Introduction

The need for a Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) emerged during the IGF workshop 223 "Community Networks: a Revolutionary Paradigm", held in João Pessoa, during the 10th IGF. Workshop participants agreed on the potential of community networks in order to promote sustainable Internet connectivity and foster the full enjoyment of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and self-determination. To this extent participants stressed the need to move forward the discussion on community networks and further analyse how such networks may be used to foster sustainable Internet connectivity while empowering Internet users. During the workshop, consensus emerged with regard to the need for international cooperation aimed at fostering synergy and coordination amongst different community networks. Such cooperation may be particularly useful in order to identify:

  • best practices for the development and maintenance of community networks;
  • sustainable organisational and financial models for community networks;
  • efficient software and hardware technology.

To address the aforementioned issues while fostering cooperation, many participants expressed interest with regard to the establishment of a new IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity.

Action Plan

The Dynamic Coalition on on Community Connectivity (DC3) emerged as an outcome of the IGF workshop 223 "Community Networks: a Revolutionary Paradigm", held in João Pessoa, during the 10th IGF.

The DC3 has been created in order to foster multistakeholder analysis of the various types and models of community networks, with the aim of identifying and promoting best practices and sustainable approaches to Internet connectivity in the context of communities.

The DC3 participants will foster joint efforts aimed at:

  • Making Community Networks (CN) visible to policy makers so they can be properly considered as an actor in the telecommunications ecosystem.
  • Identifying good open-access resources that may be useful to communicate to non-techies what CN are and how they work;
  • Mapping existing CN and try to foster communication amongst them, promoting strategies to achieve common goals;
  • Identifying models of CN (e.g. rural CN, urban CN, etc.) and best practices that can make them particularly efficient and resilient both from a technical and organizational perspective;
  • Identifying best practices and worst practices as regards national and international policies that facilitate or hinder the deployment of community networks.
  • Consolidating and publishing these ideas into some ‘Community Network Guidelines/Best practices’ to be presented at the next IGF and divulgated on the future DC3 website.
  • Supporting CN gatherings and hands-on work meetings at a regional and global level.
  • Addressing common technology development needs, from identifying technological bottlenecks to helping find the resources needed to solve them in a manner that will be beneficial to the sector as a whole.
  • Developing a framework for easy access to promote the deployment of CN in remote areas.

Mailing List

Mailing list address: [email protected]

Subscribe to the mailing list: https://listas.altermundi.net/mailman3/lists/dc3.listas.altermundi.net/

Stakeholders

Coordinators: Dr. Luca Belli, Center for Technology & Society at Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School; Dr. Senka Hadzic, CyberBRICS Project at CTS-FGV

Technical community

  • Bob Frankston, IEEE Consumer Electronics Society
  • Frédéric Donck, ISOC
  • Jane Coffin, ISOC
  • Spencer Sevilla, University of Washington

Civil society

  • Nicolás Echániz, Altermundi
  • Ritu Srivastava, Digital Empowerment Foundation
  • Kevin Bankston, New America Foundation
  • Raoul Plommer, Electronic Frontier Finland
  • Leandro Navarro, UPC / community-lab.net / guifi.net
  • Mike Jensen, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
  • Parminder Jeet Singh, IT for Change
  • Marcelo Saldanha, IBEBrasil / Movimento Redes Livres / Movimento Espectro Livre
  • Steve Song Village Telco
  • Rajat Kumar, Digital Empowerment Foundation, India
  • Adam Burns, free2air / netCommons / MiCT / freifunk

Academia

  • Janara Sousa, Universidade de Brasília
  • Catherine Middleton, Ryerson University
  • Diego Vicentin, UNICAMP
  • Nathalia Foditsch, American University
  • Luca Belli, Center for Technology & Society, Fundação Getulio Vargas
  • Jamila Venturini, Center for Technology & Society, Fundação Getulio Vargas
  • Henrique Mohr, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
  • Federica Giovanella, Trento Universtiy / NetCommons.eu

Private sector

  • Edliano Valeriano Azevedo da Silva, Systems Analyst
  • Maureen Hernandez, Systems Engineer
  • Lauren Garcia, LevelNews.org
  • Yong Liu, Vivedu Corp and Hebei Academy of Social Sciences in China
  • Judith Hellerstein, CEO of Hellerstein & Associates

Intergovernmental Organisations

  • Lee Hibbard, Council of Europe

Documents/Reports

Contact

Luca Belli – luca.belli[at]fgv.br