what could a community internet look like if only sustained by renewable resources?

General Recommendations:

→ Equitable access to digital infrastructure and technologies is necessary.
→ Government grants should be created for basic planning, digital inclusion, and network operation and maintenance.
→ Data ownership and control monitoring systems, shared ownership and access to energy-related data.
→ More investment in research and development of more energy-efficient digital systems.
→ Develop contextual design policy and guidelines to make the energy consumption calculations when using digital technologies visible.

Location Specific Recommendations:

→ Obligation to install solar panels on new public, commercial, and residential buildings.
→ Obligation to use the waste heat from data centres.
→ Design sufficient grid capacity and planning with communities when developing data centres and other physical and digital infrastructures.

In your community:

→ Create accessible educational programmes about digital technologies, cybersecurity and privacy.
→ Share knowledge, create and use open-source technologies and resources.
→ Dream and tell stories of irresistible futures as a roadmap, as an act of resistance and to build community.

Policy is contextual, and therefore, must be community-specific. What works for one community might not work for another and blanket policies that treat everyone the same way are not effective and can intensify inequalities.

There is an intentional vagueness surrounding a lot of digital technologies propagated by tech companies, the governments, and other groups in power. This is done to keep power and make it difficult to challenge and impact these systems. But we must know more about these technologies as they become increasingly entangled with our lives and the planet.

Share your knowledge, share your power, and connect with others (IRL and online)!