Xeni Jardin, periodista y co-editora de Boing Boing, ha realizado un interesante reportaje sobre el Tíbet en que documenta el impacto que las tecnologías de la información están teniendo sobre la vida cotidiana y la acción política en esta remota y conflictiva área del mundo y en las comunidades tibetanas exiliadas que viven en las regiones indias próximas. El título de este proyecto, Hacking the Himalayas, ilustra como hackers tecnológicos y sociales pretenden utilizar la tecnología para abrir política y culturalmente una comunidad aislada geográficamente y negada políticamente.
Pero el trabajo de Xeni Jardin es igualmente interesante por su estrategia de desarrollo, promoción y por su formato. El “meta-título” de este proyecto podría ser Hacking the media, por la combinación de diferentes tecnologías y canales y la combinación inteligente los nuevos y viejos medios de comunicación para divulgar y promocionar el proyecto. Y todo esto realizado, al menos en sus elementos fundamentales, por una sola persona.
Merece la pena navegar por los diferentes sitios y leer, escuchar y ver la información que nos proporcionan. Lo que sigue es una breve guía para esta navegacióin:
El blog Xeni Trek: road notes es un “cuaderno de viaje” que sirve de núcleo organizador. Aquí se puede encontrar la explicación del proyecto:
In 2006, I traveled to India, China, and Tibet to explore how technology is changing the lives of Tibetans -- both inside and outside of their homeland. I traveled with my father, Dr. M. Quetzalkanbalam, who is researching indigenous culture in different parts of the world. He'd been planning a trip to Tibet this year for some time, so when I heard about a group of hackers and engineers building a wireless mesh network in Dharamshala, India, the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government -- everything clicked. We decided to go together. Along the way, both of us learned and witnessed more than we could ever have imagined before we left.
On this blog, I'll be posting links to each of the radio, print, video, and online reports I'm filing from the trip. I'll continue following these stories here after the reports from my trip have all aired. But I'll also post the scribbled footnotes that didn't make it in. You'll see video, snapshots, hear audio snippets, video, and branches of these stories you just can't cram into 7 on-air minutes. The little daily details that comprise life on the road -- including HOWTO production info, and reviews of the production hardware and software I tested out on the road from Apple, Canon, and other tech gear providers.
En este blog sigue ahora publicando enlaces a otros sitios donde aparecen partes de los resultados del proyecto y noticias sobre la actividad política y tecnológica en el Tibet y de los tibetanos exiliados. Además en Boing Boing re-publica (y da más visibilidad) a algunos de los posts más relevantes desde el punto de vista tecnológico, como Tibetan mesh org hosting community WiFi event in India in Oct y Tibetan refugee WiFi org: we were DoSed, China IPs involved.
El núcleo del trabajo ha aparecido en audio en el programa Day to Day de la National Public Radio (NPR), en una serie de cuatro capítulos titulada Hacking the Himalayas:
- The Gaddi of Dharamsala
- Connecting Tibet's Exile Community via the Web
- A Wireless Network for 'Little Lhasa'
- Tradition vs. Change in 'Lhasa Vegas'
Xeni Jardin ha publicado también en Internet colecciones de fotografías, como Tibet Wifi en Wired News o The Gaddi People of Dharamsala en el sitio de NPR.
En Wired News han aparecido algunos artículos más largos que describen los proyectos de desarrollo de redes wifi libres para empoderar a la población exiliada. Estos proyectos están apoyados por grupos de hackers occidentales trabajando sobre el terreno como Cult of the Dead Cow.
Wireless Works Wonders in Tibet
Across the border from Chinese-occupied Tibet, the tech infrastructure in this high mountain village is a mess.
But a former Silicon Valley dot-commer and members of the underground security group Cult of the Dead Cow are working with local Tibetan exiles to change that using recycled hardware, solar power, open-source software and nerd ingenuity.
The volunteers are building a low-cost wireless mesh network to provide cheap, reliable data and telephony to community organizations.
The Dharamsala Wireless Mesh is an example of "light infrastructure," a concept gaining popularity among tech developers: decentralized, ad hoc networks that can deliver essential services faster than conventional means.
Tibetans to Teach Wi-Fi Know-How
Organizers of a community wireless mesh network in Dharamshala, India -- the hometown-in-exile of the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetan refugees -- say they want to "unwire" more Tibetan exile communities and other unconnected spots in the developing world.
And to jump-start that plan, they plan to -- what else? -- network.
In October, the Tibetan Technology Center will host the Air Jaldi Summit for wireless community developers from around the world.
Expected to attend is Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman and Wi-Fi pioneer Vic Hayes.
"We want to show people that it's possible not only to build out this kind of technology at low cost in developing areas, but that it's possible for the community to really integrate it into their lives," said Yahel Ben-David, a one-time Silicon Valley dot-commer who left his native Israel to build Dharamshala's mesh network.
October's summit will be less of a who's-who and more of a how-to, says organizer Oxblood Ruffin, who is a member of underground computer security group Cult of the Dead Cow.
