Subject: [NEXTEL-1] The Feature - "Community Wi-Fi Stays Ahead of Commercial Efforts"

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:20:53 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
From: Anthony Townsend <[email-masked]>
Subject: The Feature - "Community Wi-Fi Stays Ahead of Commercial
Efforts"

Community Wi-Fi Stays Ahead of Commercial Efforts

By Carlo Longino, Mon May 17 23:00:00 GMT 2004

  In addition to free access, community Wi-Fi groups are offering 
applications and features commercial providers would never dream of.

  NYCwireless, which manages 8 free hotspots in Lower Manhattan, is 
sponsoring a "Community Application Prototype Contest" along with NYC's 
Downtown Alliance. The contest is looking for prototype applications 
that "use wireless technology to tie together the Lower Manhattan 
community" -- something you're not likely to see at your local 
Starbucks hotspot.

NYCwireless already offers some community features through its login 
portal, including links to local events, as well as an interactive map 
to locate restaurants, shops and other businesses near their hotspots. 
The Austin Wireless City Project also offers community features like 
chat and IM through the free Less Networks server software it uses at 
its hotspots. It's also working on new features like a hotspot list 
that will show how many users are logged on at a particular location 
and other information, so if a user is looking for someplace quiet to 
work, or someplace with a lot of activity, they can better find it.

These applications come out because groups like NYCwireless and AWCP 
have a completely different perspective than commercial providers. 
They've taken making money -- commercial hotspots' main concern -- out 
of the equation, allowing them to focus on other priorities. Community 
building doesn't show up on to commercial providers' radar, because 
they don't see a way to make money from it.

T-Mobile would never offer a hotspot list because they'd be afraid of 
the implications of being able to view how many (or really how few) 
people are on their hotspots at a given time. But a community group, 
unburdened by financial goals, sees the upside for users in offering 
such an application.

It will be cool to see what comes out of the NYC contest. It should be 
something good, if other things like Dodgeball and PacManhattan are 
anything to go by. But whatever it is, it will deepen the gap between 
commercial and community providers. Community groups already win on 
price with free hotspots, and they're already offering users something 
above and beyond simple access. You can do more for free, or pay to do 
less. Which sounds like the more viable business model?

http://www.thefeature.com/xhtml?action=article&articleid=100644

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