LACNIC at the Internet Governance Forum in Paris

LACNIC’s Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean (FRIDA) is actively participating in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that is being held at the UNESCO building in Paris, France, until November 14.

Together with its partners in Seed Alliance, a collaborative partnership with APNIC’s ISIF Asia and AFRINIC’s FIRE Africa initiatives, the FRIDA program will take advantage of this global Internet summit to hold its awards ceremony for the winners of the 2018 edition of the FRIDA program this Tuesday, 13 November.

This year, FRIDA focused on projects that seek to reduce the digital divide and the gender gap in technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two specific topics were selected: community networks and gender equity in the technology and Internet industry.

The winner of the FRIDA Award for community networks was the Atalaya Sur project for the development of a free, open public wi-fi network in Villa 20, one of the largest informal low-income settlements in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The winners of the technology and gender category were Editatona, a marathon for editing, creating and improving Wikipedia articles adding reliable and verifiable sources in a specific area for the purpose of reducing the gender gap in Wikipedia, and the School of Engineering of Uruguay's University of the Republic for its Promoting Careers in ICT Among Secondary School Teenagers in Uruguay project, an initiative that seeks to bring teenage girls closer to ICTs to encourage their training in the field.

Workshop on Community Networks. During the IGF in Paris, the three partners of the Seed Alliance will organize a workshop on community networks on Wednesday 14 looking to discuss the future of these networks and their possible integration with new technologies, such as blockchain, and the development of effective investment strategies for their expansion. Community networks have become a concrete alternative to face the challenge of connecting the disconnected.

The goal of this workshop titled WS #279 Scaling community networks: exploring blockchain and efficient investment strategies is for funders and community networks to discuss the priorities for helping community networks gain scale.

For more information on the FRIDA program, go to https://programafrida.net/en/