Between October and November the Guifi·net community celebrated the annual meeting Health, Love and Network, SAX2020, in virtual format, since the pandemic did not allow for an in-person event.
The SAX is a space for meeting between people, operator companies, volunteers, entities, associations, or administrations that in some way make the Guifi·net project grow, promote the open, free, neutral and communal telecommunications network of Guifi·net or are interested in an alternative model of telecommunications.
During the meeting, new projects or initiatives related to Internet access are presented, current technological aspects are discussed, and reflections are made on what new scenarios or opportunities there are to generate changes in the sector. Always from a critical perspective and with the will to offer a sustainable alternative to the prevailing model in the sector.
This year's meeting featured four virtual sessions on two levels. On one hand, registered people had the privilege of attending the room of the Open Source BigBlueButton platform. On the other hand, the rest of the people could follow the sessions through live streaming. All thanks to the support of infrastructure and technical support from eXO.cat and Pedro Vílchez.
The sessions had an average audience of 60 people and covered a wide variety of topics.
Saturday, October 31 the inaugural session took place in which the fiber deployments being carried out by the Foundation were presented. On one hand, Ferran Reyes (member of the platform #enstoquenlafibra) presented the GRETA Network aimed at connecting Les Garrigues, la Ribera d'Ebre, and la Terra Alta. And on the other hand, Miguel Ángel Irigoyen (Foundation member) explained the new project ZOZ Zumaia (Basque Country) which began its deployment last October.
Wednesday, November 4, in the second session, social projects were presented No Student Without Internet, initiative by Mataró Without Wires, led by Jordi Clopés and the Youth Center of Malabo(Equatorial Guinea), led by Xavi Poza (Ticae operator). Both projects aim to close the digital divide and empower people at a technological, professional, and/or personal level.
Wednesday, November 11, the third session, featured Clara Cusó (Foundation member), who presented the legislative and administrative obstacles faced by the Foundation Guifi·net when deploying optical fiber and what opportunities there are for change. Next, it was the turn of Josep Jover and Joan Miquel Santolaria, members of CAPA8, who explained the current situation of the legal conflict opened with the Barcelona City Council over the Carmel antennas of Guifi·net.
Finally, Wednesday, November 18, the last day of SAX2020 took place with more technical presentations. On one hand, Roger Garcia (member of eXO.cat) in his presentation explained the need to explore the use of Open Source technologies for system virtualization with examples aimed at small and medium operators. Finally, Evilham (member of eXO.cat) talked about DNS's (Domain Name System), how to automate them, modernize them, and simplify their administration.
From the Foundation Guifi·net we want to thank the participation of all the people who registered, those who attended through the two platforms, all those who presented talks, those who raised questions, reflections, or observations on the topics discussed in each session, and finally, eXO.cat, Pedro Vílchez, and Eloi Rebes for technical and infrastructure support.
The sessions can be reviewed at https://media.guifi.net/
We hope that the next SAX meeting can be in person and that until then we can maintain virtual spaces for contact and communication in order to keep the community alive and continue to build the network.
El SAX2020 virtual