>From Wi-Fi Planet --
[http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3618706 ]
Wireless for NYC has Class
By Eric Griffith
July 7, 2006
Unlike a lot of big cities like San Francisco and
Philadelphia, New York City is taking a measured approach to
installing Wi-Fi. Reports this week in Newsday and the New
York Times re-confirmed plans to install public use wireless
LANs limited to city parks. Ten parks will go live by the end
of the summer including areas of Central Park installed and
run for the NYC Parks Department by Wi-Fi Salon with the help
of Nokia (as sponsor).
Certainly the future of installing wireless services, whether
Wi-Fi, WiMax, or something we don't even know about yet, seems
bright. Those future deployments may happen courtesy of people
who are today students in classes like Monroe College's
Wireless Technology course. Students who aren't afraid of a
little hard work.
John McMullen is a professor in the school's Computer
Information Systems (CIS) department; he teaches the wireless
technology class in question. He decided that the theory
required by the New York State Regents wasn't enough. His
upper-level class is actively working to install Wi-Fi
hotspots. The goal is to put service into areas not well
served with broadband right now. Recently his class helped put
in access points in Madison Square Park, a coffee shop in
Harlem, Subway restaurants in the Bronx, and even a daycare
center in Brooklyn.
Most of these deployments are done working with the community
group NYCWireless.
Students aren't just installing hardware wherever they think
is appropriate. They also have to sell the venue owners on
whether its worthwhile.
"Student's cold call and have to explain things," says
McMullen. "If it's a restaurant or coffee shop, they'd spell
out how the point would be to lure customers in. Immediate
concern for many is how you get them out. You can have a
policy for restricted access for half and hour, say. The point
is, students must convince them of the benefit."
His students helped NYCWireless and Solar One (the citys'
first "Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center" with goal of
inspiring environmentally friendly citizens) with the
deployment of a solar-powered hotspot in Stuyvesant Cove Park
on the East River. It opened for use in March this year.
McMullen says the work they do "going out and selling and
getting your hands dirty" prepares students for graduate
school, but maybe even more so for real-world work. He says
the installation at Coogan's Restaurant near
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical
Center was typical, in that they had to go from the basement,
drill holes, come up through a column with Ethernet wire,
mount the router in a very high spot, etc. "It's something
they often don't get to do in college."
Even if putting in wireless routers is fun, it's not
everything, as the course theory does cover the gamut from
Wi-Fi to WiMax to cellular connections and potential tech of
the future. The class is interspersed with expert speakers,
such as a PhD. researcher from Columbia University who happens
to be a NYCWireless board member that can tell students about
the culturally different ways wireless is used between the
United States and Japan, for instance. Other speakers might
cover using open source firmware on routers.
"Hopefully it'll cause students to push on," says McMullen,
who's obviously concerned about the future employability of
his students in a tight job market. "They need a skill they
can market, but they must constantly look at what's next, what
will change. Everything is standards. As we go to 802.11,
80.15, 802.16, it's all spelled out. But they need something
they can sell today."
McMullen says after so many months and years of the city not
having a wireless plan, that NYCWireless is "they only game in
town that works," but that may soon change if Wi-Fi Salon gets
its act together. It has had a contract with the city since
late 2004 to deploy park hotspots but only delivered on one,
in Battery Park. The NYTimes says 18 locations in 10 city
parks will be lit up by August. Parks will include Battery,
Central, Riverside (plus Union and Washington Squares) in
Manhattan, and others in the Queens and the Bronx. Eight alone
will be in Central Park it's not a full park coverage
network. The city is no longer looking to make money off any
of these ventures as it did at first.
Private companies like Telkonet think they can deliver
commercial service at least in Manhattan via building-based
hotzones.
"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
"Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic"
-- Sir Arthur C. Clarke
"You Gotta Believe" - Frank "Tug" McGraw (1944 - 2004 RIP)
"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the
rest"
-- Samuel Clemens
John F. McMullen
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ICQ: 4368412 Skype, AIM, Yahoo Messenger & Google Talk: johnmac13
BLOGS: http://johnmacrants.blogspot.com/,
http://johnmac13.multiply.com/
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