Hi everyone,
After all the noise some of us have made at national, regional and
international Internet Governance spaces, it looks like the ITU Council
wants to hear directly “How can small/community/non-profit operators
help in promoting the increase of Internet connectivity?”
This poses an unique opportunity to showcase directly to the ITU Council
all the amazing work that most of you are doing, specially at times
where CNs are gaining more and more visibility to curve the digital
divide and rural marginalization that is now more and more apparent due
to the pandemic. And I say directly because this request is made through
one of the very few consultations the ITU open to all stakeholders: the
Open Public Consultation of the Council Working Group on International
Internet-related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet). I provide a bit of
background about it below for those who are interested.
The consultation is structured as a set of questions, one of them the
one included above, available in the following link:
https://www.itu.int/en/council/cwg-internet/Pages/consultation-sep2020.aspx
where you can also find important information and instructions on the
submission process.
I think it is strategically important that the ITU receives as many
contributions from each of us as possible highlighting the many
different ways community operators help in promoting the increase of
Internet connectivity. This will surely contribute in creating a more
policy and regulatory environment for community networks in each of your
countries.
I’ve copied some of the basic instructions to participate below.
Participating can be as easy as forwarding existing text you may have
written (the GISWatch country report for those of you who wrote it:
https://www.giswatch.org/community-networks) to the email address below.
Note that your online submission can be drafted in a UN language other
than English (these are Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish),
but you are encouraged (not obliged) to provide a translation in English
for the benefit of all readers.
At APC we are available to provide support to any of you wanting to make
a submission but struggling with the process. Please do not hesitate to
reach out to me directly.
Best,
carlos
== Basic instructions ==
You can include your responses to the questions into the online form in
the following link :
https://www.itu.int/en/council/cwg-internet/Pages/form-oct2019.aspx OR
send it to InternetPublicViews(a)itu.int including your Full Name, Title,
Country and Organization you are representing.
Your response will then be published on the ITU Website:
https://www.itu.int/en/council/cwg-internet/Pages/consultation-sep2020.aspx
Please include each submission also includes a short summary/abstract
(1-3 paragraphs). This will form part of the final summary document to
be published after the end of the physical open consultation meeting.
== Background ==
ITU Council Working Groups
There are different Working Groups set up to provide input to the ITU
Council in different matters. In the last last Council Group (February,
2020) meeting four appeared to be active [1]:
- Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy
Issues (CWG-Internet)
- Council working group on Child Online Protection (WG-CP)
- Council Working Group on WSIS (WG-WSIS)
- Council Working Group on Financial and Human Resources (CWG-FHR)
The participation in those working groups varies and some are for
Members States (MS) only, others allow for the participation of Sector
Members (too).
CWG-Internet is limited to Member States, but they hold an open
consultation to all stakeholders. This poses one of the few
opportunities for Civil Society Organizations that are not Sector
Members of the ITU to present their views to the ITU Council. In most
other ITU’s consultations, organizations such as the Association for
Progressive Communications and the Internet Society, both with Sector
Member status do their best to bring the voice of the Civil Society in
general, and of community networks in particular to these spaces.
In particular, CWG-Internet is tasked to identify, study and develop
matters related to international Internet-related public policy issues
and to disseminate its outputs throughout ITU's membership, as well as
to report annually to the Council on activities undertaken on these
subjects [2] [3].
The 13th Session of the ITU Council Working Group on International
Internet-related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet) decided on 20
September 2019 to hold an open consultation (online and physical) on
“International internet-related public policy issues on harnessing new
and emerging telecommunications/ICTs for sustainable development” where
some of our contributions provided already content in relation to
community connectivity [4].
In the 13th Session it was also decided that the next round of Open
Consultations (February 2020 – August 2020), on the topic of “Expanding
Internet Connectivity” with the questions below: [5]
Expanding Internet Connectivity
- What are the challenges and opportunities for expanding Internet
connectivity, particularly to remote and under-served areas? What are
the roles of governments and non-government actors in overcoming these
challenges?
- Are there particular challenges facing land-locked countries in
securing affordable Internet access? What can be done to overcome these
challenges?
- How can small/community/non-profit operators help in promoting the
increase of Internet connectivity?
[1] https://www.itu.int/en/council/Pages/groups.aspx
[2] https://www.itu.int/en/council/cwg-internet/Pages/default.aspx
[3] https://www.itu.int/md/S19-CL-C-0136/en
[4]
https://www.itu.int/en/council/cwg-internet/Pages/consultation-oct2019.aspx
[5]
https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/19/rclintpol13/c/S19-RCLINTPOL13-C-001…
--
Carlos Rey-Moreno, PhD
Local Access Policy and Regulation Coordinator
Association for Progressive Communications
https://www.apc.org/en/project/connecting-unconnected-supporting-community-…
Cel: +27 (0) 76 986 3633
Skype: carlos.reymoreno Twitter: Creym
Hi all! In case you want to join us during the second session of the
Virtual Summit of CNs in Africa.
best,
carlos
---------- Forwarded message ---------
Hello Everyone,
*Français plus bas! *
This is our last call to register for the next session of the Virtual Summit
on Community Networks in Africa on 28 October 2020 at 12:00 Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC).
This session examines effective community engagement approaches for
building a successful community network. Experts will review and discuss
different methods and experiences that have been used to achieve community
ownership.
Register to join :
https://www.internetsociety.org/events/summit-community-networks-africa/202…
Warm regards,
Salut à tous !
C'est notre dernier appel à inscriptions la prochaine session du Sommet
virtuel sur les réseaux communautaires en Afrique le 28 octobre 2020 à
12h00, temps universel (UTC).
Cette session examine les approches efficaces d'engagement communautaire
pour bâtir un réseau communautaire prospère. Des experts passeront en revue
et discuteront des différentes méthodes et expériences qui ont été
utilisées pour parvenir à l’appropriation communautaire.
Inscrivez-vous pour rejoindre:
https://www.internetsociety.org/fr/events/summit-community-networks-africa/…
Cordialement,
*Israel Bionyi*
*Communications and Outreach Manager, *Africa at the Internet Society
*nyoh(a)isoc.org <nyoh(a)isoc.org> | +254(0)743565220*
*https://www.internetsociety.org/ <https://www.internetsociety.org/> *
* <https://www.internetsociety.org/> *
_______________________________________________
Cn-africa mailing list
Cn-africa(a)elists.isoc.org
https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/cn-africa
View the Internet Society Code of Conduct:
https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/
--
Carlos Rey-Moreno, PhD
"Community and Local Access Networks" Project Coordinator
Association for Progressive Communications
https://www.apc.org/en/project/local-access-networks-can-unconnected-connec…
Cel: +27 (0) 76 986 3633
Skype: carlos.reymoreno Twitter: Creym
Hi all,
Is there a plan to meet (virtually) during the IGF? I see in the program
that there will be lots of interesting panels discussing access and
connectivity, anyway.
Kind regards,
--
Raquel Rennó Nunes
Digital Programme Officer
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Hi all,
netCommons (www.netcommons.eu), the European project on network
infrastructure as commons, is proud to announce the release of
"Telecommunications Reclaimed: A Hands-On Guide to Networking Communities".
This book is a guide on how to build a community network, a shared local
telecommunications infrastructure, managed as a commons, to access the
internet and other digital communications services. It was written
collectively by a group of community network pioneers in Europe,
activists and researchers during a writing residency week held in Vic,
Catalonia in October 2018. It was a time of hard work and fast writing,
but also of discussions in a friendly environment.
Meant for a wide audience, the book includes practical knowledge
illustrated by several hands-on experiences – a set of 32 real-life
stories – as well as legal, technical, governance, economic and policy
material extracted from netCommons, a three-year-long research project
supported by the European Commission. Its goal is to guide the reader
through a set of actions aimed at setting up and fostering the growth of
a community network, but also, for policy makers, local administrations
and the general public, to create the right conditions to let community
networks bloom and flourish.
Download the Open Access book PDF at
https://www.netcommons.eu/?q=telecommunications-reclaimed
Many thanks to all those who made this possible, and in particular to
ISOC and APC who supported the book production after the European
project funding of the writing.
It can be purchased at
https://www.amazon.com/Telecommunications-reclaimed-hands-networking-commun…
Suggestions of a commons-based or cooperative print-on-demand platform
are welcome, as we are looking for an alternative to Amazon (choice of
our publisher) for a print-on-demand solution.
The book's editors, Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay and Félix Tréguer
![http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_tel.jpg]+55](http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_tel.jpg]+55){kind=link}
![http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_ass_email.jpg]luc…](http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_ass_email.jpg]luca.belli@fgv.br){kind=link}
![http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_ass_url.jpg]www.c…](http://www.fgv.br/mailing/2018/direito_rio/assinatura/fgv_ass_url.jpg]www.cyberBRICS.info){kind=link}