FreeNetworks is a meta organization of CommunityNetworking groups from all over the world. You can read all about them on their web site.
The current version of their FreeNetworks:MissionStatement is still being finalized however there have been some good early attempts. The below explanation was written by MattPeterson with help from others in the Community Network world:
- Free Networks is a group of individuals and organizations supporting worldwide community network efforts. While none of our affiliate projects are "free", they do all share these common goals: non-commercial ownership, minimal recurring cost, and self-supporting networks. By collaborating together, we strive to resolve our universal technical, political, and social activities in an open forum. We welcome non-profit, educational, and technological groups to assist this growing worldwide movement.
A longer version was posted by MattWestervelt:
- What is a freenetwork? A freenetwork is an excercise in telecommunications freedom. A network created by those who use it rather than brought to consumers by business. It is not neccessarily 'free' as in cost, but more to the point, autonomous and self governing. There is a growing global movement to create these self governing, autonomous systems. Due to the very nature of autonomous systems, many of us focus only locally. This is natural, but not neccessarily efficient. We all face social, political and technological issues in propagating these new ideas. Many of these issues, most noteably the technical, occur time and time again. Freenetworks.org is a group of individuals and organizations that are committed to facing the social, political and technical issues that occur in the creation of these networks. We believe that through global communication and collaboration, we can work through these issues in a more efficient manner. Freenetworks does not attempt to govern nor to judge, it merely provides a forum.