Good evening guys and girls.
In last Friday I knew that the DC community networks was open, then, here i
am :-).
I participate in 4 movements of civil society.
Campanha Banda Larga é Um Direito Seu!
Marco Civil Já
Redes Livres
Espectro Livre
I stay president in Instituto Bem Estar Brasil that is a NGO with the
mission to put internet access as a fundamental right.
We act in two fronts.
Creating communities networks
Pressuring and debating with the federal government to make the regulations
and laws more flexible to improve CNs.
Since 2008 we are doing this and here in Brazil the scenario is this :
1 - Since 2008 every person or entity can share internet access following
the rules of the resolution 506/2008 (ISM frequencies - WiFi);
2 - In 2013, after 3 years pressuring and debating with MiniCom and Anatel
the agency create the resolution 617/2013, that make possible NGOs to
provide internet access with more options of technology like fiber, DLS etc
3 - Since 2014 more resolutions are cooking (or soon for this) in the agency
like :
* Spectrum management resolution (public consult 14/2014)
* Restricted radiation equipments resolution (public consult 23/2015)
* Critical infrastructure resolution (resolution 656/2015)
* Inefficiency use of spectrum resolution
All of those four resolutions we are debating to separate more spectrum to
community networks and without need of authorization and costs. The debate
includes too the entry for others services with the same rules (or less
rules :-)), like radio, tv and mobile services.
In MiniCom (Communication Ministry) we a debating and try to build the
common sense that community networks can be a public policy that can be
integrated with others already consolidated like :
* National Broadband Plan
* BroadBand in the Schools
* Digital City
* Telecenters, Points of Culture, RadComs and TVComs, GESAC (internet access
in public policies points), ProInfo (informatic labs in schools)
* Public entities that works with policies of telecom infrastructure like
Telebras and RNP
And other stuff that we can talk later
Here in Rio we are creating community networks with partnership of two
universities : UENF and IFF.
In the last years we create 6 community providers, but only with basic
technical instructions.
The topology of the networks is decentralized with ERBs working like
hotspots with radius of 2 km.
The infrastructure is based in 802.11 b/g, with RouterOS managing the
network. The enlaces we are using rocket m5 (ubiquiti) and with dual
polarization to improve the links.
In the beginning we believe that only make the technical capacitation and
helping to create that basic infrastructure all the problems after that will
be solved naturally :-). Let's say that was our first learned lesson.
Now we are working with the cultural question about self management, mainly
with the strengthen of the associative process.
We discovered until now that the sustainability needs to find a cultural
behavior of collaboration and sense of responsibility (now obvious for us)
and a way that we find out to solve this, is the associative process.
In this year we will review the community providers and work more this
process os self management and we will create more 10 community networks,
selecting communities that already have minimum association process or want
to create it as a premise to build a community network.
Well, I'm stopping here, but I would like to know where is the pad or wiki
that this DC are co-creating the ideas to help more.
We have here more things to propose for debate and I will call more guys and
girls that are working with CNs too and lets expand more the group.
Thanks and sorry if this text is faulty :-), I did not reviewed it.
I create in last week a mind map that is in V1 to help to understand the
issues that we are debating in social, political, legal, educational and
economical about CNs here. I pretend to translate and make it more easy to
identify the topics and subtopics that I put in there.
Here is the link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx4eEPXqyQFuWFhKUDJxVWR1cU0/view?usp=sharin
g
We have more docs, but I want to know what the group are discussing to share
the right contents.
Thanks and lets build our own free networks
Dear all,
I have been invited to participate to the meeting of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) that will take place next week in Washington, DC. The A4AI aims at fostering affordable internet access but, over the past weeks, has been criticised for being excessively business-oriented.
I believe that those who have worked within the A4AI, so far, have missed the importance of concrete alternatives to "traditional" approaches, such as community networks that DC3 advocates for. My understanding is that A4AI is open to consider alternatives and I will participate to the A4AI meeting with the goal of stressing the importance of promoting a variety of different approaches rather than focusing only on the strategies that have been analysed/encouraged so far.
I am open to any suggestions from list-members with regard to relevant points to stress during the A4AI meeting.
There are already a number of examples of successful CN experiences (e.g. DEF India, guifi.net, Altermundi, etc.) showing that it is possible to empower individuals allowing them to make connectivity more ubiquitous and sustainable, rather than merely trying to make it more affordable via "conventional" strategies. And many other possibilities are available, including exploiting untapped resources such as abandoned copper infrastructure or unexploited spectrum, as stressed by Bob.
I would be more than happy to convey any other example, opinion or suggestion you have as regards alternative approaches that should be considered to foster connectivity.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments.
Best
Luca
[FGV Direito Rio]
Luca Belli, PhD
Pesquisador | Researcher
Lead of Internet Governance @ FGV<http://internet-governance.fgv.br/> luca.belli(a)fgv.br
+55 21 3799 5763
[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/Direito_Rio/assinatura_email/Ondas.png]
Hola tod@s,
Maybe some of you are already aware of this initiative, but I wanted to
share it for with you all that we (AlterMundi in association with other
groups) are planning to create our own community network friendly
routers in the near future.
We will be sending this project for the next FRIDA call, which closes on
may 13th:
https://pad.codigosur.org/FRIDA_Escalamientos2016
... the pad is still work in progress.
As you can read there, this is mainly a reaction to the trend that
TP-Link has initiated as a result of some very bad decisions/ruling by
the FCC in the near past.
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/way-go-fcc-now-manufacturers-locking-routers/
To those of you interested in participating in the discussion of this
initiative, feel free to subscribe to the mailing list here:
https://listas.altermundi.net/mailman/listinfo/fcc-free
I'd also like to propose that we discuss what could be the role of the
DC3 in such a project.
Cheers,
Nico
I'm having a discussion in the APC mailing list regarding this information:
https://www.apc.org/en/news/government-and-association-internet-providers-b…https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/leaked-documents-confirm-ecuadors-int…
To my eyes this is a full fledged operation to discredit Correa's administration, in continuation with the current trend against left-wing governments in Latin America. These are the kind of operation that build up to situations like what happened in Paraguay with Lugo, in Honduras with Zelaya and now in Brazil with Dilma.
Correa and Morales are current targets.
Why I say this information is not credible:
1) the problem reported is from march 2014, but it's being used to undermine the new Telecommunications Law in Ecuador which was passed in 2015.
2) the origin of this information is Telefónica, which as every big telco, are always in the business of interfering with sovereign legislation in Telecommunications. They are the ones who profit more from a completely de-regulated market.
3) the traffic blocking described by the alleged leaked memo from Movistar/Telefónica had a duration of 33min. It's hard to believe that the whole incident could actually take 33 min. Consider the Whatsapp block in Brasil a while ago. It took long hours for the ISPs to comply with the justice system order, and then to revert it and it was of public knowledge that the order was in place.
4) the AEPROVI (the association in charge of the Internet Exchange nap.ec), explains in a press release why this information cannot be true: http://aeprovi.org.ec/es/
... and their arguments are completely reasonable for anyone who knows how IXPs opperate.
5) the organization that leaked this information has very little background to check: https://ecuadortransparente.org/
I just wanted to share this with you because I think it's important to defuse this operations. Good legislation is the only way to effectively and sustainably defend the people from corporate abuse; these operations prepare the field for attacks on these laws, not with the people's interest in mind.
Cheers,
Nico
Dear all,
Please note that, as an outcome of the João Pessoa IGF meeting, the Dynamic Coalitions coordinators have been working on a draft proposal for a DC Coordination Group to enhance coordination and foster synergies between DCs.
Should you be interested, feel free to provide comments or make suggestions on the DRAFT proposal, by 1st April, using this pad https://v.etherpad.org/p/Comments_on_DRAFT_Proposal_DC_Coord_Group
Best
Luca
Dear all,
Thanks for your inputs regarding the DC3 domain name. The most voted one is comconnectivity.org
I have just purchased the domain name so that when Raoul and Maureen will have a draft DC3 website (that you are going to develop with Wordpress if I recollect well), we can redirect the Wordpress URL to comconnectivity.org
The basic webpages we need are: About, Members, Sources, News&Ideas. I have just compiled the material we already have as follows https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/dc_on_connected_communities
This is just a suggestion. Feel free to develop the webpages content as you prefer.
Also, here are the Draft Rules of Procedure https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/DC3_Rules_of_Procedure
If there is no opposition to this text, we can considered the Rules as adopted. If you have any final remarks or objections, please modify the pad or share an email by 21 February.
All the best
Luca
[FGV Direito Rio]
Luca Belli, PhD
Pesquisador | Researcher
Lead of Internet Governance @ FGV<http://internet-governance.fgv.br/> luca.belli(a)fgv.br<mailto:luca.belli@fgv.br>
+55 21 3799 5763
[http://www.fgv.br/mailing/Direito_Rio/assinatura_email/Ondas.png]