Efficient collaboration between government, citizens and enterprises in commons telecommunication infrastructures

Abstract

Public administrations, citizens and enterprises are the three key players for the construction and management of any commons infrastructure. This paper discusses the interrelations between them, under the lens of the ongoing netCommons project, an H2020 research project entirely devoted to multi-disciplinary research on Community Networks (CN). In June 2016 netCommons organized a workshop in Barcelona (Spain), to share views and discuss how these three actors can strengthen ties among them to contribute to the growth of community networks. The workshop analyzed tools ranging from governance strategies and regulation to implementation (at deployment and operation level) of networking infrastructures. Special attention was devoted to optical fiber, a key technology for achieving the coverage and penetration targets of the European Digital Agenda. Based on the experience and the work done so far, the workshop expanded the knowledge about this type of collaboration and identified specific lines of action to make CNs more efficient in the future. The workshop was divided in three panels: governance, regulation, and implementation, with participants from the research field, public administration and practitioners that daily build CNs. We report about the topics discussed and some of the lessons learned during the workshop.

This work was supported by the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Program project netCommons (H2020-688768), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona City Council supported the event that took place in the Barcelona Nord Technology Park on June 17, 2016

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (published version)