The meeting was in Visconde de Mauá, in a house surrounded by beautiful nature called Nuvem – Estação Rural de Arte e Tecnología. A rural hack lab where various people from different countries traveled to meet each other. What all these groups had in common is their work in community based information technologies in terms of WiFi networks and GSM networks all over the world.
AlterMundi was taking part in this meeting, and got the chance to see how the FumaçaOnline network was coming along – a month after the original Fumaça Data Springs where we also participated between July 24th and August 1st.
Ryan and Andy from the Open Technology Institute, and Bruno from Nuvem brought us all together the first week of October in order to discuss similar challenges, goals, and most importantly to share experiences from different environments and countries.
We got many insights of the Rhizomatica project from Mexico, the Maria Luisa Ortiz Cooperative from Nicaragua, Falanster from Belarus, various projects from Brasil, and the diverse experience of Andy & Ryan in the various projects they are supporting with the Open Technology Institute.
The main objective of the meeting was sharing and learning, which we did in different group activities and even an improvisational theater game.
Focusing on sharing with others, we contributed our experiences in working with different communities in Latin America, the way we adapt antennas for the use in mesh networks, experiences in using LibreMesh, and a lot more. It was a diverse and inspiring meeting for us.
We left Brazil with new contacts, friends, knowledge and plans of collaborations in the future, strengthening the worldwide coalition of community supported communication.
