Led by Shaddi Hasan and Wesley Woo (VT Computer Science), and co-moderated by Yunuen Torres (visiting scholar and activist from Cherán, México) and Diego Vicentin (UNICAMP, Brazil), this workshop guided participants to think critically about how governance of cellphone networks works, who is and can be responsible for this governance, from companies to communities, and which values shape decisions related to cellphone networks and their technical design. This was a making and doing workshop, so that all participants together practiced their technical skills to create their own cellphone networks, program chips using open-source technology, and connect their phones to the networks using the newly programmed chips.
Yunuen Torres also inspired the participants explaining how her P’urhepécha community used the design of an intranet for self-determination in the context of Cherán, an Indigenous territory in México known for women’s protagonism in fighting to protect their territories.
