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March 14, 2007 • 8:21 am 0

Presentation on Estonia Wireless

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

March 6, 2007 • 12:46 am 0

Wi-Fi is the Air-Conditioning of the Internet Age

Randall Stross writes in his New York Time article “What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace”:1 about how hotspots today are just like air conditioning was in the early part of last century for movie theaters.

bq. In the 1920s, when air-conditioning began to be installed in movie theaters, owners had to spend a sizable sum — $50,000 (roughly equivalent to $570,000 today) — to transform the property into a “cold spot.” But it was worth it. Before the “refrigeratory process” came along, theaters could not draw customers during the summer because of the unbearable heat in confined space. With air-conditioning, patronage increased so sharply that even the largest investments were quickly repaid.

I’ve often used the comparison of Wi-Fi to 1920′s air conditioning in my talks, though my comparisons use the department stores of that time as the places of comparison. This viewpoint actually started with my friend at MIT, “Eric Plosky”:2. I think this comparison is an even better one than movie theaters because department stores are quasi/semi-public spaces. (In other words, you don’t have to purchase a ticket to get into a department store, unlike a movie theater.)

Back in the 20′s, department stores, which were the places to shop and be seen, started to install this new invention called “air conditioning”. It started with a couple larger stores, who could afford it. They saw that people were much more comfortable in a cool store, and would linger longer, which meant they were more likely to spend more money.

Smaller department stores saw this too, and some of them installed the expensive devices. These smaller stores saw an even bigger bump in sales, in part because of the novelty, and in part because they had something that many of the larger stores did not: comfort. Installing air conditioning, even though it was expensive, allowed smaller department stores to better compete with their larger rivals. Smart small store owners who could afford it installed the devices and reaped the benefits.

After a while, the larger stores woke up to the fact that they were being beaten by the smaller stores, and some of them also installed air conditioning. This in turn caused even more stores (both large and small) to install the devices because they began to realize that, with so many of their competitors offering such comfort to potential shoppers, they couldn’t afford to *not* install it.

An thus the technology of air conditioning became went through an inflection point: you couldn’t compete as a department store *unless* you had air conditioning. The devices became requirements for the business. Either you had it, or you closed up shop.

Wi-Fi is exactly like this. Starbucks is like a big department store that offered the amenity early on (though they charged for it). Lots of smaller coffee shops and other restaurants and bars started installing it — many with the help of local community wireless organizations like “NYCwireless”:3 and “Ile Sans Fil”:4 — and offered it for free. More and more, we’re seeing places install this cheap amenity because their competitors are doing it.

We’ve not yet passed the inflection point, but we’re heading there. I speak to businesses all the time that just want to install free Wi-Fi because they don’t feel they can compete without it.

Interestingly, we also see this with public parks. We get asked all the time to help get a free Wi-Fi network installed because a park wants to attract visitors, and they see other parks, like Bryant Park, that have been successful offering free Wi-Fi.

[1]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/business/yourmoney/04digi.html?amp;ei=5090&en=65ffd17d76dd5fb5&partner=rssuserland&ex=1330664400&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
[2]http://www.subjectverb.com/www/
[3]http://www.nycwireless.net
[4]http://www.ilesansfil.org

Filed under: Community Wireless, News

March 1, 2007 • 8:46 am 0

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Dec. 4, 2006)

h2. Agenda

* Attendance
* Announcements
* First New York-Berlin Live Community Wireless Video Conference
* Examples of successful local/municipal/city motions in favor of supporting community wireless infrastructures
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide: Pakistan Wireless Networking Session

h2. Participants

* Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil
* Dan Adelman, Director of New Media, KDHX FM 88.1 / KDHX TV 21+2
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* David Young, CUWIN
* Gabe Sawhney, Toronto Wireless
* Jonathan Arbib, Rome Wireless Community
* Kafui A. Prebbie, oneVillage Foundation
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Mike Lenczner, Île Sans Fil
* Rich MacKinnon, Austin City Wireless
* Roland, wireless Network Administrator, WISP, North Cyprus
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN
* Sylvia Cadena
* Tracey Lauriault ogWiFi (Ottawa Gatineau Wifi)
* Vickram Crishna
* Warren Noronha

Filed under: Community Wireless, Community Wireless Roundtable, International, NYCwireless

February 16, 2007 • 2:42 pm 0

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Feb. 12, 2007)

We had a small but informative discussion this morning about AT&T’s proposed citywide wireless network in St. Louis, MO and an update from Andre Marais in Pretoria, South Africa. You will be pleased to know that the audio quality was very good this time around.

h2. Agenda

* International Community Wireless Summit (May 2007)
* AT&T’s proposed citywide WiFi in St. Louis, MO
* Make a wordwide map of the wireless communities (Michel)
* freenetworks.org (Michel)
* wirelesslondon.info and consume.net (Johnathan)
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide
** South Africa

h2. Participants

* Dan Adelman, KDHX FM 88.1 / KDHX TV 21+2
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* Michel Memeteau, France Wireless
* Andre Marais, Pretoria Wireless
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Feb. 12, 2007″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/02/community_wireless_roundtable_20070212.mp3
[2]http://www.freepress.net/conference
[3]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit

Filed under: Community Wireless

January 8, 2007 • 1:50 pm 0

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Jan. 8, 2007)

h2. Agenda

* Attendance
* Announcements:
** Identify yourself and your organization
** Backchannel chat log
** Recording conference call
* OPLAN Foundation
* COMMONS Project
* “Media Reform Conference”:2 (this week)
* “International Community Wireless Summit”:3 (May 2007)
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide
** France
** Austin

h2. Participants

* Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil
* Benoit Gregoire, Île Sans Fil
* Jonathan Arbib, Rome Wireless Community
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Mike Lenczner, Ile Sans Fils
* Rich MacKinnon, Austin City Wireless
* Michel Memeteau, France Wireless
* Andre Marais, Pretoria, South Africa
* Joy Tang, One Village Foundation

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Jan. 8, 2007″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20070108.mp3
[2]http://www.freepress.net/conference
[3]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit

Filed under: Community Wireless, Community Wireless Roundtable, International, NYCwireless

January 8, 2007 • 9:33 am 0

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Nov. 5, 2006)

h2. Agenda

* WSFII/AirJaldi Summary
* CUWiN Summit Overview
* COMMONS Project Announcement
* FCC Logan Airport Ruling Overview
* Community Wireless Survey & Interviews
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide

h2. Participants

* Benoit Gregoire, Ile Sans Fils
* Dan Adelman, Director of New Media, KDHX FM 88.1 / KDHX TV 21+2
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* Ermanno Pietrosemoli
* Gabe Sawhney, Toronto Wireless
* Gregers Petersen, Denmark
* John Kibuuka, FADECO IT team
* Joseph Sekiku, FADECO
* Joy Tang, OneVillage
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Matthew Asham, British Columbia Wireless Network Society
* Michael Maranda, CTCNet Chicago
* Michael Mee, SoCalFreenet
* Mike Lenczner, Ile Sans Fils
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWIN
* Thubten Samdup (Sam), Tibetan living in Montreal Canada
* Vickram Crishna

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Nov. 5, 2006″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20061105.mp3

Filed under: Community Wireless, Community Wireless Roundtable, International, NYCwireless

January 8, 2007 • 9:31 am 0

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Sept. 28, 2006)

On September 28, a number of community wireless leaders from North America held an inaugural Community Wireless Roundtable via Skype in order to discuss the latest developments in community wireless organizations in New York, Champaign-Urbana and Montreal. The lively discussion demonstrated the benefits of more regular networking across community wireless groups nationwide and worldwide. This networking across organizations is especially important over the next six months in the lead up to the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks, which is from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

h2. Participants

* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Michael Lenczner, Île Sans Fil
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Sept. 28, 2006″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20060928.mp3

Filed under: Community Wireless, Community Wireless Roundtable, International, NYCwireless

December 27, 2006 • 11:29 am 0

NYCwireless 2006: A Year in Review

Wow! What a year 2006 has been. Wireless networks are growing at an enormous rate, and municipal and community wireless networks have had a breakout year. NYCwireless was no exception.

This year we accomplished many things. Most notably, we outpaced NYC’s Parks Department in building free, public Wi-Fi networks in city parks. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight I’m giving a presentation at our monthly NYCwireless meeting about all of the things that we’ve accomplished over the year, and also some of the things that happened around us in the wireless world.

We’ve got a great 2007 planned, and it promises to be an even bigger year for NYCwireless.

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/335212304_ca4bf54d77.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/136/335212334_385a0bc98f.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/335212401_be3a5cd2b7.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/130/335212451_5b2b4a5f80.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/162/335212481_f25a7a9d37.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/335212529_83452730e8.jpg!

!http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/335212557_4b7d2cd5f3.jpg!

Filed under: Community Wireless, New York City, NYCwireless

December 14, 2006 • 5:45 pm 0

Photos from CAIDA COMMONS workshop

The “CAIDA COMMONS workshop”:3 is over and there were a lot of great things accomplished. I’m always impressed by how dedicated all of the people involved in community networking are.

Here’s a great photo of our side trip to see “SoCalFreeNet’s”:1 network installation. Mike Mee took us up onto the roof of one of the buildings his group lit up.

!http://static.flickr.com/123/322056632_38d71da2de.jpg!:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattw/sets/72157594419100937/

You can find “more photos on flickr”:2, thanks to “Matt Westervelt”:4.

[1]http://socalfreenet.org/
[2]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattw/sets/72157594419100937/
[3]http://www.caida.org/projects/commons/
[4]http://www.seattlewireless.net/~mattw/

Filed under: CAIDA COMMONS, Community Wireless, Event, Muniwireless, NYCwireless

December 12, 2006 • 1:56 pm 0

International Icon for Wireless Internet Access

A couple of months ago I was asked by “WIRED”:2 magazine to judge a contest as part of “NextFest”:1 they were holding to create a Universal Wi-Fi Icon. In speaking with them about why they were holding the contest, the Drew Schutte, “WIRED’s”:2 publisher, told me that he and his staff saw how Wi-Fi networks, especially free, community-based ones like “NYCwireless”:3 were using their prevalence and success to cause social change. He said he believed that through Community Wireless Networks and Municipal Networks, the dream of universal, affordable internet access was finally making progress. Drew thought that with all of their organizational vision, the one thing that lots of these networks lacked was visibility. And what better way to bring some visibility to their work but to create an an icon that can be used by all of those communities to indicate the availability of free Wi-Fi.

Barbara Bloemink, Curatorial Director, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and Colleen Macklin, Design Department Chair, Parsons The New School for Design, the other judges for the icon contest, sat and discussed the many creative submissions for hours on end. The choice was difficult. We thought about lots of different directions, from showcasing the “free” part to of community wireless networks, to the internet connectivity that such networks usually provide, to the community engagement and development that generally lives at the core of such groups, to the ubiquitous nature of most municipal wireless efforts. We even had discussions about the nature of the design language that we wanted to promote with the icon choice so that when given to the community, the icon can be developed and take on a number of descriptive roles.

!http://static.flickr.com/144/320591936_cefda250a6_t.jpg!:6 !http://static.flickr.com/132/320591927_9f39f45481_t.jpg!:7 !http://static.flickr.com/131/320591920_9ebde88f6a_t.jpg!:8 !http://static.flickr.com/135/320591913_703eb1db9f_t.jpg!:9
!http://static.flickr.com/141/320591905_099ab24390_t.jpg!:10 !http://static.flickr.com/138/320591896_938c17dc0d_t.jpg!:11 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591890_05b8af528e_t.jpg!:12 !http://static.flickr.com/133/320591884_180fa19ef2_t.jpg!:13
!http://static.flickr.com/138/320591878_a949e07781_t.jpg!:14 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591867_72c1def1e9_t.jpg!:15 !http://static.flickr.com/123/320591862_230383c858_t.jpg!:16 !http://static.flickr.com/131/320591854_42e7798fe3_t.jpg!:17
!http://static.flickr.com/126/320591847_a369e15364_t.jpg!:18 !http://static.flickr.com/135/320591839_93c7efdd62_t.jpg!:19 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591830_bebf9bf415_t.jpg!:20 !http://static.flickr.com/123/320591825_98cfde7e4d_t.jpg!:21
!http://static.flickr.com/130/320591819_d4372aff37_t.jpg!:22 !http://static.flickr.com/139/320591812_e78106646b_t.jpg!:23

In the end, because of how such community and municipal networks are expanding across the world, especially in developing countries, and because we didn’t want to constrain the iconography to a single language (English), we chose a simple globe with the ubiquitous radiating signal lines. The design is both easy to understand (these networks connect us to each other throughout the world) and universal (at least, we believe that a “globe” is mostly understood as representing the Earth), and should be able to be used across the myriad community and municipal networks around the world.

The winning design was submitted by Val Frixione from Los Angeles, CA:

!http://static.flickr.com/127/320635794_598c6856ac.jpg!:24

Val says, “A wireless hot spot is like a digital oasis that enables us to connect to the world. This is the main concept behind the proposed design: the depiction of planet earth offering a wireless connection to those who need one.”

One of the interesting extensions that we finished our day discussing was the concept of locality that is a basis of most community networks. Though people understand that the internet a universal and world-wide tool, community networks are local creations, reflecting the needs and structures of local communities. For example, in New York City, our community wireless networks are based in parks and public spaces, since that’s where so many residents and visitors spend their time. Compare that to Montreal (home of “Ile Sans Fil”:5), where the culture (and weather in the winter) drive many indoors to cafes, or to Champaign-Urbana (home of “CUWiN”:4), where lack of choice and affordability of internet access has driven a suburban and rural community to develop a mesh network that grows from house to house.

In order to reflect the different types of local structures and venues, one of the first iconographic extensions I’d like to see is the creation of supplemental icons, like coffee cups, buildings, trees, houses, and so on that can be used to indicate the type of nodes that are available on the network. Such icons can appear on the node profiles and maps.

Continuing in this local context, additional icons that reflect the capabilities and content of each local node should also be developed. For example, for the urban style hotspots in New York, Montreal, and many other cities, we can have supplemental icons that indicate there’s local content, music, art, and commerce that is available at that location through the hotspot.

There are lots of other ideas that are possible. We’ll be starting to develop some of them, and others should make use of the icons and come up with other ideas as well.

[1]http://www.nextfest.net
[2]http://www.wiredmag.com
[3]http://www.nycwireless.net
[4]http://www.cuwireless.net
[5]http://www.ilesansfil.org
[6]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591936/
[7]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591927/
[8]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591920/
[9]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591913/
[10]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591905/
[11]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591896/
[12]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591890/
[13]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591884/
[14]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591878/
[15]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591867/
[16]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591862/
[17]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591854/
[18]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591847/
[19]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591839/
[20]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591830/
[21]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591825/
[22]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591819/
[23]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591812/
[24]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320635794/

Filed under: Community Wireless, International, Muniwireless, NYCwireless

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