In our ninth episode, you’ll get to know an initiative that has already connected over 7,000 homes in England’s northwestern rural areas to the internet: the Broadband for the Rural North project, more commonly known as B4RN. To tell us this story, we interviewed Chris Conder, one of B4RN’s founders who was once recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for her work in taking internet connection to rural communities.
You will also get to know Steve Song, an expert in the realm of community networks. He is a researcher and consultant on technologies that enable wider access to the internet, especially in African countries and other emerging regions. We talked to him about the challenges faced by community networks in terms of sustainability.
“Routing for Communities” is a 12-episode podcast. Here you will listen to the life stories of people who have come up with alternatives to overcome the challenges of digital inclusion in remote, rural and urban areas across the globe.
>>> Read the transcript of the episode: https://routingforcommunities.apc.org
B4RN: https://b4rn.org.uk
Steve Song’s blog: https://manypossibilities.net/2023/01/a-game-of-stones
Research “Financing mechanisms for locally owned internet infrastructure”: https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/financing-mechanisms-locally-owned-internet-infrastructure
Join our Telegram channel: https://t.me/routingforcommunities
Credits
This podcast is an initiative from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Rhizomatica, produced by Rádio Tertúlia. Script and production: Vivian Fernandes. Presentation: Renata Porto. Editing and sound: Beatriz Pasqualino. Coordination: Beatriz Pasqualino and Débora Prado. Consulting board: Bruna Zanolli, Cynthia El Khoury, Daniela Bello, Flavia Fascendini, Kathleen Diga and Nils Brock. Translation: Thiago Moyano. Illustrations: Gustavo Nascimento. Web design: Avi Nash and Cathy Chen.
This production was supported by the “Connecting the Unconnected: Supporting community networks and other community-based connectivity initiatives” project with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); and also by the project “Supporting Community-led Approaches to Addressing the Digital Divide” with support from the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme.
