I have just returned from spending a stimulating ten days with an international group of OPLAN 'grass routers'.  I have been in Macleod Ganj, Dharamsala in northern Indian in the foothills of the Himalayas speaking and sharing at the annual WSFII Summit gathering.  I regard this informal network of enlightened geeks and social activists as one of the key change agents pioneering the promotion of local deployment of wireless open access networks in the developing world.  I may have been the only Brit amongst this inspiring group of over a hundred individuals from around the globe (inc.  Germany, Holland, Ghana, Colombia, Canada, USA, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Philippines, New Zealand, Denmark, Austria, Tibet, Taiwan) but English was the undoubted lingua franca of this WSFI summit.

The Dharamsala Mesh Wireless OPLAN network which acted as host to the first few days of the WSFII summit is registered on the OPLAN website and although there is nothing particularly ground breaking in itself about this mesh network, the fact that it deploys 30 nodes to connect over 2,000 PCs over the most rugged and mountainous terrain at an altitude of around 2,000 metres, makes it a worthy example of just how flexible and powerful WiFi can be in the hands of a few enthusiastic techies and community activists who know what they are doing.  The network can be considered as one of the largest mesh networks in the world and covers over a hundred kilometers of rough terrain, situated as it is in the foothills of the western Himalayan ranges.
Dharamsala, originally occupied by the nomadic Gaddi tribe is now most famous as being the 'temporary' Indian home of the Dali Lama and a large Budhist community of Tibetan exiles many of whom have displayed huge courage and endurance to flee their Chinese occupied homeland by walking across the Himalayas.  The Air Jaldi network is maintained through the TibTech (Tibetan Technology Centre), located in the Tibetan Childrens' Village (TCV).  This community of 2,000plus children, many of whom are orphaned but many living in TCV because their parents, enslaved in Chinese occupied Tibet, have willingly sent their children into this Tibetan encalve in India in order to secure a better future and preserve the 'next generation' of Tibetans.  A more happy and self-disciplined 'big family' is hard to imagine ... and many of these gracious children are already digitally dextrous and thriving on being able to connect to the world via the internet-connected AirJaldo network. 

After three days of presentations from luminaries of mixed relevance flown in from around the world by the AirJaldi hosts, the WSFII summit settled into a daily programme of attendee-centric 'hands-on' workshops - imparting and sharing vital practical knowledge and experience on how to build, operate and sustain a WiFi driven OPLAN.   One of the higher profile WSFII attendees has been Vic Hayes - a committed supporter and good friend of the OPLAN Foundation and now linked with the Technical University in Delft, Netherlands.  Vic is widely regarded as 'the father of WiFi', having been largely responsible for managing the early development of this world-changing standard.  Vic could hardly have imagined the impact on the world that this small sliver of unlicensed radio spectrum would have.  But impact it has had!

So what do I conclude from my time with this remarkable intenational group of people in this beautiful high corner of the world?   Three things stand out in my mind.

The first relates to what Vic did all those years ago.  The ongoing creative innovation - both software and hardware - that is being applied to the WiFi spectrum is breathtaking.  And it is only just under way.  If ever there was compelling evidence that 'open spectrum' coupled with a culture of 'open source' and 'open access' can bring world-changing social and economic benefit - then it could be seen here at this WSFII gathering in Dharamsala.   There are still nations in the developing world that are resisting de-licensing the WiFi spectrum - they resist at great cost and damage to their citizens and communities.  "More open spectrum" is the mantra of the Open Spectrum Foundation - but the experience of this WSFII gathering reinforces the fact that this is no ideological tenet but a highly pragmatic key to stimulating social and economic benefit in the developing world.   Governments in both the developed and developing world should get wise and understand how powerful a market-driven engine for change, license exempt spectrum can be.

Secondly, there was not a person attending the WSFII gathering in Dharamsala, that was not critical of the "top down" approach that governments and NGOs have and are conventionallly persuing to bringing connectivity to the developing world.  While it may be understandable that 'scaleable' and 'nation-changing' programmes are what attracts political attention, but the facts of life are clear - we have wasted billions of dollars on 'top-down' programmes claiming to bring internet connectivity to entire nations.  No - the key to success at this early stage of the digital revolution are local, 'bottoms-up', community initiatives, conceived and driven by social activisists and geekish 'grass-routers' within communities in the developing world.  What is required are more and more 'exemplars', like the AirJaldi network, which can spark the imagination of neighbouring communities and villages.  When, and only when, there is widespread catalogue of such early exemplars, should politicians and public policy wonks intervene to see whether and how they might frame regulation and public policy which will further accelerate and enhance the open access deploymment of WiFi.

Finally,  there is a gaping hole in terms of the availability of financial support and funding to work hand-in-hand with local 'exemplar' initiatives to provide the necessary money and commercial expertise to ensure that these WiFi OPLANs actually emerge in the first place and secondly, are developed on a basis which assures their longterm sustainability.  And this is the gap in the market which the Directors of the OPLAN Foundation are committed to playing a rôle in filling.  At their meeting in London on 31st October, the Board took the unanimous decision to engage the services of a leading firm of international fund raising consultants serving the non-profit sector, to work with them to raise a multi-million dollar fund dedicated to 'watering this grass router' movement.  More about this in the months ahead or contact us be email ( info@oplan.org ) if you have some thoughts about potential donors or contributing to the Fund.  But let nobody have any doubt about the real need for such a Fund - the WSFII gathering at Dharamsala proved that conclusively.  Oh, and maybe you might like to see a selection of my pictures!