Subject: [gaia] GAIA Net

From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:59:50 +0000

All -

So I am going to be a bit more ambitious with GAIA in terms of doing
something really useful -

I am proposing to create the first GAIA network in remote India near
Mandi - in a community where the network operators including the local
WISP  have not agreed to connect them since its not economically
viable - so I am going to work with Guifi.net and a local stakeholder
to develop the first GAIA network which will also function as a
research network (similar to ARPANET when it started - so you can call
it the GAIA Net!) where the community will lease the network to the
research community for them to run experiments and get usage data
which by itself will create a sustainable business model to recover
the opex of the network apart from the other services they run over it
following the Guifi.net model!

If this succeeds, I want to replicate GAIA net in other
places/countries and create a federated research network which
connects communities but also functions as a testbed for testing out
new services/architectures/protocols etc!

Not sure whether I will succeed with this - but worth trying!

If anyone has any ideas for getting some initial funds to bootstrap
this GAIA community network in India, please let me know. Thanks.

Regards
Arjuna

-- 
Arjuna Sathiaseelan | http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~as2330/

---

From: "Burleigh, Scott C (312B)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:23:26 +0000

Great idea, Arjuna.  I don't have any bright suggestions about how to fund it, but I think it's exactly the right thing to do.

Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: gaia [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Arjuna Sathiaseelan
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 5:00 AM
To: gaia
Subject: [gaia] GAIA Net

All -

So I am going to be a bit more ambitious with GAIA in terms of doing something really useful -

I am proposing to create the first GAIA network in remote India near Mandi - in a community where the network operators including the local WISP  have not agreed to connect them since its not economically viable - so I am going to work with Guifi.net and a local stakeholder to develop the first GAIA network which will also function as a research network (similar to ARPANET when it started - so you can call it the GAIA Net!) where the community will lease the network to the research community for them to run experiments and get usage data which by itself will create a sustainable business model to recover the opex of the network apart from the other services they run over it following the Guifi.net model!

If this succeeds, I want to replicate GAIA net in other places/countries and create a federated research network which connects communities but also functions as a testbed for testing out new services/architectures/protocols etc!

If anyone has any ideas for getting some initial funds to bootstrap this GAIA community network in India, please let me know. Thanks.

Regards
Arjuna

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gaia mailing list
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https://irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/gaia

---

From: Steve Song <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:42:27 -0400

Hi Arjuna,

It would be worth talking to both AirJaldi (http://main.airjaldi.com/) and
DEF India's Wireless for Communities (http://wforc.in/) project.
Guifi.net is a both a wonderful network and resource but geography is an
equally important factor when it comes to national regulation, bureaucracy,
sustainability, etc.

Regards... Steve

---

From: Jane Coffin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:44:03 +0000

Arjuna!

Super.
See this as a model:
http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/where-we-work/asia/south-asia/wir
eless-communities

I think the current projects are in:  Chaderi, Baran, Tilonia, Tura,
Giridih, Mandla, Naogang

Adding in Raj Singh

Jane

On 12/19/14, 10:23, "Burleigh, Scott C (312B)"
<[email-masked]> wrote:

>Great idea, Arjuna.  I don't have any bright suggestions about how to
>fund it, but I think it's exactly the right thing to do.
>
>Scott
>
>WISP  have not agreed to connect them since its not economically viable -
>so I am going to work with Guifi.net and a local stakeholder to develop
>the first GAIA network which will also function as a research network
>(similar to ARPANET when it started - so you can call it the GAIA Net!)
>where the community will lease the network to the research community for
>them to run experiments and get usage data which by itself will create a
>sustainable business model to recover the opex of the network apart from
>the other services they run over it following the Guifi.net model!
>
>If this succeeds, I want to replicate GAIA net in other places/countries
>and create a federated research network which connects communities but
>also functions as a testbed for testing out new
>services/architectures/protocols etc!
>
>If anyone has any ideas for getting some initial funds to bootstrap this
>GAIA community network in India, please let me know. Thanks.
>
>Regards
>Arjuna
>
>--

---

From: Arjuna Sathiaseelan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:55:39 +0000

Dear Steve,

Thanks for this. I think Paolo who was keen to get her community
connected spoke to the AirJaldi folks - but I think she didnt hear a
favourable response and thats why she approached GAIA and I put in
touch with the Guifi folks who are happy to supply her the startup
tools.

I had a hour long discussion with Jane Coffin from the ISOC today
discussing several things including this issue - and as she has just
pointed (thanks Jane) to Wireless for Communities which seems to be a
great way to go about to great the GAIA Net.

I will will follow up this opportunity further with Jane and Raj Singh.

Thanks Steve and Jane.

Regards

On 19 December 2014 at 15:42, Steve Song <[email-masked]> wrote:
> DEF India's Wireless for Communities (http://wforc.in/) project.   Guifi.net
> is a both a wonderful network and resource but geography is an equally
> important factor when it comes to national regulation, bureaucracy,
> sustainability, etc.
>
> Regards... Steve
>
> On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Arjuna Sathiaseelan
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>> All -
>>

---

From: Rohan Mahy <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 08:34:31 -0800

Hi Arjuna,
I would think that an excellent research opportunity right now would be
Cuba. Apparently less than 5% of Cubans have unrestricted access to the
Internet. I expect that with normalization between Cuba and the US there
will a lot of activity in the telecommunications space, and that at the
very least being able to record what happens over the next several years
could yield a wealth of useful data.

Regarding Mandi, I hope the goal is to research and capture building a
*sustainable* community network. Toward that end, I want to make sure that
the community is fully on-board and ready to pay for a share of the
installation and to cover basically all of their own running costs.
Typically communities struggle with Capex. I suggest that the research
community cover a portion of capex (plus their own community-priced
Internet or mobile phone connectivity) instead of trying to reduce the opex
cost.
Thanks,
-rohan