Beyong the Net Project

Details: Sarantaporo.gr; 20 April 2018

What does a doctor who visits a village once per week and a city-dwelling child who is unwilling to visit his village-living grandparents have in common? The answer: they both need Internet connectivity.

Sarantaporo is a small village located opposite Mt Olympus, in central Greece. Until 2010, it did not have Internet connectivity. Being a remote, isolated village with low population density, Greek telcos did not consider Sarantaporo worth the investment to deploy modern telecommunications infrastructure. Likewise, the government (due to its economic situation) was unable to provide Internet connectivity, even though Greek citizens are required to use online services such as TAXISnet — the official state-run digital platform — to submit their tax returns.

Details: Sarantaporo.gr; 13 February 2018

Last July we organized a two-day event in Sarantaporo which comprised ICT & Networking training for the locals and a discussion entitled: “Transferring experiences and technical know-how from Sarantaporo.gr Community Network to Northern Tzoumerka municipality, to assist in building their first community network”. A councilman from Northern Tzoumerka municipality was invited and participated in this event, along with members of P2PLab from Ioannina.

Since then we were looking to fund a three-day workshop in the region of Northern Tzoumerka, including the necessary equipment to provide Internet connectivity. During the workshop we intend to build a basic CN infrastructure in cooperation with locals and share with them the relevant knowledge. In addition, best practices for building a special interest community will be discussed. Through this we wish to empower the Tzoumerka team and help them get through the always challenging first steps, towards their long-term goal of bridging the digital divide in the area.

We are excited to announce that this project can now become a reality with the help of FundAction, which is funding us via its “Rethink” grant. In their blog you can read more about the process of the Rethink action. The very important aspect of this grant is the procedure by which it is awarded. Activists from all over Europe submit their proposals, engage in a fruitful interaction on these and finally vote to decide who will be the ones to receive the grant.

TAGS: Projects, FundAction

Details: Sarantaporo.gr; 31 January 2018

Since over a year now in Sarantaporo.gr Non Profit Organization we have been in contact with Internet Society (ISOC) in international meetings, over online interactions and through in-person collaboration with people of the organization who visited our village last Summer. From the beginning we saw that ISOC is an organization which we share a lot of common elements with in terms of vision, and that its network is a natural space for our Community Network to be a part of.

In September 2017 we applied for the Beyond the Net grant of Internet Society in an attempt to approach the organization more closely and pursue funding to finance our Community Network. We are very happy to announce that our proposal was successful and will be funded with $30.000 through 2018 and 2019. This grant arrives very timely, in a period of transformation for our CN.

TAGS: Projects, Beyond the Net

Details: Sarantaporo.gr; 23 January 2018

The 12th Internet Governance Forum (IGF17) was held this year in Geneva from December 18th - 21st, with the theme "Shaping Your Digital Future!". Sarantaporo.gr was there, invited by the US One World Connected to co-form the digital future with activists, civil society organizations, government and non-governmental organizations around the world.

The conference program was interactive, featuring 8 main events, 99 workshops and 45 open forums among many other discussions and meetings. The conference was attended by 2019 participants from 142 countries, while 1661 people followed it online from all over the world.

Details: Sarantaporo.gr; 23 December 2017

On Thursday, December 28, 2017 all the node-owners, volunteers, supporters and new stakeholders of the Sarantaporo.gr Wireless Community Network will meet at the Throne Tavern in the village of Pythio (Elassona Municipality) at 5pm.

We want to celebrate all together the year full of action and creativity for our community network. At this meeting we have some very nice news to share with the community (spoiler alert: the network will continue to upgrade in 2018). We want this pleasant event to be a warm welcome to new networking friends, potential new members of our community. Together we will share a review of the past year’s actions, plan new actions for the upcoming year and update our commitment to the team's vision of creating opportunities for growth and prosperity in the region.

The event is open to anyone interested in attending. We are waiting for you!