The WT Blog

As of this morning, free wifi is available at Alternative Grounds; one of my favourite coffee places in the city.  Drop in when you’re on Roncesvalles!

Downtown omnivores may be happy to know that the newest Wireless Toronto hotspot is at St. Louis Bar & Grill, in the Atrium on Bay (and with an entrance on Edward Street, right across from World’s Biggest Bookstore). It opened just this summer, and looks great!

Good news east-enders, The Carrot Common has joined our community wireless network. Coverage favours the central courtyard with the signal reaching into The Big Carrot’s seating area and the organic juice bar that faces Danforth. Drop by next time you cross The Don.

More hotspots: http://auth.wirelesstoronto.ca/hotspots_map.php

[From http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1821 ]

When: Tuesday, May 15th, starting at 7pm
Where: Fermenting Cellar, Distillery District
Who: DJ Chris Thinn
How Much: $10 gets you into the building, plus food
Cash Bar

Dear Torontonian,

The Festival of Architecture and Design will take place again in May, and the folks at ERA Architects, Spacing Magazine and [murmur] are throwing another Toronto the Good party to celebrate your faithful city. This year the Toronto Society of Architects are also co-hosting, and they will be announcing the winner of their ‚ÄúDesign Matters‚Äù competition, which will be on display during the party. They also want to introduce all of you to Wireless Toronto, an all-volunteer community group celebrating their 2nd anniversary providing free community wireless hotspots in caf?©s, bars, and outdoor places like Dufferin Grove Park and Dundas Square. Come by anytime for some food, drink, interactive and wireless games, and a room full of nice people who care about me.

Love,
Toronto

Toronto the Good is an annual party celebrating some of the good stuff that Toronto has to offer. Wireless Toronto is mucho honoured to be a featured guest at this year’s event.

Here are the details, hot off the press of the Spacing blog:

The Festival of Architecture and Design will take place again in May, and the folks at ERA Architects, Spacing Magazine and [murmur] are throwing another Toronto the Good party to celebrate your faithful city. This year the Toronto Society of Architects are also co-hosting… They also want to introduce all of you to Wireless Toronto, an all-volunteer community group celebrating their 2nd anniversary providing free community wireless hotspots in caf?©s, bars, and outdoor places like Dufferin Grove Park and Dundas Square. Come by anytime for some food, drink, interactive and wireless games…

When: Tuesday, May 15th, starting at 7pm
Where: Fermenting Cellar, Distillery District
Who: DJ Chris Thinn
How Much: $10 gets you into the building, plus food
Cash Bar

Hope to see many Wireless Toronto friends, supporters and just plain curious at TTG this year, it should be a lot of fun.

UPDATE: The event website is now up: torontothegood.org

Hey hey hey, the most recent addition to Wireless Toronto’s Community Network is Sierra Grill. This casual restaurant is conveniently located across from the Bayview subway station (go for the TTC art, stay for the food and WiFi).

We’re happy to announce our latest hotspot. Sneaky Dee’s, a Toronto institution, is now live for wifi upstairs and down.

From page 3 of the Toronto section of today’s Globe and Mail:

Pack up your modem in your old kit bag
A local activist’s portable hot spot brings the Internet in a backpack

BERT ARCHER

Wireless Toronto, a volunteer group devoted to providing location-specific Internet content across the city through a series of free Wi-Fi hot spots, has been meeting every month for two years to plan new spots and strategies.

But recently they decided they would like to have more fun in 2007, so starting this month, they’re getting together for something called Hack Nights.

Their first project, which they will be field-testing today, is a spanner in the growing Wi-Fi service-industry works, an ambulatory Internet system they call “the Roach Coach.”

“It comes from the nickname for snack trucks,” group founder Gabe Sawhney says. “It came from wanting to offer Wi-Fi for gatherings at Nathan Phillips Square.”

FULL STORY

Wireless Toronto get a mention in this week’s Now Magazine, in the Best of Toronto: Tech piece.

In July, not-for-profit group Wireless Toronto helped give the public a new reason to visit the square. Over the summer a steady flow of laptop users began occupying tables and other corners of the big granite slab. The free WiFi service is giving people something to do other than stare at the advertising or run through the fountains while they take their lunch break and soak up the summer sun.

It’s really great to get this recognition in Now. And they’re not wrong about the steady flow of laptop users in the Square either. I just checked the stats and 850 people have signed up from Y-D Square since we launched there, under four months ago. That’s pretty impressive.

• get involved, come out to our monthly meetings at¬†6 PM on the third Wednesday of the month at 215 Spadina
• you can work with us to get your favourite publicly accessible spot to have free WiFi
• donate $20, $50 or whatever you can afford to support WT through our PayPal donation button