The third episode of the new season of the Routing for Communities podcast is on the air!
Community-centred connectivity initiatives are complementary to the internet access offered by commercial providers and state-sponsored public networks. They help to diversify internet access markets, offering affordable and locally relevant content and service alternatives for communities.
We believe the social values of community-centred connectivity initiatives make them different from traditional stakeholders in the ecosystem. And that’s why in this episode of the podcast we're going to talk about the principles identified by the Local Networks Initiative from the experiences of these initiatives.
Principles in practice
The Principles for community-centred connectivity initiatives (CCCIs) were developed through an extensive consultation process with initiatives working in different communities across the Global South to highlight the key aspects that make CCCIs different from other operators. One aim of developing the principles was to help communities have a conversation about their priorities when setting up an initiative, and also to highlight those aspects that are fundamental to any initiative that considers itself a community-centred connectivity initiative.
We're going to reflect on some of these principles in practice, based on the insightful interviews we conducted in season one of this podcast. In our first season, you listened to life stories of those who create innovative, community-led projects that connect the one-third of humankind that is still living offline. Throughout the 12 episodes, we talked to more than 20 people from 15 countries. The topic provided us with a lot of content, so we decided to extend the conversation into one more season.
In this third episode of season 2, you will listen to parts of the interviews from the previous season with Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), from England, the Amadiba Community Network, from South Africa, the Jxa'h Wejxia Casil Community Network from Colombia and Common Room from Indonesia.
We invite you to listen to all 12 episodes from the first season of Routing for Communities podcast. You can also listen to them on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Listen to season two:
Episode 1:
In this first episode, the topic is community-centred connectivity as a strategy that communities have developed for bridging the digital divide. Listen now.
Episode 2:
This episode explores fundamental questions in the field of community networks, seen through the perspectives of women from a range of countries who play various roles – from hands-on technical work to national and international advocacy for better policies and regulation.
Episode 3:
What are the social values of community-centred connectivity initiatives that set them apart from traditional stakeholders in the ecosystem? In this episode, we reflect on some of these principles in practice.
Episode 4:
What is needed for this movement to become even stronger? That’s what we talk about in this episode: financing, regulation and public policies in support of community-centred connectivity initiatives. Available on 5 August.
This podcast is an initiative from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Rhizomatica, produced by Rádio Tertúlia. Its production is part of the “Meaningful community-centred connectivity” project being implemented by the Local Networks initiative (LocNet), with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of our supporters.