Follow the Networks
Abstract
On February 27, 1994, three Costa Rican engineers took an afternoon flight from San
José to Managua, Nicaragua. The timing for this trip was good in more ways than one. Little by
little, more than a decade of war in the region was coming to an end. The trip had a single
purpose: participate in Nicaragua’s connection to the Internet. In Managua, a group of
collaborators who had worked for months to establish this link awaited them. For almost three
years, they had been making plans together for Nicaragua’s Internet connection through Costa
Rica via an analog microwave link built in the late 60s, a decade in which the concept of Central
American integration had flourished. From Costa Rica, Nicaragua would be connected to
Homestead, Florida through a satellite antenna. This goal was achieved the very next day and
was celebrated enthusiastically. A public event was held at the Nicaraguan university that led
this initiative. After a series of training and work sessions with their Nicaraguan counterparts, the
Costa Rican engineers returned to San José on March 2. Only four months later, they would
repeat this process in a different setting: the new site was Panama, but the purpose and
procedures were almost identical.
External link to the item
10.1007/978-3-030-48947-2Collections
- Comunicación colectiva [337]