We first set up a wirelesstoronto node at The Carrot Common on the Danforth in June 2007, but it spent over a year offline since then. Michael and I got it back up a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been working great…
I had seen the ecstatic proclamation of free wifi at Starbucks in the US a few weeks ago, but missed the announcement that the deal was coming to Canada on July 1st too.
To be clear, “free wifi” of a sort had been available at Starbucks previously: you had to have a Starbucks.com account, and by logging in you could get 2 free hours/day. The new free wifi service is two-click: agree to the terms and click connect. (“Free wifi” versus “free free wifi”? “Free+libre wifi”?)
When you do so, it takes you to what is currently an almost blank version of the Sympatico portal: http://starbucks.sympatico.ca/home
I don’t know what the equivalent page looks like in the US, but I’m guessing that it’s more elaborate:
(more…)
Mo’s post to our mailing list:
After spending a lovely afternoon in Dufferin Grove the weekend before last, and seeing the enthusiasm so many people have about the wireless access there, I feel inspired to get together and make something new happen.
i think it might be a good time to get together and start hatching new plans.
Personally, I’d like to explore the idea that if we pick just one of all the great ideas that have been kicking around WT lately, and all get behind making it happen in the next two months, the combined energy and teamwork might help generate enough momentum to roll us into other projects.
So we’re on for Wednesday the 26th.
Let’s meet at the 3 Brewers on Yonge Street, south of Dundas, at 7pm.
Bring ideas!!
In just the past few months, two new sites have launched, collecting & mapping info on locations of free wifi locations in Toronto.
“FWIT” offers short writeups on many spots:
http://www.freewifiintoronto.blogspot.com/
http://torontoist.com/2009/12/free_wifi_fo_fum.php
TOwifi.info intends to map a user-gen list of hotspots, the WT hotspots, the TPL hotspots, and paid hotspots:
http://towifi.info/
http://ptoone.com/index/ptoone-launches-towifi-info-a-free-map-of-wifi-spots-in-toronto/
The original (as far as I know) in Toronto was Wireless Bandit, which was active from 2003-2005:
http://www.wirelessbandit.com/
I really liked the Seattle/Vancouver Wifi Mug, but the wiki’s filling up with spam and the Google Map is broken:
http://vancouver.wifimug.org/index.cgi
hotspotr.com is attempting a global wifi map:
http://hotspotr.com/wifi/map/614-toronto-canada
There are a bunch of important challenges to successfully running a site like this:
1) Collecting the information, either through legwork or by encouraging contributions from others.
2) Presenting the information in a helpful way, recognizing that different people will have different needs. (Is the captive portal mobile-friendly? Are there lots of power outlets? etc.)
3) Surely the hardest: keeping it up-to-date.
People often (very often) mistake wirelesstoronto.ca as a website which maps free hotspots in Toronto (while in reality we set up free hotspots) — clearly people are looking for this kind of info. While we’d love to also map out others’ free wifi hotspots, we’ve got our hands full running and expanding our network… I hope that one (or more!) of these sites are successful!
Wireless Toronto’s newest hotspot is at The 3 Brewers, at 275 Yonge St., just south of Yonge-Dundas Square. The place is huge, and besides their brewed-on-site beers, they’re known for their tartes flambée (Hilary will be happy!).
Tip: the wifi is stronger on the lower floors.
Hey everyone!
The next Wireless Toronto Volunteer Meeting will be on Monday November 9th, from 5:45-8pm at the Centre for Social Innovation (Ste 120), 215 Spadina.
We haven’t met in a while, so it’s a great time to come out if you’ve never been to one of our meetings. We’ll catch everyone up on what we’ve been up to, and talk about some opportunities this spring and summer. Lots of ways to get involved, for designers, techies, writers, community folks, etc.
Generally speaking, we’ll be talking about the following:
Hope to see you there!
Probably not; but it could help us go nuclear free (and save a little money).
You see, that cable modem sitting in the corner is living off base-load power, and base-load power in Ontario is largely supplied by the Nuclear Industry. Eliminate the cable modem, and reduce our other base-loads, and we eliminate one of the excuses used to justify Nuclear. Now that has to be a good thing!
All we each need do is get together with some neighbours and build a little community mesh network! Unplugging 6W cable modems more than compensates for the 2W mesh nodes.
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One source of mesh nodes is http://www.open-mesh.com, I’m sure there are others.
If eliminating 6 watts by unplugging a cable modem doesn’t sound like much, try multiplying it by the approx 1 million internet cable subscribers on Ontario. It works out to the power output of several wind-turbines.
No not the coffee, the wireless. Second Cup has started making its wif-fi available for free. I guess the’ve realised that charging for wi-fi is a loosing cause.
They do expect you to register (and the form thinks you’re willing to provide all your personal detail just short of your first born 
but other than that its free.
Last weekend a few Wireless Toronto volunteers has a great time at the BIG on Bloor street festival. Despite a rainy start, we managed to set up a mesh network covering Bloor Street between Ossington and Dovercourt for the duration of the day, and meet some cool people along the way. Imagine if Wi-Fi on Bloor was a permanent thing! See some images from the day below, or at our Flickr group.
Thanks to everyone that helped out.
Matt Hartley wrote an impressively balanced article on free wifi in today’s Globe and Mail: Free My Wifi. (I particularly appreciate the teaser on the front page of the Globe: “Is WiFi the future or the past?”) The first line refers to the WT spot at Harbourfront Centre, the article quotes WT friend Catherine Middleton, and Hartley graciously gives me the last word: “An effort to make Internet access more easily and cheaply available to low-income residents of the city seems like a great initiative. But the devil is always in the details.”
As the article mentions, Councillor Minnen-Wong is still working out the details of his plan to provide free wifi in the city’s public housing. We haven’t spoken with him yet, but hope to soon. His project is ambitious, and — we suspect — would be prohibitively expensive if implemented following a traditional approach to IT management. A community approach — besides being cheaper — could have a wide range of unexpected benefits, like creating opportunities for inter-generational and -cultural collaboration.