A Haclab in the Zapatista Rebel Secondary School

El Primero de Enero "Escuela Secondaria Rebelde Autonomo Zapatista" is the first autonomous secondary schoolo in Chiapas. It is located in the educational and cultural centre of the Zapatista movement in Oventic Aguascalientes II. There are about 150 students and 25 teachers. In the cultural center there is neither telephone or internet. But there are some computers in the school, and from there we're going to start.

Aim of the Project In the first place we're going to get to know a community. To learn their way of constituting spaces for life, social and cultual autonomy. Then we're going to assist them, in so far as we can. Wwe will install Linux, as they themselves have requested, on thePCs they already have in their laboratory, and we will teach them to install and use it, so that they can then teach others. To be autonomous is also to be independent of the monopolies on knowledge. We will assemble a local network and install some basic servers (web server, mail server etc.) All the while explaining o them what we're doing and how it is done. We'll teach them how to make a website. Each phase will will be conducted using the workshop method, or if you prefer, learning while doing, praphraseing the zpatista slogan "asking while walking".

A Project in several steps The projevt will not finish with this first trip. We will work so that we can carry on the collaboration, setting other objectives. With each voyage we will build a new tool, from time to time singling out what is most useful, together with the community. For sure one of the objectives is a connection to the internet. We will try to establish collaborations with other groups and organisations that are working on solidarity projects with the community in Chiapas, to manage to connect them to the net. In this first phase we can think of a portable machine configured at least as a mail server. In this way, once a day they could go to the closest city (San Cristobal is about an hour's drive from Oventic) connect the notebook to the network, and thus send and receive from and for the School.

The Meeting between Communities We hope that this will be just the first moment of meeting between the italian community that is drawn together around the organisation of the annual hackmeeting [http://www.hackmeeting.org] and the community of Aguascalientes in Chiapas. Let's be quite clear that this project ought not be closed to others' particpation, but that it seems to us that the attitude of the italian hackers towards building tools, of sharing knowledge "without founding powers" goes very well with the attitude of the Zapatistas to struggle for one's own autonomy and for the right to choose one's own destiny. And a working proposal that we address to all those who are putting into play activities related to the use of technology in a conscious manner; to whoever sees in the use of digital instruments a possibility to get away from the commercial logic of the technology and media multinationals. In this sense we will try to involve also Indymedia Chiapas in this process, which does great work in San Cristobal.

How you can help us We need support at various levels: hardware [the computers in the labs are not in good condition], money to buy some equipment on the spot and to guaranteee the maintenance of the lab, ideas and advice, which are always most appreciated.

Hardware UTP Cat 5 Cable PCI and /or ISA network cards 10/100 Hub Working Hard Disks Ram Video Cards CD Rome readers Portables Scanner Printer

Money You can contribute your cash by payment to C.C.P. 61804001 made out to Radio Onda Rossa, Via dei Volsci 56 00185 Roma, specifying as description of payment "Hacklab Project in Oventic"

Ideas and Advice ezr@autistici