a critical opportunity to understand
the human effort that constitutes this
sociotechnical system, and emerges as a
provocative example of an information
network that challenges our notions
of what the Internet should look like
across disparate geographies and
sociopolitical terrains.
Endnotes
1. Dye, M., Nemer, D., Mangiameli, J.,
Bruckman, A. S., and Kumar, N. El Paquete
Semanal: The Week’s Internet in Havana.
Proc. of CHI ‘ 18.
2. Lee, C. P., Dourish, P., and Mark,
G. The human infrastructure of
cyberinfrastructure. Proc. of CSCW ’06.
3. Sambasivan, N. and Smyth, T. The human
infrastructure of ICTD. Proc. of IC TD ’ 10.
4. All names have been changed for
anonymity.
Michaelanne Dye is a Ph.D. candidate in the
School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia
Institute of Technology. Her research focuses
on social computing, HCI, and development to
explore how underrepresented communities
adapt social computing technologies to
navigate economic and political constraints.
→ mdye@gatech.edu
David Nemer is an assistant professor
in the School of Information Science at the
University of Kentucky. He is an ethnographer
who is specifically interested in studying
ICTs in less industrialized parts of the
world to understand the effects of IC Ts on
the development and empowerment of
marginalized communities.
→ david.nemer@uky.edu
Josiah Mangiameli is an M. S. student
studying human-computer interaction in the
School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia
Institute of Technology. He has experience
working with low-resource communities in the
Philippines, Bangladesh, and Kosovo.
→ jmangi13@gmail.com
Amy Bruckman is professor and associate
chair in the School of Interactive Computing
at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her
research focuses on social computing,
with interests in online collaboration,
social movements, and online moderation.
Bruckman received her Ph.D. from the MIT
Media Lab in 1997.
Neha Kumar is an assistant professor at
the Georgia Institute of Technology, where
she conducts research at the intersection
of human-centered computing and global
development. She is committed to fostering a
globally inclusive and intersectionally diverse
discipline of computing. She is also editor
of the Human-Centered Computing across
Borders (HCCxB) blog on Medium.
→ neha.kumar@gatech.edu
are continually feeding into a system
that remains responsive and adaptive to
a variety of use cases.
EP provides an Internet that is both
entertaining and informative. Similar
to other informal media-sharing
networks, like those previously studied
in India (among other locations),
entertainment is a major driving factor
of EP. However, EP also provides users
with a variety of additional information
needs, such as educational content,
and connects individuals with critical
resources by facilitating a means to
buy, sell, and trade with other people
around the city.
We find that EP serves as a relevant,
participatory Internet. We see a thriving
example of an established, pervasive
information network that is locally
relevant in terms of content and delivery.
For example, access to the W W W in
Cuba is prohibitively expensive, whereas
EP is affordable for many, especially
with price adjustments for certain
individuals. This network contains
locally sourced content, and consumers
of EP do not engage with content
passively—they also produce content
that finds its way back into the network,
Although there are many perceived
assets to this system, it is not without
its limitations. For example, the
lack of automation may facilitate
personalization, but individuals have to
undertake significant labor to support
the network. Additionally, as with most
sociotechnical systems, there are power
structures at play within EP, as well as
the power structures acting upon it.
A human process of selecting content
means that certain individuals decide
what others see. The content in EP is also
shaped by government regulations (such
as no pornography or anti-government
commentary). Thus, while EP is relevant
and participatory in ways that benefit
many Cuban people, it remains subject
to the politics of information. It also
does not provide people with everything
they want from the Internet, like the
ability to communicate in real time with
individuals outside of Cuba.
Although the Internet in Cuba may
appear different from the one we engage
with on a regular basis, it’s important
to note that the W W W also relies on
a human infrastructure. EP provides
DOI: 10.1145/3289487 © 2019 ACM 1072-5520/19/01 $15.00
A wall of themed DVDs in an EP store. These are compiled by los paqueteros for customers that
do not want to purchase the entire EP.