Wireless in WNC

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Initial instigators: Bill Arledge, Bob Houghton, Alice io Oglesby

• Wireless Committee mailing list.
• lst  meeting: The Wireless Committee, facilitated by Sharon Willen of the Information Technology Council of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, Thursday, June 17, 2004, 9 – 11 a.m., Chamber of Commerce Board Room.
  • Minutes 6-17-04 (.doc file)
• 2nd meeting. July 13, 2004, Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Chamber of Commerce Board Room.
  • Meeting agenda (Word .doc)
• 3rd meeting, Aug. 13, 2004 Chamber of Commerce Board Room.
  • Minutes 8-13-2004.html
• 4th meeting, Sept. 17, 2004, 9 a.m., Chamber of Commerce Board Room.

   

  • Please R.S.V.P. to Jennifer Joyce at 258-6117 (houghton@email.wcu.edu)

• Sub-Committees

  • a)      Technical Issues- led by Ryan Hodges

    • http://www.meshdynamics.com/Publications/MDStructuredMesh.pdf

    • http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/3374301

    • http://www.streakwave.com/Product-Antenna24.asp

    • http://www.netgate.com/NL2511.html

    • siting of wireless nodes tools http://www.signull.com/products-list.html

  • b)      Models and Mission- led by Bob Houghton and Alice Oglesby

  • c)      Outreach- led by Bill Arledge and Scott Swickle

The Wireless Committee's goal is to raise community visibility and reputation as a high-tech leader to further attract businesses and visitors to our communities. Greater wireless capacity is a fundamental goal. Application of wireless tech is an important related goal. The first wireless wave sought to make location irrelevant. The second wave is "to make location matter-to marry wireless and place" (CIO, 3/15/2003). "By the end of this year (2004) half of all laptops shipped will be Wi-Fi-equipped, allowing laptop owners to set up temporary offices in the local cafe or public park (Stone, 2004). Future laptops are predicted to be over 90% wi-fi capable.

This page is designed for the time being as one long page instead of branches to make printout more convenient. It addresses basic questions. What do we know? What do we wish to know?

What do we know?

Wireless Trade Publications

• RCR Wireless News  http://rcrnews.com/

Wireless community development news

  What's new and useful in wireless computer networking? Click the link to the left and select "Post a Reply" and participate!

• New! WiFi Clouds and Zones: A survey of Municipal Wireless Initiatives http://www.nmi.uga.edu/research/WiFiResearch.asp
• international newsgroup alt.internet.wireless
• blogs http://www.wifinetnews.com/  ;  http://reiter.weblogger.com/

• Wireless Technology Solutions

Conferences

• August 20-22, 2004 A Summit For Wi-Fi Activists

General News

• Search Google news for wireless wi-fi
• Selling Wi-Fi presents serious challenges. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/06/16/wi.fi.roadkill.ap/ June 16, 2004
• Wi-Fi technology is great, but how to sell it? USA Today. June 14, 2004
• Making Free Wireless Internet Pay. "The New York Times' Matt Richtel writes about the the challenges of finding a sustainable business model for 802.11 , June 7, 2004
• Wireless Works up a Willing Following Cynthia L. Webb http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3464-2004May5.html May 5, 2004
• WiFi Security, Complexity and Future Debated. 12/05/03 http://www.technewsworld.com/story/32322.html
• Raleigh, NC. More hotels offer Wi-Fi access. http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1339943p-7462700c.html
• WirelessCommunities This is a list of community wireless groups who are building free and open networks.
• 1/8/2004, Wireless broadband network on horizon http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2004-01-08-verizon_x.htm

Need for Broadband and Internet Access

• Sept. 30, 2002 Faster Internet access slow to get to rural counties http://www.citizen-times.com/cache/article/news/21000.shtml

Specific Wireless City Projects

• Winston-Salem, NC. City Wins Public Technology Award for WiFi on Fourth. June 3, 2004
  • See www.cityofws.org and click on the picture icon that says WiFi on Fourth link. For more information about Public Technology go to www.pti.org.
• Long Beach: The City Behind the Hotzone
• Wireless Athens Georgia Zone (WAGz). "The WAGz is a "wireless cloud" that provides WiFi connectivity in the public spaces in downtown Athens. The WAGz is a real-world research test-bed where we can build prototype mobile media systems, experiment with new devices, and investigate what people want to do with this powerful new technology." What is also impressive is the national press coverage given this work. Scroll the page to see the news links.
  • Search using wireless athens georgia
• SFLan Community Wireless - San Francisco
• Portland, Oregon. Free for All. http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=5186&page=1
•  Spokane, Washington Vivato Road Trip (unwired 40 block area for a weekend special event, June 2003) ; Spokane airport goes wi-fi; 100 blocks of downtown to follow ;
• San Jose, California
• New York. Application Case Study : Verizon Hotspots.
• Sydney, Australia. 9 Jun 2004 Personal Broadband Australia (PBA)
  First out of the blocks was Personal Broadband Australia (PBA), a 1 Megabit per second wireless data network across most of the Sydney metropolitan area
• RTP wireless developments. Downtowns Get Internet Saavy
• The Austin Wireless City Project http://www.austinwirelesscity.org/about.php
  • A Nonprofit, a City Council, and a Private Sector Walk Into a Park http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-11/screens_feature4.html
  • How Richard MacKinnon and the Wireless City Project are making Austin the center of the tech universe again http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-11/screens_feature.html

Applications

• Professional Videoconferencing - wireless and wired
• Collaborative Community Instant Messenger and newsgroups action teams
• Nimbus. It lets a user set up a list of likewise-equipped friends, then anytime a user is downtown, she can find out which of her "buddies" are also in the area—and where they are hanging out (Athens, Georgia).
• music tour, a hip, wireless version of those museum walking tours
• http://wirelessreview.com/ar/wireless_scott_shampuniversity_georgia/
• http://www.urbanchallenge.com/sanfrancisco/

Web sites tracking wireless hotspots and activity

• Most comprehensive http://jiwire.com

• Wired free hotspots http://www.wiredfreespot.com/nc.html

• Wireless free hotspots http://www.wififreespot.com/nc.html

• http://www.ezgoal.com/hotspots/wireless/f.asp?fid=57659

• http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com

• The Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit group for WiFi service and manufacturing companies, has a Web site with various WiFi information and resources.
• WiFinder
• The Wi-Fi Alliance  Zone Finder page
• WiFi conference
• http://www.muniwireless.com,  reports about citywide wireless broadband projects around the world, by Esme Vos, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• WiMax Forum (WiMax extends the range of Wi-Fi from yards to miles while setting new standards for interoperability but runs several times slower)
• Wireless Node Database
   

Area wireless hotspots below drawn from the above databases.

The data has not been confirmed by actually calling these places. Are there others?

Free

1. Old Europe Coffee House - 18 Battery Park Ave., Asheville
2. Biltmore Coffee Traders (linked to jiwire map) 32 Hendersonville Road, Asheville
3. The Log Cabin Motor Court - 330 Weaverville Highway, Asheville
4. True Confections - 1 Page Av, Asheville (828) 350-9480
5. True Confections - Grove Arcade, Suite 147, Asheville 828-350-9478
6. Bean Streets - 3 Broadway Ave, Asheville
7. Port City Java - 35 Battery Park, Asheville 828-225-7841
8. Port City Java, 870 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville NC 28804, no info on cost
9. Relaxed Reader Cafe and Bookstore - 721 Haywood Rd, Asheville 828-225-6677
10. The Ideal Market Cafe, 733 Haywood Road, West Asheville  
11. Malaprops Bookstore/Café - 51 Haywood Street, Asheville
12. SpringHill Suites Asheville - Two Buckstone Place - 828-253-4666
13. Courtyard Asheville - One Buckstone Place
14. Willow Winds Resort Cabins - 39 Stockwood Road Ext. - (828) 277-3948
15. The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa - 290 Macon Ave - 800-438-5800
16. Fairfield Inn Asheville Airport, 31 Airport Park Road, Fletcher NC 28732
17. Asheville Regional Airport, AVL: 708 Airport Road Fletcher, Asheville NC 28732
     

Fee

Links go to jiwire's site which provides map of location and further contact information

1. Renaissance Asheville Hotel 1 Thomas Wolfe Plaza, Asheville ($7.95 per day)

2. Starbucks Biltmore Village 40 All Souls Crescent Street, Asheville ($9.99 per day)

3. Wilcox Travel 1 West Pack Square, Suite 1700, Asheville ($7.95 per day)

4. Residence Inn Asheville Biltmore 701 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville (no price info)

5. Kinko's Bryson St, 17 Bryson St, Asheville (no price info)

6. Starbucks Biltmore Village, 40 All Souls Crescent Street, Asheville (no price info)

Other

• Jellystone Cherokee, 317 Galamore Bridge Road, Cherokee NC 28719, USD 5.95 per day

Does anyone know of hotspots in the western counties? So far the online hotspot databases have not reported any wireless access West of Asheville to the Tennessee border. Western Carolina University has numerous wireless hotspots but they all require passwords and are open only to WCU members.

Known Interested Wireless and Internet Specialists

• T-Mobile HotSpot;
• StayOnline;
• iPass;
• Boingo;
• Spencer Levleit of The Village Link;
• http://www.e-nc.org/ of the eNC Authority;
• Don Davis, President, Skyrunner, which is already providing wireless Internet access in many areas of downtown via several mountain top and building top sites that they lease.
• Clearwire http://www.clearwire.com/

What do we wish to know?

Meta-analysis

• Which of these questions are most important and in what order should they be addressed?
• What relevant questions have not been asked?

Questions

The questions are numbered but this does not indicate any priority. Numbering just makes it convenient to direct others to individual questions for the sake of discussion.

1. Are we seeking to be a clearinghouse for wireless information, a champion for selected wireless projects, or a supplier of wireless? Some combination?
2. Is wireless a good thing for Asheville? Why? Who will it benefit? Who will it affect adversely? Has broadband Internet become as important as lighted public areas, maintained streets and public education? If it is, should it cost like a public pathway or like an expensive health club?
3. How do we assess potential market demand? That is, if we build it, will they come?
4. Are we developing a plan to take to the City Council for expenditure of funds to build a public wireless system, a public transit for ideas or planning to hire consultants to build wireless co-op or working on a business services model?
5. Are thinking global and planning local, that is developing a regional model that any entity can build on? Are we planning something that BellSouth  or the eNC Authority or someone else is already planning?
6. Depending on our goals are we thinking months or years for a product?
7. Are there other web sites trying to track wireless access points?
8. Who has a list of fee based access for hotels, motels, etc. for Asheville?
9. Who has a list of future plans by companies of either free or fee based Internet access in Asheville and region? Can Internet providers in our area help us out here without violating confidentiality?
10. How does one add value to "city wireless" beyond adding wireless hubs? How does a project distinguish itself or add value to the ideas of wireless leaders such as Austin, Texas? (See link or handout.)
11. What criteria do we use to determine wireless value? Suggestions: number of accesses; degree of use of site features that are yet to be determined.
12. Can value added be effectively determined without a free login requirement?
13. If part of the purpose is to address digital divide issues in the community, is it not also important to provide an inexpensive or free computer? Polk County has run a checkout program of a couple of hundred laptops to middle school students for years. Could the Council promote something similar only using cheaper handheld wireless units?
14. Can we build alliances with other community groups that would further all agendas? The Austin team put a wireless hub in a park area. How might wireless promote Greenway use, security and safety? For example, we might connect with the Greenway project teams and ACE  http://www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/programs/aces/index.php  "Creating Active Community Environments (ACEs) represents a valuable opportunity for public health practitioners interested in increasing opportunities for people to be physically active. ACEs are places where people are able and encouraged to walk, bike, or roll for both pleasure and purpose."
15. How should we organize for further activity?
16. Has anyone read the books in the bibliography below and can comment on usefulness or relevance? Other book suggestions?

Book Bibliography

• Duntemann, Jeff (2003). Jeff Duntemann's Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide. 4Paraglyph Press; 400 pages ; ISBN: 1932111743.
• Flickenger , Rob (2003). Building Wireless Community Networks, 2nd Edition. O'Reilly & Associates; 2nd edition; 176 pages;  ISBN: 0596005024.
• Unger, Jack (2003). Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks. Cisco Press; 1st edition, 352 pages ; ISBN: 1587050692.

Updated July 19, 2004 12:25 a.m. Author: Houghton