El Paquete Semanal: The Week's Internet in Havana
Authors
We contribute a case study of El Paquete Semanal or "The Weekly Package" -- the pervasive, offline internet in Cuba. We conducted a qualitative inquiry of El Paquete through extensive fieldwork---interviews and observations---in Havana, Cuba. Our findings highlight the human infrastructure that supports this offline internet, rendered visible through the lens of articulation work. By offering an in-depth perspective into these workings of El Paquete, we aim to challenge established notions of what an (or the) internet "should" look like in more and less "developed" contexts. We highlight how El Paquete is a non-standardized and non-neutral internet, but still human-centered. We also offer an enriched understanding of how an entirely offline internet can provide expansive information access to support leisure and livelihood, additionally serving as a locally relevant platform that affords local participation.
Research Questions / Practical Problems
Question signals indexed for this paper.
- 75%
Winds of Change: Seeking, Preserving, and Retelling Indigenous Knowledge Through Self-Organized Online Communities
CHI '22· Community Engagement & Civic Technology +1
- 67%
Filling the Hive: A Reflective Toolkit for Community-led Rural Development
DIS '25· Community Engagement & Civic Technology +2
- 60%
Defining Through Expansion: Conducting Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) Research with Stigmatized Groups
CHI '18· Empowerment of Marginalized Groups +1
- 60%
The Parenting Actor-Network of Latino Immigrants in the United States
CHI '19· Community Engagement & Civic Technology +1
- 60%
Considerations for Implementing Technology to Support Community Radio in Rural Communities
CHI '20· Community Engagement & Civic Technology +1
- 60%
Digital Archives, Knowledge Conflicts, and Epistemic Injustices in the Himalayas
CHI '25· Community Engagement & Civic Technology +1
Based on Jaccard similarity of research subtopics & professions (≥60%)