Lessons from El Paquete, Cuba's Offline Internet

Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies Pub Date : 2018-06-20 DOI:10.1145/3209811.3209876

Joel Lenin Pinargote Bravo, Rafael Beto Mpfumo, Luis Alejandro Madruga Milanés, Ximena Michelle Cueva, Gretel García Gómez, Amalia Gómez Marcheco, A. F. Oliva, Jeanna Neefe Matthews, Sam P. Kellogg

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Cuba has one of the highest rates of literacy and education in the world, but also one of the lowest rates of direct Internet access. As a result, Cubans have developed a unique and robust offline system for distributing digital content through removable storage media like USB thumb drives and portable hard drives called El Paquete Semanal (The Weekly Package). In this paper, we describe and analyze the contents of El Paquete and how those contents vary over time and between distributors. We compare it to a less-popular state sponsored alternative called La Mochila (The Backpack) and discuss their respective distribution systems. We also compare these offline content distribution systems to available online access points such as those in public WiFi parks, tourist hotels, and universities. Finally, we reflect on how this system, developed in the Cuban context, could be useful in other environments.

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古巴El Paquete离线互联网的经验教训

古巴是世界上识字率和受教育率最高的国家之一，但也是直接上网率最低的国家之一。因此，古巴人发展了一个独特而强大的离线系统，通过USB拇指驱动器和移动硬盘等可移动存储媒体分发数字内容，称为El Paquete Semanal(每周包)。在本文中，我们描述和分析El Paquete的内容，以及这些内容如何随时间和经销商之间的变化。我们将其与不太受欢迎的国家赞助的La Mochila (The Backpack)进行了比较，并讨论了它们各自的分销系统。我们还将这些离线内容分发系统与可用的在线接入点(如公共WiFi公园、旅游酒店和大学中的接入点)进行了比较。最后，我们思考在古巴情况下发展起来的这一制度如何能在其他环境中发挥作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

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