| APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dr. Sarbani Banerjee Belur | |||||||||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||||||||
| Association for Progressive Communications | |||||||||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||||||||
| Asia Regional Coordinator | |||||||||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||||||||
| Female | |||||||||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||||||||
| India | |||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||||||||
| Civil Society | |||||||||||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||||||||||
| We are partnering with Internet Society for this session. Internet Society has been working very actively in the area of community networks by funding various community networks to grow in Asia Pacific. Their presence in Asia Pacific is phenomenal. Through the work that internet society does, they also influence policy and regulation related to telecommunication. Name: Adrian Wan, Affiliation: Asia Pacific Coordinator for Community Networks, Internet Society, Email: wan@isoc.org Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA): Marie Lisa Dacanay, ISEA, ldacanay@isea-group.net Association for Progressive Communications (APC): Carlos Rey Moreno, carlos@apc.org University of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia, Tariq Zaman, tariqzaman@uts.edu.my |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||||||||
| Understanding Community Networks for a viable last mile connectivity solution | |||||||||||||||||||
| Session Format | |||||||||||||||||||
| Panel Discussion | |||||||||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||||||||
| While about two-thirds of the world’s population use the Internet, there are still billions of people who have been missed around the world. There is a solution for many of these places. Community networks — networks built, managed and used by local communities — are do-it-yourself networks that are a solution for many remote and rural areas, as well as underserved urban areas where there is a limited business case for traditional Internet service providers. Community networks offer a way for anyone, anywhere, to connect to the Internet with the right tools and support to meet their own needs. While the community networks movement has grown in recent years, with more and more people pointing to them as a solution to bridge the digital divide in places ranging from India to Nepal, and Malaysia to Pakistan, they still face many challenges in areas such as regulations, funding, and sustainability. The road to building a community network has a few major challenges, including whether they understand the concept of community networks, whether a community will benefit from and be able to sustain a community network. The session will also highlight how aside from helping to meet worldwide aspirations for universal access, as encapsulated in the Sustainable Development Goals, these types of networks also provide other advantages including more local control over how the network is used, greater potential for attention to the needs of women and other marginalised groups, retention of more funds within the community and increased potential to foster a sense of agency and empowerment within the community. In this session we will also discuss about how community networks can be made sustainable by social entrepreneurship models, how telecom policies can be initiated by a bottom up approach and how working together in a coalition can help in the spread of knowledge about community networks all across Asia. Funding for CNs will be discussed in this session. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||||||||
| Nearly three billion people around the world are still living without Internet access, cut off from the opportunities it offers and the ability to connect with resources during challenging times. The Internet is critical to enabling sustainable development and it’s the base for an emerging digital economy, yet there are communities losing out on these gains. The current model of providing Internet service can’t reach people everywhere, and fewer people are coming online every day. Thankfully, complementary connectivity solutions are changing that, and community networks are one of them. This session relate very well to the theme of this year’s APrIGF: “People at the Centre: Envisioning a community-led Internet that is inclusive, sustainable and trusted”. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The proposed speakers have hands-on experience building successful community networks. They have done in-depth research in the several countries of the Asia-Pacific region and on the policy and regulatory aspects; identifying what financial and technical support needs (and who is providing them) are required to foster CNs in Asia. Furthermore, the speakers have a good understanding on the current status of knowledge on community networks in Asia. | |||||||||||||||||||
| If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Thanks. Not required. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022. | |||||||||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcript in English for all sessions. Do you need any other translation support or any disability related requests for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||||||||
| None | |||||||||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022. |
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