COMMUNITY NETWORKS
AND LOCAL ACCESS

• On 29 March, from 9:00 to 10:30 CET, Global Access to the Internet for All (GAIA), a research group within the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), is having its regular gathering. Their notes will be available here as well as the video livestream of the event here.

• The 9th International Conference on Communities and Technologies will be held 3-7 June in Vienna and it will focus on “Transforming Communities”. More here. 

• The conference will centre on the notion of communities as social entities comprised of people who share something in common, this being geography, needs, goals, interests, practices, ways of organising, or other bases for social connection. The theme “Transforming Communities” raises a number of questions, issues, possibilities and tensions, therefore submissions to engage on the theme are encouraged. APC’s Nicola J. Bidwell and Nicolás Pace along with Sarbani Belur from APC and Rhizomatica's community networks project and researchers and members from a community network in Cape Town will be facilitating a workshop (simultaneously and online) focusing on the experience of communities that own and operate their own telecoms systems. Please register (or propose a remote site) for the workshop by 20 April here or by emailing nic.bidwell@gmail.com

• The Network Startup Resource Center has a calendar of technical education and training in network operation meetings all around the world that might be of interest to community network practitioners. Read more. 

• [En español] Hasta el 5 de abril, REDES A.C. de México junto a la Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones (UIT) invitan a los colectivos u organizaciones que trabajan en proyectos de comunicación comunitaria y telecomunicaciones en comunidades indígenas de América Latina a participar en este nuevo programa de formación que consta de 5 cursos en línea y un campamento de formación y entrenamiento presencial con duración de 10 días en Oaxaca, México. Leer más. 

• From 8 to 12 April, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum will be taking place. Many community network projects have been nominated for the WSIS Prize contest to be held during the event, and the topics of the forum entail how ICTs can influence the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Read more. The event will hold two sessions about community networks:

- On 8 April, from 11:00 to 13:00 UTC, the Internet Society will host a session about community networks and Connecting the Last Billion

- On 11 April, from 16:30 to 18:15 UTC, APC will host a session about benefits of local connectivity initiatives for gender equity, social and economic development, and viability of community networks as an alternative to connect the unconnected.

• On 11 April, from 17:00 to 18:30 UTC, Chris Conder, one of the co-founders of Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), a community network from England, will be giving an online seminar about their story: how it went from an idea to a 5,000-homes community fibre optics network. Read more. 

• 12 April at 23:59 UTC is the deadline for the Internet Governance Forum's call for workshop proposals with with focus on data governance, digital inclusion, security, safety, stability and resilience. Read more. 

• The IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference will take place in Seattle under the theme “Technology for the Benefit of Humanity”, and has a specific track on connectivity and communication in support of development. The deadline for submissions is 19 April and full papers, short papers and poster presentations will be accepted. Read more. 

• The Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute will be held from 4 to 17 August, and the deadline for application is 20 April. It will focus on the theme “Technology & Policy at the Margins”. According to the organisers, "Many, like refugees, Internally Displaced People, those living through conflict, under threat of attack, or under an internet shutdown often lack the ability to advocate for their digital rights or live under regimes that dismiss those rights in part or entirely. This year’s Summer Institute will focus on five key themes through which we will explore many of these challenges to policy and practice, with a particular focus on their effect on populations 'at the margins' broadly understood." Community networks sessions have been announced during the Summer Institute. Read more.

• Between 29 April and 3 May, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) will have its 34th meeting in Lima, Peru. CITEL is the telecommunications regulation body for the Americas, and usually discusses topics in relation to telecommunications that affect or influence the capacity for community networks to operate. All the materials are available publicly on their website here. 

• Access Now's RightsCon programme has been released, announcing the event taking place from 11 to 14 June in Tunis, and includes many sessions on community networks, detailed below. Read more.

- Commonalities and differences in regulatory frameworks of community networks in Asia, by Digital Empowerment Foundation
- Community networks: Open cooperation space. From concept to action, by Fundación Getulio Vargas
- Community networks: How we build a truly free and open internet, by People's Open Network
- Widening the spectrum: How can radio spectrum regulation advance community networks, by Public Knowledge
- Data security: It ain't your fault, but it is your fight, by Detroit Community Technology Project/Our Data Bodies Project
- Making regulatory waves: A discussion on the need for collaborative spectrum management policy development, by ARTICLE 19
- Public access, local connectivity, libraries: How they can work together and democratize access to the internet.

Their policy is: Regardless of where you are located, the price of the tickets should never prohibit attendance to RightsCon. Please write to them if that's the case here: rightscon@accessnow.org 

• The conference on wireless networks and open source software, Battlemesh v12, has been announced and will be held at "Le 6B", 6-10 Quai de Seine, 93200 Saint-Denis, France (very close to Paris) from 8 to 14 July. It will bring together people from across the globe who are interested in community networks, including wireless mesh network technologies, fibre infrastructure, Do-It-Yourself Internet Access Providers, and more generally how to create and maintain a thriving community of people involved in building their own networks. You can ask for travel assistance in the registration form. Read more. 

• The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (AprIGF) is receiving workshop proposals until 29 March. The AprIGF will take place 16-19 July at Far Eastern University, Vladivostok. Read more. 

25 February 2019    Applications open
10 March 2019        Applications close
15 March 2019        Selected applicants notified
18 March 2019        Course begins

• The Internet Society encourages applications from people who have an interest in deploying wireless community networks for access and development purposes. For any questions, email learning@isoc.org.