netCommons, the European project on network
infrastructure as commons, is proud to announce the release of
“Telecommunications Reclaimed: A Hands-On Guide to Networking Communities”.
This book is a guide on how to build a community network, a shared local
telecommunications infrastructure, managed as a commons, to access the
internet and other digital communications services. It was written
collectively by a group of community network pioneers in Europe,
activists and researchers during a writing residency week held in Vic,
Catalonia in October 2018. It was a time of hard work and fast writing,
but also of discussions in a friendly environment.
Meant for a wide audience, the book includes practical knowledge
illustrated by several hands-on experiences – a set of 32 real-life
stories – as well as legal, technical, governance, economic and policy
material extracted from netCommons, a three-year-long research project
supported by the European Commission. Its goal is to guide the reader
through a set of actions aimed at setting up and fostering the growth of
a community network, but also, for policy makers, local administrations
and the general public, to create the right conditions to let community
networks bloom and flourish.
Many thanks to all those who made this possible, and in particular to
ISOC and APC who supported the book production after the European
project funding of the writing.
Download here the Open Access book PDF
