🪁 Documentation
Session Nine: Sustainability and Spectrum
In this session, Adriana and Josephine gave an insight into the complexity of the spectrum, the nature of the regulating bodies around the spectrum, as well as speaking about access to the spectrum and the model strategies for spectrum advocacy. This session was designed based on the survey input by participants, who wanted to understand these topics of interest:
- Why does community network champions need to learn about spectrum policy advocacy?
- Basic principles around spectrum and spectrum management and what it has to do with sustainability.
- Engaging the regulator in your country to advocate for spectrum access as a CN
- Top innovations in spectrum management that can support CNs access and backhaul
Adriana began her presentation with a foreword on the work of advocacy. Spectrum policy, according to her, responds very slowly to technological change. At ITU, level member states will gather every 4 years to review band allocations, vendors’ new band requirements and many others, and this requires much lobbying from the industries. As such, it takes a tremendous amount of patience and perseverance for the advocates in the CN movement, conducting as small local operators. Changes do happen slowly in this arena, but Adriana reassured that we must continually insist on a fair allocation or shared used policy and fair cost for community connectivity projects. Depending on the community networks, it is important to internally discuss the best strategies at all levels, as well as understand where the resistance is coming from.
Adriana then spoke about a few changes that have happened as a result of advocacy in the spectrum policy. They include:
- The adoption of multi-stakeholder systems — allowing more players with a lower cost barrier
- Regulatory barriers have been further eliminated for spectrum use
- Spectrum management has managed to mitigate harmful interference and make sure licensees use it or share it
- Indigenous territories spectrum belong to them, as exemplified in the case of First Nations people in Canada, as well in New Zealand and Australia
- Continue to build your own strategy and tactics for spectrum access, use, cost, sharing, etc.
As community network advocates, we must be aware of the principles that govern the spectrum. Amongst them:
- Spectrum is a public resource that needs management to avoid interference and should maximise social welfare
- Spectrum is not scarce or saturated. There are many unused spectrums in rural and remote areas. Spectrum is not just limited to large operators
- Property rights over spectrum often leave out many and significant portions of spectrum unused for the licensee to maximise profits at the expense of the society
- Spectrum is an essential resource that enables human rights — access to information, freedom of expression, education, indigenous rights, democracy etc.
Josephine then took over to explain about different properties of the spectrum. Spectrum can be defined as the radio frequency for communication that can be used to transmit information. It is used in two ways — access (for connecting devices such as laptops and smartphones) and backhaul (for connecting equipment). Josephine then explained how not all spectrums are created equal, and propagation. Spectrum needs management in order to avoid harmful interference. As such, this management has led to allocation for specific frequency and purposes to certain organisations. In some cases, some companies are willing to pay a high price for the regulators to block the spectrum so the regulators would make sure that there is no harmful interference. As advocates, we must continue to have a discussion on how to approach spectrum management — whether licensed or unlicensed — in a way that is more granular, dynamic, and affordable, especially to smaller operators such as community networks and smaller ISPs in order to reach underserved regions.
Adriana then spoke about the ways countries assign the spectrum to specific parties. They are mostly done in 3 ways: administrative assignments, beauty contests, and auctions. Nowadays, auctions are one of the most popular ways for spectrum allocation, as they allow corporations to spend the most money on them. However, the auction design is complex and tricky and led to many corporations spending way too much money to the point of running out of money. On top of it, the system also encourages monopoly or duopoly as it only allows companies who can afford such high bidding prices, leaving smaller ISPs and community networks aside. One example where regulators have agreed to assign spectrum for social use would be in the case with TIC in Mexico and the case studies of innovation on the shared spectrum in the United Kingdom.
Adriana closed the session by inviting the community network advocates in the room to unlearn and change the narratives about how spectrum must be licensed and scarce, and to push for Use it or Share It spectrum policy for social good. On top of that, we must make sure the spectrum allocation is also sustainable, not only for inclusion and connectivity but also for long-term use.
Memorable Quotes
“Changes happen very slowly, but it is important to advocate for fair allocation and shared use policy in order not to leave anyone behind.” — Adriana
“When the spectrum remains unused, you are preventing the spread of social benefits.” — Adriana
“Imagine when you throw a stone in the water, the surface of the water ripples. When you throw different sizes of stones in the water, you can see the ripples intertwine with each other. This is similar to interference in multiple radio communication, and this is why spectrum needs management so that harmful interference will not happen.” — Josephine
Session Ten: Social and communal sustainability, weaving community tech and wisdom in CN advocacy: the leading role of women
In this session, Kemly and Luisa spoke about the role of women in community networks, and how the wisdom that comes from the way women organise to solve social problems can also be applied to digital technology and community networks. Kemly and Luisa also shared their experiences working with women in the communities towards sustainability.
They started the session with a little group exercise. Participants were presented with this question:
Participants then returned to the plenary to share their thoughts. Among topics discussed:
- Community networks can become a space for many other activities that can culminate into something bigger e.g. can create jobs, uploading CVs in community computer centres to apply for jobs etc.
- Community networks are made sustainable by the development of licensing for shared spectrum in Kenya, reducing the fee and opening the paths for more community networks
- Local content sharing will be good for sustainability
- The observation that community networks can manifest more relationships within one another
- Community networks had helped the community to live more in inclusion in society with easy access to knowledge and information and content.
- The need for more advocacy for the impact of community networks
- The importance of capacity building in sustainability because the impacts will multiply across the community e.g. in South Africa, once they launched solar LED in a community network, people came to plant spinach seeds and then they were able to sell and make a living out of the harvest
- In Lombok, the community started a local radio. They then also created a reading or book club that also could serve as a socialising or women’s circle to speak about their problems
- Providing leadership training to women who want to become more confident to talk about issues and leading their community
- The efforts should not stop in women's community, men should also be involved and the information should also be extended to them
- Preservation and transmission of knowledge, facilitation of communication, and the match between generating income and the income coming through community networks
Luisa
Luisa took the floor to share her experiences working with women in a community network. She came into the community network as someone who had never learned about it before. She was intrigued to learn about a local network server in one of the community networks she had worked in, where they were able to keep information and cultural pieces stored and kept alive. The server became a digital treasure of the community and was maintained with utmost care.
She met Marcela, another woman in the CN and proceeded to talk about how to include more women in the leading role. When they approached these women, some of them were not interested, citing several reasons such as: I am not techy, I don’t have time for this amidst housework and children, I don’t know enough etc. They then founded a women’s circle in the community. While it was called a women’s circle, everyone of all genders was invited to participate. It was an open call, so everyone could sign up and participate freely.
Luisa said that for communities, objects, metaphors and symbols were important to them. As such, during these tutoring circles, they made use of local symbols and words and made more use of crafts and art to engage the community. In one of the sessions, they learned to break apart computers, learned the names of the parts, and learned to put them together back again. In the process of disassembling and assembling, they spoke about how they were often not allowed to touch computer parts, and this led to them not being able to be in the tech industry along with their male counterparts. In this very simple exercise, many conversations around the gender gap and technology emerged. Luisa mentioned they also made a note to always weave digital and analogue technology in order to demystify the idea of technology and community networks.
Participants in the circle were also encouraged to become ‘knowledge keepers’. They can be volunteers who took notes during these circles and produced those notes onto forms of artistic expression, brought them back to the next circles, and got them scanned and put in the server.
The community also bonds through food. Luisa mentioned that people were inclined to leave the house more and participate if there was food involved. Furthermore, mothers could also take their kids along and they don’t have to worry about preparing dinners later for their children.
The community also produced a digital women’s map of the territory as a way to value and cherish their work. The pages were authored by researchers who were first-time web developers. As a result, their work is honest and raw, and they could focus more on interviews and content collection rather than technical aspects.
Working on the server, Luisa and the team recognised that there are many ways to archive knowledge in ways that are more accessible. As such, she worked with the women in the community to record people’s voices for fiction, soap opera, and audio novella, which everyone could easily access and listen to whenever they could.
Concluding her presentation, Luisa shared her lessons learned:
- Embracing the different capacities and skills present in the group
- Participation is key to a feeling of belonging
- Weaving between analogue and digital to bring realness to the tech conversation
- Collective learning is about sharing information and growing as a group
Kemly
The territory where the collective is in is ruled by matriarchs. There are about 800 inhabitants there and the journey from one extended family to another can take from 2 hours to 2 days. There is no electricity and Internet, and most of them have never even seen a cell phone. People there also speak their own local language called Cabecar.
They live in harmony with each other, and as such technology has never been an added value to their community. As such, they felt that the Internet being brought into the community could threaten the indigenous and their ways of life. Kemly and her team worked with some women in the villages as middle persons to advocate for community networks, and to speak about how the Internet can bring good to their community. They held meetings with the community to introduce the community gradually and support them through the processes of this knowledge exchange. Just like Luisa’s community network, this community also gathered around food as a way to bond and include more women and children in the process.
As the community was ruled by women and mothers, they had the upper hand to decide how they wanted to use the Internet, and for what purpose. They decided to create a university for Cabecar women that preserves the culture and ways of life based on the Cabecar knowledge of cosmology. As time passed, they also became more intrigued with the Internet and started to ask questions so they could speak to the NGOs installing the Internet. Kemly’s team also made use of symbols and metaphors to show the Internet works for them. The women in the community also created a platform in their local language as a way to archive their local, women-based knowledge. The server was stored in the territory.
In the process of community network, the community decided to forgo having towers and antennas for connectivity. Instead, they decided to use walkie-talkies hosted through an intranet server and base radio. These walkie-talkies were provided in specific locations in the village where everyone can pick them up and use them for their purposes. As the community was run by women, their concerns were different and shaped their uses of technology. For example, walkie-talkies were often used to communicate and share information about children, risky pregnancy, climate change and more care-based concerns. Kemly concluded the session by saying that in this community, “women are always the guiding figures in this process.” As such, the concerns were less competitive and not revolved around productivity, and were more concerned about the building pillars of society.
After both presentations, Kemly asked the participants which elements were present to preserve sustainability in the stories. The answers were documented in this Padlet: https://padlet.com/lubagope/pd7lxan8gc46fk1a
Memorable Quotes
“Capacity building in community networks can lead to sustainability. Once we capacitate the communities, it will not end with one person — the impacts will multiply and ripple.” — Noxy
“In order to have women in the leading role in community networks, we need to first talk about women participation.” — Luisa
“When learning collectively, it is important to focus on objects, symbols and words to focus the energy on. This is why we use crafts, papers, and cards to teach the community about computers, as well as to organise our train of thought.” — Luisa
“We made a point to weave digital and analogue technology so it is more accessible for them to create, and to understand that technology and community networks are not mystical realms that only few could enter.” — Luisa
“Women's concerns in women groups are very particular. They do not often share things that are competitive in nature, not revolving around productivity and market share, and more about what makes the pillars of the society.” — Kemly