Back from Lands North

There is photo evidence over on flickr. Right into the thick. And the heat.

We

These people have the awesome:
Boundless
I want to be like them when I grow up.
Also.. We're everywhere:
WSFII

Across the globe, free information systems are emerging. Many of them are headed by very creative, community-minded, lovely people. From this comes new ways of being together, new forms of education, and an inversion of power. Given dedication, intelligence, and love.

San Pedro

Yesterday was pi day; today is the ides of March.

I find myself in San Pedro Sula, Guatemala after an 11-hour bus trip, with just a large day-pack half-full of gifts. Besides being long and unnecessarily air-conditioned, the trip included a truck sprawled across the road on its side, and people in funny outfits collecting scattered chicken cages and gathering escaped chickens.

Today and tomorrow I'm visiting children sponsored by my father and step-mother through Children International. They send money every month for things the children or children's families need, as well as for a general fund for health care, etc. So I'll be meeting them, taking pictures, and seeing a little of what their lives are like.

Not much project news. Ever wrote to say that the Altagracia repeater went down, but came back up after he cleaned some electrical contacts. I think that there's been an organizational mishap with the funding proposal, and a woman and I are both waiting on each other for the other's part of the proposal to be turned in. That should be easy to fix, but it's too bad the process has dragged out into my vacation.

Anyone know anything fun to do in San Pedro Sula?

Progress

I've neglected to post here until now: Three new nodes are online on the Red Libre de Ometepe. They are a "Cyber" run by los Cabrera of Altagracia, the new Hotel Cabañas in Santo Domingo, and the Insituto Nacional Ladislav Chwal Binksy (INLCB) of Altagracia. We're very happy both for the improved financial viability of the network, and the gradual realization of its social goals.

Yours truly is to leave the island at the end of this week for Managua, followed by a two week vacation in Honduras and Guatemala. Before leaving, our proposal to PEMCE (DFID and the UN Office for Project Services) will be complete, and hopefully a solicitation for license to sell Internet service.

The latter process gives no sign that anyone in the Nicaraguan government understands the Internet as anything other than a commodity, that is, there is no sign of recognition of the original intent of the Internet, nor of the decentralized and community-based structure of a freenet. The level of beaurocracy surrounding these activities prohibits anything like the kind of growth in coverage and access that Nicaragua supposedly desires. Perhaps through CONIPROSIT we'll have the opportunity to open some minds.

If anyone knows of any interesting community radio or community networking projects in Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador, please let me know soon!