
to the regulatory framework.
Each one
technically implements concrete soutions that have their
differences from the rest, and adapting to the rest can take
time.
On the
regulatory side, I believe that if it is common to all, as
community networks in any country, legislation / regulation on
community networks was legislated. The international arena is
where it can be affected with licenses, universal service,
training programs, digital literacy, they are all things that go
hand in hand with a community network.
Something
was talked about in the CNSIG with agreeing on what technologies
we have, we still had to share this.
Then
there was some diffusion, ... maybe we could be attentive to
each of those aspects to see how to move forward as a whole.
Having
found ourselves is a value in itself.
Language
is a limitation, since English is not handled.
There is
a need to train in English depending on the role.
========
# Grammarg
## What has been happening
lately in your CN?
traveled to Russia to GMAS
had a meeting with BAIF and
JANATSU, an insception meeting to kickoff their project, the
catalytic grant. discussed them. also talked about how their
budget was going to be managed.
We will be sharing the
budget with Kathleen from APC.
The contract with IITB has
been signed, still BAIF.
Amendment for the contract
because they are receiving more money.
Even though the fund
doesn't come, they have started the work with the project. they
selected women in the project, and doing training. she is the
digital correspondant in the village.
women-first approach.
training on digital skills.
she is currently doing
e-government forms in the village for the villagers.
in the pathfinder grant
objectives:
1. busting the signals
where it is connected, they have connectivity, they want to bust
it
2. women-first for
training to become digital correspondants
sarbani will go to the
field to do a case study on digital correspondant who is earning
revenues by filling forms for the villagers. also a banking
correspondant.
this way the villagers have
access to banking services through her.
Plan to go to the village
to have a look to setup a community radio, want to look into the
place to check were to setup a community radio. get all the
devices, everything ready. at the end of rain season, end of
august. Learning from JANATSU. use mobile phones to do broadcast
inside the village.
We had to hand over the
network to the local ISP and the local council, had to move out
of that engagement cause it turned to be difficult, the ISP was
taking the money from the people, was difficult, the ISP said
that we had to replace the device for the people. we ran out of
funds and had no way to keep subsidicing the network and let
them do. they have the infrastructure. we had to move out of it,
they were not learning anything from us anymore.
now that they are not with
them, sarbani visited and the isp is having problems, hard to
estimate bandwidth usage, it is not stable, in may all the men
come to the village (otherwise they are not there), can't manage
bandwidth req. april-june worked. july everyone left (rainy
season for rice crops), so noone is using it now. Sarbani is
trying to solve the problem, to get the local people subsidise
through advertisements.
he has not began yet for
the village. he wants a stable network first. what is the bare
minimum of bandwidth? talking to the local entrepreneurs who
have small shops, in one month we will sort it out. Local
content (music, videos..).
Travel exchange with
Janastu was good. visited two communities radios, to understand
why it wold be necesary in our village setup, how can it fill
the gap. we can boost signal, but why is radio needed?
identifying women
livelyhood for the catalytic interventions, so radio is good in
that context.
## Where are you going to
put your energy in your next 3 months?
Focus on women, and
community networks.
Small community radio.
The women on CN the first
step is going to be to provide to women.
Working on training of
Sarbani along with the women of the community.
They will setup the
community radio themselves.
Community Radios lead by
women, operations.
trying to understand the
needs of the women. can talk about economic empowerment, but do
they feel it is necesary? trying to understand that part. what
is their perspective of economic empowerment.
Rural broadband
standarization. Together with Ritu.
what exactly the needs of
the people. different approach.
it is the various aspects
of rural connecivity: access, availability, acceptability,
affordability.
each parameter will be
standarized.
each of the standards will
be worked with organizations with others that work on rural
broadband.
how much bandwidth is
necesary in a community? 100? 20? 10?
how many people?
when we have certain
standards, it is easy to understand.
sustainability is the other
topic. we should not depend on international funding
Realted: internet
universality indicators:
community technologies, it
is necessary to focus on them.
would like to focus on that
too.
## What are your challenges
in this following period?
setting up the community
radio will be the biggest challenge.
janastu offered help for
setting up the community radio. one is for infrastructure, and
the other for handholding the women to take up the role. have to
put energies in that direcition. it is hard to open up in radio
station.
Ritu offered help in this.
We anticipate that we will
have challenge in setting up rural women lifelihood program,
working with many partners, that can be challenging.
#
Sarandaporo
##
What has been happening lately in your CN?
since
the beginning of the year the network has been expanding, the
access layer, through a BNet ISOC's grant, and also own funds.
To
unifi mesh from open mesh
devices.
Also
implemented different strategies so every node owner now has
also mikrotik router in house, so they can have more stable
connectivity.
They
are getting better speed when the network is congested, because
they are connecting over a node inside instead of the outdoors
one.
Increased
demand, expanding the access layer, and also the backbone.
the
price for sarandaporo is 1/5 of the price of the private
providers. in part because backbone is provided by the
university.
studying
alternatives in the case university drops, 1000euro/month for 100Mbps
simetric, mainly because it is secretive.
Holidays
now so people visit and traffic doubled throughout the summer.
We
need to increase the throughput, the university gives us 1gbps
but we don't have a link that gets all of it to us.
there
is fiber around but is a private-public fund and they control
the fiber, so we are not certain we can get access to that. for
now we are increasing wireless links.
we
have been approached by homo
digitalis,
an org that works on legal issues on digital access and rights,
and want to work with us on
legislation gap in greece in relation to community networks. we
are looking to kickstart the project, they want to write
proposals for state for legislation in favor of community
networks in greece.
no
open data project in relation to open telecom data in greece.
Digital
literacy discussions and local content generation.
have
been discussing with Sol from Zenzeleni, framinig it for
themselves and others, deserves to be handled as a separate case
itself.
workshops
with local members, safety on the internet.
the
majority of the community members they don't think about it and
they don't feel that they need to dig into... most of the people
will get up to the point to develop digital skills, but not
more.
I have
been thinking what we are doing with CN we bring connectivity to
the unconnected without explaining, it feels like you bring them
into a dangerous area, just using facebook or giving up their
data for free.
With a
documentalist and video editor we did some video interviews of
some members and farmers and we are planning to make a short
video to document progress and to share our community, it is
going to be ~3min video.
applied
to the european broadband award, first selection will be
announced by november
met
new municipal administration of the municipality, and are
friendly with the network, met with them on sunday
Discussed
common opportunities:
- exploring
connecting new villages, the municipality will help in reaching
them so villagers could do their own or join the sarandaporo.gr.
the event will happen in november.
-
work as advisors for digital strategy of the municipality.
first
time municipality is so close to them, promising.
community
members from the region are participating.
we
tried to encourage women to participate. there are some women in
our telegram group. a couple of them are active, like sending
messages, troubleshooting or mainteining equipment. seems that
women are more involved in organizing community than the
technical part. no women in rooftops.
the
bet is not to
make tech friendly for women, but explore the aspects of cns
that could feel more natural for them
and engage them in relevant activities (community networks are
not just about the tech).
in
relation to digital literacy, i would think that women
see this as a more natural space for them can
participate more,
cause it is about online
safety and awareness (like safeguarding
children).
we
have been having some women in our workshops,
the
space has been welcoming and supportive.
one
thing is to do a community network, and another one is to change
the culture of a place.. local
communities in our area are rather conservative.
##
Where are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
1.
build the relationship with the municipality
2.
expand the network to 20 farms that have expressed their
interest in joining the network. till end of september.
3.
digital literacy
4.
legal work
5.
next big project to fund work
6.
renew website, so people from abroad can read news. has been
difficult for us. (important!)
7. Android
app
for farmers (some people were building it), part of a EU-funded
project
that they were part
of, researchers wanted to build a mobile app to help them log
tasks that they were doing in the farm so they could produce
reports. didn't worked well, and did some research and
requirement assessment, but the app itself is not very user
friendly. we are looking to make it work to provide this tool to
the farmers.
##
What are your challenges in this following period?
having
collaborated with many orgs until now, we see that there is an
aspect of us that some people want to take advantage of.
sarandaporo.gr it is very well known, academics would like to
promote sarandaporo to promote their own image. any organization
that comes to us and 'want to help', we now are being more
careful about how to select collaborations.
doing
research for ourselves.
#
Rhizomatica and TIC A.C.
##
What has been happening lately in your CN?
###
Rhizomatica
We are
participating in the APC project, mainly around giving the money
away under the pathfinder work, also around writing about
technologies (5G).
On the
technical side we keep developing on 2g tech with osmocom,
working on data (gprs+edge).
also
working on 4g CoLTE project with Matt integration with their
existing software.
Also
working on different research questions (backhaul congestions).
working
on spectrum access for 4g with TIC and Redes for secondary
access to spectrum (700Mhz).
Policy
stuff mixed with APC, Steve and Erick are working together on
secondary use spectrum, access to universal service funds, and
doing a lot of regulator training.
In
relation to Hermes, one of the pathfinder grants for the
catalytic interventions is going to a project that is
retrofiting HF radio to move data over it (together with the
Mozilla money).
###
TIC AC
TIC
people is getting more into spaces, more people from REDES too
(Karla as coordinator in APC, CITSAC with Carlos Baca, ...).
TIC
wants to get more folks out. The language is a challenge, doing
English lessons.
Continuing
to role out 4g networks, in Guerrero now.
Exploring
a bigger office, running out of space.
The
satellite capacity donated, they received a training and now
they are using it in Guerrero for their backhaul.
Might
receive more satellite capacity.
Oneweb
potential collaborations.
##
Where are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
More
of the same, continuing to push things.
Access
to spectrum for LTE.
Going
to CN gathering to Colombia, and collaborating with Cauca
network in Colombia.
We
will be supporting Tosepan in their regional backhaul for their
Bank. We will also be doing a pilot for 4G.
##
What are your challenges in this following period?
TIC
AC: Increase capacity to speak English within the team;
integrate new technologies within existing ones (4G w/ 2G);
document fully power/protection innovations that have been made
over the past year so other can use it.
Rhizomatica:
continued funding for policy work under Sida/APC project and
direct Ford Fdn is unknown for 2020; cotinued support for
Colnodo in Cauca - how to do technical support and guidance from
afar.
#
altermundi
##
What has been happening lately in your organization?
We have
been working on the LibreRouter phase 2 project
approve
the librerouter in argentina
We are
studying the possibility of producing non-electronic things
locally.
We
support the presentation of a local women's collective for a
feminist router factory in Frida and it did not go, and now they
will do it to Beyond the Net via the Argentine Chapter of ISOC
We were
working on the Universal Access Funds, creating a presenter for
that. The first project of a community network that attempts to
access the fund with the objective of establishing a regional
and global presenter is presented, and that the project is under
evaluation by the regulatory body.
We
started to work on creating a model personality for community
networks with the figure of mutual
we did
the first seedbed workshop in Cheran
We were
selected as APC peers and collectively presented a project that
was accepted to facilitate the initial deployment of librerouter
in projects in Latin America
We have a
new communication group, which have been making video and text
coverage of relevant activities in which we participate, which
gave us new push / presence / ability to convey our message
From our
role in the CNSIG, we help coordinate the Latin American summit
in Colombia and the participation of the communities in the next
ITU spectrum meeting in Lima.
We
support NicoPace to be fulfilling the role of Movement
Construction Coordinator in the APC community networks project.
We
receive visitors from training networks in Mexico, Colombia and
Brazil
We visit
networks in Moinho Brazil, Kenya
We are
migrating the LibreRouter hardware source code to free tools.
We are
mentoring Google Summer of Code, mainly the SAn testing thing,
and retroshare / elrepo.io
We were
granted a grant to continue the development of elrepo.io during
2019/2020.
## Where
are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
Finish
the approval of the LibreRouter in Argentina, and help it finish
in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.
We will
try to activate the fabriquita, with internal or own funds.
we will
continue developing elrepo.io
Support
to the first deployments of LibreRouters
Manufacture
and distribution of the first 500 routers.
Continue
with everything started in the first part of the year.
## What
are your challenges in this following period?
Link up
with the new national administration to continue the lobbying
task that we have been doing in recent years
the
adoption on a larger scale of all the technology that we have
been developing for years.
The
challenge is to be able to respond to expectations.
Finish
deciphering whether it is feasible to win a share of the
universal service funds to the telco, who are fighting for the
funds at the same time as us.
====
#
Fantsuam Foundation
##
What has been happening lately in your org?
We
received a small grant from APC, not as much as we have
expected.
We
were going to reactivate our network. We wanted to do our
network and a second network 50km.
With
the funds we had we limited to our network.
Put a
team together to see how we can get a national voice for CN in
Nigeria.
Apart
from Fantsuam there is one more project that is being organized
by ISOC Nigeria, we want to start a SIG on CN on Nigeria so we
can have a single voice.
they
are doing it in an urban center, different from ours that has
been rural.
seeing
how we can raise the profile of CNs by getting more individuals
and orgs interested in it, so we are not talking alone about
CNs, we are more.
They
called it CNSIG Nigeria, they have 12 members some from ISOC,
some from private sector, and some freelance technicians.
Now
they are building a platform to put solar panels. Power in rural
is critical for their work.
They
have some radios at hand, and looking forward to get the
LibreRouter if possible.
Yacubu
is their major trainer.
##
Where are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
One of
the major challenges is the backbone.
Carefully
following the regulator about access to TVWS. Carlos and Steve
met the regulator about it.
The
conversation has gone cold.
The
person Carlos and Steve was not high enough in the command
chain.
In
principle the regulator said they did guidelines on TVWS for
rural. The
regulator said they has developed a framework for the deployment
of TVWS in Nigeria
The
Nigeria regulator reacts positively to international
intervention.
Don't
think ISOC Nigeria chapter values rural. The
ISOC Nigeria CN is being deployed in an urban setting. The rural
communities where resources for setting up CN is still largely
unreached
Hope
the SIG could help.
APC
and ISOC could help: For the Nigeria regulator to commit to give
a permit on TVWS in the first wave of permits. The
first wave of permits for deployment of TVWS should consider
CSOs like Fantsuam that are already living and working in such
rural communities
We
want ISOC Nigeria to recognize the SIG. The
CNSIF, Nigeria that has just been set up has some members of
ISOC, Nigeria and would like to work as a unit under ISOC,
Nigeria
we
were hoping to have another remotely llocated community to have
the system up and running, but funding has not been enough.
in the
communities were we want to set up CNs the occupation is
substience farmers. they appreciate the need for communication
but don't have disposable income. they have people that can be
trained, but we need to be able to get some seed funds.
not
difficult to set up CNs, cause there is a lot of disposable
income in urban centers.
there
is USF, most of the fund is not utilized.
getting
access to it would need a lot of energy. and
advocacy which a single organization, like Fantsuam Foundation
cannot handle
ISOC
Nigeria could get to the USF. ISOC
Nigeria is well known to the USF and the regulators at NBC and
NCC. This link can be used for advocacy to promote access to the
USF for rural connectivity
The
USF was set up precisely to reach the uncennoected. Community
Networks provide an opportunity to achieve this objective but a
case has to be made by ISOC Nigeria because the USF has never
been deployed for CN in Nigeria. If Michuki can encourage ISOC
Nigeria to explore the USF situation for CNs in Nigeria, it will
be most helpful
A
group of working CNs that can be used a s a prrof on concept is
one way of convincing the Nigerian Government of the
cost-effectiveness of promoting CNs for the unconnectedJ
====
#
Nethood
##
What has been happening lately in your Org?
There
is a networking aspect in the current actions. An effort to
transform the place as a digital hub, self defence,
emancipation, free software.
Nethood
was involved in two big projects that finished, Mazi and netcommons?
Changed
from a contracts, deliverables to an unfunded but free
organization.
One of
the outcomes was the space that they are inhabitting, a space, http://langstrasse200.ch/, where
people can meet around technology, discuss about their own
infrastructure.
They
are planning to host a neighbourhood cloud, meet the
administrators, learn, have courses...
It is
a collective space, central in the neighbourhood (which is
important), sharing the rent with many organization to have a
central space to do what we want.
Potential
of synergy, likeminded human rights advocates, but not necesary
sensitive to digital, so planning to collaborate to this
initiatives, and to be more visible to the city (zurich).
Being
free now gives posibility to do voluntary work, now part of the
board of ISOC Switzerland, reaching out to a
wider audience in
collaboration with the
PEP Foundation: https://pep.foundation/.
Establish
a monthly meeting open to public, permanent appointment where
people can come and learn about privacy, cryptoparties, course
about alternative software/hardware, CNs potentially,
In
switzerland people is overconnected.
tried
to write some experiences of the project, through Mazi.
tried
to write about the cooptation of the commons from neoliberal
projects.
the
projects in athens are slowed down, because there is no funding
he has not been able to go back, the squats some are closed in
exarcheia.
Translating
my work in the previous years into more digestable messages to
the general public, creating sinergies/collaborations in
commoning infrastructure to different audiences.
Collaborated
in some complementary projects like elrepo.io for AlterMundi, as
a mediator for the project.
stepping
back from this 3 year funding...
I
would like to find a formula to sustain myself and help projects
get resources.
##
Where are you going to put your energy in your next 3 months?
I was
too much networking in international level, and want to take
advantage of the unemployment fund to learn german and get more
connections locally.
Have
an income doing that.
people
ask him how do you live, and it is challenging.
Meta
work, invest some effort for all the work doing here to
conceptualize, to what we do in our space to be turned into a
toolbox, a conceptual research project about methodologies,
stories, recipes... knowledge sharing... that is difficult to
fund still...
connect
activists of different
sorts (digital, environmental, ...), and adjust/replicate
experiences and practices.
how
you can bring in a small room many people so it can pay the rent
and also become an interesting space.
take a
break in the future to sinthesize the idea into a proposal to be
funded.
focusing
in making the space survive.
as a
second project how this would work in the long term.
leadership:
i want to dig into how we can create leadership models that are
both efficient
and empowering/distributing the power.
the
other challenge is diversity.
not to
create bubbles in the space, like hackers/activists that
understands each other but noone else can join/enter.
create
neutral zone where different groups can get a glimpse of what
happens on the other side.
##
What are your challenges in this following period?
I come
from theory, reading/writing/ thinking, was activie in differnt
groups but mainly in theoretical.
for me
the big challenge is not to loose my previous identity but also
get into the practice.
theory
is googd for deconstractive/analizing/generalizing.
don't
want to throw away the previous experience, but to produce
content that could help others, inspire.
bring
the need for real spaces, would like to bring the knowledge we
generate here and promote the idea of it to be on the
ground/street also than the roofs.
create
real spaces, pasionate about this... this is the biggest
challenge, not to become cheap labour to connect people to the
current internet. we need to create spaces where this proceses
are created, .... without real spaces it is nearly impossible.
not in
installing antennas or teaching people how to do it, but pushing
about democracy, ownership, emancipation... avoid just 'getting
the internet to the people'.
In
greece I will be 100% on this.
===
#
Zenzeleni (I am
sharing an update I did for the APC member meeting which is much
clearer than the notes below)
Here is
some of the work Zenzeleni and I have been busy with in the last
9 months:
We have
seeded a new community owned cooperative ISP, Zenzeleni
Zithulele network. This has been possible with funding from the
national Department of Science and Technology and a lot of hard
work. The seeding process includes working with a self
identified group from the community to register the legal
vehicle, apply for the license exemptions to operate, support
discussions and developing business and network management
practices between the original Zenzeleni Mankosi cooperative and
the new one. It also requires a lot of creativity and insistence
as every element of deployment in the rural context is a
challenge (supplies, services, transport, roads, power...).
This has
required us (the Zenzeleni non for profit) to also re-define
ourselves to deal with the complexity of a larger network, and
multiple organisations collaborating. We have redefined out
Memorandum of Incorporation to hold our objective clearer, have
developed internal contracts and are in the necessary process of
developing manuals to support coordinated work in this complex
set up. We have also (after more than a year's process)
developed a network service and costing model where the network
data is affordable to those in the community with lowest (or no)
income and also offers some incentive for local businesses
(which is necessary for the cooperative's sustainability).
We are
now busy as one of the peer community networks in the APC LOCNET
project. We used this opportunity not only to learn from other
CN's but also to grow our cross organisation learning within
Zenzeleni. I am working with one of the older "mamas' who has
been with Zenzeleni longest, Mama Sigcau. Its been absolutely
amazing hosting our colleagues from BoscoUganda, CYD Malawi and
also Josephine Miliza who is also part of TunapandaNet in Kenya,
so enriching for us at this moment of growth. Its been amazing
to see accelerated learning all around, and also share the
difficulties on CNs in harsh realities. I'm also really enjoyed
the women's group in LOCNET - it adds a human element that's
been important for me. Also through the LOCNET pathfinder grant
we have initiated our backhaul upgrade to cope with this larger
version of Zenzeleni.
In our
communication and advocacy efforts we are holding a few events
this month, a high level government round table and site visit
to Zenzeleni, and then a grassroots event, where we would like
to share our knowledge with the many communities and
organisations that request info from us. As Zenzeleni means "do
it yourself" we hope this event supports more people connecting
themselves!
A few
more things to mention;
- I am
busy with the African Summit on Community Networks (organised by
ISOC and APC). I am part of the programme committee and we have
been hard at work developing a meaningful agenda/ experience.
- Also
attended DWEB camp a couple of months ago.
- We are
also busy updating our website. We would like to develop our
communication material more, in isiXhosa and English as this has
been left somewhat aside. Will share when its ready.
- Ive
also participated in many supporting roles such as the
evaluation of the Catalytic grants for APC, and the African CN
summit fellowship programme.
On a
personal level, I'm trying to balance still being present as a
mother to my two kids, and a partner, whilst working in the
effort to contribute to a more just society and a people's
community network.