Re: [gaia] Ideas for a 2021 plan

I think there is a fundamental problem gaia/or anything related needs to
strongly address..

Based on some of our experiences trying to work with communities to solve
their own connectivity/content problems

1/ there is relatively no money to be made for organisations (either no
willingness to pay - they want free services or just cant afford to pay)..
this is a fundamental problem..we have been working with several community
networks now - for them to deploy infrastructure they need either ISOC to
fund it or a similar organisation to fund it.. without external funding
none of these organisations can sustainably deploy or maintain their
infrastructure..there are outliers but that depends on the community's
purchasing power..

unless markets are opened up for new entrants - which is again correlated
to money - sustainable connectivity is never going to happen.

2/ there are other problems to solve like power outages, infrastructure
financing requirements, obsolete/sub standard mobile phones etc that are
key to be solved (again in a sustainable way)..

this all points out to government/regulatory angle that needs more work..
privatisation and competion is key..

all the community work is great but if there isnt an effort from the
government i dont think anything is going to happen in this space. If there
isnt money to be made nothing is going to happen is the bottom line.

regards
Arjuna

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021, 10:20 David Johnson, <david.lloyd.johnson@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Those are great topics Leandro. I have a few pet interests this year which
> may be relevant
>
> - I received some funding from the Ford Foundation on looking barriers to
> contributions to open source "digital infrastructure" from Africa  - the
> label given by Ford Foundation for all the protocols / applications etc.
> that make up the Internet and the WWW. This could be a wider topic on how
> to ensure that there is more representation from all countries rather than
> just a few in the Global North to IETF, projects on GitHub related to
> protocols / application son the Internet.
>
> - I really feel like Covid-19 has forced many educators to rethink the way
> learning happens - not just in lockdown but beyond and I think it may be
> interesting to pick this specific topic for IETF ... its connected to many
> of these topics (public vs private nets, network for everything and people
>  etc.) but with a lens of thinking  of new ways of learning that provides
> more equitable education in more vulnerable communities.
>
> - Related to the above - I noticed a few countries attempting zero rating
> - making education / health / government sites free on all networks  during
> lockdown - but if often doesn't work very well because of https, embedded
> links, sites making use of general platforms like Youtube for video
> delivery etc. I think it would be an interesting topic to dig into - how to
> make zero rating work well but also ensuring that communities have a say in
> what is zero rated
>
> Regards
> David
>
>
>
> On 19 Jan 2021, at 12:05, Leandro Navarro <leandro@ac.upc.edu> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I hope 2021 is way better than 2020+1. This is a message to share ideas
> for a 2021 plan to discuss topics in different events (IETF meetings and
> interim) and volunteers to present or organize themes.
> What you’d like to see?
>
> Some initial ideas:
>
> - internet minimum common denominator: roadblocks, opportunities,
> solutions for an internet for everyone (tech, legal, regulatory,
> investment, etc)
>
> - internet for people and the planet: the internet as part of the problem
> and part of the solution? (how an internet for everyone can be sustainable)
>
> - a network for every-thing and people: challenges and opportunities (IoT,
> home networks, new satellite internets/ISPs, IPv6 finally?, corporate nets,
> mobile public & community nets)
>
> - public vs private internet: traffic, content, neutrality
>
> - the maintenance of a public internet commons: software, protocols
> interoperability, applications, infrastructure (e.g. NTP, IXP, etc)
>
> - the pandemic and post-pandemic Internet
>
> I can volunteer to organize a couple of sessions on some of these topics,
> and I’d be happy to support new faces too.
>
> Best wishes,
> --
> Leandro Navarro
> http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro  http://dsg.ac.upc.edu
>
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