MagicBike Hit Mainstream Media- Wireless Week As previously reported- 2-Wheel Hot Spots Take Manhattan Yury Gitman, Media Artist Rolls Out Access
BY SUE MAREK JUNE 15, 2004 WIRELESS WEEK� 2004, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION, A DIVISION OF REED ELSEVIER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Just as paint and brushes are the tools of the trade for a painter, wireless spectrum is the medium of choice for Yury Gitman, a self-described wireless emerging media artist and adjunct professor at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Exactly what it means to be a wireless emerging media artist depends upon your interpretation. But for Gitman, unlicensed spectrum and the developing Wi-Fi networks are the landscapes for his art, in whatever form it takes. For now, that form is the MagicBike project, a Wi-Fi hot spot on wheels that Gitman developed as a way to bring free Internet connectivity to anyone anyplace. By riding the bike in areas where there is no existing infrastructure, Gitman and the MagicBike become a roving wireless access point, allowing passersby and others to get free wireless Internet access. Backhauling that traffic is a more complex issue. Gitman says that ideally the MagicBike access point acts as a repeater and extends an existing Wi-Fi network, allowing the traffic to be carried back to the wired network through the existing backhaul system, whether it is wireless or wired. If that's not available, then it can use the existing cellular network for backhaul. "It is designed to be as flexible as possible. We don't want to tie it into a particular network." The concept for the MagicBike started a little over a year ago as a way for Gitman to take the free bandwidth movement and Wi-Fi access to a new level. Gitman wanted to show that there was a way to extend the wireless infrastructure into new areas that are not served by traditional telecom providers. "For example, in the New York subway, there is no wireless access and it's fairly easy to take a bicycle there and have a free network," Gitman says. Unlicensed wireless spectrum is the medium of choice for Gitman and he expects that to continue because using licensed spectrum and working with wireless operators is too difficult, he says. And unlicensed spectrum seems to be working well for Gitman. The MagicBike concept has garnered worldwide interest. Gitman says he gets inquiries about the MagicBike from people around the world and he is currently exhibiting the bike in art galleries and at technology conferences. In September, the MagicBike will be part of an electronic art exhibition in Perth, Australia, and it also will make its debut at the Portable Power Conference in San Francisco. "I'm trying to start a wireless bicycle craze with MagicBike," Gitman says. "There are wireless bike projects happening around the world. People are creating wireless bicycles, or as I call them, 2-wheel hot spots." Besides the MagicBike project, Gitman also is in the midst of planning a wireless art festival that will be held in lower Manhattan the first week of October. Ultimately, Gitman hopes to commercialize the MagicBike project and show it is possible to create wireless infrastructure on vehicles as opposed to static networks with towers. "I don't like it when technology gets in the way of life," he says. "Putting technology on a bicycle and making it conform brings out the better part of wireless." http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA426376?spacedesc=Departments&stt=000 -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
