The WT Blog

Ivor Tossel wrote a great piece in today’s Globe, on some recent good initiatives in Toronto focusing on openness.  WT friends Mark &  Tonya Surman, Mark Kuznicki and Rob Hyndman are quoted, and WT is mentioned among other CSI tenants, Spacing Magazine and the David Suzuki Foundation.

The folks at Village Telco have an analysis of the research paper written by Wireless Toronto friends Catherine Middleton & Amelia Bryne Potter, Is it Good to Share? A Case Study of FON and Meraki Approaches to Broadband Provision.

The writer’s criticism of Middleton’s conclusion about the (perhaps inherent?) instability of ad-hoc wireless networks seems misplaced given how painfully flaky these networks appear to be.  Especially given the reference just one paragraph earlier to an incident of several Meraki networks experiencing significant outages over the holidays when many people unplugged the units in order to plug in Christmas lights.

Nevertheless, it’s great to see academic research being covered by and feeding back into the community of folks who are building the networks… thanks, Village Telco!

The City of Montreal will make an announcement in January about their investment in wifi.  Either they’ll come through on a proposal they’ve been working on for over a year with Ile Sans Fil (the very well-established local community wireless group), or they’ll try to go forward on their own, perhaps partnering with a commercial WISP.  The former option is more plausible one according to the writer of this piece (and we agree heartily):

Le réseau WiFi prendra e l’ampleur in 2009 – Canoe / Argent

Ile Sans Fil

From The Toronto Star: Toronto’s wireless network has fallen behind other cities

From MuniWireless: What ails Toronto’s city wireless network?

It is starting look a lot like . . . Winter – Christmas – Hanukkah – Kwanza – Eid ul-Adha or may be just the WIRELESS TORONTO & INDIAN ELECTRONICA’S HOLIDAY PARTY!

A special audio-visual interactive instalment of Dishoom, hosted by Wireless Toronto and Indian Electronica!

Featuring: Qasim Virjee, Abdul Smooth, Anuj Rastogi, Patrick Dinnen + Guests

Thursday December 13, 2007 @ Lot 16
1136 Queen Street West (at Lisgar St) in Toronto Canada
9PM – 2AM/close (no cover, no attitude, no samosas)
http://www.indianelectronica.com/dishoom

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Our newest hotspot is in a new kind of venue for us: a nail lounge.¬† Victoria Thorpe, the owner of Buff Nail Lounge, says that many of her customers who come in during the day have asked if they have wifi available, so that they can check email and keep in touch with the office…

The coffee-chain up start Country Style, at 2323 Yonge (small block north of Eglinton), is advertising free wifi.  Anyone tried it?  And anyone tried the coffee?

It’s not one of our hotspots, but it’s great to hear that the Toronto Public Library is finally getting into wifi. Found via Shawn at Spacing wire (with a bonus nod to Wireless Toronto).

…laptops get lonely when they can‚Äôt connect to anything, and sometimes books just aren‚Äôt enough.

There are little signs around the library directing people to the 1st and 2nd floor to connect, but I’m on the 4th floor now and my Powerbook is picking up a usable signal.

…Best part of the TRL wifi is all you do is hook up, check a box that says you agree to terms and conditions, and that‚Äôs it, you‚Äôre on.

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!

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An interesting article in today’s G+M, talking about a project in Winnipeg that levers the (relatively) low-cost of wireless internet access and the experience and reach of some local community groups.

Closing the digital divide in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG ‚Äî One of Winnipeg’s poorest neighbourhoods is poised to become the city’s only high-tech wireless Internet corridor, offering free access to low-income people.Currently, there are hot spots associated with businesses throughout the city, but no neighbourhoods have joined the trend towards wireless Internet access.Point Douglas is on its way to becoming the first.

“The Point Douglas area is one of the lowest-income areas in the city,” said Rhonda McCorriston, Neeginan Institute of Applied Technology education director.

…

The Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg has already installed a wireless antenna on its building with the help of Smart Partners of Manitoba and the Computer Lending Library.

Smart Partners of Manitoba, a non-profit group that focuses on giving low-income people access to computer and Internet technology, plans to loan out 1,000 computers.

It’s really refreshing to see a partnership that seems to understand that narrowing the digital divide (nobody’s favorite phrase, but what can you do…) entails more than just “getting online”. That is, it’s also about providing access to hardware, support for online learning and use, and ensuring that programs are shaped to anticipate and address the specific needs of the community it serves.

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