“Connecting the unconnected has always been about enabling connectivity of remote rural areas and bridging urban-rural digital divide. In current times, connectivity has come to have a new meaning that focuses more on meaningful connectivity that unlocks the full potential of internet access. There is an urgent need, not only bridge the digital divide, but also bridge the other social divides of gender, societal class and caste. Internet access is now sought in rural areas to enhance livelihoods, create jobs, entrepreneurship and contribute to economic growth. As access is still a distant dream, there has been innovative ways by which access is created based on needs of communities, designing of frugal technologies and its usage. Internet is being customized based on the availability of devices, mobile signal and inherent needs of the communities.
Immense strides have been made in exploring and implementing alternatives that challenge the expensive, top-down approaches adopted by more mainstream models. One alternative model is community networks. The internet and its benefits are said to be meaningfully accessed when it is pervasive, affordable, of sufficient quality and speed such that individuals are enabled to access information freely, seek their well-being, express themselves, create content while also engaging in development discourses actively. These networks are based on the needs of the people and are used to add relevance and value to the community. Some community networks have focused on enabling women’s economic empowerment, sharing of traditional knowledge through art, craft, music and recipes, community radios that facilitate as a medium of self-expression by women. Community Networks have emerged as an important and innovative tool for making internet connectivity be meaningfully accessed by everyone in the community.”
As part of the 4th Social Enterprise Advocacy and Leveraging (SEAL) Asia Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand from March 22 to 23, 2023, a panel session on Seeding and Enabling Community Networks towards Bridging the Digital Divide was conducted featuring the following speakers and moderator: Mr. Gustaff Harriman Iskandar of Common Room (Indonesia), Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut, Director of Internet Education and Research Laboratory, Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), Dr. Carlos Rey-Moreno, Co-Lead Local Networks, Association for Progressive Communications (Global), and Dr. Albert Teo (Moderator), Dean of the School of Management, Tung Wah College (Hong Kong), who also served as co-convener of the Technological Innovations for Sustainable Development Platform.
After the panel session, a video presentation was played for the hybrid (onsite and online) participants as an introduction to the launch of the Technological Innovations for Sustainable Development (TISD) Platform focused on seeding and enabling community networks to bridge the digital divide, which will be co-convened by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Angels of Impact, and ISEA. After the launch, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Signing between the APC and ISEA was led by ISEA President, Dr Marie Lisa Dacanay and Dr. Carlos Rey-Moreno, Co-Lead Local Networks of APC.
The 4th SEAL Asia Conference is organized as a pre-event to the Asia Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development (APFSD) by the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Catalyst 2030, in partnership with the Asia Pacific Regional Civil Society Engagement Mechanism – Social and Community Enterprise (APRCEM-SCE) Constituency, Association of Progressive Communications (APC), the Oxfam in Asia, the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok and the Social Enterprise Thailand (SE Thailand).