It's been very long since my last blog post here!

So many things have changed since I moved to Berkeley a bit more than two years ago...

On the personal front, I'm now the proud father of two kids (yes two in two years) - Divya (just turned two) and Nitai (he's now seven months old).

As for the technology, I came across an old document yesterday - "Keeping the network alive", http://wiki.airjaldi.org, which I wrote back in September 2007, in the hopes it would spark a lively discussion and might turn into a productive collaborative environment. The document presented a perspective on what has changed and what remains valid today. Particularly, some issues at the forefront of our R&D agenda back in 2007 have since been resolved, while surprisingly many others, where we've and others have made little or no progress, remain open problems to address today.

That document did result in substantial academic studies, starting with our own paper (with a very similar title) - "Beyond Pilots: Keeping Rural Wireless Networks Alive" - http://www.usenix.org/event/nsdi08/tech/surana.html
Published in August 2008, this paper have already inspired many researchers, led to many studies and has been quoted in 33 peer reviewed publications: (http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=12485503342736570061 ) -- not bad for less then two years. Additionally, I was surprised to find this paper on the syllabus and reading lists of many classes and seminars at leading universities worldwide.

There's a point I'm trying to make: our experiences in operating, maintaining and extending wireless rural networks are valuable - very valuable - therefore should be shared, leveraged and empower others. Another more subtle point might be: Collaboration between activists operating on the ground and academia could become very productive, yet is commonly under explored.

I hope this post would serve to inspire comments - especially, I would like to discuss in more detail which issues have been mostly solved and which remain. For problems that remain open - it would be interesting to discuss why it is so - and possibly note changes in needs or other variations making some points irrelevant.

In the meanwhile - here's an opportunity to congratulate the team in Dharamsala for a work well done! Your ability to extend the reach of the AirJaldi networks far and wide overcoming the toughest challenges is commendable. Moreover, you've produced remarkable results in R&D, especially the work on the "bandwidth maximizer", trained a new generation of operators and activists and most of all, continue to provide the highest quality of Internet connectivity and professional service to thousands of users, in one of the world's poorest and most sparely populated markets.

Yahel.

Berkeley, CA.