The next Wireless Toronto volunteer meeting – All welcome

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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:

  • Intros
  • Overview of Wireless Toronto and Goals
  • Updates from WT Board members
  • Update on the In-Site Toronto project and brief intros by the artists
  • New business and ideas

Hope to see you there!

Could mesh green the planet?

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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.

A Free Second Cup

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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.

Now Magazine: Hotspot we’re not?

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There’s a piece in today’s NOW Magazine about wifi in Toronto:
“Hotspot we’re not”

Joshua Errett mentions Wireless Toronto, the 21,000 users we serve, and quotes me pointing towards new models for free wifi.

I don’t know why this happened, but the article takes an awfully negative approach — making it seem like LinuxCaffe and Dark Horse are two of the few places in the city that offer free wifi. I posted a comment to the story, mentioning a few of my favourite places for free wifi…

BIG on Bloor, 2009

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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.

Volunteers needed for BIG on Bloor street festival (Sat 20 June)

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Hi everyone,

This Saturday (20 June) Wireless Toronto will be participating in the BIG on Bloor street festival.

The plan is to set up a temporary mesh network in an area of the festival between Ossington and Dovercourt (see the map here).

In addition, we will be manning a stall/table in that same area where we will be hanging out, using the Wi-Fi, telling people about us, selling (I heart community wi-fi) t-shirts and buttons etc.

In order to make the event a success, we’re gonna need as much help as possible. We need YOU!

There are all kinds of ways you can be of help, from setting up and testing the network itself, helping people connect, telling people what we do to just hanging out and being a smiling face of our group of friendly volunteers.

We are going to have a brief meeting on Friday (19th) at The Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina, 4th Floor) at 6pm just to go over what the following day will entail.

I encourage you all to come along! I’m sure the more people we have involved the more awesome we can make the event.

Wireless Toronto Celebrates 4 Years of Community Wi-Fi with 20,000th User

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As the recent flurry of activity on this blog may suggest, we’ve been up to quite a bit at Wireless Toronto over the past few weeks. This month we find ourselves at our fourth anniversary and passing another significant milestone, the 20,000th registered user of Toronto’s free community wireless network.

After four years we remain passionate about the opportunities that free Wi-Fi in Toronto’s public spaces can present for community and continue to do our best to encourage its development, implementation and use.

For those of you who don’t already know, we’ve been using Twitter and our Facebook page in an attempt to communicate more effectively with interested people and users of the network – so make sure to follow us there if that’s your thing.

Below is the official press release that was sent out to mark the occasion:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wireless Toronto Celebrates 4 Years of Community Wi-Fi with 20,000th User.

TORONTO, ON June 9, 2009 – Wireless Toronto has been quietly and creatively championing free wifi in the city’s cafes, parks, and public spaces since 2005.  This month, the all-volunteer group also celebrated signing up its 20,000th user to its network of over 30 hotspots across the GTA, including the newly-upgraded Dufferin Grove Park, Yonge-Dundas Square, St. Lawrence Market, and Harbourfront Centre.    


Wireless Toronto employs a community-centred model for deploying free wifi.  Internet connections and wireless equipment are paid for by the hotspot venues, or sponsors. There’s no cost to users who want to use the network, and there are no ads on Wireless Toronto community portal pages. Users are simply asked to login each time they use a hotspot.  The community wifi model has been championed in Canada by Montreal’s Ile Sans Fil, and has been successful in several cities in Quebec, Edmonton and Vancouver.


In addition to enabling users to work, learn, and communicate, Wireless Toronto hotspots offer a unique interface linking to location-specific content, which can be an opportunity to connect with people and events in the surrounding neighbourhood.  

Or, as co-founder Gabe Sawhney says, “as much as Wireless Toronto is about wi-fi and technology, it’s also about community and public space”.  

For more information and updates about Wireless Toronto:

Website: http://wirelesstoronto.ca

Blog: http://wirelesstoronto.ca/blog/

Hotspot map: http://auth.wirelesstoronto.ca/hotspots_map.php
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessToronto
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-ON/Wireless-Toronto/13780966710

Media contact:

Hilary Krupa, hilary@wirelesstoronto.ca, 647-258-1686