RavalNet is a barrio organization in Barcelona which provides internet access and networking services for some of the more deprived population there.

We are in downtown Barcelona, and the Raval is a charismatic area of the city where almost 30% of the neighbours don’t have fixed telephone lines at home and where people from different countries, religions and cultures live together, or sometimes merely survive. Yet social activities here are highly dynamic. As an example of the area’s spirit we introduce to you the Ravalnet, a social network platform aiming to stir up and reinforce communication, cooperation and exchange among all of the different people and associations in the neighbourhood. The Ravalnet does this by offering the community free internet access and any other media resource they may need.

The background of Ravalnet:

In 1992 some social educators focused their studies on the teenagers who spent all of their time in the streets and who often quitting school before graduating. And so TEB was born: they used their graffitti sign, The Ecologic Boys, as the name for their young association. From the very begining the goal of the TEB association was to promote their own organisation. Soon they managed to get their own space to meet, and the UPC technology department donated some old pc’s and an internet connection. The association grew with many more young people and many more projects, all of them related to new technologies. Finally in 1998 they offered their skills, projects, and resources to everyone in the neighbourhood, resulting in the creation of the Ravalnet platform.

Now most of those TEB teenagers have become the Ravalnet facilitators. Within the past few years several groups in the Raval district have developed different services and activities utilizing new technologies such as:

- RADIALNET, the online radio for the community

- XER, the educational network promoting the use of new technologies in primary, middle and high school

- forums and chat rooms

- a neighbourhood and world news web site

- a social and cultural activities agenda

- an online job search tool

- Customized websites for local associations

- Worknet colaboration with Meninos e Meninas du Rua du Brasil

- And free email accounts for everyone.

All of this and more to come is what we now call the Ravalnet, a network created by the participation and impulse of the community, and especially its younger members who find self-assurance though this active and fruitful role in society.