Wifi in Vancouver
My article in the Courier on wireless Internet in Vancouver is finally online. Please click through and drive up the pageviews.
It's been a long time coming, but I'm more or less satisfied with it. In hindsight, I wish I had treated it as a three-sided issue: city government vs. citizen activist vs. corporate providers. It isn't necessarily an antagonistic relationship: you can get Internet for free if you give up security and guaranteed service, but if you're willing to pay for it, you get access everwhere. I think an informal network of local providers (i.e. restaurants, community services, neighborhood associations, strata councils) could coexist with blanket for-pay coverage from a telco like Telus or Rogers.
The technology could evolve to suit both types of users. For instance, your cellphone, PDA or music player could be set so that designed so that it constantly sniffs for free wifi. When it goes online, it receives and sends emails, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on. It isn't real time, but it does give you fresh content as you move around the city. If you want real time connectivity, you shell out the extra money for that. Telcos do offer blanket, wireless connectivity, but with technologies other than wifi, like EVDO. Subscribers get access everywhere, but the box is the size of a paperback book, and receive only a stingy few megabytes of traffic each month. As flawed as wifi is, it's cheap and simple and ubiquitous.
So, what's next for me? How do I keep the momentum going?
It's been a long time coming, but I'm more or less satisfied with it. In hindsight, I wish I had treated it as a three-sided issue: city government vs. citizen activist vs. corporate providers. It isn't necessarily an antagonistic relationship: you can get Internet for free if you give up security and guaranteed service, but if you're willing to pay for it, you get access everwhere. I think an informal network of local providers (i.e. restaurants, community services, neighborhood associations, strata councils) could coexist with blanket for-pay coverage from a telco like Telus or Rogers.
The technology could evolve to suit both types of users. For instance, your cellphone, PDA or music player could be set so that designed so that it constantly sniffs for free wifi. When it goes online, it receives and sends emails, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on. It isn't real time, but it does give you fresh content as you move around the city. If you want real time connectivity, you shell out the extra money for that. Telcos do offer blanket, wireless connectivity, but with technologies other than wifi, like EVDO. Subscribers get access everywhere, but the box is the size of a paperback book, and receive only a stingy few megabytes of traffic each month. As flawed as wifi is, it's cheap and simple and ubiquitous.
So, what's next for me? How do I keep the momentum going?