Dear all, (apologies for typos, I am writing fom a device with no corrector)
Yesterday, we had a very interesting and fruitful meeting at rightscon. Below a brief recap of the ideas that emerged from the discussion.
General considerations:
First, it would be interesting to dedicate the 2018 DC3 outcome to a compilation of exsiting toolkits (e.g. Mazi tooltik), instructions (e.g. Commotion), technologies (Libre Router), etc. that allow people to concretely build community networks, rather
than elaborating another book.
Second, it would be good to dedicate part of the DC3 session to "let the unconnected speak for themselves" i.e. bringing into the debate people that are currently attempting to build CNs, to lat them share the difficulties they are facing and discuss with
DC3 members how to solve them. Nico Pace and Leandro pointed out that there are a lot of commmunities that are attempting to build CNs that would be willing to share their experience.
Third, it would be very interesting to dedicate part of the session to discussing partnerships with stakeholders with whom we can establish unexplored cooperation. IFLA (Donna was present at the meeting) was an obvious exemple but many others can be added
to the list (e.g. community radio, etc).
Lastly, (this point partly overlap with the previous one) it would be very interesting to bring into the discussion and and establish cooperation with developers of technologies that can be compelentary to the development of CN e.g. blockchain projetc
(e.g.
delife.io which was presented by Jan who participated to the meeting), IoT solutions developers, etc.
Important question:
Which format could be the best suited for a compilation of toolkits, etc? A specific website? A webpage of the DC3 site? Something else?
Specific considerations:
It would be very challenging to discuss all the points mentioned above during the DC3 session (even if the 90 minutes slot has been reinstored, after many participants complained about last year 60 min slot). Therefore it would be advisable to put forward
a workshop proposal, besides the DC3 session.
The session DC3 could have a structure along these lines
- presentation of (at least some of) the initiatives featured in the compilation/catalogue of toolkits (40 min)
- discussion with people in their early phase of CN development to undertand the challeges they are facing (30 min)
- discussion with potential partners (20 min)
The discussion/presentation of technologies and initiatives that can compelement CN development is so broad that could be the object of a specific session.
Stavroula and Harris, from Mazi, kindly volunteered to take the lead to develop the workshop proposal (deadline 27 May) for a collaborative workshop where such initiatives/technologies can be presented.
Please feel free to share comments and add any info I may have forgotten or correct anything I may have misreported
All the best
Luca