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The desire for technological autonomy and other means of communicating different ways of living and knowledge have served as inspiration for the development of community networks around the world. The publication Technological autonomy as a constellation of experiences: A guide to collective creation and development of training programmes for technical community promoters takes a deep dive into training experiences that can help make this desire a reality.
The guide provides resources for the participatory implementation of training initiatives based on experiences and knowledge from communities in different countries. From practical recommendations to reflections on how to learn from and value the diversity of communities’ values and principles – our constellation – the guide offers an important contribution for people, organisations and communities that see training as crucial to promote their own communication and telecommunications processes within their territories or regions, especially for community networks.
Considering that creating and managing community networks is not only a technical matter, but also involves different forms of use, appropriation and transformation of communication tools in a particular territory, this unique publication is not meant to be replicated, but adapted and contextualised. In this sense, its approach is based on a participatory methodology that provides guidelines for different steps along the way, from the local scenario-building to the implementation and evaluation of a training initiative.
The guide also offers examples of diverse training experiences, such as the Community Techio – a training programme that has been designed based on needs identified in the field of community communication in Mexico for several years, which have been implemented by some of the publication’s authors.
The guide aims to offer contribution to training experiences as a key aspect for the social, economic and political sustainability of community networks projects. It was developed in a collaboration between the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Rhizomatica, REDES A.C., Centro de Investigación en Tecnologías y Saberes Comunitarios (CITSAC), Red de Comunicadores Boca de Polen A.C and Techio Comunitario, as part of part of the initiative “Supporting Community-led Approaches to Addressing the Digital Divide”, a project implemented by APC in partnership with Rhizomatica, with support from the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme.
