[wsfii-discuss] Great to meet with the crew at TibTec who make The Air Jaldi network in Dharamsala

Thu Jun 22 02:30:55 UTC 2006

Dear friends  !  :-)

I am now back home from India, and are in the process of reincarnating
myself into all my roles here on Djursland ;-)
45 mails still to answer and tons of work ahead - plus a regional WSFII
SummerCamp from the 1.st to the 8.th og July here on Djursland, on building
landscape network (see at http://DIIRWB.net) !

But this beatiful message can not wait anymore, so here it comes !  :-)

Based on funding from DIIRWB and based on a keen proposel from Charlotte -
DIIRWB's wonderful manager - Arun, Fred and I made the journey to the
Himalayas and visited Yahel and his friends at TibTec, in The Tibetan
Childrens Village (TCV) above Dharamsala, to make friends, see The Air Jaldi
wireless lanndscape network and bring about a coordinated planning for the
comming Air Jaldi WSFII in October.

Fred from Amsterdam and I from Djursland got together in London by Saturday
the 10.th of June, and moved into the night in a huge "flying ferry" and
arrived in Delhi Sunday, where we were met by a massive wall of hot air of
39 degrees Celcius, at half past six in the morning ! - Fortunately Yahel
had arranged a jeep with air condition for us by the airport. Yahel had the
night before arrived from a conference in Finland, where he with great
success spoke on wireless network. We went around Delhi to fetch first Yahel
and then Arun, and together we took of for Dharamsala.
During our 12 hour long ride we went through a lot of experiences together
and talked about many things. I was very-very pleased as I gradually
realized that Yahel is both very bright, straightforward, full of drive -
and most important - is motivated by a golden heart. In my opinion he has
such a spirit that he would invent WSFII if it was not already invented
through the previous conventions and summits ! :-) So please trust this guy
and his friends, they are of the best breed ! - If they seem to differ in
opinion here and there, they are still very close friends with the very best
intentions, - who just happens to work from another background. Keep that in
mind, please . . .

When we met Monday before noon at TCV, at our first day together, the crew
of TibTec were called together to meet us, and immediately they wanted to
hear details about Djursland. I had misunderstood Yahel and was not prepared
for this, so I had not brought my notebook and projector to the TCV area at
that time. Anyway I gave a lecture telling what has happend here on
Djursland, and they were very impressed and pleased to hear about it. Arun,
Fred and I were then shown the beautiful TCV area, with antenna
installations and all the places for the summit, which we filmed. It will
soon be put on the website for the summit, so that everybody can see for
themselves, that this is a beautiful place, which you can't help loving !

We all felt very close and already Monday afternoon we agreed on proposing
the following 6 streams for the summit in October:

1) Ecology
Here, we examine the footprint of communications techology on our planet.

2) Disaster Recovery
Networks that belong to the people will be rebuilt quickly after a natural
disaster. That actually saves lives.

3) Empowerment
Information is power, therefore access is empowering.

4) Dharma
Communication enlightens every step on the path of our lives.

5) Open Spectrum
The airwaves belong to the people, and now the people want some back.

6) People and State
Examining how decentralized telecommunications technology is shifting the
frontiers between individual and state.

Each stream will flow out of an individual panel discussion within the first
four days of the Airjaldi World Summit of Free Information Infrastructures.
During the 10 subsequent days, workshops will allow us to further explore
these streams in depth. (Yahel is finalizing the rest of the program for the
first four days). Other workshops than those which set off from the 6
subjects is ofcource welcome.

Please go to http://summit.airjaldi.com/wiki and add or modify, so that we
can finalize the framework, invite participants and speakers, and raise
resources.

At Tuesday Arun, Fred and I went on a TibTec guided sightseeing tour all
around the Dharamsala area, to see and film the very impressive Air Jaldi
network installations, and we also made interviews on dictaphone with local
people.
TibTec is a department of the Tibetan Children Village where 2000 children
lives and have their study.

At Wednesday the TibTec crew managed to set up a very productive meeting
with the school leaders. We agreed that we, among all the other workshops of
interest during the summit, will have IT-workshops both for the local
teachers and for the children in TCV.

Thursday we left Dharamsala in an air conditioned jeep and went south to
visit Radaur about 120 km north of Delhi, where Arun works as professor at a
large engineer educating institute.

Friday I gave a lecture at the institute for Aruns collegues and students,
on what we are doing on Djursland, and we also had several meetings with the
top level administration, staff, teachers, students etc. Arun, Fred and I
want to set up a RCFII, Resource Center for Free Information Infrastructure,
at the institute, with the task to establish wireless connections to all
other schools in the area, to provide cheap Internet access by sharing a
fast broadband Internet connection. This widespread wireless infrastructure
to come, is then meant to provide opportunity for cheap Internet access for
all other users, as they get interested.
As we drove from the institute the monsoon arrived and fields became lakes.
Visiting Aruns place in Delhi for just an hour, Fred had delighted moments
of joy seing Holland win an important football game on TV. Fred and I
arrived at Delhi airport Friday by 11.10 PM local time, and walked in single
file for 3 hours getting past several security checks.

At Saturday 2.10 AM we floated through the night back to London where we
arrived at 7 o'clock in the morning. After security check Fred and I still
had opportunity to talk about the future for hours, before Fred went back to
Amsterdam and I went for Copenhagen. In Copenhagen my luggage didn't appear
so I had to travel back to Djursland without it, but that is another story.
(I recieved it in Aarhus airport by Sunday evening).

This mail is meant to tell all of you, that out there in the Indian
foothills of Himalaya something very interesting and very beautiful is going
on, and if you go there and meet in this years global WSFII, it might very
well be the travel of your lifetime. - So please prepare yourselves to meet
in Dharamsala in October. Together with people from all over the World, and
with the TibTec crew and other local people, we will make the global summit
of this year an important personal experience and a means to bridge the
technological and social devide for rural people all over the World.

>From now, and in the comming months, we should prepare that the Air
Jaldi-WSFII in Dharamsala becomes the media gateway for establishing
community network with Internet-access in rural and suburban areas around
the World, - and we should do it with a specific focus on facilitating the
Indian governments so called Mission 2007 which aims at connecting 100000
villages. - As Arun has pointed to: It is really 600000 Indian villages that
need to have access to the global information society as soon as possible.
We need to innovate, from this very moment, how it can be done _so cheap_
that everybody soon can benefit . . . Lets think loud now at the relevant
mailing lists and on the http://summit.airjaldi.com/wiki !
The World Wide Web really needs to become World Wide to not act as a weapon
against the poor . . .

With lots of smiles for all of you :-)

Yours Sincerely
Bjarke Nielsen
Teaching at DIIRWB.net
Mobile: +45 6025 0001

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Pook" <fredpook at gmail.com>
To: "Juergen Neumann" <j.neumann at ergomedia.de>
Cc: "Arun Mehta" <arun at holisticit.com>; <Bjarke at nr-djurs.net>; "Julian
Priest" <julian at informal.org.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: reinitialize the WSFII workshop preparation

Arun, Bjarke
Please write an inspiring text on our wonderfull experiences in India
for WSFII-discus and coord. Maybe they will stop being so silent...
Thanks, Fred

On 6/19/06, Juergen Neumann <j.neumann at ergomedia.de> wrote:
>
> Hi Bjarke, Fred and Arun,
>
> I think after you have visited Dharamsala now it would be very good to
> give a short report on the results and let folks know how you proceded
> with the preparation of the workcamp.
>
> This should also be a needed signal to reinitialize the preparation
> process so that all people on the lists get a clear signal to help make
> it happen!
>
> Thank you very much in advance!
>
> JuergeN
>
>