Dharamsala – April 27, 2006 – Today the Tibetan Technology Center (TibTec), a world leader in wireless mesh network development, announced that it will host the Air Jaldi Summit on wireless technologies in Dharamsala, India in October 2006. TibTec has partnered with the Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband (DIIRWB), the European leader in community-based WiFi development, and will join the World Summits on Free Information Infrastructure (WSFII) to deliver a conference and extended wireless training workshops in October. The conference proper will be held from October 22nd through 25th in Dharamsala, India. The training workshops will span a two-week period directly after the conference. Further details on the workshops will be supplied in a separate press release.
“We’re delighted to host such a significant event”, said Phuntsok Dorjee, Chief Information Officer with the Tibetan Technology Center. “Over the past year we’ve put in a tremendous amount of work to make the Dharamsala community mesh network a reality. Technologists in the international community are beginning to take notice of the original work that we’ve done here, and they want to come and learn from us. We couldn’t have done this without the confidence and support that we’ve received from TCV, and we’re very grateful for that. The Air Jaldi Summit will be of tremendous benefit to the Tibetan community, especially our young technical experts. This is a very exciting and empowering time for us”.
The Air Jaldi Summit will attract wireless technology experts and community activists from India, Europe, North America, Israel, and Australia. The presenters list for the conference will be finalized shortly and posted on the conference Web site. Keynote speakers are currently being confirmed and will be announced in a separate press release in the coming weeks. Expect
The Air Jaldi Summit comes in direct response to international interest in the Dharamsala Community Wireless Mesh Network. It was developed in cooperation with the Dharamsala Information Technology Group (DITG), an organization chaired by the Tibetan Computer Resource Center (TCRC) and some of the region’s leading information technology professionals. Mesh networks are a kind of decentralized networking infrastructure that are inexpensive, and very reliable and resilient, as each node need only transmit as far as the next node. Nodes act as repeaters to transmit data from nearby nodes to peers that are too far away to reach, resulting in a network that can span large distances, especially over rough or difficult terrain. Mesh networks are also extremely reliable, as each node is connected to several other nodes. If one node drops out of the network, due to hardware failure or any other reason, its “neighbours” simply find another route. Extra capacity can be installed by simply adding more nodes. Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile devices.
