There are currently more than three billion people around the world who still do not have any kind of access to the communications infrastructure. Within this context, Community Networks represent a paradigm shift, allowing any group of individuals, local governments, or entrepreneurs to develop a new access infrastructure. In order to discuss the structure, possibilities, and challenges of these Community Networks, a senior researcher from the Center for Technology and Society (CTS) of FGV’s Rio de Janeiro Law School (Direito Rio), Luca Belli, has just launched the book titled Community Networks: the Internet by the People, for the People.

The work brings together papers compiling best practices within the community networks framework. The texts compiled in the book are essential to advance the discussions initiated in 2015, bringing together an unprecedented Panel on the structure, possibilities, and challenges of community networks. If anything, the experiences reviewed in this volume are an alternative to better understand this new paradigm of connectivity.

Community networks are currently one of the most debated topics in public policy forums on Internet connectivity, such as the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Considering that most people without access to conventional networks are in rural or economically-crippled areas, under living conditions that will hardly change in the short term due to the lack of commercial interest by network operators in expanding infrastructure to these areas, community networks represent a sustainable and inclusive alternative to the traditional model, as tools to solve the problem of uneven connectivity distribution. These networks also promote freedom of speech and the right to self-determination.

Launched by FGV’s Direito Rio in partnership with the Internet Society, the book is a pioneering publication on community networks with high potential to be used as a reference to develop public policies on connectivity.

Go to this website for more information and to access the book, which is available in English.