Looks like more NYC parks (and one beach) are going wireless.  NYCwireless is the community wireless group that started it all with free wi-fi Bryant Park (2002) and more recently, Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Now, as this NYT article describes, 18 more parks are set to be “lit up” by end of month.  The “hot spots” will be ready to go by the end of next month at Battery, Central and Riverside Parks in Manhattan; Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks and Orchard Beach in the Bronx.  A beach!

This rollout is also free, but is commercially-driven, as Wi-Fi Salon’s partnership with Nokia and $90K contract agreement with the City indicates:

Wi-Fi Salon, a small company started by an Upper East Side entrepreneur, Marshall W. Brown, won the three-year contract in October 2004, agreeing to make quarterly payments of $7,500 — totaling $90,000 over three years — or 10 percent of gross receipts from advertising and other sources, whichever is greater.

It looks like the “location-specific portal” is part of the plan here too – albeit with a clear focus on paid advertising over (free) user-generated content or community events and information:

 At each hot spot, users will encounter an initial Web portal with information about the park and local history and advertisements for Nokia and other sponsors, which could include retail kiosks that do business in the parks.

Interesting variation on the non-profit model that has already been pretty darn effective here in Toronto and other cities (Montreal, NYC, Seattle, Austin). 

Actually, the description of the lag in providing wireless on the part of NYC Parks sounds very familiar to Toronto’s situation:

The parks department’s own effort, covering some of the city’s largest and most heavily used parks, began around the same time but has proceeded in fits and starts. Verizon Communications initially won the contract in April 2004, only to withdraw a month later after concluding that the venture would not be cost-effective.

Despite an obvious advantage of offering free wi-fi in Toronto’s public parks and community spaces, the City has yet to launch any public access points of their own either.  (But that’s ok, we’re doing our best to make up for this! 🙂

But efforts like this one in NYC might help overcome reticence at the City (of Toronto).

I just hope Toronto would consider a non-commercial model of provision – we’re already subject to so much advertising in our daily urban lives, parks and beaches are one place where it’d be nice to (physically and virtually) be granted a reprieve. 

Indeed, it is arguable whether ad-supported wireless networks are even a cost-effective (let alone civic/responsible) way to go.  This is something Anthony blogged about (and that I reblogged) a few months ago.

But the one thing that really piqued my interest about this was the BEACH.  !!!  This is something I hadn’t considered before… This opens up a whole new realm of desired wireless zones in Toronto – Centre Island, Sunnyside, Ashbridges Bay – especially in the summer, free wi-fi in these places would be great for us Torontonians and out-of-towners alike!

Continue reading →