The 2026 Team CommUNITY Global Gathering is around the corner and the APC network is gearing up to participate across a range of events examining the intersection of human rights and technology. Now well-established as an important forum for digital rights defenders, "the Global Gathering brings together groups from around the world working on the most urgent technology-related challenges affecting human rights, social justice, civil society, and journalism at the local, regional and global levels."
The event, which runs from September 4 through 6, will be taking place once again in Estoril, Portugal. The self-organised, community-driven model introduced last year will offer participants opportunities to meet up, network and mobilise around important topics. Regional villages plus spaces dedicated to specific topics will take place alongside booths for showcasing projects, demos and skillshares. Each format is set up for meaningful interaction so participants can have time and space to exchange and learn from each other.
APC will host a booth across all three days and we encourage everyone to join us there! The APC booth is a space of connection, collaboration and celebration. From FLOSS and meaningful software to feminist research, community-centred connectivity and security infrastructure, we will come together through an array of sessions to learn, ask questions and share knowledge.
Below you will find a schedule of events where the APC network will be actively participating. We look forward to connecting with members and partners who will be attending the event, including Derechos Digitales, TEDIC, Progressive Technology Project, Colnodo, Point of View, LaLibreNet, 7amleh, Código Sur, EngageMedia, Media Matters for Democracy, Myanmar Internet Project, Nupef, VOICE, SFLC.in, Open Cultural Foundation (OCF) and more!
This list will continue to be updated as new information comes in, and the full schedule of events can be found on the Team CommUNITY wiki. If you are part of our network and would like to let us know about an event you are organising, please write to communications@apc.org. Be sure to check back regularly to see what new sessions from our network have been added!
Day 1 - Friday, 4 September
Rise Against Big Tech Coalition Booth - Rise Against Big Tech Coalition (including Progressive Technology Project, May First Movement Technology)
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 19
APC Booth - Next generation Internet - Zero (NGI0) ecosystem
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 3
APC Circle - Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) Global South communities reviewing the FLOSS we need, visions from the margins
15:00 - 16:00 local time | Booth 3
APC Booth - Community-centred connectivity
15:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
APC Circle - Operations as security infrastructure: How do we threat-model a human rights convening
16:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
Rise Against Big Tech Coalition Circle (including Progressive Technology Project, May First Movement Technology) - Leaving Big Tech: From common blockers to collective solutions
16:30 - 17:30 local time | Circle 5
Day 2 - Saturday, 5 September
APC Booth - Local services for communities
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 3
SFLC.in Booth - RightsLine: Navigating digital security and securing rights online
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 6
APC Circle - Tooling up - A collaborative approach to build meaningful software and equipment stacks for local services and community-centred connectivity
13:30 - 14:30 local time | Booth 3
EngageMedia Circle - Exploring models and best practices of building sustainable tech collective infrastructure
13:30 - 14:30 local time | Booth TBC
Open Culture Foundation (OCF) - Spill the Tea! What Digital Threats Are You Seeing?
13:30 - 14:30 local time | Circle 3
APC Circle - AI said it's inevitable. We have questions.
15:00 - 16:00 local time | Booth 3
eQualitie - Traffic Analysis for WordPress Websites: Finding the Right Balance Between Bots and Humans
15:00 - 16:00 local time | Circle 7 - Booth 14
Colnodo - Empowering Communities Through Technology
15:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 81
APC Booth - Women's Rights Programme and the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) ecosystem
15:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
APC Circle - Navigating AI use and ethics in CSOs
16:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
Day 3 - Sunday, 6 September
Rise Against Big Tech Coalition Booth - Rise Against Big Tech Coalition (including Progressive Technology Project, May First Movement Technology)
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 19
APC Booth - Next generation Internet - Zero (NGI0) ecosystem
13:00 - 15:00 local time | Booth 3
APC Circle - Tooling up: Partnership and alliances
13:30 - 14:30 local time | Booth 3
Community-led digital infrastructure: How do we build it and sustain it?
13:30 - 14:30 local time | Circle 7, Booth 14
APC Circle - How to build FLOSS in late stage capitalism?
15:00 - 16:00 local time | Booth 3
APC Booth - Celebrate good time come on
15:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
APC Circle - Celebrate good time come on
16:30 - 17:30 local time | Booth 3
This list will continue to be updated as we get updates from APC's community, so keep an eye on it for more details!
Featured resources:
How to get away from Big Tech? Get started with some recommendations from our community
Whether or not to move away from these technologies is not a simple decision. Aiming to support those seeking alternatives, we drew on the resources of our community to prepare a simple list of recommended options for everyday use.
Building a Free Internet of the Future series
This publication collects several interviews from the APC series "Building a Free Internet of the Future", exploring questions like: How can we be independent from big corporations and their cloud servers? Can we build digital technologies for the common good while advancing user freedom? Is it possible to extend the life of consumer electronics? Can we share our online videos without relying on the major commercial platforms?
Global Information Society Watch
Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) is a collaborative community committed to building an open, inclusive and sustainable information society. Its periodic reports examine the state of the information society from a civil society perspective. This year, a special edition will be launched during the Global Gathering titled “Free/libre and open source software: Visions of openness from the Global South. It analyses structural exclusions in the FLOSS community, details what the FLOSS movement can learn from feminism, map FLOSS advocacy in the Global South, and suggests practical ways that FLOSS projects can be more inclusive.
10 groundbreaking research reports on technology-facilitated gender-based violence
The Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) launched ten research reports on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) under its third cycle. In examining the deeply gendered and racialised experience of violence, these research projects pay attention to the care, creativity and resilience within individuals and communities that enable not just survival but the possibility of thriving within a socio-technical sphere that was never designed with them in mind.
Principles for community-centred connectivity initiatives
These principles have been developed through an extensive consultation process with community-centred connectivity initiatives working in different communities across the global South. They show how community-centred connectivity initiatives aims to strengthen and improve the well-being of communities that are unserved or underserved so that they can flourish in a way that they want to.
Reduce, reuse, recycle: A guide to circular economies of digital devices
This guide aim to contribute to the goal of mobilising collective action for environmental justice and sustainability that APC and its partners promote.
Ethical selection of our internet access provider
This guide emphasises that there are other dimensions to consider if we are concerned with more than just prices and speed, such as the effect our decision has on local supply and the market, and environmental impact considerations.
The (internet) shutdown game: An engaging and informative training activity that sheds light on the various methods of internet shutdowns and ways to counteract them.