Publications

Cybersecurity in Community Networks: Securing the Commons

Community Networks (CNs) are connectivity initiatives managed according to the governance models established by their community members, in a democratic fashion, and may be operated by groups of self-organised individuals or entities such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local businesses or public administrations. This report explores some of the cybersecurity challenges inherent in Community Networks and what strategies could be implemented to successfully face them. It explores the potential data privacy issues, technological limitations, and the need for incident response capabilities and robust cybersecurity governance. To enhance resilience against cyber threats, the report advocates for a proactive and collaborative approach, highlighting the importance of cybersecurity awareness, training, and investment in security infrastructure. Ultimately, we emphasise that safeguarding the cybersecurity of CN user and assets is crucial for their sustainability and continued growth, ensuring they can continue to provide reliable and secure connectivity.

Community Networks: Towards Sustainable Funding Models

Community Networks: Towards Sustainable Funding Models

As the world enters a phase of recovery from the hardest part of the pandemic, one thing seems clear to everyone: connectivity has become vital to every side of our lives. However, almost 40 percent of the world population still does not have access to what is increasingly touted as a fundamental right. To solve this pressing problem, it is essential to explore alternative solutions, aiming at a more sustainable internet ecosystem. This volume, dedicated to “Community Networks: Towards Sustainable Funding Models”, aims at providing a missing, yet essential perspective to the community network debate: how to fund these initiatives sustainably.

The community network manual: how to build the Internet yourself

This volume is jointly published by the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Internet Society (ISOC). This volume is the result of the 2018 Call for Papers of the UN IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) and is the Official 2018 DC3 Outcome. This […]

Declaration on Community Connectivity

This Declaration was elaborated through a multistakeholder process, between July 2016 and March 2017. This participatory process was initiated and facilitated by the UN IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3). The final comments were consolidated into this version, to which no DC3 member, nor any other subscriber to the […]

Community connectivity: building the Internet from scratch

Annual report of the UN IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity Over four billion people are currently unconnected to the Internet, including around a billion individuals who do not have access to basic telephony services. Community networks are a subset of crowdsourced networks, structured to be open, free, and neutral. […]