John Heywood, Assistant Director of CITI, the “Columbia Institute for Tele-Information”:1, spoke at our February NYCwireless meeting about his research in Estonia and their extensive Wi-Fi program.
He talked about how Estonia became so Wi-Fi savvy. Apparently, when the country was still part of Russia, residents were able to receive TV and radio signals from Finland, and saw how wireless technologies were helping that country grow. When they became independent, the country as a whole made a decision to pursue what it saw as a way to become an economic powerhouse, and started innovative initiatives to develop wireless technologies. Estonia is now synonymous with technology innovation.
Estonia also has one of the most extensive “community wireless Wi-Fi networks”:3 of any country. And apparently the guy who started wifi.ee took as his inspiration the work NYCwireless has done building wireless parks, like Bryant Park.
Check out “John’s presentation (pdf)”:2, which has lots of interesting information about what’s going on in Estonia.
[1]http://www.citi.columbia.edu
[2]http://www.starfid.com/nycwireless.pdf
[3]http://www.wifi.ee
Filed under: Community Wireless, International, NYCwireless
