NYCwireless

LIRR and MetroNorth RFP for Train and Station Wi-Fi

Dana Spiegel — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:23:11 +0000

We missed this item last week, but it seems that the MTA has put out an RFP for Wi-Fi service on LIRR and MetroNorth trains and at stations. You can download the PDF (3mb) or view it inline.

NYC MTA Wireless Broadband RFP 2010

Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Net News has a great writeup about this RFP, which leaves a lot to be desired:

The MTA wants a service provider who would operate a network to bear all the expense of installation and operation (including railroad labor costs for same), provide 24×7 customer support, and uninterrupted service.

But the proposal is pretty muddled. While digital advertising (changeable signs on board trains and at stations) should be part of a bidder’s thinking to minimize the cost in installing such systems, there’s no spec for those systems. A bidder can build a bid partly around offering such services. The MTA also likes bids in which the authority shares in revenue.

I don’t see how this could fly. No sensible firm would propose taking on all this expense without any assurance of revenue beyond the public Wi-Fi side of the system. Despite the large number of passengers, many of those most likely to pay already have 3G service on smartphones or through laptop cards. There’s no operational services component, and that should be the baseline for any new rail RFP of the last five years.

Event: How the Internet Works – and how to Protect Freedom Online

Dana Spiegel — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:38:24 +0000

This is a great upcoming event, and NYCwireless will be there:

Voterbook Manhattan, the Media and Democracy Coalition, People’s Production House and Free Press invite you to a panel and town hall:

WHEN: Saturday, April 3, 2 p.m.
WHERE: P.S. 20, the Anna Silver School
166 Essex Street, Lower East Side

A town hall discussion and panel about Internet access, what it means in our community, the threats from big cable and phone companies to censor your speech online – and how you can fight back.

PANELISTS:
Kris Rios, media policy associate with People’s Production House
Tim Karr, campaign director with Free Press
Dr. Michael Livermore, director of the NYU School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity
… and more!

Free and open to all. We will be screening some of the People’s Production House documentary “The Internet is Serious Business,” taking questions, and having a lively discussion.

For more information and to RSVP, contact Jeff Kurzon at jeffkurzon@gmail.com, or Hannah Miller at hmiller@media-democracy.net or 215-888-8036.

We look forward to seeing you!

Free Wi-Fi in Penn Station!

Dana Spiegel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:09:31 +0000

Our intrepid, on-the-street Wi-Fi sleuth Klaus Ernst has discovered that Penn Station now has some free Wi-Fi courtesy of Amtrak. Wandering through the station, he snagged a screenshot of the login screen from his iPod Touch.

Klaus tells us that the connection is speedy (7Mbps down/1.7 up), and that its available throughout the Amtrak waiting area and most of the rest of that level. The free Wi-Fi in Penn Station is part of Amtrak’s recently launched Wi-Fi program on their Acela trains.

Let us know if you try out this network or the one on the Acela trains. We’d love to hear about people’s experiences!

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks: August 12-15, 2010 in Vienna, Austria

Dana Spiegel — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:42:57 +0000

Those of you involved in building Community Wireless Networks likely have heard of Sascha Meinrath’s International Summit for Community Wireless Networks. He started the event a number of years ago when he was still at UIUC, and its the still the best place to meet and work with community network organizers from around the world.

This year, the Summit is truly going international: its moved to Vienna, Austraia! NYCwireless will be there, and so should all of you. Check out the press release:

The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, Tech Gate Vienna, the CUWiN Foundation, and the Acorn Active Media Foundation are pleased announce that the annual International Summit for Community Wireless Networks will take place in Vienna, Austria from August 12-15, 2010.

Internet access is increasingly important to all facets of civil society. Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, tens of thousands of community and municipal broadband initiatives have been deployed around the globe, but many communities are being left out of this communications revolution. “The global coalition of developers, communities, industry, and advocates working together over the past decade has created one of the most disruptive and far-reaching technological innovations of our generation, yet few know about it and fewer still have taken advantage of this opportunity,” says Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Initiative and the Summit’s founder. “The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks is the nexus around which this movement swaps notes, strategizes, and organizes its agenda for development and implementation of ubiquitous, affordable broadband networks.”

2010 marks the first year that this group of technologists, entrepreneurs, government officials, academics and engaged citizens will convene outside the United States, a critical step to broaden and deepen international involvement in what truly is a global movement. Participants will learn from each other’s examples, exchange strategies and anecdotes, and build partnerships that strengthen alliances among projects.

Vienna possesses a rich and diverse mix of established technology companies and start ups, new media organizations, researchers and cultural producers as well as a remarkable number of institutions of higher learning. Not only is Vienna well positioned among the top international leaders in the information economy, the city is also home to FunkFeuer, one of the most advanced community wireless networks in the world. FunkFeuer is highly respected internationally for its technical and social innovations, its many collaborations with university researchers and artists, and the scale and scope of its network. The Summit will provide an opportunity to expand upon FunkFeuer’s successes and spread best-methods for developing sustainable metro-scale wireless mesh networks.

The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks focuses on how wireless networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations in the field.

More information on the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks, including a call for proposals, registration, and other logistical information, will be available in the coming weeks at www.wirelesssummit.org.

We look forward to seeing you in August!

ANNOUNCE: City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community (in SF)

Dana Spiegel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:41:59 +0000

Our good friend Kari Gray is helping to create a technology arts festival in San Francisco this year called “City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community“. Kari originally contacted us about Spectropolis, our Wireless Arts festival from a few years ago, wanting to create something similar out on the west coast. What her team came up with is significantly and impressively more than Spectropolis was, while keeping the core goals of wireless technology and community engagement (leave it to a San Franciscan to one-up us on these concepts!).

There’s an open call for projects, and we think everyone should submit something to the festival. NYC has a lot of innovative, creative, artistic nerds and nerdy artists, and more representation of our great city in SF can only be a good thing!

Recent exhibitions, festivals and conferences across the US and in Europe have taken wireless networks, public space, locative media and urban environments as sites of intervention, creativity, and critique. Formulated within the emerging context of networked urbanism and mobile media, City Centered: A Festival of Locative Media and Urban Community will focus upon dynamics of the shifting, locative, cartographic and social space of the city. It is organized by educational, arts, community-based and civic organizations and asks how locative media can act as a platform and venue for community-led expression.

From within San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, this festival will celebrate the rich possibilities that art and technology offer for urban communication of place and place-based media. City Centered focuses on the use of locative media and wireless technologies for site-specific and neighborhood-based interventions. Artists, designers, architects, community and cultural workers –people, places, and devices — will meet for four days of street-side celebration, public exhibitions, a symposium, and workshops. The festival seeks new work aligned with the themes of creative mapping, urban storytelling, sentient space, body awareness, local history, contested spaces and gaming.

The festival’s main goals are:

to promote creative public use of free wi fi and open networks in the city of San Francisco

to encourage meaningful collaboration between artists and local organizations in connection with wireless networks

to introduce site-specific locative media art to urban places

CBSMobileZone Shut Down?

Dana Spiegel — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:38:29 +0000

Our roving Wi-Fi reporter, Klaus Ernst, has checked out the Times Square area again looking for CBSMobileZone hotspots that were online (though barely functional) a few months ago. Here’s his report:

when trying to connect at a CBSMobileZone lately I keep getting redirected to:

no aptilo terms of service page coming up. Also the “cbsmobilezone.com” Website is gone. Could be accessed from anywhere not just their hotspots.

Right by CBS on Sixth Av I caught a good one: upper case and lower case. Was always like that. My guess is that the lower case was their tryout and they never corrected it.

The last time I was able to connect to CBSMobileZone was on Nov. 28 (Subway entrance 7th Av and 53 St) I checked the stats from an email I sent from there. The hotspots have definitely something to do with Verizon:

from [10.128.6.248] (pool-71-167-227-24.nycmny.east.verizon.net[71.167.227.24])

So is CBSMobileZone history? Have you heard anything?

So, has anyone heard anything about CBSMobileZone? Is it in fact quietly shut down?

PluggedIn NYC: Mobile and Social Media Summit on January 12, 2010

Dana Spiegel — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:08:35 +0000

Members of NYCwireless have been invited to participate in PluggedIn, a great social media event on January 12, 2010. Be sure to register and use discount code “plugged”!

PluggedIn is a mobile and social media summit, bringing together handpicked media, advertising, social media and mobile executives and gatekeepers. The event is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, relationship building and deal making. See 25 companies present and talk about what they are doing and what they look to achieve in 2010.

Participating companies include: Klout, Tweetphoto, Tweetfeel, Movoxx, Flyscreen, AppsSavvy, and many more.

PluggedIn is run by Founders Roundtable, a digital media networking company focused on leveraging relationships to help startups succeed. The reason for PluggedIn is the frustration with typical industry conferences which are overcrowded and lack the intimacy and cut-to-the-chase attitude required for in-depth dialogue and true relationship building.

Why No One Should Talk To or Read Anything from the Heartland Institute

Dana Spiegel — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:37:48 +0000

I had a very interesting email exchange today with Thomas Cheplick, a reporter at the Heartland Institute. For those of you paying attention over the past few years to the Telecom sector, you’ll remember The Heartland Institute as a Sock Puppet Organization that “that call themselves independent but have ties among each other and to the industries about which they are stating they have an objective opinion.”

Apparently, Mr. Cheplick is writing an “article” on the recently announced Miami Beach Free Wi-Fi network. We are certainly in favor of local city governments trying to help local residents and provide a valuable utility, especially when it is used to enable city workers and public safety services to get roaming internet access to better do their jobs and to save the city and taxpayers money.

But Mr. Cheplick’s bias against any such initiative, as well as the bias of his employer, shows through clearly in his initial email requesting NYCwireless comment. He even goes so far as to outright lie about the reasons behind the closure of other Muni-Wi-Fi networks (hint: it has something to do with the fact that the providers of such networks, such as Earthlink and MetroFi, either exited or went out of business). It seems clear to me that whatever Mr. Cheplick writes, its going to be heavily one sided, with a strong slant towards supporting big business and a big slant away from wanting to help local residents help themselves. Something to be aware of in case you come across Mr. Cheplick’s “article”.

Interestingly, I’ve met many conservatives and liberals alike that are big supporters of people and small local governments helping themselves. Its a mystery to me why anyone (unless you are an executive as a large Telco or Cableco) would be against people becoming self-sufficient. But then again, I don’t have an agenda paid for by an incumbent big business.

And yes, Mr. Cheplick, you are correct that “off-the-record” can be a two way street. So perhaps you’ll think twice about being naughty around the holidays. Hopefully, this public post will nicely match the lump of coal that was surely left in your stocking this year.

On Dec 18, 2009, at 5:59 PM, Thomas Cheplick wrote:

Hahah. I am afarid off-the-record is a two-way street. It has to be agreed to in-advance. Anything you or your organizations write to me, as a reporter, is on-the-record unless I agree to it not to be in-advance. At the moment, I have your organization down as refusing comment to ITTN News – which goes out to every state legislator office in the nation.

Dana Spiegel wrote:

Thomas,

We are not interested in participating in any reporting that has to do with the heartland institute. Anything I say to your organization is off the record and is not to be printed. In addition, we do not give you permission to use the NYCwireless name or that of any of our board members for any reason.

On Dec 26, 2009, at 3:52 PM, Thomas Cheplick wrote:

Why not? Why not get your comments in there? I say, check out my articles on Wi-Fi, they are very non-biased. I encourage you to revise your opinion. I would love to get and include your thoughts!

Best wishes, Thomas

— On Sat, 12/26/09, Dana Spiegel wrote:

I have no comment for the Heartland Institute.

On Dec 18, 2009, at 5:07 PM, Thomas Cheplick wrote:

Dear Dana

This is Thomas Cheplick – the reporter from the Heartland Institute.

I am working on a new story regarding Miami Beach launching a free municipal WiFi network.

This is quite a powerful muni WiFi network in that it blankets the whole city, provides free Wi-Fi access with 95% outdoor coverage and 70% indoor coverage (and up through the second floor of buildings)!

I am wondering what you think of this development in a general sense?

Also, considering that so many municipalities have had to shutdown their free WiFis because it is too expensive and city-wide WiFi’s are generally too slow and ineffective, what would you rate the chances of Miami Beach’s ultimate success here with its free WiFi?

And, on a related note, in St. Cloud in Florida, the City Council tried to shut down their free WiFi service because of the expense but stopped that initiative after residents who could not pay for their own Internet access protested loudly. In that vein, do you foresee municipal WiFi networks like Miami Beach’s at all becoming another entitlement program for Americans?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated!!

hope you are well.

Best wishes, Thomas

NYCwireless on Advertising Age: Chasing Mobile Audiences Beyond Phones

Dana Spiegel — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:22:26 +0000

I was asked to sit on a panel last Thursday about “THE FOUR SCREENS: Everything you had no idea you needed to know but were afraid to ask!” by my friend Bill Sobel at SobelMedia. My fellow panelists represented a great variety of old and new media expertise, and I brought some mobile knowledge to the table:

What comes after television, the internet and mobile is what has been commonly referred to as the fourth screen. But what is the deal with all these screens. What are they, why are they important and what do we as producers, designers, technologists and marketers need to know?

SCREEN 1: Traditional Broadcast and Cable Television starring Steve Ronson: EVP/AETN (A&E Television Networks)
SCREEN 2: Desktop, Laptop and computers starring Lance Podell: CEO/NextNewNetworks
SCREEN 3: Wireless and Mobile starring Dana Spiegel: Executive Director of NYCwireless
SCREEN 4: Digital out-of-home advertising and everything else starring Michael Kogon: Founder and CEO/Definition6

The panel was picked up by Advertising Age: Chasing Mobile Audiences Beyond Phones:

Although they get all the press, phones aren’t actually the only devices that make up our rapidly expanding world of mobile communications. Laptops and portable game consoles are also being widely used by on-the-go consumers. And companies like Yahoo and Google are paying close attention to that. Both sponsored expansive free wifi services for the holidays. Yahoo’s blanketed Times Square, while Google’s took to the airports and skies beyond.

Announcing: New York’s Technical Community Holiday Party

Dana Spiegel — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:50:00 +0000

NYCwireless is joining forces with a number of other prominent technology organizations in NYC to help host the 2009 Technical Community Holiday Party.

Be sure to RSVP!

More than a palindromic number, 12/21 is an evening for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and special guests at the professional networking event for New York technology.
Our mission is to bring together all aspects of technology and the business of technology in one event.

Come rub elbows and connect with colleagues from every segment of NY tech, as we unite the technical and business communities that we’re all a part of.

All are invited – CTO/CIO, junior admin, engineer, developer, entrepreneur, manager, author, speaker, media, and business professional.

This, our third groundbreaking event, is co-hosted by Bootup and Girls in Tech (see our 2007 and 2004 events).

Space is limited and we may have to close RSVPs early.

Date: December 21st, 2009 at 7:00PM
Location: Forum, 127 Fourth Avenue
Business casual attire is required.