Technology Appropriation in Latin American Internet Community Networks

In Latin America, internet community networks have been developed in various territories in response to lack of connectivity but also to address those issues that have affected the difference and inequality of their communities over the past decade. The diversity of these experiences shares some common factors: collective, community-serving and non-profit creation, ownership and administration of the infrastructures deployed. This article inquires into how technology appropriation takes place in these networks, from technological creation to adapted or creative ways of learning, using and developing practices that were not initially intended at the time of their design. For this, three cases are analyzed: the creation of technology with LibreRouter developed by AlterMundi in Argentina; the training aimed at supporting these experiences offered by the Diploma course Techio Comunitario by Redes A.C. in Mexico; and the uses and practices surveyed in two community networks, Quintana-Libre and Atalaya Sur in Cordoba and Buenos Aires, Argentina, respectively. In this way, this paper seeks to pro-duce knowledge to examine not only the responses provided by Internet community networks in terms of connectivity in Latin America but also to look into the appropriation of technologies in their communities.