We interviewed Ramon Roca, president of our Foundation, because he recently went to India, specifically to the Kerala region, to present the guifi.net project at the event called Swatantra'17.
What was the event about?
The state of Kerala has historically supported free initiatives, there are different non-profit projects, every two or three years they organize this event.
In which languages was the event presented?
The event was presented in English, but they also used their language, Malayalam, which is spoken not only in India but also in certain areas in Southeast Asia.
How many days were you there and what was the content?
I was at the event for three days and we mainly talked about free software. There were also interviews scheduled with the government to talk about their projects. There, all aspects related to open source software were discussed, about healthcare resources, development, image processing, ..., in short, all kinds of projects, where I gave a talk on community networks.
What made you decide to go? Had you been to India before?
I had been to India before, it had been about ten years since my last visit to the country, they told me to go back to give a talk on community networks. At guifi.net we have international recognition, people identify us as one of the largest community networks in the world. What made me go to Swatantra was not only to speak there but also because there was a state-level project called "tafon" where they wanted to bring fiber to the entire state.
What caught your attention the most about the Kerala region? Politics, demography, environment, ...
Kerala is a very beautiful state located in the south of India and if you have been to India you know that there is a big difference between the rich and the poor, whereas in Kerala, on one hand, there is not as much population density, and on the other hand, the standard of living is much more equal and there is not as much difference between rich and poor people.
Of the projects you saw, what caught your attention the most?
There were many interesting projects, one presented by a man from the Canary Islands, Luis Alba, the "Geneohealth" project is about managing and computerizing hospitals and has been implemented in different African countries. With multimedia creation, there were some Dutch presenting a free program, Blender, for 3D modeling, and some French from Toulouse de Languedoc who also make animated drawings with open source software.
How did they perceive the guifi.net model and Foundation?
They perceived it well, in fact, the state of Kerala has always been open to free software, but we do not know how companies in Kerala will perceive our project.
Do you think there will be opportunities in the future to implement guifi.net in Kerala?
The concept, yes, but there are things we need to improve here, at home, conceptually we have it well developed, also the technical and practical part of the compensations, we have been doing it and applying it in different areas and at different levels for many years, but what we are lacking now, for example with the compensations, has a high manual work component, I mean that in terms of technical, quality, and governance aspects of the model, we have them clear, developed, and in application but with a great dependence on people. This is an aspect to improve on which the Foundation is putting effort. When we have this, the model will be exportable, to Kerala or wherever it is needed.
Are there any other countries right now where guifi.net could be developed? Is it viable to carry out a project in areas with limited access to advanced telecommunications systems?
Yes, there have always been interested people, what happens is that maybe they do not call it guifi.net but, since we are developing an open model, they are very similar. Specifically, just as there is now in Kerala, there are more initiatives, like the one organized in the Dominican Republic, the so-called "Volunteers for Fiber" program. We also keep in touch with someone from Ghana who will come this month for an immersion and training. This week we have been talking to people from Syria. Unfortunately, there are many places in the world where Internet still does not arrive under good conditions or they simply do not have it, from the Foundation we try to help everyone who needs it.
Swatantra'17