Personal Telco was listed in the Grass Roots WiFi section of this Daily Wireless Top-Ten list:
http://www.dailywireless.org/2009/12/15/top-ten-wifi-stories-of-the-decade/ While I would argue with the placement of Grass Roots as #9 (if the list is in order), it's always nice to see community efforts acknowledged. WiFi has become so commonplace, especially in public areas, that it is sometimes easy to forget all that Community Wireless groups, like Personal Telco, did to create what is now a defacto standard in coffeeshops and many other locations. Before Starbucks, McDonald's or the Portland Airport offered free WiFi, PTP volunteers were convincing individuals and businesses to offer up free access via WiFi. Without CWNs, most of the other things on this list might not have happened, and probably would have been delayed by a few years. We were really on the cutting edge when we started in 2000, and we're still going strong while many others with big capital have had their plans dashed by a lack of understanding of the market and the real-world application of the technology. CWN efforts have also contributed to a number of the successful businesses using or selling unlicensed wireless equipment (Meraki, Stephouse and Metrix come to mind immediately). So go ahead and reread that list, starting with #1 then jumping to #9, then go back to the top and realize how much of the last decade's wireless world was ushered in by volunteers working locally to make their communities a little more connected. It's been a great decade! -- Michael Weinberg Volunteer Personal Telco Project, Inc. A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit -- The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
