Foto de Omar Flores na Unsplash
The Global Gathering 2025 in Estoril, Portugal, was not your typical tech conference. There were no plenaries, no keynotes, no rigid panels. Instead, it unfolded like a living mesh network, a constellation of people, conversations and ideas connecting in self-organising ways. Each node in that mesh was a “circle” unfolding as a discussion, a small workshop, or a quiet coffee-table exchange, carrying its own energy and purpose. Yet all were linked by shared values: care, openness, and the belief that technology should serve people and communities, not corporations or markets. It was a gathering built not on hierarchy, but connection.
Mapping local services, mapping ourselves
One of the most meaningful sessions I was part of with my colleagues was the Local Services Mapping circle. Together, we explored the digital services that already exist in our communities – from environment, health and education to those related to memory and the ones that are still missing. As we mapped, we began to see that many tools fail not because of technical flaws, but because of structural disconnect: they are often designed for communities, not with them.
Our discussions made me reflect on what it would mean to build from the inside out, grounded in local realities and relationships. It was evident local services are beyond just the service; they are about trust, participation and shared ownership. That afternoon, it became clear to me that mapping services was really about mapping relationships, centring needs, and recognising that the strength of any digital infrastructure lies in the human infrastructure beneath it.
Learning across nodes
Later, during an APC session, I had the chance to meet and learn from APC members working in diverse fields such as environmental justice, digital safety, digital rights and open-source tools. It felt like zooming out on the mesh and suddenly seeing how the nodes connect.
Hearing about several projects gave me a glimpse into the intersections between APC members’ work, right from connectivity and climate justice to safety, governance and education. It also helped me imagine new areas of collaboration for the Tech Together Community of Practice – a space where practitioners, researchers and organisers exchange learnings, challenges and best practices that we coordinate through the Local Networks Initiative (LocNet).
These dialogues reinforced how essential it is to have communities and experts co-creating knowledge, not just consuming it. Documentation, reflection and storytelling emerged as our shared infrastructure, the connective tissue that keeps the network alive.
Imagining and building alternative infrastructures
Across conversations, a recurring theme emerged: the need for alternative infrastructures. Participants spoke passionately about open-source platforms, and distributed systems that prioritise care and autonomy over profit. We reflected on how much of the world’s technology is built on extractive models, harvesting data and labour. In contrast, alternative infrastructures seek to embed values of equity, participation and sustainability into the very design of our systems.
These infrastructures are not just technical: they are relational and cultural, spanning language and centring safety. They depend on networks of trust, on shared stewardship and on the belief that resilience grows from collaboration, not competition. In that sense, the Global Gathering itself was an experiment in alternative infrastructure, a decentralised space that held room for difference while staying deeply connected.
Conversations around AI: Fear, hope and responsibility
Another thread running through many circles was the growing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in our societies. There was excitement, yes but also caution, critique and care. Communities shared fears about surveillance, bias and automation, reflecting on how AI systems often reproduce the very inequalities they promise to solve. But alongside the warnings came thoughtful discussions about possibilities: how AI might support community governance, enhance accessibility or strengthen local problem-solving if developed differently.
The was one clear consensus: AI must not become another layer of dependency on corporate infrastructure. Instead, we need community-owned, community-led and community-built AI systems rooted in transparency, ethics and local knowledge. Several participants emphasised that while we are adopting AI, we must get the foundations right on connectivity, education and digital literacy that such technology depends on. We need to fortify the basics, as well as the social and technical groundwork so that AI in our spaces reflects our values rather than replaces them.
Knowledge as infrastructure
What connected every conversation, from mapping local services to AI, was the recognition that knowledge itself is infrastructure. When communities take time to document, reflect and exchange what they know, they build resilience. They make it possible for others to learn, adapt and grow without starting from zero.
In our Tech Together webinar series, which LocNet started online in August and will resume in the future, this idea sits at the heart of what we do. By facilitating spaces for open dialogue and learning, we are not just sharing information; we are co-creating the conditions for more just, inclusive and sustainable tech futures.
Carrying the mesh forward
As I left Estoril, I kept returning to that image of the mesh network nodes connected through intention rather than control. Each person I met, each conversation I joined, was a reminder that the future of technology does not lie in centralisation, but in connection.
The Global Gathering showed me that when we hold space for each other to listen, to learn, to co-create, we are already building the alternative infrastructures we dream of. They begin not in servers or codebases, but in communities of care and the courage to imagine technology differently.
Perhaps the most powerful infrastructure is the one we build between us through trust, empathy and the shared belief that technology can belong to everyone.
Rebecca Ryakitimbo is a feminist technologist and researcher working at the intersection of AI, gender justice and digital equity. She supports feminist tech spaces such as the African Women School of AI, and curates the Gendering AI conference. As part of LocNet, she supports community-centred connectivity initiatives by facilitating communities of practice and researching community-centred connectivity and local services for equitable, locally led digital ecosystems.