APC Member Convening 2021

• 1. Welcome and introduction
• 2. Orientation and guidelines
• Readme
• Tech support during the convening
• BigBlueButton manual for participants
• BigBlueButton manual for organisers
• Convening chat on Mattermost
• Convening FAQ
• 3. Dish of the day
• Dish of the Day 1 - APC member network, a community of communities
• More highlights from day 1
• Dish of the Day 2 - The collective future of the network
• More highlights from day 2
• Dish of the Day 3 - Members Collaboration(s) and Building of Capacity
• More highlights from day 3
• Dish of the Day 4 - The collective future of the network: Reframing possibilities
• More highlights from day 4
• Dish of the day 5 - How we thrive: A celebration of APC member stories, practices and projects of solidarity
• More highlights from Day 5

1. Welcome and introduction

Last year we came together online to celebrate APC’s 30th anniversary. We hoped at the time that we would be able to meet soon face-to-face, globally or at least regionally. But the year 2021 has proved us wrong. This year has shown us, side-by-side, both the incredible acts of solidarity, support and collaboration among people and groups, and incalculable greed and grief. We’ve all witnessed, and some APC members have directly experienced, and continue to experience, the brute force of authoritarianism, militarisation, nationalism and anti-rights ideology and the denial of access to vaccines and proper public global health responses.

This year’s member convening continues the online conversation we began in 2020 with an eye to the future. Reconnecting members’ local and national realities with the larger APC member community and its shared global context addressed via the APC strategic plan, whose direction and content are informed by the member network and governed by the APC council, and which embodies how we thrive, change and generate changes globally as well locally.

APC members will have time to meet one-on-one and all together, to get to know each other (many new members have joined since the last face-to-face event in 2017) and to strengthen the collective sense of purpose that inspires the APC network. During five days we will learn about one another (context), share stories of engagement and solidarity (strengthening human interconnection), and share what we do and what other new things we could do together.

How we grow as a network, how members, both individually and as formal/informal collectives, adjust their plans/insights, how we ourselves and/or our focus areas are being changed by these times (concrete collaboration and mutual building of capacity).

Three overarching questions will lead and inform our five days together:

1. How have you, as members of the APC network, been able to thrive and adapt?

2. What are your insights for the future, and what are you looking to in the future?

3. How can your strategy and insights for the future, as individuals, collectives and organisations, conflate with/inspire/guide the development (and growth?) of the APC network?

We invite everyone to plan to spend an average of 4.5 hours per day between sessions, pop-up and care spaces, the marketplace/exhibition space, and of course, the APC member party. We will share some discomfort around time zones to make it possible for people to meet across regions and continents, playing around with scheduling plenary sessions, giving our best selves to manage the complexity of a global network meeting remotely. Activities will start from 03:00 UTC and end by 22:00 UTC. However, nobody is expected to spend more than 4.5 to 5 hours a day in the meeting. We all need rest and time offline.

There will be several breaks throughout every day when no activities are scheduled on the programme.

How this online event is organised

(The different types of sessions noted in the table are described in the next section)

Day 0	Orientation	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop up	Guided tour
8, 9 or 10 Nov	5 walks through platforms, tools and programme, scheduled to suit different time zones
Day 1	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
15 Nov	The APC member network, a community of communities	2 opening plenaries same content, scheduled to suit different time zones – 90 minutes each (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	8 sessions between 60 and 90 minutes for members’ encounters with use of their presentations: e.g. regional, new members, larger thematic cluster	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 2	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
16 Nov	Member collaboration(s), how we thrive: Stories, practices and projects of solidarity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Asia/Pacific time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 3	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
17 Nov	Member collaboration(s) and building of capacity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Africa/Europe time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 4	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
18 Nov	Member collaboration(s) and building of capacity	1 plenary for all members to attend, Americas time zone-friendly, 90 minutes (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	3 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour
Day 5	Theme	Plenary	Interconnections	Pop-up	Guided tour
19 Nov		2 closing plenaries and a party, same content, scheduled to suit different time zones – 90 minutes each (interpretation / captioning / documentation)	4 thematic sessions of 90 minutes distributed across time zones	Self-managed and promoted by members	3 times a day, members’ presentations guided tour

We will close the APC member convening reflecting on the key highlights from the event sessions, under the sign of our Best Future Awards.

Types of sessions

All sessions – plenaries, interconnections and pop-up sessions – are member-to-member opportunities to (re)connect, thrive and build a stronger and resilient APC network. APC staff will be there to support, link and connect, co-facilitate conversations, and learn and engage with issues chosen by members.

1. Plenaries are 90-minute-long sessions. They are co-created with the convening preparatory group, including board members and staff, with the support of APC staff.

• Days 1 and 5 will have two plenaries, opening and closing the formal part of the event.

• Days 2, 3 and 4 will have one plenary daily to address the collective future of the network. Each plenary will take place in one of the wide range of APC member time zones and all members are invited to join their friends in faraway time zones for 90 minutes of collective thinking and planning for the future of our network.

2. Interconnections are 90-minute-long contextualised conversations suggested by members and rooted in their practices and visions.

• • They will take place on Days 2, 3 and 4. If necessary, they might run in parallel with other thematic/regional interconnections or pop-up sessions. On Day 1, eight interconnection sessions will take place to facilitate member encounters according to various clusters, such as introducing new members or regional meetings.

3. Pop-ups are self-organised shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes long on any topic, including fun-and-care time.

• • Pop-ups can use “instant rooms” created on the fly in our conferencing system (BigBlueButton), or permanent rooms available via the main convening platform created for the event. Members that would like to schedule a pop-up session instead of having one on the fly can reach out to APC staff, who will update the pop-up section of the APC member convening schedule.

4. The marketplace is the permanent space that will host all material shared by members. In consideration of the large connectivity spectrum covered by APC members, and acknowledging various degrees of access privilege, the APC member convening will use the APC EVENT platform (a custom site currently being prepared by the APC tech team) as its main site for the exhibition/marketplace, providing slides shows, galleries and other user-friendly ways of showcasing content and accompanying this with curator teams of members and APC staff available to guide visitors in a live exploration with anecdotes, facts and stories of the members and materials in the exhibition.

5. Party – A party will take place on the last day together with the first edition of the Best Futures Awards. Playlists, comedians, tickets for local shows: APC has a long and successful tradition of hosting eventful, fun-filled parties with unexpected moments. Everyone is invited to join the committee that will throw the most memorable online and yet on-site party of the year!

 

2. Orientation and guidelines

Readme

Welcome! Welcome!

Thank you for participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 – Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation

A Readme¹ document is the “what-I-need-to-know” guide to orient and encourage participation. You will find here some useful links to navigate the event.

When?

• From 15 to 19 November 2021

• Check out the schedule

We have participants from more than 78 countries and we span across more than 11 time zones. We have tried our best to find a good working option.

Where?

• Check out the meeting and coming together spaces.

Who?

• APC members – organisations, collectives, individuals and their teams/boards

• APC executive board

• APC staff

• Documentation team

• Interpreters

• Captioning service

• Facilitation teams

• Tech team

• Interconnections and pop-up hosts

• Party team

   

How will it work?

Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation is our yearly convening and the second to happen remotely. It is a collaborative learning event and a space to connect, discover and hope together.

To participate, as for any APC-hosted event, you need to register. With the registration you will be provided with credentials: a login (the email address you provide) and a password. This will give you access to all the spaces, platforms and tools for the convening.

This APC Member Convening is a registered participants only event. The email address you have provided in the registration is the one that identifies you as a registered participant. If for any reason you find yourself unable to use/access your registered email, please inform the APC tech support team immediately.

This is how we have organised the convening:

• We convene for five days.

• We have a programme that spans all time zones, starting at 3:00 UTC and ending at 22:00 UTC.

• We open the room(s) 30 minutes before the start of the plenary/event. We start on time.

• We have 7 plenaries – of 1 hour and 30 minutes each.

• We have 4 regional interconnections: Asia/Pacific, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

• We have 35 thematic interconnections, which are member-hosted events that are 60 or 90 minutes long.

• We will have as many pop-ups as we want, for fun, skills sharing or just to relax and meet with one another.

• We have actively weaved care into our plenaries and pop-ups:

  • A one-hour break is planned between scheduled plenaries and interconnections.

  • We invite you to to build your own schedule and to spend an average of 4.5 hours online each day.

• We have a party to organise together.

• We have the Best Futures Awards with winners to be chosen through a vote.

The theme

This year’s member convening continues the online conversation we began in 2020 with an eye to the future. Reconnecting members’ local and national realities with the larger APC member community and its shared global context addressed via the APC strategic plan, whose direction and content are informed by the member network and governed by the APC council, and which embodies how we thrive, change and generate changes globally as well locally.

Three overarching questions will lead and inform our five days together:

1. How have you, as members of the APC network, been able to thrive and adapt?

2. What are your insights for the future, and what are you looking towards in the future?

3. How can your strategy and insights for the future, as individuals, collectives and organisations, conflate with/inspire/guide the development (and growth?) of the APC network?

All seven plenaries and four regional interconnections are co-hosted by APC members and APC staff. All thematic interconnections are hosted by members and supported by APC staff.

Plenary themes

Day 1 - 15 November – Opening Plenary: APC Member Network, a Community of Communities

Day 2 – 16 November - 1^st Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we see us and what frames our changes

Day 3 – 17 November - 2^nd Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we keep us relevant

Day 4 – 18 November - 3^rd Collective Future of the Network plenary: How to overcome uncertainty and practice possibility

Day 5 – 19 November Closing plenaries: How We Thrive: A celebration of APC members' stories, practices and projects of solidarity, Best Futures Awards (categories: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity) and a party!

Best Futures Awards

The Best Futures Awards are recognition we share with one another. During five days you attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. Discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes.

We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together.

And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! Because happy competition makes our ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤 🤍 🤎 beat!

You can add your nominations here.

Interconnections

These are regional and/or thematic conversations on issues and projects, proposed by the APC member community. Members are the hosts and APC staff will support. These sessions are 60 to 90 minutes long, and will run in parallel and across time zones.

Pop-ups

These are shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes, on any topic. Members and staff can suggest what the pop-ups are about. They can be for care time, skills sharing, or just having fun and catching up with one another. They can be scheduled and promoted on the Convening Website and shared in Mattermost, or they can happen spontaneously, inspired by time and people.

Orientation sessions

On 11 and 12 November, five orientation sessions of 30 minutes each will take place for members and staff to learn about the convening, its spaces, platforms and tools. One session will be in French and one will be in Spanish.

For all members that are hosting interconnections or want to understand and know more about the BBB members servers, there will be an additional 15-minutes session to look at how to be a host on BBB.

Party

The party is a collaborative adventure lead by Shawna, Smitty and you. :) We are needing a co-hosting/facilitating team for the party. If you love APC parties, then help us make this one memorable. If you are interested in co-hosting or helping, reach out to Shawna and Smitty.

Meeting in the digital

In order to build a friendly space for all, plenary and interconnections sessions will have:

• Co-host pairs (members/staff) that will facilitate. They will hold the space, keep an eye on the time, and keep an eye on the chat to bring your comments and suggestions into the main conversation.

• Tech support will help you understand and access the various technical functions, from captioning to translation and more.

• Documentation team: Two note-takers and one visual/graphic note-taker will document (only for plenaries).

• Closed captioning: There is a super human following and typing everyone’s words so you can read along (only for plenaries).

• Interpreters: There are more super humans interpreting into/from English, French and Spanish (only for plenaries).

• Speakers will share their insights, thoughts, reflections, provocations.

• Participants will share their insights, thoughts, reflections, provocations. They will give meaning to staying together and make it special.

Interconnections hosts can agree on how to document their sessions with participants. They can agree on and consent to recording, organise collaborative note taking, or just focus on the moment.

Tips for attending sessions (plenaries, interconnections, pop-ups)

• Before entering the room, participants can choose their name, preferred pronouns, organisation and place. (It is your choice, choose freely!) BBB will not give you the possibility to change your name after entering the room.

• You can have your video on or off, either way is fine.

• Remember to mute when you are not talking.

• Sit comfortably, bring your tea, coffee, water, pencil...

• Close all other applications and tabs on your browser to boost connectivity and enjoy doing one thing. ;)

• If you want to talk, you can raise your “HAND” or type into the chat, then follow the hosts/facilitators' indication. They will monitor and bring your voice and comments into the discussion.

• If for some reason you are not able to use sound and want to send your input, you can send messages in the chat.

• For breakouts rooms: We will use random groups and pairs or sometimes you will choose a group and then you will be assigned there. To enter the breakout room you must "agree to join”. The facilitator will send messages at half-time and three minutes before the end. You will be brought back to the plenary when the time comes automatically.

If you are interested and want to know more, watch the BBB tutorial or visit BigBlueButton guides in our meeting wiki.

Principles and practices of participation

APC is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for any of its convenings, whether they happen online or physically, face-to-face or in hybrid settings.

Participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 implies acceptance of the Principles and Practice of Participation, the Code of Conduct and the Sexual Harassment Policy. They are also all on our [insert link bookstack].

We also follow Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology. Please read the extended version of the Feminist Principles of Participation, which inform APC’s Principles of Participation.

It is vital that discussions include and acknowledge a diversity of opinions and experiences, and that the community ensures that harassment of any kind is not tolerated.

We will take action in response to harassment related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion. APC does not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

These are the framing principles we value and will apply in this convening:

• Create a safe space for all participants.

• Be respectful.

• Be collaborative and participatory.

• Recognise and value diversity.

• Respect the privacy of participants.

• Be aware of language diversity.

• Handle disagreement constructively.

• Embed politics and practices of self and collective care.

The Event Incident Team is composed by [insert name and emails]. Participants can reach them anytime by email or phone. Please contact any member of the Event Incident Team with any questions or concerns you may have throughout the duration of the convening. Complaints will be treated confidentially.

Consent, privacy and confidentiality

The APC Member Convening creates safe and confidential spaces based on the idea that “what is said here, stays here.” It involves intimate, personal exchanges, with recording only during certain exercises, which will be announced to participants. Recording will be switched off as well as on upon request. We do not plan to use direct quotes for the APC social media accounts. If you want to quote someone or to share images, always ask for express consent. This includes:

• Ask for consent for photographs, audiovisual recordings or quotes
• By default, stick to the Chatham House Rule: “When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.”²
• Recording will be announced to participants so that they are aware and can make informed decisions about turning their video cameras on or off.
  
  • Recording will be happening in the plenary and for documentation purposes.

  • Recordings are stored securely on APC servers.

  • Recording might be switched off as well as on upon request. We do not plan to use direct quotes for the APC social media accounts. If you want to quote someone or to share images, always ask for express consent.

• If you want to take screenshots, ask for express consent or announce it so that people can turn off their video if they do not want to go on record. Remember to edit names from the image.

• Ask yourself, do you really need the screenshot? Are there other simple ways to build memories of good moments?

Documentation

Throughout the convening we will take different type of records:

• Audio recordings for internal use (with the consent of all participants in the plenaries).

• Text notes of plenaries, with the aim of writing up reports for internal use and to incorporate learning into our work and practices. [Insert name of documentation team] will do the documentation.

• The graphic/visual recording of plenaries to capture ideas spontaneously and synthesise them through visual note taking. [Insert name of illustrator team] will do the illustrations.

• Recording will be happening only in the plenaries and only for documentation purposes.

• Recordings are stored securely on APC servers.

Active collective care

As part if this year's member convening, we want to open the space for members to share with one another some of their ways of active collective care. For that, we invite you to kick off the plenaries with 5-10 minutes of your favorite activity rooted in care. What you share can be anything that you found has supported your well-being on an individual or a collective level.

Plan your participation and time online. Do one thing! Take breaks, stretch!

External communications and outreach

In 2021 we are deliberately prioritising coming together to reconnect and collaborate in a safe and comfortable space, where we will be present and engaged for and with the network. In order to prioritise this, we will slow down our external actions and put all our energies into keeping our network connected, informed and engaged, by focusing on internal communication actions such as the Dish of the Day.

The only external communications output that will be produced is:

• At the end of the meeting, the illustrations done by the graphic note takers will be used to illustrate a general member convening article that will be published on APC.org.

Staff and members are invited to write blog posts on their experiences during the member convening, focusing on substance and their personal experiences, keeping in mind the privacy and safety considerations of the other participants.

Platforms and tools

Informed by our policies, practices and feminist approach to technology, most of the platforms and tools we are using during the Member Convening are free/libre and open source (FLOSS) tools and tech platforms such as Mailman, CiviCRM, Mattermost, Bookstack, Drupal, dedicated etherpads, Nextcloud and OnlyOffice software for collaborative engagement.

BigBlueButton (BBB)

APC has invested in a self-hosted BigBlueButton (BBB) installation and worked throughout the year on its customisation to be able to host real-time video conferences using FLOSS. Thanks to the great human dedication of the APC tech team, we will be using a fresh and stand-alone installation of BBB to host the plenaries and provide a safe and easy interpretation and captioning system. We have done “stress tests” to verify its ability to function well when the number of participants increases and operations become more demanding, and we have come to the conclusion that BBB will offer a stable and viable platform for our plenaries. We have developed an alternative plan if numbers of participants increase drastically or if any unforeseen disruptions happen. We are happy that with the collective effort of many organisations as well as individuals investing in alternatives and autonomous infrastructures, we are able to run our convening securely, smoothly and comfortably on FLOSS platforms and tools.

If you would like to read more, look at the APC policy on use of free/libre and open source technology and the APC WRP Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology.

Mattermost and mailing list

For one-on-one, one-to-many or many-to-many communications during the convening we will be using our mailing list and Mattermost. We are doing this to provide multiple entry points to access/receive/share information in ways that respond to personal preferences and connectivity. Both tools/platforms can be used for real-time and asynchronous participation. Using Mattermost during the convening will give you the possibility to have instant chat and share direct messages (DMs) with people you would like to e-meet.

APC Member Convening event website

Programme, schedule, information, manuals on tools, and anything about the convening will be available on the Member Convening website. Visit, use and enjoy it and the scheduling tools we have added for you to create your own personal event experience.

Practices and politics of technology

APC prioritises free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) and open standards for the following reasons:

• Driven by community needs

• Sustainability

• Security.

The APC community applies the principles of FLOSS in our work in the following ways, wherever possible:

• Open document formats

• Creating content using Creative Commons licences

• Self-hosted online services

• Supporting the FLOSS development community.

In addition, APC applies the core values of feminist practices and politics of technology:

• Participatory/inclusive

• Secure

• Appropriate/sustainable technologies

• Free/libre and open source software will be given priority, but only if the participants can sustain their use post-training

• Transparent/open

• Creative/strategic

• Emphasising the role of women in technology

• Emphasising women's control of technology

• Fun!

   

Digital participation allowance

Moving from face-to-face events to online remote ones brings novelties, including finding sustainable, effective ways to support participation.

At the end of the convening, you will receive [insert amount] to help cover your connectivity expenses for the five days of the convening. Please note that if you or your team will need the allowance, you need to write to [insert email] requesting the support.

APC Member Convening useful contacts

APC Member Convening coordinating team is composed by many, many people:

• For anything related with facilitation and hosting of plenary and interconnections sessions, reach out to Karel, Vassilis and/or hvale

• For communications-related questions reach out to Flavia

• For documentation-related questions reach out to Liy

• For pop-up-related questions reach out to Natalia and Shivi

• For organisational care-related questions reach out to cyn and Jen at careorg [@] apc.org

• For general inquiries you can reach us via email using convening [@] apc.org or using the mailing list for issues relevant for all participants

APC tech support will be provided by Adolfo, Avi, Igor, k054, Maja and Rox. You can reach out to support2021[@] apc.org for any technical questions related to your access or any of the working spaces.

1 Mariana Fossatti, GenderIT editor, created the Readme format for the Second Feminist Internet Research (FIRN) Convening. We want to thank and acknowledge her for this brilliant hack of software installation practice.

2 https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/chatham-house-rule

Tech support during the convening

If you have any issues with any of the tech at the convening please write to support2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.or

BigBlueButton manual for participants

BigBlueButton (BBB) Is  the open source conferencing solution that we will be using for our online sessions. It is hosted on APC's own servers and very safe to use.

Our BigBlueButton spaces

• https://s.apc.org/uma-garden

• https://s.apc.org/ohu-monument

• https://s.apc.org/mahu-museum

• https://s.apc.org/vos-cave

• https://s.apc.org/ama-waterfall

• https://s.apc.org/ata-lagoons

Tips for participation in BigBlueButton sessions

• Sit in a comfortable space.

• Bring a glass of water, tea or similar to stay hydrated (and put it away from the computer to avoid spills).

• Have your device connected to the electricity source or make sure you have your battery fully charged.

• If possible use broadband internet connection and connect to your router/access point with a cable.

• If you are using a VPN you'll have to turn it off, many VPNs seem to accidentally block BigBlueButton.

• BigBlueButton runs in the browser. If possible use the latest version of Firefox browser.

• BigBlueButton requires a lot of your device’s capacity, it will work best if you close all other tabs in the browser and all other programs running on your device.

• Please join the sessions before they start, so we can assist you if you experience any issue.

• Please access the sessions with your real name or nickname. You won't be able to change it unless you join the session again.

• Use headphones with microphone.

• Mute your microphone when entering a session and unmute only when you want to speak.

• Activate your camera only if invited, as too many cameras can make the system slower for everyone.

• Beware: If you close the tab you get disconnected! Join the session again using the URL that you received.

• If you need a break during the session, take it.

Using BBB

Quick overview

We highly recommend you to watch both videos below to get familiar with capabilities of BigBlueButton.

• Participants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw3Ajuy3kyk (5:33)

• For presenters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9SUisurrA (9:15)

Additional video tutorials https://bigbluebutton.org/teachers/tutorials/.

Joining the meeting

To use BigBlueButton you just need open the session link your browser (recommended are Firefox, Chrome and Safari). And it works on mobile devices too.

There might be some hiccups with some browsers, especially on phones (in general when a phone goes to “sleep” the browser usually stops working), because each Android manufacturer deals with web browsing differently (iPhone should work fine). So, if you encounter problems, please be ready to re-enter the session with another browser.

When you join the session your browser will ask you if you want to join in Microphone or Listen only mode. Select Microphone as to be able to interact.

Next you will need to enable microphone by clicking Allow button.

Then you will be able to test your microphone with echo test.

Speak to test the microphone (no one else will be able to hear you) and if you hear yourself, confirm it by clicking on Yes button. If you don’t hear yourself select No and you will be able to change your audio settings.

You can use headsets but some operating systems might have “drivers” issues, so be ready to use another set of headsets or the internal audio/microphone of your computer.

Next you will join the session.

Remember not to use the BACK button in the browser, or you will leave the meeting. If you do, just rejoin and go through echo test again. If you have audio issues during the session (others can't hear you or you can’t hear them) click on the headset icon to select a different microphone or speaker.

The interface

On the left hand side of the screen you can see participant’s list, public chat and access to the shared meeting notes.

In the middle of the screen you will see different things according to the setup (presentation, videos, shared screen, whiteboard, etc.) and you have a lot of control over your own view of the meeting (more on that below in the Video section).

You can use the buttons below the presentation to mute/unmute yourself, leave/join audio, share camera, share your screen, enable interpretation or closed captioning and raise your hand. Some buttons might not be visible due to the settings of the room or your role in the meeting (meeting organizer and presenter have more buttons than participants).

Participants

You can see a list of all participants in the session on the left hand side of the screen.

• Icons will tell you more about the individual's role and their connection status. Moderators have square icons and participants circular. Presenter is only one and has a little presentation icon added. A red dot will appear for muted participants and a green one for those who are unmuted. If the icon is white, audio is not enabled yet and the user can't participate in the conversation.

• Your own name will be on the top of the list. Click on it to set your status. And a little popup will appear to notify other users about it.

• If you click on somebody else’s name, you can initiate a private chat (a chat no one else can see). This works even if the person is in another breakout room.

• If you are a meeting moderator you can see other features to manage participants, i.e. to make someone presenter, mute/unmute, etc.

Chat

Chat works like you are used to on other platforms, so we will only mention additional functions, that you might need.

• In the chat you can write only plain text, but you can use emoticons like :)

• You can also initiate private chats with other participants or moderators of the meeting by clicking their name in the Participants list and selecting Private chat.

• Selecting menu in the top right corner of the chat will give you the option to save the chat (in .txt format) or copy the contents (to the clipboard).

Notes

• Shared notes can be added by participants and text exported in multiple formats.

Control audio, camera and sharing screen

You can use the buttons below the center screen to mute/unmute yourself, reconnect audio (leave and join again), share/unshare camera or share your screen. Some buttons might not be visible due to the settings of the room, and depending if you are meeting organizer, presenter or participant.

Mute and unmute your audio

To mute or unmute you can click on the microphone icon. You can also select mute/unmute in your status (by clicking on your name in the list of participants) or press spacebar on your keyboard.

Reconnect audio

Leaving audio and reconnecting is useful when you encounter issues with your audio, if you connect or change your headphones or when you get back to the main room from a breakout room. To reconnect audio click on the phone icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Share camera

To share your camera:

1. click on the camera icon,

2. allow browser to access the camera,

3. preview the shared camera image and

4. click on the Start sharing button.

Share screen

If moderator made you the presenter you can also share your window or entire screen. Click on the share screen icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Using interpretation

When interpretation is enabled, the blue “globe” icon allows you to choose the language you would like to listen to.

 If the language is being spoken by someone in the session, you will hear the original audio. If an interpreter is speaking in that language, you will hear the interpreter’s voice as well as the original audio at the background. You can increase interpreter's volume or original audio volume as it best suits your hearing.

When an interpreted language is chosen, a new slider control will appear on the left hand side menu, above the list of names. This slider allows you to select the volume of the original language vs the interpreted language. This is particularly helpful when a speaker has a very loud microphone or voice and it is difficult to hear interpretation above it.

If a BBB session’s audio is being recorded, the recording will only reflect the original audio or “floor”.

Note: some participants have indicated that when they switch from one interpreted language to another, they can't hear well, but it will certainly work if you switch to the floor sound first and then to the other language channel.

Raising your hand

If you click the icon to raise hand in the lower right corner, everyone will be aware that you are requesting to participate. Also, your name will show first in the participants list.

Click again to lower the hand.

Closed captioning (CC)

If closed captions are enabled (live subtitles) a CC icon will appear at the bottom of your screen. Click to enable it and select font and color of the subtitles.

Adjust what you see

When presentation or cameras are shared, you can adjust how they appear on your screen.

Camera

• If only one camera view is shared with the presentation you can move the position of the camera view to top, right, bottom or left side of the presentation. To do so hover the mouse over the video and click and move it to desired position.

• If you want to see one participant slightly larger, click on their name (in the camera view) and select Focus.

   

Presentation

• You can minimize the presentation screen to give more space to cameras by clicking on the icon in the top right corner of the presentation. You can see it again by clicking on presentation icon in the bottom left of the screen.

• To download the presentation click on the icon in the bottom left of the presentation.

• To view the presentation maximized, click on the "Make fullscreen" icon in the right bottom of the presentation.

Interaction with drawing tools

• If presenter enables this feature you can use various tools to write and draw on top of the presentation. You can select text, line, various shapes and colors and sizes.

Connection status

A connection status icon at the top right of the screen allows you to see how good connection you have and adjust data usage. This is especially important for mobile phones on slow connections.

If it becomes red, your bandwidth is not very good at the moment and it is recommended that you click on it and disable cameras and desktop sharing.

Personal settings

Clicking on three dots icon will open personal settings window that enables you to optimize your experience in BigBlueButton.

Here you can adjust the user interface - animations, audio filters, application language.

And in the Notifications tab you can adjust audio and popup alerts.

 

Breakout rooms

When moderator opens breakout rooms you will receive a notification. If moderator has assigned you to a specific room you will be asked to join that one.

When the choice of which room to join is left to participants, there will be an additional dropdown menu to select the room before you can join it.

When you enter the breakout room you will see time left until the breakout room closes displayed on the top of the window. Other functionalities are similar to the main room (recording is not available though).

To leave the breakout room just close the browser tab or window. If that happens accidentally, moderators in the main room can place you in a specific breakout room.

When you enter the main room again, reconnect audio and you will be able to participate.

BigBlueButton manual for organisers

Manual for organisers shows advanced features for moderators of the sessions and extends the manual for participants.

Recording the session

Moderators of the room will see a button Start recording at the top of the meeting room.

To record, click on the Start recording button.

A pop-up will notify you that you can pause the recording and resume it later. Click Yes to start recording.

The Start recording Button will change and indicate the length of recording.

To stop the recording click on the button again. After confirming you want to stop recording in the pop-up notification your recording will be stopped.

Button will change and be ready to resume the recording.

After you end the meeting the recording will become available on your main room page. It usually takes a few minutes for the recording to be available.

Note: If you record the meeting for one second all the notes and chat will be saved as the result.

Make participant a presenter

As only one user can be a presenter at the same time, user with moderator role will need to assign Presenter role to the user that needs it. Moderator can also take away the presenter role and assign it to themselves. 

To give Presenter rights to the user, click on their name in Users list and select Make presenter.

To get Presenter role back, click on your name and select Take presenter.

Promote participant to moderator role

To promote the participant to moderator role click on their name and select Promote to moderator. Now they will have the same rights to manage the room as you have.

Managing presentations

For best results uploading an Adobe Acrobat document (.pdf) document is recommended, although BigBlueButton will accept other file formats, for example Office documents (.doc .docx .pptx), text documents (.txt),  images(.png , .jpg).

Please note the maximum size is 30 MB or 150 pages per document. You can upload multiple documents as long as they are under the size restrictions.

To upload a presentation first click on the blue (+) button at the bottom and then select Manage presentations.

A window where you can upload your presentation will open. 

The default presentation is on the top of the list and you can add new ones by dropping them on the Drag files here to upload area or selecting them by clicking the upload area or browse for files link.

After you select the file, it appears on the list with To be uploaded... status

To upload it, click on the Upload button at the top of the screen. It will take a few seconds for the presentation to be uploaded and converted to PDF.

The uploaded presentation will immediately appear in the room (so if you don’t want to show it now, load it beforehand or include an empty slide).

If you would like to select or upload another presentation go to blue (+) button again and select Manage presentations. The current presentation has a label CURRENT and a green circle checkbox.

To select another presentation click in the empty circle and click button Confirm at the top of the page.

If you would like the users to be able to download the presentation then enable sharing by clicking on the down arrow icon next to green circle checkbox. The users will now have a little download icon available in the bottom left corner of the presentation.

To remove a presentation click on trash can icon.

You will be able to use additional features to write and draw over the presentation. Review the available tools by clicking on the hand icon on the left side of presentation. If you are the moderator, you can also make these tools available to other participants. Click on the multi-user whiteboard icon at the bottom to enable it.

Share external video

To share an external video (available on videos.apc.org, Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch...) you need to have a presenter role, then click on the Plus (+) button and select Share an external video in the menu.

Next, paste the video URL into the text field and click on the button Share a new video.

The video will start playing in the main window. Participants can pause and play the video on their screen. Beware that not all participants might see the video as the content of the video might be geo-blocked by YouTube or other services.

To stop the video click on Plus (+) icon and select Stop sharing external video.

 

Share screen

As a moderator or presenter you can share the screen. Click on the Share your screen icon below the presentation.

When the browser’s notification pops up select the screen you would like to share:

• Window: shares a specific application you have open. If you move to other applications, it doesn't affect what participants see.
• Entire screen: shares whatever you are seeing, as you change applications and programs – beware this is a risky option as participants can see everything!

Confirm your choice with a click on the button Allow.

To stop sharing the screen click on the Screen icon again.

Polls

You need to have a Presenter role in order to run a poll.

To create a poll click on the blue Plus (+) button and select Start a poll.

Next you will see a window with poll options. You can select one of the predefined polls or create a custom one.

• Enter Ask a question text.
• Select question type: True/False, ABCD (2 to 4 possible customizable answers), Yes/No/abstention, and open ended (each participant can fill out their answer in free text).

• When you are ready click on Start Poll.

• Each participant will get a message to answer the poll.

• You will be able to monitor the answers.

• When the poll has ended select Publish polling results and all participants will see the results in a chat.

Create breakout rooms

You have to have Moderator role in order to use this feature. Breakout rooms can be created by clicking on the gear icon in the Users list and selecting Create breakout rooms.

Warning: when you enter this menu you cannot manage any other option in BBB until you finalize or cancel the breakout rooms, ie you cannot unmute yourself, nor see the chat. Best practice is to to open another browser tab to create breakout rooms.

Next select the number of rooms you would like to create (between 2 and 16) and assign users to them.

You can drag and drop the users’ names, randomly assign them to rooms OR let each choose the room that they want to join. You will also need to define the duration of breakout rooms.

Confirm the settings and open the breakout rooms by clicking on Create button.

The participants will get a notification to join the breakout room. When they join the room a new tab will open in their browser and mute them in the main room. When participants join the breakout room they will see a notification about remaining time on top of the window. 

• Participants will also see the last slide of the presentation shown in the main room.
• The first participant to join the breakout room will have the presenter role. You cannot record breakout rooms.

In the main room any moderator can join any breakout room and move around, as well as join “audio only”.

Participants can be called back to the main room by the Presenter, or can return by leaving their breakout room, which will bring them back to the main room.

Warning: You cannot assign people randomly to rooms if more than one participant is a moderator!

Warning: Breakout rooms can end abruptly, even before the warning countdown is done. It’s important to save/copy notes, especially since breakout rooms cannot be recorded.

You can send private messages to participants in breakout rooms from the main room.

Select a random user

Sometimes you would like to call out a random user and a feature Select random user can help you make a more random selection. Click on the Plus (+) button and Select random user.

On the screen all participants will see a popup window with a randomly selected user.

 

Interpretation

Meeting moderator can setup and manage interpretation in several languages.

Activate the interpretation

To start interpretation, click Languages in the left sidebar.

Then introduce the language names (+ Add language) and click Confirm. Define the speech detection threshold for interpreter audio input (between -100 for noisy environments to 0 which means off ): -70 is the default and you can leave it as it is.

When you are ready, click on Start interpretation.

Participants will see a new globe icon that allows them to select any of the interpreted languages. 

Assign interpreters

In order to assign interpreters, first promote them to moderators: click on their names in the left sidebar, then Promote to moderator.

When they are moderators, they will see a new, purple button to the far right of the bottom menu. They can each select the language they want to interpret into.

When they are interpreting, their mic icon is violet (instead of the normal blue of participants).

Closed captions

Meeting moderators can enable close captioning on the meeting.

Select the gear icon and Write close captions.

Then select the language.

You can start typing text and participants who had enabled CC (clicked on the CC icon) will be able to see the closed captions.

Several people can take turns writing subtitles in the same language.

 

Convening chat on Mattermost

What is Mattermost?

Mattermost is an open source application for team collaboration, similar to Slack, for those of you who have used Slack before. It runs on APC's server, so your conversations are securely stored and data protected. Confidentiality is guaranteed as not even system administrators cannot have access to your private conversations.

How to connect?

Simply click on https://mm.apc.org/convening and enter your username and password - the same one you use at inside.apc.org and convening21.apc.org.

If you have forgotten your username and password, you can reset it using your registered email address at inside.apc.org

To access Mattermost you can also use apps on your phone or desktop. Check available apps at mattermost.com/download/#mattermostApps and use server name mm.apc.org and same credentials when logging in.

You are all part of the 'convening' team on the APC's Mattermost server.

Channels

Once you login you will see channels (and direct messages) in a sidebar on the left.

Use 🐢 ALL Participants - Sea turtles to get updates on sessions and other announcements and to connect with everyone at the convening.

Use Tech Support -Ocean park to ask for help from the tech team on any tech issues you might be having. Someone in the tech team is always monitoring the chat.

Direct messages

Below the channels, you will see your direct messages. You can send a direct message to any person in the convening team, every APC member, partner, and staff participating in the convening. You can send Direct messages to just one person or to multiple people at the same time.

Click on the `+` sign to start a new conversation.

Select people you would like to contact and click on Go.

Initiate a BigBlueButton session

When you would like to have an instant voice or video chat, you can initiate it directly from Mattermost.

Note: This feature works only inside the browser (and not in apps).

In the direct message select the BigBlueButton video camera icon at the top of the window.

Then select Call [username].

The information about BigBlueButton room will appear in the chat. Click on Join Meeting button and BigBlueButton session will be initiated.

When people join the session the message will display who joined

Notify users about the message

When you want to reference someone in a conversation use @ followed by their username, ie @shivi. That person will receive a notification and be informed about the conversation they are a part of. This feature is useful in cases when you have direct messages with multiple people but you want a certain person to be notified about the conversation.

@all and @channel notifies everybody in the channel

Setup notifications

If you would like to be notified about new messages, you can set up your notification preferences (with or without notification sounds). Click on three lines next to your name and select Account Settings.

Then go to Notifications tab and Edit your Desktop, Email and Mobile Push Notifications.

Send a file

You can send a file by clicking on the clip icon , selecting the file and adding an optional message.

Convening FAQ

Where can I find an overview of what the convening is about?

Please visit the "Read me" document here.

Where can I write to ask questions or send requests?

Please write to convening@apc.org. You can also drop your question in the chat platform here.

I prefer to use email and I have questions. Who can I contact?

Please send an email to convening@apc.org and we will do our best to help!

Where can I find tech support if I need it?

In the chat platform, in this channel: https://mm.apc.org/convening/channels/tech or by sending an email to support2021@apc.org.

Where can I see all the sessions, their times and the organisers?

The full convening schedule can be found here. https://convening21.apc.org/ Please note that:

1. Timing is in UTC
2. You can choose list/day/week view
3. The little dots in front of the name or title of the session mean:

• Pink: orientation sessions
• Grey: regional meetings and interconnection sessions
• Soft yellow: plenary sessions
• Orange: pop-ups

What are the “interconnection” and “pop-up” sessions?

These are regional and/or thematic conversations on issues and projects, proposed by the APC member community. Pop-up sessions are shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes, on any topic. You can create your pop-up session during the convening.

How can I organise a pop-up session?

To book a pop-up slot please write to convening@apc.org with the following details:

• Name/title of your pop-up event
• Brief description of your pop-up event
• Date/time
• Duration
• Tech needs/support
• Do you have presentation/resource material that you wish to share? - yes/no

The convening group will send you the link to a meeting room.

You can also send a direct message to Natalia (@natalia) and Shivi (@shivi) on the chat platform for quick queries on pop-ups.

If you want to host a pop-up with up to seven people, you can do this on your own by initiating a meeting room from within the chat platform (Mattermost). First you create a group chat with the participants and then you initiate the call. Otherwise the organising committee will provide you with a link to an available room.

Is only one person per organisation allowed to participate in the convening?

No, you can bring in as many colleagues from your organisation as you want, as long as they are registered here. 

Will all the sessions have captions and interpretation available?

Sessions are being organised in three languages in addition to English. The details on the availability of these services per session are indicated in the schedule available here https://convening21.apc.org/ and coded as follows:

• CC - closed captioning available
• ES - Spanish
• FR - French
• PT - Portuguese

How do I join the sessions I am interested in?

Go here and log in (you will find instructions on how to log in there). Once you are logged in, you will see the convening schedule. Click on the name of the session you want to join and click on the room name. It will take you to where the session is taking place.

Where can I find a specific room?

Go to the convening page: https://convening21.apc.org and scroll down. You will find all rooms under “Convening rooms”.

How do I use the chat platform? (Mattermost)

Please refer to this short manual here. Even if you don't like instant messaging it is quite important that you connect to this one (it is just temporary). Otherwise you might miss important updates about the event. You can access it here with the user name and password you received after registration.

How do I use the meetings platform as a participant?

Please read here.

How do I use the meetings platform as a session organiser?

Please read here.

What are the Best Futures Awards?

These are awards for members under four categories: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity. You can nominate a member for these awards during the course of the convening. Read more about the awards here.

How can I make my nomination/s for the Best Futures Awards?

At the end of each day you will be asked to share your nominations for the Best Futures Awards. You can share just the nomination or a line with your reason. It can be as simple as: I like them. On Day 5 all nominations will be shared and winners will be announced.

I could not attend many sessions that I was interested in. Where can I find out more about how they went?

Throughout the five days of the convening, we will be sending you daily summaries from the convening, called Dish of the Day. You can also read them at your own pace here. 

 

3. Dish of the day

Dish of the Day 1 - APC member network, a community of communities

Welcome to day 1 of the APC Member Convening 2021! And welcome to this, the first Dish of the Day, cooked up collectively with all the diverse ingredients that this inspiring network brings into the kitchen.

The plenaries: APC member network, a community of communities

It was finally time for the APC member network to connect with each other and show up as a community of communities. Co-facilitated by Leandro Navarro, chair of APC's executive board of directors, and APC Executive Director Chat Garcia Ramilo, the first plenary session of the day set the tone for the rest of the convening week: what we want to do as a community, talk to each other about how we have been both personally and as organisations, what we have learned, and what we are looking at in the future. This plenary served as a model for how APC conducts these safe spaces for hard conversations while also imbibing a sense of fun and camaraderie through music, poetry, laughter and more.

We began with a short video compilation of how some APC network members generated change since our last convening a year ago (https://videos.apc.org/u/apc/m/apc-member-convening-2021-apc-network-a-community-of-communities-bc20/) followed by small breakout groups to introduce each other as well as share our favourite song, movie or poem. After returning to the main plenary, participants continued to share their favourite personal touchpoints: films like My Neighbor Totoro, Wings of Fame and Coco; and songs like When the Rain Begins to Fall by Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora, and Santé by Stromae. One participant shared how they had just attended a concert by Ana Tijoux last weekend!

APC is in the second year of implementing its strategic plan which ends in 2023, but we also recognise that we are in a radically changed world. These are fundamentally different times, and one of the objectives of the week is to discuss how the year has been for staff and members amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of these conversations will be to describe who we are as APC and as network members.

The second group exercise for this plenary was to write down sentences in the format of: APC is X because it does Y. X being one of these five categories:

• A diverse and grounded community
• People-centred technology innovators and practitioners
• Human rights and feminist network
• Policy change actors
• Bridge builder, connector and convener

And Y being an example that links APC and the participant’s organisation/group/themselves.

Some examples of what participants wrote were:

· APC is a diverse and grounded community because it works to use technology to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable people.

· C'est un réseau d'organisation mondial qui s'enrichit à travers diverses expérience et bonnes pratiques profitables à tous.

· The APC network is the world's best hope for the survival of the decentralised internet because it provides support to its membership, which is in part comprised of geographically diverse organisations and small companies that are actually creating and maintaining internet infrastructure for direct service to communities, grassroots organisations, at-risk populations and professionals.

· APC members are policy change actors because of the strength of numbers – together we represent civil society in important forums where we support each other to influence key decision-making processes.

· APC is a bridge builder, connector and convener because in the frame of the network we build really valuable relations with other organisations with whom we share visions, aims, and the world we would like to live in, nearing us with new perspectives related with each new technological context.

There were many more such formulations, and the group discussed several of them. One participant commented that “even before we became a member of APC, APC has reached out and included us in regional and international dialogues, which is very useful… throughout the years, we've been engaged in national regional and international advocacy, also together with other think tanks from the broader APC team and network.” Another said that “APC has a very great possibility to change the internet.”

After this exercise, the group took a short break while listening to a song suggestion by a participant: Namma Stories - The South Anthem by NJ, Arivu, SIRI & Hanumankind.

The final part of the plenary involved explaining the Best Futures Awards, where all participants are urged to recognise people and organisations that “take your heart” this week during the convening. You can add your nominations for the Best Futures Awards here.

And finally, APC’s Jennifer Radloff and Cynthia El Khoury opened the space for everyone to share some of their ways of active collective care. They wrapped up the plenary by reading out two poems: Reasons Not to Step on Snails by Isabel Zapata and Don’t Hesitate by Mary Oliver.

As Day 1 of the convening moved forward, members were invited to join the second plenary of the day taking place to accommodate time zones around the globe. Co-facilitated by APC’s Valeria Betancourt and Colnodo’s Julián Casasbuenas and with the support of live interpreters in French, Spanish and Portuguese, introductory remarks outlined how this week will be important for sharing our experiences, including changes we are facing and strategies we are implementing to continue our work and to make APC a stronger collaborative network. There was a shared feeling of joy that this get-together was taking place in these challenging times and that we are able not only to celebrate but also to imagine the future all together in the perspective of strengthening ourselves as a network. There was a sense of appreciation of everyone's time, presence and participation in this member convening, as "it's very hard to keep connected and keep participating in all these spaces online that have been our way of work."

Together we watched a powerful video presentation highlighting some of the accomplishments of our network from the past year. It was inspiring to see how much our network managed to accomplish in times of adversity, explaining how "even with the COVID-19 crisis, we are moving forward with different projects and trying to adapt and continue our work in making a better life for the communities we serve.”

We had 38 participants join from places like Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Morocco, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, Bangladesh and India, to name a few. As we took turns connecting with each other, we discovered a broad range of regions represented and explored some inspiring quotes shared by each participant, taken from a favourite song, poem or film. Not surprisingly, themes of strength, love and resistance and were often expressed, and one member even sang a beautiful stanza from a special song, emulating the rhythm of the waves. Some of the inspiring quotes shared include the following:

"You owe your dreams your courage." (Koleka Putuma)

"We need to face life with the curiosity of an apprentice and the humbleness of a pilgrim." (D.C.Wahl, "Designing regenerative cultures")

"We found love in a hopeless place." (Rihanna)

"We have on this earth that which makes this life worth living." (Mahmoud Darwish)

"The beauty of things was born before eyes and sufficient to itself, the heart-breaking beauty. It will remain when there is no heart to break for it." (Robinson Jeffers)

(In a mix of Spanish, English and lunfardo): "Cada cual tiene un trip en el bocho," which means that everyone is different and has their own issues, and we cannot fully understand each other, and we have to live with that. ("Promesas sobre el bidet" by Charly García).

From here we took some time to reflect on a number of emerging issues throughout everybody’s work and how this links with APC’s strategic priorities. Participants were given the beginnings of five statements and asked to add to them, using their own experiences for inspiration. Some of the highlights include:

APC is a diverse and grounded community because:

...it is a network of grassroots organisations across the world that draws from the grassroots to produce policy recommendations at a global level.

The APC network and organisation are people-centred technology innovators and practitioners because:

...we support communities to self-determine their communications. In that sense, we are contributing to strengthening a movement of community networks and other community-based solutions for access around the world.

APC is a human rights and feminist network because:

...it contributes to visibilising online gender-based violence and to design effective responses towards eradicating it.

...it brings the intersection between these perspectives to the internet advocacy spaces, exploring and going deeper in its multiple meanings.

APC members are policy change actors because:

...due to the small grants for campaigning, members are more able to have positive actions in internet policies

APC is a bridge builder, connector and convener because:

...we have been able to learn from and share our work with organisations around our region and the world.

...our best partnerships have been made possible due to our connections within APC.

Once everyone had taken time to note down their ideas, participants were invited to share further comments on their contributions. Reflecting on APC’s movement building, it was shared that “we have been working for a long time in the use of the technologies on the internet to improve quality of life of the most vulnerable people and also giving them the opportunity to work together and to find those solutions.” In addition, APC’s role as a bridge builder was exemplified through a picturesque analogy, likening it to “a tree that's grown many branches” and gives visibility to organisations both locally and globally.

Finally we concluded the plenary with a moving poem, “An Invitation to a Brave Space”, launching this week of meetings on a hopeful note and closing out the plenary with the following words:

We will not be perfect.
It will not always be what we wish it to be
But
It will be our brave space together,
And
We will work on it side by side.

PS: We’re adding songs here throughout the week; please add your own! (pass: APCconvening / File: world-music-cafe)

More highlights from day 1 here!

On Day 2 of our convening, we will have many diverse and inspiring sessions from 3:30 to 16:00 UTC organised by members Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, Pangea.org, Digital Empowerment Foundation, Instituto Nupef with Servelots and Zenzeleni, Media Matters for Democracy, Colnodo and Nodo TAU, Helen Nyinakiiza, May First Movement Technology with Rhizomatica, Mallory Knodel, and LaborNet.

We will have only one plenary at 6:00 UTC in Ama Waterfall: Members Collaboration(s) and Building of Capacity. This plenary will focus on the “Collective Future of the Network” and member interconnections exploring member-to-member and member-to-staff intentional collaboration and building of capacity, putting transformation and change at the core of members' joint initiatives. This plenary on day 2 will open the three days of reflections on the future of the network: What are the stepping stones, the dots, the elements that forge the APC network? What are the practices we could learn from one another?

What are the elements of today that can be used to build our future? What is the power of collaboration? How can horizontal learning and distributed presence of local/regional initiatives contribute to a collective and global response to fragmentation, isolation and precariousness?

We are extending a special invitation to tomorrow's Environmental Sustainability Ecosystem: A Virtual World Cafe, organised by the Environmental Sustainability working group. Join us in any of the two that we will have, with the first one at 8:30 UTC and second one at 15:00 UTC. This will be a great opportunity to learn about projects and activities of members, partners and staff involved in the APC Environmental Sustainability Ecosystem, through 2-3 rounds of breakout sessions of 20 minutes each, with opportunities for all interested APC members and staff to present and discuss their work.

Let's also "Come together" for a pop-up walk through the APC guidelines on planning and designing online events with magic brought by azar and nadege at 9:30 UTC in Vos Cave.

If you'd like to see an overview of the agenda for tomorrow in your own time zones, please go to the schedule here.

If you feel inspired and have some spare time, please send us what you have learned about caring for yourself and share care strategies within the network at orgcare@apc.org.

Remember that if you were unable to attend the plenaries, we have set up a Mattermost channel that participants can join to participate asynchronously. Please feel welcome to add your thoughts and suggestions!

Almost there! There is a link to a shared folder here for you to upload content (e.g. previous work, posters, documentaries, etc.) (password: APCconvening).

Last but not least: the Best Futures Awards nominations are on! The Best Futures Awards are a recognition we share with one another. During these five days you will attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. You will discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes. We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together. And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! You can add your nominations for the Best Futures Award here.

And that's it for now! Come back here tomorrow for your Dish of the Day to catch up on anything you may have missed from day 2!

More highlights from day 1

APC Asia regional meeting

The Asia regional meeting, facilitated by APC's Pavitra Ramanujam, commenced our Member Convening with a richly interweaving discussion between both older members and newer ones, including one who recently reconnected with the network after a long gap. The members and staff present explored some of the key areas we should all be looking at in the region as well as how the APC network members can help each other, what is the role of a regional network and opportunities for collective collaboration.

Given how significantly the digital landscape has shifted in the last year, some of the key areas that members highlighted for the coming future were the value of raising public and government consciousness on digital encryption as well as technology’s impact – both good and bad – on democratic processes like elections. One participant questioned if encryption and privacy should go hand in hand since they find “there is an erosion of what right to privacy is, [and it’s] talked about as having something to hide instead of as the right to choose what to share when and with whom.”

Members brought up tech-enabled anti-democratic trends in their countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Australia. A common thread was how governments have used the COVID-19 pandemic to shrink civic space and increase citizen surveillance. Bangladesh has implemented the draconian Digital Security Act, while in Nepal there are concerns about how those in power might use the ongoing census in upcoming elections next year.

One participant praised Body & Data’s recent report that was unique in the region in how it analysed trends in internet use in Nepal and recommended how to build a more inclusive, tolerant and feminist internet, and highlighted APC’s own Internet Rules workshop to make digital laws and policies more accessible. In general, participants agreed that legislators automatically seek more regulation in times of any crisis, and our network must create resistance against this urge.

From Australia to India, one common concern that emerged was the rapid rise of digital misinformation and its misuse by political actors, on subjects from climate change to COVID-19 vaccines. “It takes more effort to disprove something than to make something up,” is how one member put it. There is a compounding effect here: not only does misinformation mislead citizens, it is also used by governments to push for more surveillance laws – to ostensibly crack down on bad actors spreading the misinformation. And there is the extra wrinkle of how right-wing and anti-democratic groups often exploit and migrate to privacy-protected tools like Telegram to continue their operations.

One key question that was raised was whether organisations feel there are sufficient resources and legal support for themselves when needed. One participant pointed out that even when they get legal aid, it’s still hard to find good lawyers who don’t work with a protectionist lens. Another challenge that several participants noted was that while they often try to engage with digital policies and laws, they often don’t know how to work on them in a long-term way. One interesting response was how “in terms of study and research purpose, the laws are accessible, although the language is not much friendly for commons.” There is the issue of how to address digital platforms and their vast lobbying efforts, given the monopolised industry where, according to APC columnist David Souter, “China and the United States have 90% of market capitalisation in the 70 largest digital platforms. Africa and Latin America between them have just 1%.” And one member emphasised that a key priority for the APC network should be how to offer technical support for secure communications with people inside repressive countries like China and Hong Kong.

The final point that members roundly agreed upon was the need to navigate language issues across Asia. Currently, many feel they work in their own silos due to language barriers in the region. While the internet is global, citizens in countries like Japan only access Japanese-language information, creating an information bias. Ideas for clearing language barriers included human translation (expensive), creative alternatives to Google Translate like DeepL, and exploring real-time CC and transcription tools.

The session ended with the open question of how the APC network can engage more deeply with the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), including perhaps even hosting it in the future and creating more opportunities for connections and impactful engagements with each other.

APC Africa regional meeting

During the APC Africa regional meeting, members and staff in the region reconnected with each other and explored the value that they derive from being a member of the regional network, and also validated its importance and its place in APC and in the wider movement. Some of the points discussed in open plenary revolved around the connected/disconnected and the gaps African members see between APC priorities vs their own priorities in the region; what are the challenges that African members face in engaging at global and national level; and finally, what sort of capacity building, support, training or mentorship they think would facilitate their engagement.

With facilitation by Poncelet Ileleji from The Gambia YMCAs Computer Training Centre & Digital Studio and Koliwe Majama, APC's AfDec coordinator and AfriSIG organiser based in Zimbabwe, each participant introduced themselves and then moves into a very fruitful conversation around the gaps that African members see could be addressed to enable and foster a greater engagement with APC priorities in general and the priorities in the region.

The nature, the frequency and the spaces for communications about what the members and APC staff are doing in the African region was one of the identified gaps.

Although there was agreement that the larger membership list is very active in sharing what is happening broadly, and even in the African region, the emphasis was put on finding ways to make the Africa members list much more active, as well as to use it to activate issues that are specific and relevant for the African members.

Some of the themes in which the members and staff expressed particular interest in knowing more about, were digital safety, environmental sustainability and digital inclusion on the continent. There was also a suggestion to have someone to write the history of APC members and work in Africa!

Meeting opportunities were also raised as an important way of communicating with each other. There was an acknowledgement that members in the region do not have many opportunities to meet, and there were suggestions to hold quarterly online meetings to learn more about each other, to share experiences in a more timely manner, and to address possible avenues for members' engagement in APC's areas of work within Africa but also in relation to global spaces. Informative sessions around "What is APC doing in these areas" was another suggestion made during the regional meeting.

To develop webinars on common themes among African members was proposed as another concrete format to update each other on developments related to shared priorities and to exchange knowledge. One suggestion was to have a webinar with KICTANet unpacking the recently announced experience with the Communications Authority in Kenya (CA) which formulated a Licensing and Shared Spectrum Framework for Community Networks with contributions from KICTANet, the entire community, and other partners like APC and the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Scotland, with support from the United Kingdom’s Digital Access Programme. Another example was to hold feminist learning circles for African members, as it is being done more broadly in the APC network.

Another example of expertise and experience sharing opportunities mentioned was the case of the collaboration between Zenzeleni and Computer Aid who deployed a solar learning lab, as well as the experience from Zenzeleni and CITAD on cultivating the relationship with regulators in African countries.

“The expertise is there, people are doing different things. For me the question is more how can we collaborate in the areas in common, how can we have more members involved in APC programmes and have their expertise strengthened?” one member emphasised.

Capacity building was another need expressed by the participants in the African members meeting. Peer-to-peer skills sharing or mentoring learning between members were some of the proposals brought by the members.

It was suggested to ask regional members for their ideas and needs and to then offer some periodic trainings, whether at the above-mentioned members' meetings or also pegged to other activities that the members are developing in the region. “For instance, if a member produces a research report on a topical issue of interest to many members, we may consider having a capacity development event around that,” suggested one of the participants.

Making sure that there is continuity in these capacity buildings was flagged as an important factor, in the sense that even if the project that a particular training was linked to came to an end, the area of interest remains and the capacity building needs persist and/or grow, as for example in the case of secure online communications.

The value of coming together as African members was reiterated, not only to strengthen the connections within the region, but also to become more strategic when engaging and advocating in global spaces as Africans.

“Sometimes there is no recognition between members of the power that comes from collaborating regionally or subregionally. When you look at the African IGF it becomes difficult to share your stories and not everyone can attend due to connectivity. When it comes to African advocating on the global level, we don't have enough to take to the table and present as a wholesome African position because the interaction inside the region is quite limited,” was said.

Coupling the APC members' meeting with other events taking place was deemed as a good idea, as besides such events subsidising costs of attendance, they also help members with learning and networking with a wider community, as was the case of the members' meeting at FIFAfrica in Accra in 2018.

APC Europe regional meeting

The Europe regional meeting was an opportunity for members to re-connect with each other, explore shared priorities and validate the importance of our regional network. What is the relevance and purpose of the European member region within the APC network? What are European members' priority issues? How do member priorities intersect with one another and with APC?, were the questions that framed the meeting, facilitated by Rozi Bakó of Romania-based member Strawberrynet Foundation.

In terms of the issues and priorities members address through their work in Europe, environmental sustainability was repeatedly raised as a central issue. "It's uplifting to know APC is so invested in this issue in such a structured, open and participatory way, as the GISWatch 2020 edition and the Guide to the circular economy of digital devices evidence. This has led me to be more involved with APC than in previous years," one of the participants said.

Ethical aspects were mentioned as key to building infrastructure from a climate justice perspective. "How can we all go from being consumers to being responsible for our own infrastructure, and what ethical aspects should we keep in mind?"

The pandemic and post-pandemic context were very present in the discussion. How can APC and members use all this infrastructure to stay together at a time when it's key to stay "closer than ever"? Subgranting was mentioned as one of the strategies. "APC is working with members early in the design stages of projects, through participatory processes, and we keep thinking of ways to bring members together, create bridges and network connections." The need to document our work and how to use the tools we offer to break isolation was also highlighted.

Regarding the challenges APC members face in their different contexts, disinformation was raised as a key issue. Climate change and its impact on women's rights, migrants and refugee rights were also presented as a big concern, particularly in a context of increasing division and exclusion within the European borders.

Scarcity of resources and the need to prepare for a future where less energy will be available were also highlighted. "We've reached a diesel peak, there's more and more dependence on China, we'll have less energy in the future. The situation will change in the coming years, so how can we prepare ourselves to use less energy?"

The need to involve young people and connect with them was raised as a key, cross-cutting issue to address all these challenges.

APC LAC and North America regional meeting

Our day 1 ended with the regional meetings for the Americas, where members from the Latin America-Caribbean (LAC) and North America subregions reconnected and reflected together on the common challenges faced and the opportunities for collaboration to strengthen the impact of our collective actions. Although it was initially planned to have two parallel meetings taking place - one for LAC and another for North America - and then bring the two groups together to explore regional connections, the low numbers of North American members saw the two meetings being merged from the beginning, highlighting the necessity of network cooperation across the broader region.

Facilitated by Julián Casasbuenas, director of APC member in Colombia, Colnodo, Valeria Betancourt, APC's Communications and Information Policy Programme manager, and Jaime Villarreal from May First, the participants shared their thoughts and experiences in relation to questions like: What would your organisation need to be more effective and which challenges are you struggling with to do your work effectively?

It was a consensus that the multilayered impacts of the pandemic brought new contours to the challenges faced. The work overload, a combination of remote work and domestic and care work, which falls mostly on women's shoulders, volatility in the organisation's teams and the need to constantly respond to emergencies were some of the challenges mentioned by members. The impact on the communities and social movements that the organisations work with in the region was also greatly felt and most of them are also struggling with similar challenges at the organisational level. They indicated, in turn, the need for investment in human resources, better planning of financial resources, participatory institutional planning processes, prioritisation and organisational strengthening as important measures to be amplified in this context.

Looking at the external context, participants agreed that the emerging barriers there were also hard to face. To mention some of them: Participation in regional and global internet policy processes has become more complex due to the adoption of online models. The dissemination of the work being done in a way that influences the public discussions on technology and human rights is not always easy and sometimes it is challenging for the regional perspectives to influence the global agenda. Meanwhile, authoritarian measures and practices underpinned by digital technologies have increased, and the consolidation of the power of large internet corporations and far-right initiatives challenge human rights on the internet every day.

The combination of internal and external challenges in the pandemic was acknowledged as a heavy burden. "A major challenge is the diversity of challenges and the breadth of issues. It is very necessary to focus," one member summarised. Increasing the collaboration among the organisations in the region also emerged as key to increasing effectiveness and slowing down the overload in the face of such challenges. How cooperation is established, however, was pointed out as a very important issue since it can mean extra work and extra burden if not built strategically and based on trust and care relationships.

How can we cooperate more? How can we avoid duplicating our work? Are we calling the same constituencies to attend separate events or activities that could be done together? When can we establish linkages and synergies between the members in the two sub-regions? What value does the APC network have or could have for this intercontinental intervention? With those questions on the table, on the one hand the members explored some initial ideas on how to face creatively and effectively the need to internationalise our impact. On the other hand, they also explored ways to strengthen the organisational capacity and actions at the local level.

As a way to move forward, the member convening was pointed to as an opportunity to learn from each other and identify synergies. It was emphasised that we should keep in mind the need to find ways of cooperation during this week and to continue the conversation afterwards, taking advantage of the spaces being created. In the words of one member, we should let people "know what we are doing and use the communication channels available through APC." Hopefully, this will lead to concrete steps to formulate one joint activity of the Latin American organisations by 2022. It was said that we can start small "but have a concrete plan and a broad process in a way that it is an additional support and not additional work for the organisations." It was also noted that "the concrete work helps to materialise the network, to create the links, the trust and the processes needed to tackle the bigger projects."

Finally, it was flagged that these next steps could be built on top of existing collaboration experiences and opportunities. Concrete examples were shared, such as the possibility of members presenting joint propositions to APC subgrants, as well as considering the opportunity to build projects together when there are open calls, as this can lead to close collaboration in the project implementation. The example of the cooperation between APC member in Costa Rica, Sulá Batsú, and Colnodo in Colombia, as part of a consortiumon working with digital appropriation in Central America, Bolivia and Colombia (https://apropiacion.digital/) was mentioned as a concrete example for APC to think about as part of its efforts to encourage this type of initiative among members. "Let's reflect on what we have worked on in the past, but also look to the future," highlighted one of the facilitators.

POP-UP - Film screening and discussion: The Offensive Internet

APC member EngageMedia worked with Asia-Pacific filmmakers to produce short films on digital rights issues to be included in the Tech Tales film collection. These films employ various storytelling forms and tools, from narrative fiction, documentary format to animation. This was the first of some screenings of the Tech Tales films during the APC Member Convening.

Yihwen “Wen” Chen is a Malaysian documentary filmmaker and journalist whose documentary on female circumcision won the 2019 Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award for Excellence in Reporting Women’s Issues. She is also a Pulitzer Center grantee. Wen presented her animated documentary film "The Offensive Internet" today. The film recounts how Malaysian authorities have targeted, intimidated and harassed South China Morning Post journalist Tashny Sukumaran and veteran cartoonist Zunar for doing their jobs – holding the powerful accountable. Both not only recount their harassment but also describe why they choose to continue their important work.

There was a lot of applause for the film after the screening, with many appreciating both the lyrical imagery and powerful documentation of how the government is hounding critics. The actions against Sukumaran and Zunar have been justified by the Malaysian government under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, and one participant commented that the film resonated a lot for him because in his country, the government is considering passing a new law that allows authorities to prosecute internet users who criticise the government.

Wen told an anecdote about the filmmaking process: she had planned to film the people in the film, but due to the pandemic and lockdowns she ended up sending microphones to them for recording the interviews remotely and ended up creating an animation film. She also described how she has connected to other artists across Southeast Asia through film projects, especially on freedom of expression and human rights, through EngageMedia’s initiative. And she urged everyone to support Zunar's works at www.zunar.my. One participant even suggested that we should all buy Zunar's products as Christmas presents!

Go back to read the rest of the Dish of the day!

 

Dish of the Day 2 - The collective future of the network

Welcome to Day 2 of the APC Member Convening 2021! We are glad to see you back here, to be served the second Dish of the Day, cooked up collectively with all the diverse ingredients that this inspiring network brings into the kitchen.

🎵 Why not listen to some good music while you read the Dish of the Day? Remember that we are adding songs here throughout the week; please add your own! (pass: APCconvening / File: world-music-cafe)

The plenary: Members collaboration(s) and building of capacity - The collective future of the network

Our second plenary of the week began with APC’s Jennifer Radloff leading us into some breathing exercises followed by a video of Toni Giselle Stuart reciting their poem, “Ocean Home”. Then we had an exercise for participants to respond to some key questions raised by APC Executive Director Chat Garcia Ramilo, including what is the importance of regional networks, where are we in our communities locally, how has advocacy changed with the pandemic, how do we channel our network to share coping strategies and resources, and finally, who else should we be bringing within the APC network?

Participants reacted to these questions with ideas and their own questions, such as, “How does our double identity as an organisation and a network play out for better or worse in these times, and at our current size of organisation and of network?” An example of learning from local contexts that was cited was the work that APC’s Women's Rights Programme has done with the Transfeminist Network in Brazil, where some learnings included:

• Creativity is essential in the face of adversity 
• Working locally and sharing globally and adapting to local contexts is powerful
• Building feminist infrastructures of care is so critical in these times of pandemic.

As one participant noted, “It's interesting to see these questions popping up… In science many times people have been fooled because the questions they were asking were too narrow and didn't allow scientists to see beyond their noses, something that we usually find out in hindsight. This is why this process here of formulating questions is really the essence of what we should be doing as a network. These will be the guiding questions that will guide us through the next period.”

Next, the vice-chair of APC's executive board of directors, Bishakha Datta, presented a "provocation" on corporate technological power and how it’s become increasingly evident how much corporates rule the world, while sitting one layer behind visible sources of power like governments. The big challenge of the last decade has been its manifestation in surveillance capitalism (how companies turn our bodies, minds, thoughts, desires and emotions into data for profit), how our freedoms are dependent now not only on governments but also digital platforms, and how the corporatised internet of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. is "the internet" for most people now.

One person responded with the suggestion that the APC network could do an interposition between the corporates and grassroots, and we can have our own infrastructure. Another agreed that when they built a local community network, children said they could now access Facebook – they didn’t know any internet beyond that. Some of this might be changing with decentralised and federated technologies, such as for domains, and alternatives to Twitter like Mastodon. Another point was the importance for users to have symmetric bandwidth connections for both download and upload speeds, so that they are not only consumers but can be creators too. Another person criticised governments eager to dismantle citizen privacy to give corporates more data.

One member made the contrarian argument that they can’t recommend tools like Mastodon because they are not very good. “There are lots of problems with the big monopolistic corporations, but there are also lots of smaller corporations that share many of our values and in my opinion should be treated as allies, not enemies. I'd be laughed at if I recommended most of the tools we prefer at APC.”

Some others agreed that substandard tools cannot be credibly recommended to grassroots groups or to social entrepreneurs, that sometimes smaller corporates can be allies, and these days even some non-profits are considering organising as companies to access different funding.

It was helpful at this point for the group to differentiate between smaller corporates who might share our values and Big Tech and other major conglomerates (like telecoms), who despite lip service almost never want to share power or cede any control. As for FLOSS (free/libre and open source) technologies, is there a middle ground to explore to keep making them better and competitive with private tools? One response was that perhaps we should oppose behaviours (rather than corporate identities) we disagree with, while supporting well-behaved partners, whether non-profit or companies.

Another participant cited "middle ground" examples from within the APC network like Pangea, Nodo TAU, Riseup and Sulá Batsú. Someone else agreed that APC members and the network are good in experimenting and showing new paths and options, such as open technologies and community networks.

Overall the group agreed that there are different possible approaches here and no "one" answer. One participant emphasised that APC needs to be much tougher about Big Tech. One of APC’s strategic outcome areas is that “the internet is recognised and governed as a global public good in an inclusive, transparent, democratic and accountable manner.” This is a rich conversation and it needs to continue. As the same person concluded, “The public good is important, we've always valued that, it's consistent. We preserve what we value.”

The session concluded with a poem about networks by Haruna Hadejia of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), who read it first in Hausa, a major Nigerian language. Somehow it managed to to sum up what was an incredibly stimulating plenary session:

Netwok, hanya mai ban mamaki,

Shi ba mutum ba,

Amma yana magana.

Netwok, idan yaga dama

Sai ya barka kayi aki,

Idan yaki, sai ya kulle kansa.

Netwok kenan

Mai halin tsiya da na Kirki.

 

(English translation)

Network, an amazing path,

Not human,

But speaks any language.

Network, if it so wishes,

Can allow you to work,

Or deny you access.

So is network,

With twin faces (the good and the bad).

 

More highlights from day 2 here!

 

On Day 3 of our convening, we will have many diverse and inspiring sessions from 6:00 to 18:30 UTC organised by members Digital Empowerment Foundation, Body & Data, Jokkolabs Banjul, Servelots, individual member Joy Liddicoat, Código Sur with GreenNet and May First Movement Technology, Derechos Digitales with Rhizomatica and eQualitie, PROTEGE QV and CIPESA.

We want to apologise to you that the session “Global Platforms, Algorithms and Slave Labor on the Job” had to be cancelled on Day 2 and will be re-scheduled. We will inform everyone tomorrow about the new day and time of the session through the mailing list and on the chat platform.

We will have two films screenings tomorrow! Starting at 7:00 UTC, you are invited to watch “Invisible Mundu”, directed by Varun Kurtkoti (synopsis here) and at 7:30 UTC will be “Pattani Calling”, directed by Vijitra Duangdee (synopsis here)

We will have only one plenary from 10:00 to 11:30 UTC in Ama Waterfall: Members Collaboration(s) and Building of Capacity. This plenary will focus on the “Collective Future of the Network” and member interconnections exploring member-to-member and member-to-staff intentional collaboration and building of capacity, putting transformation and change at the core of members' joint initiatives.

We are extending a special invitation to tomorrow's second "Come together" pop-up, a walk through the APC guidelines on planning and designing online events, with magic brought by azar and nadege at 17:30 in Vos Cave.

If you'd like to see an overview of the agenda for tomorrow in your own time zones, please go to the schedule here.

Another special shout-out goes to the pop-up discussion session that will take place at 7:00 UTC in Vos Cave on practices and reflections of self and collective care, where APC's Jenny and Cyn will be holding space for members to share the care choices that they have been engaging in along with their favourite practices of self, collective and organisational care.

If you feel inspired and have some spare time, please send us what you have learned about caring for yourself and share care strategies within the network at orgcare@apc.org.

Remember that if you were unable to attend the plenaries, we have set up a Mattermost channel that participants can join to participate asynchronously. Please feel welcome to add your thoughts and suggestions!

Almost there! There is a link to a shared folder here for you to upload content (e.g. previous work, posters, documentaries, etc.) (password: APCconvening).

Last but not least: the Best Futures Awards nominations are on! The Best Futures Awards are a recognition we share with one another. During these five days you will attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. You will discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes. We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together. And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! You can add your nominations for the Best Futures Award here.

And that's it for now! Come back here tomorrow for your Dish of the Day to catch up on anything you may have missed from Day 3!

More highlights from day 2

How to process personal data for big data analysis and the development of AI

Byoung-il Oh, president of Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, gave a presentation on the key aspects of how the newly revised Personal Information Protection Act in South Korea has allowed the commercial exploitation of citizens’ personal data, even without their consent. One striking example is how pharmacies can now sell prescription data to private entities without the subjects’ consent, and this data is then subsequently further sold to pharmaceutical companies. This is being done by several governments globally in the name of fostering their big data and artificial intelligence (AI) industries. He explained the crucial difference between pseudonymous and anonymised data and how Korean civil society has opposed such laws. In the ensuing discussion, Oh also said that while some experts say that Korean data protection is strong, he thinks it’s rather rigid and not flexible (unlike the GDPR), and so it is not actually strong. One participant questioned whether the GDPR is “a pie in the sky, just another piece of paper” as a model. Oh agreed that even the GDPR does not regulate intelligence and police agencies. He also urged everyone to attend Thursday’s session on “Pandemic as a vector for surveillance and other abuses” to discuss how the pandemic has further influenced citizens’ data collection and use.

APC Environmental Sustainability Ecosystem

Facilitator Jennifer Radloff of APC began by showing us a vibrant reading of Yomi Ṣode’s poem “Chaos in the Sky and on Land”. Next, the civil society organisation PROTEGE QV discussed their work on climate change in Cameroon, and how getting timely information around climate disasters is critical and an urgent need. One needs to be careful with such data since it needs to be credible, lest it create needless public panic. The climate doesn’t just affect our ecosystem but also our entire life cycle, such as sanitation, tourism, agriculture, etc. Cameroon has signed global protocols and now needs to implement them. Since environmental data is of major interest to APC, Radloff asked the group how might we collect and use such data? One example cited was how SPACE Kerala has implemented an APC-funded project for collecting open geospatial data to create maps that provide early flood warnings. Open Culture Foundation (OCF) in Taiwan spoke about their first environmental project, Civic Sense on low-cost air quality monitoring and raising awareness to help improve air quality information for evidence-based policy making.

Another interesting point that was raised was how the "internet of things" promises technology like sensors to gather new data and offer advice on cultivating land or avoiding floods, but we need to ensure it works alongside rather than excludes historical memories and Indigenous knowledge already embedded in our communities. As one participant noted, “The goal shouldn't be to replace forms of knowledge, but to try to help produce alternative forms of knowledge with the help of local communities.” A final open question was whether we can go beyond thinking about a circular economy at the device level and instead consider a circular economy of telecoms and other infrastructure.

Come together, a walk through APC guidelines on planning and designing online events with magic brought by azar and nadege 

When designing and planning an online event, it is key to nurture an environment where each person feels seen, heard and acknowledged. This is the main idea drawn from the process of creating the APC guidelines on planning and designing online events, also called "Come together". The session "Come together, a walk through APC guidelines on planning and designing online events" introduced participants to a process that took over a year, starting with the beginning of the pandemic, to collect APC's extensive experience in online organising. APC's hvale and Leila presented the guide as a learning process, not a set of lessons taught from above. "At first, it was going to be more simple material, but it evolved into a learning process that involved questions on principles, values and care, and how to embed them when designing online events at every step of the way," they said.

Participants shared their first impressions on this resource. The layout, structure and design were praised (and particularly the mushrooms, which have become a "powerful symbol in queer narratives", in the words of one the participants). It was highlighted that the guide starts with questions on whether an event is really necessary or useful, as opposed to taking things for granted. "The pandemic has put a lot of pressure on organising events and attending them. This guide starts by asking: Is this event really needed? Can you replace it with an email or anything else? Let's start with the 'why' and then move to the 'how'."

And here is a gift from nadege for all of us: an illustrated poem by Mexican poet Isabel Zapata that was read during the session.

Your TECH choices make a difference

Which technologies are more ethical and sustainable to use? In order to make an informed decision, people need to know about practices and concepts related to internet services and the consumption and use of ICTs. This was the focus of the session "Your TECH choices make a difference", facilitated by Pangea, which went through options including DNS domains, Nextcloud advanced, secure email, choice of user devices and ethical internet access providers. Choices were also linked to the environment and sustainability, and a need for a circular economy was raised. Independence from commercial platforms was also stressed as key. "You pay corporations like Facebook with privacy. For them, you're 'a cow in a farm'." 

Tracking Migrants to Digital Exclusion

The documentary "The Migrants - Plights, struggles and aspirations" by APC member in India Digital Empowerment Foundation illustrates the journey and after-journey of the Indian migrants who travelled back to their villages from the cities during times of COVID. During this session, the film was screened and there was a round of questions from the participants to the filmmaker, Abner Manzar, that allowed the creators to share the challenges faced at the time of producing this documentary. The film documents the migrants' financial and emotional states and the obstacles they faced during their journey, such as whether they were accepted by their own villages and if the government provided any support. One of the interviewees expressed that they had to sell their bicycles, which they used as their main transportation to travel back to their village, to get the bribe money to the police in order to cross the border, otherwise the police would take away their bikes and incite violence on them. This is one of the many examples that was narrated in the film, their surviving situations.

The film concentrates on three states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. One small silver lining: during the filming process, they met a 19-year-old migrant who was quite knowledgeable and educated. They ended up hiring him as one of their Soochna entrepreneurs (information entrepreneurs). He now runs his own information centre, providing government information and villager entitlements in his own village. 

Access to information and local content fostering diversity in developing countries

This session, organised by APC members Núcleo de Pesquisas, Estudos e Formação (Nupef) from Brazil, Servelots from India and Zenzeleni Networks from South Africa, opened an interesting discussion on locally produced content and its access, through the introduction of three initiatives with different approaches and some common challenges, pre, during and post-COVID times. During the pandemic, fake news, decontextualised and contradictory information, as well as inequalities in access to media and the internet created added challenges to those working in these fields. But it also created opportunities!

Using the resources it had in place – its human network and the internet – Zenzeleni Networks launched in its communities the Intanethi Yethu Challenge, which was implemented with support from DFID and APC. As part of this challenge, community members were encouraged to submit content telling about how COVID was experienced in their own realities, and in their local languages. This allowed locals to access cash, which was scarce during the pandemic (as the content producers were retributed with money), as well as to produce and use content that spoke directly to the lived realities of the context Zenzeleni operates in. 

Servelots, based in India, shared its story of how they brought people together and created local content while building the villagers' capacities. The focus of it was their experience with a community radio run by local young girls, and the associated ASPiration networking device, which is a tiny computer that allowed them to broadcast from different villages. They also organised the Kishori Film Festival that featured short movies on agricultural income, carpet manufacturing, driving safely, the journey from clay to brick, and paper boats. 

Nupef, based in Brazil, explained how their pilot project Graúna Comunitário operates as a platform that stores public interest information in the cloud, so that it can be accessed without an internet connection. This project aims to provide people in remote communities with access to useful and reliable public information, addressing the country's cultural diversity, the current invasion of fake news, and the existing inequalities in the levels of literacy, access to the internet and to information, as a consequence of serious issues with the democratisation of communications and the human rights crises that Brazil is going through. This phase of the project, which entails curating existing information (before moving into local content production), presented them with the challenge of choosing which resources or content to feature and make available for the communities. For this, they developed a methodology, prioritising four main topics (human rights, health, environment and culture) through which they are able to consult the local communities, the public prosecutors' offices (to find out which were the themes that were more relevant for each community, such as discrimination, human trafficking, etc.) and they also contacted local leaders to know more about the communities and their traditional knowledge.

Initiating Digital Rights Monitor Asia

In the "Initiating Digital Rights Monitor Asia" session, Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD) introduced the Digital Rights Monitor (DRM) initiative in Pakistan and shared more about their plans to expand it to Asia. The DRM is a platform to report on digital rights and internet governance issues in Pakistan and collates related resources and publications. Seeking potential partnerships from member organisations interested in collaborating to expand it regionally, MMfD told us more about what they have achieved so far, the vision to move forward and also explored some opportunities for collaborations. One example shared was the Challenge series on freedom of religious expression on the internet, a compilation of case studies looking into different policies and how they are made to restrict religious expression, in which concrete cases from different countries are welcome. Participants were invited to share their thoughts and suggestions and also reflect on questions proposed by the organisation. Is DRM Asia something you would like to collaborate with? How we can share resources? Is there any potential for collaborative fundraising? Are there recommendations about what to post at DRM? Organisations or individuals are also invited to send their content to cross-post or post on DRM's website. On the MMfD side, you can reach Hija Kamra, who facilitated the session, at hija.kamran [at] mediamatters [dot] pk for more information, suggestions and to continue the conversation on cooperation possibilities.

ICTs and Environment Course presentation

In this session, Nodo TAU and Colnodo presented their ICTs and Environment Course, developed with help from APC, to other members of the network, so that they can use it or work on similar initiatives. In the words of Florencia Roveri from Nodo TAU, this online course teaches people about the relationship between the environment and ICTs, including aspects around manufacturing and design, energy sources, carbon footprint, circular economy and the "right to repair". "The goal is to learn by doing, so that these people can go to their communities and spread the word, apply what they've learned and have a positive impact there," Roveri explained.  Olga Paz of Colnodo guided participants through the Moodle platform and the way in which the course is structured, "in character-based narratives, to try to make it as dynamic as possible, also keeping in mind that our main target is very young people."

Regarding recognition of all these learning resources, a participant referred to APC being a member of https://academy.itu.int, which could be explored to offer more courses with diplomas and official recognition. The presentation of the course was followed by a lively discussion on how to promote more awareness regarding the digital devices that we don't use anymore, to contribute to a circular economy, and how to draw the connections between individual and community responsibility and the role and interests of big corporations.

Creating learning exercises for greater impact training

This session, hosted by individual member Helen Nyinakiiza, invited the participants to design a mock one-day workshop on digital safety awareness for low-intermediary tech skilled individuals. The attendees were invited to reflect on a series of questions about their own experiences while attending trainings, and in particular on digital security, pointing to the different ways in which we learn. "As educators and teaching enthusiasts, we want to provide meaningful experiences for learners. They, in turn, put trust in us to create content that is interesting and engaging." The session offered insights into "what to teach" and "how to teach" different sections of a workshop agenda and have fun while doing it.

Community networks and cooperative or collective hosting projects sharing experiences / Compartencia entre redes comunitarios y proyectos de hospedaje cooperativas o colectivas

In this session, members involved with autonomous server projects and community networks came together for a vivid conversation around the differences and similarities between these two models. In the discussion, lessons learned, emerging issues, and worries and hopes for the future were shared from both perspectives, aiming to identify mutual needs and opportunities for collaboration, as well as brainstorm on ways to keep the conversation moving forward. As a common ground, some participants pointed out that both community networks and autonomous services seek to be more people-centred and promote autonomy, self-determination and decentralisation, facing growing challenges in a scenario where energy resources are scarce and social and environmental concerns are latent. This also includes situations where many technologies and the internet ecosystem have been becoming more corporatised over time.

Some of the topics discussed had synergy with other sessions that happened on Day 2 of our convening, specifically "Access to information and local content fostering diversity in developing countries" and "APC Labs: Let's fund and support tech projects together". The discussion also indicated that, beyond spotlighting collaboration possibilities, maintaining these conversations and reflections could invigorate our thinking and initiatives in both areas, helping to refresh the political aspects of our models. APC email lists should be mobilised to continue the many interesting and needed reflections and ideas raised during the session, facilitated by Jaime Villarreal, from May First Movement Technology, and Peter Bloom from Rhizomatica. 

APC Environmental Sustainability Ecosystem: A Virtual World Cafe

In line with APC’s strategic priority for “people to use and shape the internet and digital technologies to create a just and sustainable world” and connecting with the environmental work of many members, Day 2 of the convening included a “Virtual World Cafe” on environmental sustainability and its intersection with digital rights and technologies. Guest speakers Jes Ciacci of Sursiendo and Mireia Roura and Leandro Navarro of eReuse.org covered intricate and complementary topics.

The session started off with an exploration of feminist environmental justice, which has recently been developed into a Feminist Principle of the Internet that states, “A feminist internet respects life in all its forms; it does not consume it. Our proposal for a feminist internet principle in relation to the environment resignifies care towards an ethics of collective care in choices around design, extraction, production, consumption and disposal of the technologies involved.” By abandoning unsustainable economic models and exploring other solutions, we must first acknowledge that “there is more than one way to see the world” and from there ask the key question, “How do we build this interrelationship so that we can enable different spaces of listening?”

From here the session took a deep dive into development and use of digital devices with a focus on reuse as a viable strategy. It acknowledged that “we need growth that acknowledges the right to connectivity” but that has as its model the intent to reduce, reuse and recycle digital devices instead of creating, consuming and abandoning new ones. A particularly telling research project revealed the number of detected use hours of devices to be twice as high in public administration than in private companies, even though corporations typically replace perfectly usable devices every two to three years. APC's environmental sustainability group will continue to do the hard work of visibilising alternative models as we move toward reconceptualising what sustainability means in the digital world.

APC Labs: Let's fund and support tech projects together

This session was an enthusiastic dialogue around how to fund and support tech projects together. Organised by APC individual member Mallory Knodel, the session started with an introduction where she pointed out that APC has several members that are implementing technology and some of them have coalesced around a group called InfraRed. Other members are not part of InfraRed but are providing certain services, such as email and messaging, as well as the APC community networks projects involving partners providing connectivity.

Participants discussed the idea of APC playing the role of a "trade association" that provides services to this coalition in multiple forms, especially in the four main areas identified by the facilitator: 1) legal and policy support, 2) resource and infrastructure sharing, 3) joint fundraising and 4) technical standards. The people present also put their minds together to reflect on whether APC should be the home of such an initiative and also think about how to move forward. Among the first steps that emerged was the idea of doing scoping research to start the conversation. Also, to have a more generic document, like a concept paper, explaining the four buckets of work and identifying who could be interested in getting support on those areas, such as the InfraRed participants, ISPs, community networks and hacklabs, among others. This concept paper could also be the basis for a collective funding proposal in the near future. Those interested in finding out more and getting involved can reach Mallory Knodel at mallory [at] mayfirst [dot] org.

Go back to read the rest of the Dish of the Day!

 

Dish of the Day 3 - Members Collaboration(s) and Building of Capacity

Welcome to this wrap-up of Day 3 of the APC Member Convening 2021! We are glad to see you back here, to be served the third Dish of the Day, cooked up collectively with all the diverse ingredients that this inspiring network brings into the kitchen.

🎵 Why not listen to some good music while you read the Dish of the Day? Remember that we are adding songs here throughout the week; please add your own! (pass: APCconvening / File: world-music-cafe)

Before jumping into the plenary, allow us to share Mary Oliver's poem "Don't hesitate", beautifully illustrated by nadege.

The plenary: Members collaboration(s) and building of capacity - The collective future of the network

Wednesday's plenary, facilitated by hvale, gathered 43 participants around the “Collective Future of the Network”. We explored member-to-member and member-to-staff interconnections, putting transformation and change at the core of members' joint initiatives. Example from countries and regions included Cameroon, Bangladesh, South Africa, England, and Europe.

After a few minutes of Qi Gong movement, members were invited to reflect on how APC has impacted the work that their organisations do in their country or region. There was a chunk of time taken up by technological glitches related to French to English interpretation, but also a lot of laughter, patience and a lesson (re)learned, as all of the participants and the tech team were collaborating on solving the problem. "This session is a perfect analogy for tech in the world: sometimes we just laugh and laugh and laugh", APC's Sheena Magenya said.

Once the glitches were solved, participants reflected on emerging themes and issues that they have experienced as part of the network. "I really appreciate the language diversity," Sylvie Siyam of Cameroon-based Protege QV noted. "I have attended APC meetings speaking very little English and nobody ever said anything about it. I've always felt good and accepted."

Once the glitches were solved, participants mentioned the usefulness of grants for research, amplification, visibility, advocacy and other resource support. "Collaboration between members, including the participatory grant-making process, has been a wonderful learning experience," Sylvie highlighted. "It goes beyond the rhetoric, as it is really a learning and sharing process, an example of how collaboratively making proposals and decisions that gives an equal space to all members," Ahmed Swapan Mahmud of Bangladesh-based VOICE added.

The importance of self-care and collective care were also highlighted, especially but not limited to the pandemic. "A lesson that I need to keep remembering is that the role of health is central, and that out of health come the best strategies and most robust practices. I think that APC's focus on care through their "Closer than ever" work shows that, and I also see it in our organisation and personally," Sol Luca de Tena of Zenzeleni Networks noted. "We have the opportunity for activists to stop burning out, for us to pause, to reflect. And how do we do that in recognition of the power that we do have and what do we do in the next step? We should recognise the vulnerabilities which exist at the same time with joy and with laughter," APC's Jan Moolman added.

"We are always busy, to the full extent of our capacities, but we're always very conscious of our APC network and this gives us a broader perspective. We stay connected with the world and the bigger environment that we're working with, which is quite valuable for us considering what's been happening in London," Ed Maw of GreenNet stressed.

The relationship between time, space, location was also raised as a key issue. "The 'sweet spot of 12 UTC' is not so sweet for everyone, it's hard for all of us to be present at the same time, so we need to rely on the trust we have on each other," hvale stressed, sharing a practical example from the work of the Women's Rights Programme. "We had planned a feminist infrastructure workshop and realised everyone was tired, with the weariness that comes from two years of pandemic. We need to think of ways to engage that are hopeful, staying aware of care and accountable to the resources we have raised."  

"We should also realise that a lot of the work we do is still going on even when we are not 'doing' the work right now," Sheena stressed. "Change and action are long term, like plants that are still growing even when they are not growing 'taller'," she stressed. "Let's be like the trees: root ourselves and be still." 

"I am always humbled and feel affirmed when members speak about your connection with the network and what APC means for your organisations," APC's Executive Director Chat Garcia Ramilo shared. "I really like the picture painted about how members see themselves as part of this community."

The session ended with a turtle-drawing exercise on the drawing board that was beautifully and hilariously reflective of the points discussed. 

More highlights from day 3 here!

 

On Day 4 of our convening, we will have many diverse and inspiring sessions from 6:00 to 18:30 UTC organised by members Media Matters for Democracy, Open Culture Foundation, SPACE Kerala, 7amleh, Zenzeleni with Computer Aid International, Bytes For All Bangladesh, Andrew Garton, PROTEGE QV with CIPESA, Foundation for Media Alternatives, Fantsuam Foundation, Digital Empowerment Foundation, and Intervozes.

We will have two film screenings tomorrow! Starting at 9:00 UTC, you are invited to the last screening of the Tech Tales series, this time showing the film “Peer-to-Peer” directed by our dear individual member Andrew Garton (who will unfortunately not be able to join us). At 13:30 UTC there will be the visual storytelling session “Marginalised and Unconnected” by our member Digital Empowerment Foundation.

We will have one plenary at 15:00 UTC in Ama Waterfall: Members Collaboration(s) and Building of Capacity. This plenary will focus on the “Collective Future of the Network” and member interconnections, exploring member-to-member and member-to-staff intentional collaboration and building of capacity, putting transformation and change at the core of members' joint initiatives.

Please note that the session on Global Platforms, Algorithms & Slave Labor On the Job originally planned for Day 2 (Tuesday) will instead take place on Day 4 (Thursday) at 17:00 UTC in Mahu Museum.

Let’s also learn together about the online editing system Collabora, a great open source alternative to Google Docs, presented by Pangea at a pop-up starting at 11:00 UTC in Vos Cave.

If you'd like to see an overview of the agenda for tomorrow in your own time zones, please go to the schedule here.

Another special shout-out goes to the pop-up discussion session that will take place at 11:30 UTC in Vos Cave on self, collective and organisational ways of extending care where APC's Jenny and Cyn will be holding space for members to share the care choices that they have been engaging in along with their favourite practices of self, collective and organisational care.

If you feel inspired and have some spare time, please send us what you have learned about caring for yourself and share care strategies within the network at orgcare@apc.org.

Remember that if you were unable to attend the plenaries, we have set up a Mattermost channel that participants can join to participate asynchronously. Please feel welcome to add your thoughts and suggestions!

Almost there! There is a link to a shared folder here for you to upload content (e.g. previous work, posters, documentaries, etc.) (password: APCconvening).

Last but not least: the Best Futures Awards nominations are on! The Best Futures Awards are a recognition we share with one another. During these five days you will attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. You will discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes. We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together. And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! You can add your nominations for the Best Futures Award here.

And that's it for now! Come back here tomorrow for your Dish of the Day to catch up on anything you may have missed from Day 4!

More highlights from day 3

Digital Covid Warriors Saving Real Lives

The session "Digital Covid Warriors Saving Real Lives", facilitated by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), focused on how the organisation worked during the pandemic, ensuring that the most marginalised people living in unconnected areas could access food, finance, health, education and their basic rights. 

Through "Soochnapreneurs" (which translates as "information entrepreneurs"), DEF was able to contribute to Covid-19 relief initiatives by sharing information and raising awareness around Covid-19, as well as pushing back against disinformation. They published a Covid-19 Information Resource Kit, which contains verified crowdsourced information in English and Hindi, and also provided mobile digital services, distribution of food grains, oximeters and oxygen concentrators, protective gear and support for vaccination registrations. 

Feminist Knowledge Production - Deconstructing Knowledge

Body & Data, based in Nepal, explored feminist knowledge production in this session by presenting two diverse pieces of content they published this year. The first was Exposé, a "visual poem" by spoken word poet Shuvangi Khadka that explored how personal images and videos are sometimes made public for doxxing and harassment. The other was an article called F for Fandom, F for Feminist Space by legal practitioner Diskhya Khadgi.

After showing both pieces to the audience, everyone broke up into two breakout groups to discuss what stood out for them, whether they found any feminist values reflected in the pieces, and how they found these to be different from mainstream content. Several participants discussed their own histories of being "Tumblr queers" and fandom in places like thedarkarts.org, how they found alternative communities and friends in these online spaces that allowed them a queer identity that they found hard to express offline, and the power of pleasure as a key feminist principle. Khadka spoke about their artistic process given that they themselves have not experienced the phenomenon they wanted to explore in the video, while Khadgi said they came across the Feminist Principles of the Internet on the APC website, and that is what made them consider how the internet is used, especially in Nepal, for something seemingly "frivolous" like fandom.

Film screening: Invisible Mundu (Directed by Varun) 

Kuri thinks her father ("Appa") is a superhero, who can turn invisible with the help of his "mundu". But when Appa faces Dineshan, the Great Eye in the Sky – a metaphor for state-based surveillance and digital oppression – he ends up losing his life and livelihood. How will Appa overcome the great villain? The film "Invisible Mundu" is an animation that explores the idea of privacy and consent. It uses a fun fable style to narrate how a father, who was deemed a superhero by his daughter, would react when he faces state-based surveillance and digital oppression.

Film screening: Pattani Calling (Directed by Vijitra Duangdee)

To get a SIM card in insurgency-hit southern Thailand, you have to have your face scanned. Because of this, thousands of Malay Muslims are forgoing mobile communications and becoming biosecurity rebels against the state.

From a mosque after prayers, the protagonist of Pattani Calling explains the cost of being cut off from modern communications in the insurgency-riddled "deep south" of Thailand. He has to make long drives through dangerous roads to meet people in person or to use a landline to check in on his wife and son at home.

His disconnection is self-imposed but necessary: he refuses to register his biodata to get a SIM card as ordered by the Thai state. The government says it is a necessary security measure covering the Malay Muslim-majority southernmost provinces. It says this is where militants fighting a grinding insurgency against Bangkok use burner phones to detonate their roadside bombs. Muslim locals say it is just the latest tool of Thai security services to creep into their lives: harvesting biodata in a new layer of mass surveillance in a region where appearing on state registers often results in miscarriages of justice.

Pattani Calling is a story of a community being forced by state digital policies into exile from modern communication. It is also a tale of defiance and resourcefulness by people staying connected when the state refuses to give them SIM cards.

Digital Inclusion and Achieving the SDGs: A view from the global South

The 2020 e-Conomy Africa Report by IFC and Google finds that Africa’s internet economy has the potential to reach USD 180 billion by 2025, accounting for 5.2% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP), and USD 712 billion or 8.5% of the continent’s GDP by 2050. This trend could accelerate further, as digital technologies have come to the forefront in the unprecedented global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the majority of folks affected were in the global South, where those who lacked access to the internet became particularly vulnerable in terms of finances and did not even have access to the first five core SDGs. Those with digital access to the internet in cities and urban towns have in some way tackled the first five of the SDGs and are proffering solutions for the other 11 SDGs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, being "digitally included" helped communities cope better during the first year of the pandemic by being able to access tools to support livelihoods, from health to education and feeding. The session Digital Inclusion and Achieving the SDGs: A view from the global South, organised by APC member in The Gambia Jokkolabs Banjul, generated this space to correlate the top five SDGs (No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well Being, Quality Education, and Gender Equality) and digital inclusion, and show how being digitally included can aid attainment of the SDGs.

Love as subversion: Reclaiming the feminine perspective

Janastu-Servelots used the opportunity of this session to widen our understanding of how working with community networks needs a feminine gaze, patience and care. They proceeded to tell some revealing anecdotes on the principles of embracing slowness in creating change, valuing indispensability and complexity, and allowing for messiness and uncertainty. One person recounted an incident of how a security guard at the ancient Orchha Fort gave her a memorable history tour, including stories from his ancestors in the area. “Anyone can write anything on Wikipedia,” he told her. “But what I’m telling you is the truth.” One participant responded by recommending the Zimbabwean novel We Need New Names.

There were stories of how marginalised people sometimes feel let down or impatient when promised change does not happen fast enough, and how failure, raising false hopes and bad communications are a regular part of progress when building community networks. Complexity of language and cultural barriers often imply slowness, which is something hard to imbibe in your annual plans. Human relationships take time to form, and one participant also recommended the book Getting to Maybe. The final anecdote was of how when one women went to buy glass bangles, her male colleague also ended up buying some for himself and began wearing them. This caused a huge stir wherever he went, and eventually taught him the value of gentleness while going through life, since you don’t want to break your bangles.    

Self, collective and organisational ways of extending care

State of digital rights in Africa

In this session, Lillian Nalwoga from APC member CIPESA in Uganda and Sylvie Siyam from PROTEGE QV in Cameroon walked the participants through an eye-opening overview of the state of digital rights in Africa.

CIPESA presented the main highlights of their recently launched Internet Freedom Report, which reveals an increase of violations of digital rights, with a notorious and generalised increase in state surveillance, also addressing how this impacted on the civic space and democratic practices in Africa. 

PROTEGE QV presented "Evaluating the level of respect of digital rights: Cameroon's case", which is a tool that draws on the principles outlined in the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms to build a barometer to evaluate respect of digital rights in Africa. The data obtained with these indicators can be used as a governance tool and also for cross-country comparison.

Sylvie shared some highlights of the report, among them that cultural linguistic diversity and the right to due process are fully respected in Cameroon, and that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly on the internet are really low. Better but still in a weak position, there is equality between men and women in access to and accessibility of the internet.

This tool was shared with human rights commissioners, regulators, telecom operators and CSOs  in the country. PROTEGE QV found out that the commission in charge of human rights in Cameroon did not have any tool to assess digital rights, the reason why they were eager to learn more about this tool. 

Some questions to the session organisers revolved around how to make all these digital rights trends more relevant to media, so African organisations doing this kind of research can draw on their mass outreach and create public pressure on governments. One of the ways of addressing this challenge that CIPESA has been working on is creating capacity building opportunities for journalists and media organisations, teaching them how to report on digital rights issues and governance in a human rights-based and consistent way.

There was an interesting discussion on how to produce comparable data from the different African countries, also in relation to the global landscape, so this can be used to advocate in regional forums and build greater regional negotiation power.

Collaboration alert! PROTEGE QV is looking for partner organisations to work on the measurements in different countries and regions in Africa, after reaching a consensus on the indicators, the methodology and how to publish the reports.

DIY together a community operated wireless kit - for inclusion of low-literates

Servelots made this session a space for dialogue around how to remotely support people in setting up community networks and to gain insights for their initiative to build an inclusive, decentralised, open kit that communities can easily deploy and maintain.

During the session, Sanketh from Servelots told us how the requests from communities for community networks have been increasing, while COVID-19 imposed barriers to face-to-face training and set-up activities. The pandemic also made connectivity more urgent, both for rural and urban populations that are uncovered by the commercial access model. From those barriers emerged the idea of building a kit to help people remotely, aiming to make the process approachable for communities with different levels of involvement with networks and digital technologies. 

Important aspects are being considered to build an effective and simple-to-use kit, such as prioritising local networks as a starting point, providing support in multiple languages, offering instructions in different formats, including audio ones, and using open source technologies. In an engaging conversation, participants brought inputs from their own experiences and also shared references of initiatives with potential synergies, such as Nimble kit from Wakoma and Nupef's project Graúna.

APC’s ITU Sector Membership: Opportunities to strengthen our network advocacy

This session unpacked what the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is and how it works, aiming to briefly cover some key spaces to engage and both ongoing opportunities and those on the agenda for next year. While very few civil society organisations are present, ITU's decisions are rather influential in shaping the internet ecosystem and have impacts on a lot of topics on our agenda, such as community networks, artificial intelligence, environmental concerns, gender inclusion and cybersecurity. 

APC has ITU Sector Membership and has been participating in some processes and spaces, which should be an open window for all members interested. APC is also engaged with the EQUALS initiative, created by the ITU and UN Women to address the gender digital divide, where we are part of the access coalition focused on reducing the gender gap on the internet. Another opportunity shared during the session was the ongoing open consultation run by the ITU Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy Issues (CWG-Internet) on the environmental impacts and benefits of the internet. 

For members interested in learning more or engaging in those and other opportunities, this very informative session was facilitated by Carlos Rey Moreno and Verónica Ferrari, from the APC team. The Local Networks initiative, led by APC in partnership with Rhizomatica, is also documenting their learnings and contributions to the ITU at this policy wiki.

Applying design justice principles to user experience research 

This session, organised by APC members May First Movement Technology, Código Sur and GreenNet and facilitated by Jaime Villareal, was a participative introduction to what design justice and community-centred design processes are about (in Spanish here.) How do we design, as we the communities are not design experts? How can we do this in a way that it is not merely technical but useful and simple? How can this tool free us? And how can we make certain that the internet reflects our different visions of the world? Design justice is about making sure that the communities that will be most affected by what you are designing will have a stake in the design process. 

All of this was brought home through a concrete exercise where participants were asked to join the organisers in planning a process to design a control panel interface for autonomous internet/intranet service providers and community infrastructure projects. The control panel project emerged as part of their work in the Infrared network, after realising that between 20 and 25 different hosting providers had started out with different sorts of infrastructure that were not necessarily compatible with each other and they all did things in very different ways, which was all getting in the way of collaboration. Therefore, they decided to focus on the commonalities, such as the lack of control panels. Were there also commonalities in terms of what users needed?

As part of the exchanges that took place in the session, some participants challenged the feasibility of producing a design that works for everyone, as the users' contexts are so diverse. The group also provided ideas of communities, groups and individuals that could be represented and drive the control panel design project, such as CMS and website maintainers, people whose role is providing technical support in organisations, graphic designers, people organising co-op organisations, independent or public schools that need to provide educational services online, and people with disabilities. Among many others, people working in community networks and who also need to provide these kind of services were pointed out as an important sector to include, and the organisers said there is room there to involve a lot of people in the APC network.

The facilitator emphasised that anyone who has implementation and development ideas for this initiative, knows about funding options for this kind of project, and/or has examples to share of previous similar processes that can be used as a reference, to please get in touch with Jaime (May First), Nikole (Código Sur) or Ian (GreenNet).

Facial recognition: Risks, challenges and opportunities from local, regional and global approaches

This session, presented by Derechos Digitales, explored the use, benefits and challenges of facial recognition as well as examining various contexts of its application in Latin America. From these case studies, we looked at different options for advocacy to ensure human rights are centred in the use of facial recognition technologies. 

Starting with a simple definition of facial recognition as a method of capturing an image and running it through software for analysis before storing it in a database for comparison to other photos and databases, we considered some of the problems and risks involved, particularly in relation to human rights abuses. Notable examples include infringements on freedom of movement, privacy and security as well as possibilities for discrimination, arrests and blocking of access to state services. Because we do not know where and how these technologies are being used, facial recognition is essentially “a solution in search of a problem” and the potential consequences can be serious.

In Latin America, Derechos Digitales partnered with other groups to examine 38 cases of facial recognition use by states in schools, airports, drugstores, metro stations and more, and found that “in more than 60% of cases, there are no legal bases or preceding cases” to determine whether use of these technologies complies with human rights standards. This makes its use very difficult to litigate and poses a challenge to knowing where these technologies are even being used.

What is important therefore is to seriously consider what we can do and how we can act together. Advocacy can take place in international forums (e.g. Human Rights Council) and national campaigns (e.g. regulation, strategic litigation, special events). The use of a moratorium drew discussion from participants around its impact on the purchasing and selling of these technologies. Furthermore, the need for further research and collection of case studies is critical in order to implement policies that will have positive and far-reaching impacts as facial recognition technologies are being developed in order to curtail the potential for human rights infringement through their use and application. 

To engage on these issues, contact Michel Souza at michel [dot] souza [at] derechosdigitales [dot] org for more information.

Training and capacity building as a constellation of experiences / Formación y creación de capacidades como constelación de experiencias

In this session, we were invited to learn more about the publication "Technological autonomy as a constellation of experiences: A guide to collective creation and development of training programmes for technical community promoters", which provides resources for the participatory implementation of training initiatives. As its name states, this is not a "one size fit all" manual, but an attempt to connect some stars in the skyline, which means it provides resources for the participatory implementation of training based on diverse local experiences and knowledge from communities. The guide also offers examples, such as the Community Techio, a training programme and pedagogical proposal that has been designed based on needs identified in the field of community communication in Mexico for several years.

From the guide's presentation made by the co-authors Alma Soto and Daniela Bello, the session hosted a lively conversation about the importance of participatory approaches in training, since "we all know something and we all can learn different things," as well said by the facilitator, Carlos Baca Feldman from Rhizomatica. Participants also reflected on challenges and how communities can benefit from autonomy and self-determination concerning communication and telecommunications technologies and processes in different contexts, sharing learnings and reflections from the multiple experiences gathered in the room, such as those from CITAD (Nigeria), Projeto Saúde e Alegria - PSA (Brazil), Nodo TAU (Argentina), REDES A.C. (Mexico) and Colnodo (Colombia). 

The "Technological autonomy as a constellation of experiences" guide is available in four languages, Spanish, English, Portuguese and French, in this folder.

CENO: Avoid internet shutdowns with cooperative web browsing and caching

In this session, APC member in Canada eQualitie offered a useful overview of CENO (Censorship.No!), a free/libre open source mobile web browser that uses P2P technology to deliver websites to people's phones and caches copies of popular content among cooperating peers. Besides showing how it works, they also explained how to use it to access blocked websites and how to help others in retrieving that content when those websites are no longer available, whether due to specific site censorship or complete country disconnection from the rest of the world. CENO was built in support of Articles 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and presents a new generation of censorship circumvention possibilities. CENO is based on Firefox for Android (a.k.a. Mozilla Fennec), extended to make use of the innovative Ouinet library, enabling third-party developers to incorporate the CENO network into their apps for peer-to-peer connectivity.

Human Rights and the Internet

“This book is about all of you, about my incredible time at APC." This is how individual member Joy Liddicoat described her recently launched book, Human Rights and the Internet, which was the focus of this session.

Liddicoat said she wanted to capture the struggle to have human rights on the internet recognised as a concept, and was prompted to write the book by the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, which meant she had time to reflect on and process her “crazy, wild, incredible time with APC.” She added, “I felt there was a story that needed to be told, about the Connect Your Rights campaign” (which Liddicoat headed up as the manager of the APC Communications and Information Policy Programme between 2011 and 2014).

In 2011, nothing was going on in UN human rights spaces around the internet, she explained. Raising internet issues at the Human Rights Council seemed to be a clash of concepts at the time: the internet was believed to be an open, free, equal space, with no one in control, while human rights was considered a domain controlled by governments. “Who has the crazy idea of linking these two worlds? APC, of course,” she quipped.

Liddicoat mentioned a number of milestones in APC’s efforts in this area, from supporting members to participate in the Human Rights Council and UPR processes, to working with former UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Frank La Rue on the first UN resolution establishing that the same human rights that apply offline must also be respected online. APC also played a crucial role in expanding the concept of human rights online beyond civil and political rights, like freedom of expression, to economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health – with the latter having become particularly pertinent in the current times of COVID-19.

When questioned about the challenges that lie ahead, Liddicoat stressed that one of the surprises resulting from writing the book was “how positive the story was.” The fact that new issues and challenges are constantly emerging makes our work feel overwhelming, and “we forget, as activists, how far we have come in the last 10 years.”

Come together, a walk through APC guidelines on planning and designing online events with magic brought by azar and nadege                                 

In this intimate session, we took a walk through APC’s newly created “Come Together” guide for planning and designing online events. hvale told the story of its creation, explaining that “we didn’t want to give a recipe, but to give a kind of compass, when you start dreaming, and you dream big, and you want to do everything.” Borne of APC’s many years as a remote organisation and catalysed by the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted the work of the network online, one participant aptly commented that an alternative title to the guide could be "learnings for online convening from one year of pandemic and 30 years of experience".

Throughout the session, we contemplated questions such as “do we need a convening or event, or are there other possible ways to connect? You have a purpose, you have a community – how do you talk to that community? What is our expectation for the use of this guide?” These raised interesting discussions around the challenges of interpretation for online events to improve accessibility, as well as the importance of relevant documentation. 

With the official launch of this guide coming soon, we hope that it will prove to be a valuable resource to the network and that through feedback, we can continue to build upon its contents. Ultimately, when it comes to gathering online, hvale graced participants with the following reminder: “If we build processes and spaces where people can learn, digest and synthesise, then we can build an embodied memory.”

Go back to read the rest of the Dish of the Day!

 

Dish of the Day 4 - The collective future of the network: Reframing possibilities

Welcome to this wrap-up of Day 4 of the APC Member Convening 2021! We are glad to see you back here, to be served the fourth Dish of the Day, cooked up collectively with all the diverse ingredients that this inspiring network brings into the kitchen.

Best Futures Awards: Have you nominated the person, collective or organisation that you believe deserves one or more of the awards yet? On the last day of our convening we will announce the nominees in the categories Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity and ask all participants to vote and express their preference. You can add your nominations for the Best Futures Award here.

🎵 Why not listen to some good music while you read the Dish of the Day? Remember that we are adding songs here throughout the week; please add your own!

The plenary: Members collaboration(s) and building of capacity

Our plenary of Day 3 continued the thread on the “Collective Future of the Network”, exploring members' interconnections, member-to-member and member-to-staff intentional collaboration and building of capacity, putting transformation and change at the core of members' joint initiatives.

The plenary started with a video presented by APC's Carlos Rey-Moreno that helped us remember that in spite of the overwhelming feelings of despair and frustration we may face, every day there is something that makes us smile 

Oona Castro from Brazilian APC member Nupef, who is also a member of APC's executive board, got us going with reflections on the global scenario we all were part of during the last few years, and how the pandemic affected the way we do things and forced us to rethink our boundaries and priorities.

Oona went through several ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic changed us and, in particular, made face-to-face meetings difficult. These face-to-face meetings were deemed key for the APC network, as it is a diverse constellation of 62 organisations and 31 individual members with a presence in every continent. This can feel hard to navigate if we can only rely on the online realm. As the world is ever changing at a fast pace, the APC network needs to find ways to recreate and reinvent itself.

The possibility of organising hybrid meetings was a recurrent option, but it was also acknowledged that it presents us with challenges in terms of coordinating different time zones and effective connectivity and access, budget planning, meaningful connection and presence. And there is also a lack of vaccines and strong COVID-19 control measures in some member countries.

Another important point raised was that of the connections between the local and the global. “We had to choose, we could not be on all fronts, and we recognised it might be time to look more to the local challenges that our partners, our brothers and sisters in our home countries, and we ourselves are facing,” a member said. "The relationship with the local has been challenging: our partners who are a part of social movements, such as Indigenous people, grassroots people, really lacked connectivity. Implementing projects with partners has become harder for some of us.”

There was an agreement that we need to be strategic when it comes to our approach to presence, assessing access and urgency in local vs. global scenarios: "We need to choose where to be present, we need to be strategic of how the global is addressed, if the local is more urgent."

"Hybrid versions are working and are probably going to be the future," one of the participants emphasised. Several members shared their personal experiences in attending or organising hybrid events and, although there were several challenges to overcome, there was consensus that a hybrid approach is more inclusive, as it allows people who otherwise wouldn't be able to leave their homes or afford to travel to be integrated. "I love these virtual events... for me, it's a significant alternative and I like being able to have it," a member expressed.

The question raised at this point was how can APC support its members in allocating resources to participate effectively in hybrid platforms, as there are infrastructure and connectivity deficits among member organisations. In some instances, the issue might not be connectivity, but the practicality of sharing devices with other people or not having privacy or a room in which to speak and share. One concrete suggestion on this was for APC to carry out a tech scoping of devices, bandwidth and costing and to identify areas that are more in need of support. Another suggestion was to identify partners within the network that have resource centres with good connectivity, where other members from nearby could gather.

Something that APC has learned throughout this journey is that self and collective care are key practices that need to be embedded in the design and implementation of any action, including events. Not only do they sustain us, but also, and more importantly, they help us preserve the human connection and sense of dignity that are often threatened in these adverse contexts we are all navigating. Therefore, care was an important part of the conversation held about online and hybrid events models.

Extending the self and collective care that APC practises to the APC network scale was raised as a conversation we need to have as a network. "Care becomes essential as part of any process of organising events. As APC, we think of events as processes, there is a path we walk together. But there are other events that are not processes. Which kind of spaces does the network need? Do we need a care space where we can learn together and change behaviour, or do we need other kind of spaces that can be more contained, where even if you cannot attend everything, you feel like you can benefit?"

APC's Communications and Information Policy Programme manager, Valeria Betancourt, shared deep provocative reflections that invited the members and staff present to think of how our work has changed and become different now that we are almost two years into the pandemic, and not able to connect to each other face-to-face. How has the relationship with the local changed, adapted, expanded or contracted? And how has the interaction between the local and the global changed? What are some of the learnings and discoveries we can extract from this, but also, what are the challenges that need a more structural response? These are some of the reflections shared:

There are foundations we took for granted that changed as a result of the pandemic. The notion of time has changed, oscillating between an acceleration and a sense of being suspended in time, "in a parenthesis of sorts." This has impacts on the social changes we want to make as a network.

Unpredictability and uncertainty have become a rule, and have increased our sense of fragility. "It feels as if everything we do or don't do will have a decisive bearing on the future. What does this mean in terms of the collective action of movements we work with... and the way in which we set our goals?"

We are connected through our devices and inhabiting the same digital space, and yet we are far away from each other. "The weight of physical boundaries and awareness of the limits of the physical space we inhabit was heightened by the pandemic. We are connected in digital space but demobilised and disconnected on other planes."

The pandemic made inequality, discrimination, exclusion and structural inequity more palpable, and rather than leading us to stagnate in indignation, this reactivated a sense of rebellion and greater commitment to overcoming these challenges.

The relationship between the local and the global has historically driven and guided APC's work. We have a greater awareness of local needs and the kind of global response that should be prioritised. What does this mean for our advocacy at local and global levels?

We are in a "tremendously complex historical moment in which, possibly, the most important anchor of meaning continues to be, for our network, the commitment to a common horizon of dignity and justice in which digital technologies and an open, decentralised, free internet allow us to sustain other ways of life that are compatible with the collective well-being and sustainability of our planet."

How do we shape the sense of "us" going forward, recognising and embracing our diversity, our multi-referential identities, our complementarities, how do we think beyond all the crises and contingencies that surround us at the moment as actors of change in the digital environment and beyond? How do we overcome uncertainty and practice possibility?

It was flagged that a big part of moving into the future is understanding who we are collectively and strengthening our capacities in demanding accountability and reparation for how tech is being used by powerful stakeholders and actors. Advocacy on access was also emphasised as more central and relevant than ever in APC's agenda, as it has become a clearer priority, especially in local contexts.

Looking at the future, the participants agreed that APC, as a 30+-year-old network, must value memory as much as getting ready to open space for the new generations to continue the struggle – in their own way. “We have a commitment to bring new generations into these discussions,” a member commented.

This plenary was closed with a fun drawing and guessing game and a fabulous musical gem: "Beautiful Tango" by Hindi Zahra.

 

More highlights from Day 4 here!

 

Our last day of the member convening will start with the first of two plenaries, from 6:30 to 8:00 UTC, while the second will take place from 15:00 to 16:30 UTC. They will both be spaces for us to share and reflect on member experiences that contributed to building solidarity and change and helped the network thrive, as well as to share a consolidated reflection on the three previous plenaries that explored the “Collective Future of the Network”.

The APC Member Convening will close with our Best Futures Awards, which will be a concrete and playful way to name and recognise members’ ability to adapt and thrive. It is your last chance to nominate members for the four awards, don’t miss it!

We will also have a few very inspiring sessions from 9:00 to 13:30 UTC organised by members Pollicy, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), TEDIC and Unwanted Witness.

And yes, it's PARTY time! We will have the party, which was co-planned with many of you, from 16:30 to 18:30 UTC in Ama Waterfall.

If you'd like to see an overview of the agenda for tomorrow in your own time zones, please go to the schedule here.

If you feel inspired and have some spare time, please send us what you have learned about caring for yourself and share care strategies within the network at orgcare@apc.org.

Almost there! Remember that if you were unable to attend the plenaries, we have set up a Mattermost channel that participants can join to participate asynchronously. Please feel welcome to add your thoughts and suggestions!

And that's it for now! Come back tomorrow for the last Dish of the Day to catch up on anything you may have missed from Day 5, the last day of our convening!

More highlights from day 4

Tech Giants and Accountability for Violence in Asia

This session focused on sharing strategies to enable stronger corporate accountability for abuse propagated on tech and social media platforms. Facilitators from Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD) in Pakistan began by discussing how, apart from a few instances of genocidal violence in Myanmar and India, tech platforms remain unresponsive to issues across Asia like incel groups, data breaches and online violence. Beyond accountability, MMfD also hoped to explore ideas for potential collaborators and creating media attention. One participant made the point that tech whistleblowers have so far been Western people and media attention has responded accordingly. Recent revelations have also shown how platforms like Facebook put profits before hate speech and misinformation. One person pointed out how pursuing regulations almost always ends up with over-regulation and a power grab by governments, while another participant said Asian governments are often happy to use hate speech online and so are not invested in changing the status quo.

Some suggestions for MMfD included pitching evocative human stories rather than just issue analyses to the media, and to first build momentum with allied media rather than mainstream media. One participant expressed pessimism about how much media coverage can create change, and it might be better to not be so antagonistic and instead engage more directly with Big Tech. Other suggestions were to engage tech employees to turn whistleblowers, explore consumer rights movements as well as take pointers from the rich history of movements globally that have held corporates in other industries accountable, such as mining and chemicals. The group also suggested various potential collaborators and partners like Digital Empowerment Foundation, Point of View, SPACE, Privacy International, MIDO, 7amleh, SMEX, Stop Hate for Profit, Ranking Digital Rights and the Global Network Initiative (GNI). The session ended with the question of whether APC should also consider joining the GNI.

The gap between civil society and technologists

This session, organised by APC member in Taiwan Open Culture Foundation (OCF), addressed the challenges emerging from the lack of a common language between civil society and technologists, as most individuals and organisations still have a hard time to adopt digital tools, initiate digital projects or communicate with technologists.

It was raised that technologists very often explain things with too much detail and it becomes very complicated for civil society organisations to understand, when they just want to know how to use the technology and how their problems can be solved through it. There was emphasis placed on the fact that both sides need to learn how to communicate with each other better. Some ways of helping in this communication that were mentioned are hackathons, which can be a creative space where these two groups could meet, and adopting storytelling methodologies as an important tool to explain technology to civil society groups.

Other important related points were raised, such as the need to rethink what it means to be a "technologist" today, and what the real balance is between developing and using technology.

As the next steps identified to help people be less afraid of technology and build confidence among CSOs to be more familiar with technology, there was a proposal for collaboration between APC members: to develop a workshop to train technologists on how to communicate with CSOs.

OpenStreetMap and Open Environmental Data

SPACE used this session to explain what OpenStreetMap is, how citizens can input data into it, and why it’s important to build this public and open database. Such open maps in Europe have already reached a stage where they can challenge Google Maps, but are lagging behind in user and government uptake in developing countries. Discussion included how apps like OsmAnd and Organic Maps build on OpenStreetMap data to give alternatives to users. Even Amazon and Facebook have decided to invest resources into OpenStreetMap to try to diminish Google’s monopoly in this area. SPACE then explained how they leverage OpenStreetMap for environmental resilience in Kerala, India in response to floods and landslides, for which they were able to scale up their mapping of streams and water bodies by using open data from the US government’s Digital Elevation Models (DEM). They’ve also seen how some European data sets can be deployed to enrich Indian data for landslide susceptibility maps. The discussion ended with the conclusion that there is already a lot of open data in the world that we are not liberating and using, and North-South partnerships could play a big role here.

Social media companies' content moderation policies especially in cases of occupation and conflicts and how they are playing against vulnerable groups

The session "Social media companies' content moderation policies", facilitated by 7amleh, took us through the experience of defending Palestinian rights and how the reality of occupation on the ground is being replicated in online spaces, with more and more surveillance and aggressive control of social media. Among the strategies used are denial of access to technology to Palestinians (online borders are controlled by Israel, in the same way as physical spaces), massive surveillance, policies and practices designed to silence human rights defenders, development of coordinated disinformation campaigns to censor, suppress and harass human rights defenders, and increasing pressure on companies regarding content moderation.

COVID-19 has escalated the situation, giving more legitimacy to the surveillance industry, 7amleh stressed. "Through geolocation by the Israeli secret service, Israelis diagnosed with COVID-19 were spied on and traced, and surveillance became more legitimised." The pandemic also served as the perfect excuse for more movement restrictions and access to more data from Palestinians. "We live in this dystopia where you're being watched in every way, from every angle. Palestinians are in a way a laboratory for Israel to test their surveillance technology, which then spreads to the rest of the world," they said.

On social media platforms, expansion of the definition of "terrorist organisation" is being used to criminalise human rights defenders, expansion of the definition of "anti-semitism" is being used to suppress Palestinian voices on social media, and high levels of hate speech against Palestinians are allowed, as documented in the publication "Silenced Net: The Chilling Effect among Palestinian Youth in Social Media".

To counter these injustices, "mainstream media coverage helps a lot, as it puts pressure on the occupation," 7amleh stressed. "Big international global coalitions are also helpful. Your demands are looked at differently when you are part of an international coalition." The session ended with an acknowledgment that what Palestinians face is not only a local issue, but shows us the global trends in terms of surveillance and suppression of expression and dissent. From APC, we're committed to continue using the network's potential to address these threats.

What is meaningful access and digital appropriation? Lessons learned from the context of rural South Africa, and the partnership between Zenzeleni Community Networks and Computer Aid international

This session took a look at how a community network and a Solar Learning Lab can support each other in creating sustainable and meaningful access. Zenzeleni Community Networks and Computer Aid International partnered on an APC member grant to deploy a Solar Learning Lab in Mankosi in rural Eastern Cape province, one of the most under-serviced areas in South Africa. Computer Aid’s Solar Learning Labs are built from shipping containers powered by solar energy, and they partner with the private sector, especially Dell Technologies, to provide learning and skills training for underserved children and adults. Zenzeleni works in an area with little transport, water and electricity, 93% unemployment, where 90% people have not completed basic education and most live on USD 1 per day. Before community networks, they spent up to 25% of their income on telecommunication needs.

After setting up in Mankosi, they found that the main problem was lack of devices or knowledge to really use ICTs. This APC project allowed them to think deeply about applied ICTs, especially how to link community priorities with the value of internet access and ICTs – ensuring such spaces reflect people’s indigenous languages and values, promoting environmental sustainability where there is no waste management, protocols for dealing with youth and elders, etc. To do this, they developed a systematic and detailed manual to operate the Lab for future deployments. The contexts may be different elsewhere, but the concerns are often the same for local context, languages, etc.

The Lab has been operational for a few months now and offers a broad range of services. They had to introduce people to a formalised way of working and the services were typical internet cafe services such as printing, selling stationary, charging devices, navigation support, how to write CVs, etc. The two-week plan to train local staff took 4.5 months, but they are now proud of their roles and have stepped up in a remarkable way. One trainer has done basic digital literacy, another is doing introduction to business, and another on social media marketing. Amid a dysfunctional school system, they’ve created a safe and curious space for kids to learn, and since then the teachers have come to ask for training – it took the kids to lead the way. Bringing the lab to this area has meant a whole new world has opened up: initially it was curiosity, but in six months people will see it as a basic need.

Pandemic as a vector for surveillance and other abuses

The session "Pandemic as a vector for surveillance and other abuses", facilitated by Philippines-based organisation Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), took us through a diversity of experiences on how governments responded to the pandemic and their use of technology in the face of the crisis. Participants were encouraged to share experiences from their own countries – South Korea, Pakistan, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, South Africa and Uganda – to draw on collective knowledge.

The main resource around which the session revolved was FMA's publication "Pandemic as vector for state surveillance and other abuses." The research shows that the Phillippine government took advantage of the pandemic crisis to subject citizens to surveillance, leading to serious human rights violations, including harassment of the media and suppression of dissent. There were violations of transparency, proportionality, data quality, security and accountability.

The case of South Korea was also presented. From the beginning of the pandemic, the media have pointed to this country as an example of responding to COVID-19 successfully, comparing it with the response of China, which imposed a lockdown in Wuhan. But is South Korea really a good example, from a human rights perspective? Jinbonet's publication "COVID-19 and the right to privacy" offers an analysis of whether the collection of personal information and the use of surveillance technology really worked in responding to COVID-19, whether there were other larger factors that influenced the success of quarantine, and whether it is possible to improve the Korean model in a less invasive way. Human rights organisations in South Korea have demanded that the collection of data be limited to the minimum possible, and there are still discussions happening on how to review responses to infectious diseases from a human rights perspective.

Militarisation as a framework to address the pandemic was also discussed, "the virus as a war enemy that requires citizens to be soldiers and exceptional measures to be validated." "In Europe, we've sensed a strange conflation of anti-surveillance, anti-EU, anti-vaccination, and rather right-wing and populist streams. So one can have a particular opinion about surveillance issues, but then you find yourself on the same boat with people whom you actually consider quite dangerous to freedom/democracy in number of ways," other participants shared. There was an agreement that, two years into the pandemic, we need to continue reflecting on what are the least intrusive ways to respond to the pandemic and look for the right balance, keeping human rights concerns in mind.

Affordable Connectivity for Community Networks

In this session organised by the Fantsuam Foundation, participants learned more about the many challenges that communities are facing to achieve affordable connectivity in Nigeria, where a large part of the population lives in rural areas and faces numerous barriers to access the country's ICT space. By knowing more about the national context and the obstacles, the participants also discussed some opportunities and tools that could be mobilised in the efforts towards building an enabling environment for the emergence and growth of community networks .

CITAD mentioned an ongoing project being done with the Local Networks initiative in Nigeria and four other countries, in which national school processes around community networks are being built involving different stakeholders. Affordable access to backhaul emerged as one of the more pressing needs in the country in this process, highlighted CITAD. In response, they have been engaged with the Nigerian Communications Commission, the national telecom regulator, and Galaxy Backbone, a private fibre provider, hoping to build a relationship that can lead to concrete positive measures. A national school on community networks in the country will take place in December involving seven local organisations.

During the session, Steve Song gave an informative live demo about how to identify an upstream provider in Nigeria, using an open-source mapping tool called QGIS. In the demonstration, we learned that access to fibre is key to affordable connectivity, since it offers more capacity and lower prices. In addition, the location of the fibre points of presence, the local access points that allow users to connect, are essential for planning, considering the challenges that both the distance and the local geography will pose to bridging a local community network with them. Finally, we saw how visualisation through maps could be a powerful advocacy tool, since you can cross the location of the existing fibre infrastructure with other data, e.g. the population density, or the presence of schools and health facilities. The country's transparency in terms of guaranteeing access to information on the fibre infrastructure, however, is crucial.

Collabora - experience with advanced online editors

APC member Pangea organised this pop-up session to discuss experiences in using the Collabora online editor, an open source NextCloud-based online editor which has similar features as Google Docs.

Marginalised and Unconnected

The Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) brought us on a journey to know more about their work in India through storytelling, beautiful pictures and films during this session. Those who joined could see how a van has been providing connectivity and digital services for marginalised communities while fostering local entrepreneurship. We also heard how connectivity became even more important in face of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the periods of lockdown, the van became an alternative for people to access information about the government entitlements in place, e-health services, and reliable information about vaccination, the use of masks and social isolation measures, among others.

As a result of their efforts on the documentation and communication side, DEF also shared a lot of films and resources available for those interested in finding out more. Check out some of them:

• Newsletter on a women entrepreneurship model that DEF has created
• The story of Barefoot Wireless Engineers
• Last Mile Connectivity film
• Internet on Wheels film
• Wireless for Unconnected film
• Connecting the Unconnected through Barefoot Wireless Engineers film

Global Platforms, Algorithms and Slave Labour on the Job

This session began with a look back at the beginning of the so-called platform or gig economy, which was initially introduced with “rosy” promises of greater flexibility, being your own boss and being able to work when you want. But gig workers soon learned that this flexibility came at the cost of a stable income. Moreover, when workers are self-employed contractors, employers are no longer paying into any sort of social security systems. Workers are completely on their own, with no health insurance, social security coverage, or workers’ compensation in case of injury.

The panellists also touched on the increased tech-enabled violations of workers’ rights that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. One example is the use of surveillance technology by employers of contract workers to track their productivity, whether through the measurement of keystrokes or forcing workers to keep their webcams on while working at home, which has additionally meant a total violation of workers’ private lives – a veritable “Big Brother situation”, as one panellist described it. There are no rules or regulations for the use of these technologies, which has tripled during the pandemic, one of the speakers noted.

A more recent phenomenon that has even further eroded the quality of employment is that of global platforms for freelance work like Upwork, which has 10 million workers around the world. “With the right rules and regulations, it could be wonderful,” one panellist commented, as it could provide workers in countries like India or Thailand with design work, for example, at a decent wage. Because these platforms are totally unregulated, however, what has resulted instead is “a race to the bottom in terms of pay,” pitting workers of the world against each other. Moreover, since labour laws are national, while these platforms work globally, they are completely unregulated. In addition to the total lack of any sort of social security contributions by employers, there are even cases where workers are not paid for the work they have done, and they have no recourse to remedy the situation. “Global capital is using global tech for exploitation at a global level,” as one panellist succinctly summed it up.

What is the solution? One of the key needs is to educate workers so that they are aware of the pitfalls of the gig economy, and also aware of their rights, so that they can fight for them. “If workers can create their own cooperative platform that is competitive, that would be the best solution,” one of the panellists noted – although competing with powerful global platforms is a formidable challenge.

Regulation and technologies: Thinking about policies based on gender, race/ethnicity and territory

This session became a vivid discussion proposed by Intervozes through three crucial questions: 1) How to expand internet access and the use of ICTs, and respect local/regional contexts and traditional territories and peoples at the same time? 2) How to think about internet governance from an intersectional perspective, considering gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality and territory? 3) How to reframe the debate on the democratic, free and open internet and introduce new questions about technologies, who develops them, and how can they contribute to social and environmental justice?

By sharing their experience in initiatives with social movements, rural women and traditional communities, Intervozes representatives Tâmara Terso and Iara Moura invited the participants to share their own experiences and reflections around the challenges of building internet policies and governance considering the relations between ICTs and traditional/ancestral technologies and the socio-environmental justice, anti-racist and self-determination agenda. It also led to an insightful conversation with other organisations with a lot of experience on the ground, such as Colnodo and the Nupef Institute, around the conflicts embedded in promoting internet access in some territories. Also, on the many struggles needed to make women's, Indigenous, quilombola and other necessary voices heard in international spaces of internet governance discussion, such as the IGF.

The session was an invitation to decolonise our thinking and practices to imagine and build changes towards an internet that is feminist, anti-racist and committed to socio-environmental justice – also to "unbuild" the existing discriminatory technologies and models in place. At the end of the session, Olívia Bandeira from Intervozes shared a systematisation of the discussions, pointing to the APC network as a powerful space to imagine a different internet governance together.

Go back to read the rest of the Dish of the Day!

 

Dish of the day 5 - How we thrive: A celebration of APC member stories, practices and projects of solidarity

Welcome to this last Dish of the Day of the APC Member Convening 2021!

We have almost 40 songs in the music list we have put together throughout the week. Why not listen to some good music from all over the world while you read the Dish of the Day? Check it here (pass: APCconvening / File: world-music-cafe).

The closing plenaries: How we thrive: A celebration of APC members' stories, practices and projects of solidarity, Best Futures Awards

The week’s final day plenary began with APC council member Pavel Antonov of BlueLink Foundation singing a few songs on his guitar, including popular requests like Here Comes the Sun and Let It Be. Next, we watched a video of some of the gorgeous illustrations made so far at the APC Member Convening week 

This was followed by some reflections by Antonov and APC Director of Operations Karen Banks on the week that had gone by. Antonov recalled how APC brought BlueLink to a campaign recently on an open letter against decisions to open Apple encryption and protect children, which made them realise how they are between two different realities of human rights defenders and children's rights defenders, and APC helped create synergy instead of antagonism. APC is very useful in such pushing of borders and readjusting visions, and this is very important  because our realities are changing so fast now. He also expressed a desire to be able to chat more with fellow members between sessions at such an online convening, the way he would offline.

The group also made suggestions like members translating each other’s work into their respective languages, continuing conversations on member mailing lists, getting APC’s support for tech tools, and coming together for reading groups or to cook together (and replacing ingredients as needed) for more informal connections – to which one participant exclaimed: “Long live the Association for Progressive Cooking!” Members also offered and asked for support on open source tools like BigBlueButton, Mattermost, Jitsi Meet, BlueJeans and guifi.net. One participant quipped how we need to go from sub-granting to sub-tooling!

APC Executive Director Chat Garcia Ramilo also emphasised the online convening guide and how we must continue to learn to connect better remotely and minimise digital fatigue. She also made the point that our strategies should include looking for collaborations outside the APC network. Facilitator hvale summed up the week’s larger themes as layers of digital access and ensuring the internet as a global and open good.

Then it was time for the Best Futures Awards! After hearing descriptions of all nominations, the group voted for each category and Membership and Network Building Coordinator Karel Novotný announced the winners, each of which will receive a copy of the books: "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" by Alaa Abd el-Fattah and "Human Rights and the Internet" by Joy Liddicoat:

• Solidarity: 7amleh
• Collaboration: Nupef and Zenzeleni
• Innovation: Jinbonet with JCAFE and JCA-NET
• Creativity: EngageMedia with Tech Tales

Chat Garcia Ramilo concluded the plenary with a final remark on how we must continue convening organically and connect throughout the year so that it’s not just a burst, but a flow of connections. She thanked everyone involved in the convening, followed by APC’s Smita reading Andrea Gibson’s evocative poem Say Yes.

Co-facilitators hvale and Mariana next spoke about the value of having this space to connect with each other and the learnings that have come of it. Two speakers were asked to share some reflections on this past week, centred around the following questions:

• What are some of the threads, issues, collaborations that you have seen as possible or important for the APC network to prioritise and engage with next year?

Opening up the floor to all participants, statements such as “hear, listen and learn”, “wouldn't have wanted to miss it for the world”, “APC is creating a space for the future” and “one of the safest events I’ve been to” highlight what a truly valuable gathering this has been. Following a short video of vibrant illustrations created throughout the week, it was time for round two of the Best Futures Awards! Following voting across the four categories, the award winners were announced by Vassilis:

We ended our time together with Jenny, who played this video of the poem from the earlier plenary: 

More highlights from Day 5 here!

Illustration by Sonaksha.

And that was a wrap on an intense, inspiring and collaborative week of sessions at APC’s 2021 member convening! Sincere appreciation is sent out to APC staff and organisers, to the members, to APC’s tech team for their ongoing support throughout the week, as well as to the many interpreters, captioners, documenters and illustrators who made all the rich content widely accessible. This week has been possible thanks to you! 

We are just saying goodbye (for now) with this illustration by nadege of the poem "An invitation to a brave space" that was shared on Day 1 of our APC Member Convening 2021.

More highlights from Day 5

Feminist Movement Building for Progressive Tech in Africa

This session built upon Uganda-based organisation Pollicy's work on Afrofeminist Data Futures to identify challenges, opportunities and avenues for collaboration in building a feminist movement for progressive technology across Africa. "We are particularly interested in bringing together African feminist researchers, academics, civil society, communities and governments to promote a technology discourse that prioritises the needs of African women and is built upon the Feminist Principles of the Internet," Neema from Pollicy stressed, before sharing data from the organisation's feminist research reports. Feminist data was framed as "grounded in principles of consent, understanding how power works and awareness that people you collect data from are the ones who know about their own realities."

A rich and lively conversation opened around what it means to collect and analyse data with quality and integrity. "Data can guide what we know and how we operate, it is the basis of knowledge. However, data collection is often done in a very dehumanising way, with no regard for ethics and in a way that re-traumatises respondents," participants said. "We find that basic population estimates often do not  exist for LGBTQIA+ persons or forced  migrants, allowing governments to deny their very existence. Data collected on marginalised groups makes them visible and puts forth a case to provide for their needs," another one added.

In this context, how do we rebuild trust? "Time and pace matter, so it is more about building process than one-time-off events. Podcasts and short recordings that are distributed and available along time are entry point offers for engagement," a participant said. The need to approach trust as suspending judgment of each other, rather than restoring trust in monopoly infrastructure, was also raised. Another key issue raised was the need to accompany women in shared learning spaces. The African School on Internet Governance was presented as an example of women learning about internet governance, with over 50% of participants being African women. "We are very intentional about selection, about having women there, and also about assuring there is feminist content," APC's Executive Director Chat Garcia Ramilo said. 

Online Gender-Based Violence in Uganda

In this session, Uganda-based WOUGNET presented their work to counter online gender-based violence, an issue that increased during the pandemic.

The organisation has run several campaigns, including one with Take Back the Tech! which included creating an animated book on "Understanding online gender-based violence", the forms it takes, who is the target, who is vulnerable, how this violence can be handled or reported, and the legal frameworks for these types of violence in Uganda. For campaigning they found social media, including Twitter, useful, with hashtags such as #StopOnlineGBVUG #AskForConsent and #FreeToBeOnline, but to try to reach as many people as possible, WOUGNET also used radio – a key medium in Uganda – and local languages.

A challenge raised was that people don't usually know what this violence is, including perpetrators. "We often find that perpetrators are so embedded in traditions that they are not able to see how they contribute to violence, so awareness on this is also key." Another campaign, under the motto "Ask for Consent", was shared as an example of an initiative to respond to this and show that online violence is real violence, with voices such as Judith Heard sharing her experience.

Protecting female journalists from online harassment was also raised as crucial. "Legislation on freedom of expression in digital spaces should be improved, including tackling of online harassment." Journalists working with WOUGNET shared their stories and broke down describing harassment they face on a daily basis, including public shaming, cyberstalking, doxxing and trolling. This has led many to withdraw from these spaces, even though their voices are needed there to represent issues from their communities. The issue of mental health was also mentioned as a big issue. "Unfortunately, most journalists are not concerned about this," a journalist commented. "In the newsroom you learn to be as tough as nails because sexual harassment is real. Some women journalists have left because of the challenges they experience."

In the absence of more mainstream media coverage, participants raised how important the role of online content producers is in the production of content. "They have stepped in to fill in the gap that mainstream media is not filling in."

Advancing privacy and data security: Experiences from APC members in the global South

This session, led by APC members TEDIC from Paraguay and Unwanted Witness from Uganda, addressed the issue of the right to privacy in the age of data exploitation, by presenting the cases of legislation in Paraguay and Uganda.

Both cases were introduced as a past-future exercise, as in the case of Uganda the country already has a law on data protection in place, while in Paraguay several actors are in the process of advocating for one since last May. The presenters offered a space for sharing experiences and lessons from different privacy and data protection advocates, including success stories, challenges, and ways forward. 

Some of the challenges experienced so far in the process mentioned by Eduardo Carrillo from TEDIC pointed to the fact that laws acquire a life of their own in the legislative debate, which can result in quite a different output and also that the results can potentially be weaponised in some way. Additionally, ensuring an independent authority suited to address data protection in the light of global South contexts is a major challenge. In spite of these challenges, the collaborative effort carried out so far showed allies in Congress that this bill was collectively built.

In the case of Uganda, Dorothy Mukasa explained that although they do have a national data protection law, the current challenge is its full enforcement, which is the case for several other countries in Africa. There are budgetary excuses to deny data protection authorities their independence, as well as laws with many exceptions regarding national security and collection of data, which gives more room for abuse.

There was agreement that the role of civil society in this context is crucial, particularly in terms of the accountability of data protection institutions and in using data protection standards as a way to measure effectiveness and enforcement of the law. Having public institutions backing up civil society advocates was also mentioned as a key factor to support the advocacy efforts.

The members and staff participating highlighted the importance and urgency of building bridges between countries in the global South around data protection and privacy as a way to share knowledge and to rely on specialised coalitions that can intervene in a timely way to counter rights violations taking place in these countries, which many times seem to be the norm.

“We don't just need a human rights-based approach but an intersectional global South one, too,” was one of the main conclusions of this session.

PARTY!

After getting in the celebration mood with the Best Futures Awards, we arrived at our final moment together in this journey and in the best way possible: the party! This was a moment of celebration for being together and a space for conversation, music, dancing and a special performance by Runa Jazz. 

Before being amazed by Runa Jazz, we were able to enjoy a live singing presentation by Pavel from BlueLink, who made Elvis Presley proud and led the Happy Birthday chorus for our dear Valeria Betancourt from the APC team. From the roots of the Andes, Runa Jazz gave us the opportunity to listen to traditional instruments and enjoy amazing pieces of music, combining Afro-Kichwa ancestral melodies with contemporary harmonies such as jazz. Their rich mixture of the musical traditions of Ecuador, Latin America and the world created a unique moment to celebrate the diversity of the APC network together.

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