leandro's blog

Universal deployment model

leandro — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 13:53:39 +0000

There is interest in the deployment of cable and other networking infrastructure for private use in public land, but the lack of clear guidelines to regulate deployment in public land can block authorization decisions, which can be controversial due to the consequences of the private ownership and use of a private infrastructure in public space. The guifi.net Foundation proposed a universal deployment model for municipalities, where new deployments by a private requester are allowed as long it provides paths that simultaneously allow for three uses: self-service for the city council, private for the requester, and shared or common use for everyone else. The principle can be extended to apply to any other regional or even international infrastructure deployed in non-private land, although the proportion of resources for each uses can be adjusted. The effect of this model is that the deployment of private infrastructures generate a direct return as infrastructure for shared use by everyone can contribute to deliver universal connectivity.

Feedback and the generalisation of this work, as part of the netCommons project, was introduced at the GAIA IRTF WG meeting Slides as part of IETF 102, with an open access report in English and a publication in the PoliTICs journal in Brazilian portuguese.

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Network infrastructures: The commons model for local participation, governance and sustainability

leandro — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:59:36 +0000

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) published an Issue paper, based on results of the netCommons project. The abstract is:

Network infrastructures provide connectivity, a critical resource for our digital lives, and are therefore key for social inclusion and public participation. There are many technical, economic and operational ways to provide internet connectivity. In this paper we describe a model to develop network infrastructure as common property, governed under the principles of common-pool resources.

The model is based on the principles of cooperation instead of competition – because universal connectivity can only be achieved if everyone has the right to create their own connectivity. There are many examples of how communities have succeeded in organising to achieve this. The result is local community network infrastructures that are open, sustainable and adapted to local conditions, which can produce abundant connectivity and support local socioeconomic development, everywhere and for everyone.

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Internet for everyone by everyone

leandro — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 19:01:30 +0000

The topic of the plenary session for the last IETF 101 in London was about "The Future of Internet Access", or how community networks, spectrum regulation and satellite links can enable the remaining 50% of the global population in developing their own network infrastructures.

During IETF 101 the GAIA WG representatives (Jane Coffin and Leandro Navarro as WG co-chairs, Steve Song and Jonathan Brewer) met and discussed the Internet Architecture Board about the obstacles for an open and public Internet.

The IETF 101 plenary session was introduced by Jane Coffin from the Internet Society. Leandro Navarro from netCommons (slides) introduced how the underserved and unconnected can develop their own networking infrastructures under the commons model of governance.

In summary, there is a need for an open Internet, and self-provision is an opportunity for citizens and small providers to cooperate to be effective in developing local networking infrastructures that provide regional coverage and services.
As netCommons has shown, community networks have demonstrated to be effective for helping in local socio-economic development, developing local connectivity, enabling the growth of local business, and supporting local resilience.
Community networks need diversity, standards, interoperability, commodity components, ways for incremental upgrading of the networks, and decentralised management, investment and governance. The IETF community can contribute to create this environment.

We firmly believe that connectivity for the next 50% of the global population will develop bottom-up. The research in netCommons and the discussions and work of the IRTF GAIA WG contribute to understand and achieve this.

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Internet censorship and blockade in Catalonia - self-sovereign Internet infrastructures

leandro — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 18:05:19 +0000

Dear all, the recent days Catalonia is (in my opinion) under a defacto state of siege. You may have heard that today the 1-O referendum in Catalonia is ongoing. 73% of electoral offices were open this morning despite the blockade from prosecutors, judges and the charges from police forces. There are very long queues to vote. Meanwhile the "guardia civil", a military police, together with the riot police, have entered in large groups to some of the electoral offices to seize the ballot boxes and papers. As a result of the police charges to peaceful people, about 500 people so far have suffered injuries (you can find in the media sad images of the police charges).

As a result of a long list of measures and countermeasures to avoid the referendum (many orders from public prosecutors, only recently from a judge, budget blockade to public payments of many kind), the Catalan government has declared this morning the "universal census" so people can move and vote in alternative offices if his own is blocked (as the validation of voters is done over the Internet). For the political interpretation, images, and discussion you'll find many reports around the Internet in the news and social media.

We could discuss about what is legal, democratic, fair, logic, but focusing on the Internet facet:

The Internet has made a major difference in this process. This universal census was only possible thanks to the Internet. Not only that, but civil society has found ways to spread the message and enable voting that were not possible many years ago. People could print their own ballots at home, and print ballots for their neighbours. An mobile app was used to inform about places to vote and was updated several times as conditions changed. Despite the police forced google to close the app, it was replicated by others.

Voting is slow and painful but is progressing. There are many network attacks to the servers coordinating the process, but since these are running and replicated outside the governmental data centres, which have been seized. The police has disconnected Internet access and wifi APs to schools to block the election offices, and many sites to collect and coordinate the process. The Internet is now fragmented in Catalonia. More than a hundred of web sites from public but also civil-society organizations have been seized or blocked. A few days ago, the tech responsible of the .cat TLD was literally taken from him home by the police while showering and detained for 3 days with no formal accusation. As a result, the .cat TLD and many .cat sites have been blocked. Some people that replicated web sites where detained and forced (by a judge + police) to give their passwords for, not only the sites, but also their personal email and personal accounts in social media. A judge even ordered to block any related future website. Citizens and electoral offices are using new imaginative and decentralized means to deliver votes and manage the census (using VPNs abroad, Tor, IPFS, anonymizing proxies, etc) to certify the process. The larger the operators are the more easy to block sites for more population. Diversity in Internet connectivity (both access and servers) create alternatives and more resilient societies.

Several local and international organizations are following and collecting details about how the Internet is being blocked and at the same time used creatively (relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to resolve problems) to protect human rights (like those based on decentralization, anonymisation, indirection, replication, tunneling, etc). In the coming days we'll be able to have more precise details about what happened, the role of citizens and community networks and report back.

We may disagree in what is democracy and what goes first: human rights, or the rule of law in a country. In any way, political problems need political solutions, not more police and repression. A useful lesson for Internet Policy work, regulation, diversity in network providers.

Let's see what political solutions we can find now, after years of political fights, and a weekend of repressive police actions against so many citizens willing to express their political opinions. Probably it will not be easier than before. Political negotiation and reforms are the way to go in a democracy, and not censorship, police charges and repression.

Certainly the Internet made and makes a major difference in this process, for those inside and outside, the days before, the event, and the days after. Among many other sad examples around the world, let's learn and apply our lessons to build a more resilient, open and rights-oriented Internet for everyone. Our work and collaboration with community networks is a strong step in that direction.

Stockholm Internet Forum

leandro — Wed, 17 May 2017 09:14:48 +0000

The SIF, today May 17 and 18 is an international forum for in-depth dialogue and discussions on how a free, open and secure internet promotes human rights and development worldwide.

The need for local solutions to local connectivity problems, and the ways to enable everyone is the focus of one session in the conference: Community access – Helping the last 4 billion get connected.

Commons governance models are recognized as a great part of the solution to develop networking infrastructures, and the netCommons project is there in the discussion.

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CNs promoted as 'the other' way to connectivity at IGF2016

leandro — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 19:38:47 +0000

Community Networks have emerged at the Internet Governance Forum as "the other'" way to develop connectivity. Terms such as empowering the unconnected, connecting the unconnected, connecting the next billion(s) floated around. The discussion was around many aspects such as policy, regulation, human rights, economics, sustainability, governance, participation, infrastructure, access, technology, software, spectrum.

The Internet Governance Forum 2016 was this year in Guadalajara, Mexico, on December 5-9 2016. There were lots of events: pre-events, post-events, lots of conferences, workshops, booths, tents, side-meetings, parties. Most of the events are recorded as transcripts and videos and a video channel.

The UN Agenda for Sustainable Development identifies information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet as horizontal enablers for development. Paragraph 9c sets an important goal for the international community: "Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020''.

netCommons was there and participated in many events through Roger Baig and Leandro Navarro (guifi.net and UPC). This is a report of the activities with a focus on community networks.

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leandro's blog

Universal deployment model

peit-cable.png

Network infrastructures: The commons model for local participation, governance and sustainability

issue-netcomm-en.png

Internet for everyone by everyone

ietf101-ln.png

Internet censorship and blockade in Catalonia - self-sovereign Internet infrastructures

Stockholm Internet Forum

img_20170517_094139559_hdr.jpg

CNs promoted as 'the other' way to connectivity at IGF2016

dc3-day0-igf-nc.jpg