[farber] From: Bob Frankston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: May 4, 2007 12:00:59 AM EDT
Imagine the same article about the business models for roads? The idea of building yet another network that must have 100% coverage to work seems is the result of failing to understand the concept of the Internet and treating Wi-Fi as if it were another cellular phone system. Perhaps what is most striking is that these Wi-Fi efforts seem to be totally unrelated to anything else. How could it possibly be seen a costly effort when the cities are already paying for infrastructure why doesnt the city itself get value by deploying connectivity for itself? It should be the primary consumer. But Wi-Fi bits are magic its as if we had separate road systems for macadam and concrete and then trying to drive any distance without being allowed to move from one to another? For that matter can the police and fire department and public works share infrastructure? Even without putting up a single tower the concepts that define the Internet should produce a cost savings with Wi-Fi simply being a cost-effective way of providing coverage compared with special-purpose radios. As technologists we also have responsibility for protocols that make these independent efforts work together without meshing outside the network rather than just within it. As I point out in http://www.frankston.com/?name=WiFiEdge we already have nearly 100% coverage. The cities can have a role in completing the coverage but it is far more important to assure that we can safely share our coverage in the same way we contribute to public safely by allowing others to benefit from lights on porches. I dont want to do a design here except to point out that a software upgrade to provide dual SSIDs without the FON baggage would have a major impact. For legacy protocols a personal VPN can provide encryption and a stable address for applications without any support inside the network you can then move seamlessly from private access points to public and back without the network having to do anything special. We are seeing the same failure to understand that lets us spend big bucks on completely redundant broadband service delivery systems which provide a dollop of Internet but not real connectivity. And then we leave it lying fallow and start to build yet another redundant system because wireless bits are special. Alas, broadband and Wi-Fi are so cool. Cargo boxes all. --------------------------------------------------------------- WWWhatsup NYC http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com --------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.isoc-ny.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
