Information Research Weblog

An earlier item in the log drew attention to the MyZones idea of having communities of wi-fi users, with people drawing on their neighbours connections.

The idea gets a boost in New York, with the suggestion (on 802.11 Planet) that the city is not making the maximum use of its big fibre network. Wireless networking for the 'last mile' could change things.

An item on the BBC technology news site gives a new meaning to the word 'community' in its report on a start-up wireless broadband outfit. MyZones is fostering the idea that anyone with a wireless home network can offer access to the Internet to their neighbours.

A nice idea in some ways, but I imagine that, if the idea spreads, it could degrade performance on whatever ISP network one was using.

Wi-Fi Networking News points to Bill Drew's Wireless Librarian page, which, in turn, points to his world-wide list of libraries with wi-fi capabilities. The only one in the UK on his list is at Richmond on Thames, but I couldn't actually find anything specifically about Wi-fi at the Web site.

It's a little ironic, given my entry yesterday, to find on the BBC news service today, comments from BT to the effect that the government should be doing more to promote broadband in rural areas!

See: BT urges action on rural broadband

Clearly BT as a commercial organization instead of in its former role as a state monopoly, is unlikely to be able to fund rural broadband, so it is looking to the government for help. Curious, isn't it, how the proponents of the market system run for help when the going is difficult :-)

If the UK government does take action, I hope it will be in installing wireless broadband connection, which makes much more sense in rural areas than helping BT to lay more telephone cable - it's more environmentally friendly and it introduces more competition - surely good for the market?

So you think that your 802.11 home wireless network you have is pretty limited?

No so, apparently. A California company has come up with modifications to the standard to enable site to site communication over a distance of up to ten miles (sixteen kilometers). According to Adam Stone, writing in 802.11 Planet the system has been implemented in a California local authority and is being expanded to cover the entire city.

The economics are certainly getting interesting!

From the BBC comes a report of a KPMG study of 'war driving' - hacking into wireless networks for free Internet access.

As I'll be installing a home wireless network shortly, I think that I need to look out information on encryption - the number of companies that have no protection on their wireless LANs is astonishing!

I'm off to Amsterdam tomorrow, to give a presentation on The Nonsense of Knowledge Management at the University of Amsterdam, and I'm unlikely to be Weblogging while I'm there - so, unless someone would like to step in and post something (why so reluctant, folks?), there'll be a short pause.

Checking on one of the Weblogs I peruse from time to time, I found a pointer to the Google Weblog. Needless to say, this is not an official Google site, but one that posts news and criticism about the search engine. It included an item about the Google Zeitgeist, which is an official Google site, reporting such things as the top ten queries, languages used, and so on. 'Google Trivia' might be a better name and I found it rather depressing that Warhol ranks 4th in searches for artists - on the other hand, it could have been Tracey Emin.

The more persistent observer of this Weblog has probably noticed the 'Links and Weblogs' element in the Navigation box. I'm building this up because the Bookmarks box is for my eyes only (I think - perhaps members of the user group can see it too?). Well - in any event - I jot down sites and Weblogs I come across and, in the course of doing so, found myself directed to Blogstreet, which is a directory/search engine devoted to Weblogs and which compiles data on links among such sites. Search for a topic - say, "wireless internet" - and it identifies Weblogs that cover that topic, at least to some extent. For example, Reiter's Wireless Data Web Log. This was at the top of the search results. Click on the small link labelled 'Neighborhood' (pity about the spelling) and you are presented with a list of Weblogs that deal (approximately) with the same things. There's also a neighbourhood map - but that didn't work on my browser (Mozilla). Clever stuff.

The Guardian's Online supplement is back on the track of WiFi today. In an article headed, "The Coffee Connection" Neil McIntosh looks at the spread of wireless connection in coffee shops and other places and especially at the spread of WiFi in rural areas where BT's broadband and cable services are not available. He comments:

Wilson [no relation to this Wilson - I think] does not blame BT for failing to bring broadband to rural communities, but wants to see the company using the technology as a creative solution to the problem of getting faster internet access outside large towns and cities.

Any bets on BT seizing the high ground? Or even the low-lands?

A correspondent from the state of Washington tells me that King County Public Library has installed wireless internet connectivity in its larger branches. She notes:

The connection reaches outside one of the libraries, so patrons have discovered they can connect to the Internet from their cars (I'm assuming they still go inside the library to use the washroom).

I've tried to locate more information on the Web about the King County system, but without success. If anyone has found anything, please post it.

Here's a link to King County Library System wireless access: http://www.kcls.org/about/wireless.cfm

I forgot to add to the last entry that 802.11b clearly has significant implications for organizations as well as communities. Public libraries, for example, could provide wireless internet connection within the walls of their central libraries and perhaps, money and other things allowing, their branch libraries. The same goes for university libraries, student unions, halls of residence, and individual departments.

In fact Apple already promote their AirPort Extreme, which can serve 50 users at a time. And, at the end of last year, Bell Canada announced that it was converting payphone sites in Montreal and Toronto into wireless access points. The press release notes that libraries have expressed an interest in the system and that analysts suggest that their will be a $9.5 billion market by 2007.

As usual, there are early adopters around: the University of Texas at Arlington has wireless connectivity in its Central Library, Architecture & Fine Arts Library, and Science & Engineering Library as does Hofstra University School of Law [whenever I read about Hofstra I can't help thinking of Bill Cosby's famous story about playing football (American) for Temple and coming up agains the Hofstra team - hilarious], and Library Journal reported last October on three public libraries providing wireless internet access in Virginia, Indiana and Florida.

Keep abreast of things via the 80211b Weblog - and start preparing a paper on the subject for Information Research!

In my entry about 'Smart mobs' I mentioned Howard Rheingold's enthusiasm for wireless networks. The subject crops up again today on the front page of the Guardian's Online supplement and, of course, on its Web site. As usual, of course, our sainted telecomms company, BT, is busy shooting itself in the foot by rolling out its wireless access points as alternatives to 3G telephony instead of as an alternative to its own, much slower, broadband service (11Mbs against 0.5Mbs) - charging £85.00 a month means that it is targeting mobile business users, rather than the masses. The usual story from BT - it never seems to understand (even under new management) that volume from the masses leads to higher income than high rates for the few. So - someone else, probably one of the mobile 'phone companies, will cut the ground from under their feet. This is how it got into a mess last time round, so what's the betting that another CEO is going to be parachuted in in, say, three years' time?

The same issue has a shorter article about the necessary technology for a home wireless network - Spin a Wi-Fi web in your home, which enables the use of a single broadband connection by more than one computer at the same time. Useful for families with teenagers sqabbling over who gets 'on the computer' next for their homework. The featured product is from BT, but you can bet that there'll be others in the market almost immediately. The author, Jack Scholfield, draws attention to some of the glitches that can occur with Wi-Fi, if you haven't got completely compatible hardware.

The subject also crops up on Slashdot.org, drawing attention to an article in Wired News. Chiming in with my comments on BT, the articles notes:

With just five MeshBoxes, the tiny municipality of Kingsbridge, Devon, in western England, was able to provide broadband access to the citizens who live in the center of town. A group of enthusiasts eventually wants to provide all 5,000 of the town's residents with wireless broadband.

Frustrated with British Telecommunications' slow progress in wiring the town with DSL, two members of the Kingsbridge Link project took charge. They purchased the MeshBoxes for around $2,400, and strategically placed them in the center of town.

The boxes piggyback off a single broadband pipeline owned by one of the local businesses and distribute bandwidth to the residents who tap into the network.

I was able to finish reading Howard Rheingold's 'Smart Mobs' (a review will appear in Information Research in April) while going to and from Torun - January is NOT a good time for travel in Europe! A Smart Mob can also be described as a 'mobile impromptu social network' - a MISoNet perhaps and the idea occurred to HR when he observed the behaviour of mobile (cell) 'phone users in Tokyo. He builds on this idea to postulate a future in which mobile telephony and mobile, wearable computing will enable the impromptu information sharing that results from network creation. He also looks at the implications for new wireless technology for rural communities and urban neighbourhoods, in providing access to the Net, and at the continuing battle between technology developers and the entrenched interests of commerce. In all, a good read, with many ideas to stimulate one's own. Check out the Web site.

Tom

Getting to grips with this new IRWeblog is quite a business! I think I need a techie in charge here. :-)

However, my purpose is not to deal with Weblogs, fascinating though the subject may be, but to share some thoughts about a book. In this case, "Smart mobs: the next social revolution" by Howard Rheingold - well known in the Internet world for his other books, perhaps most famously for "The virtual community".

I'm only part way through reviewing it for Information Research, but this log is supposed to be about stuff like this, so I thought I would share it. My impression, I realised yesterday, is that it has the air of a kind of travel guide - for people thinking of a trip to the future.

The main message is that the combination of the Web and mobile telephony will bring about major social change - and there is some support for the idea in the existence of groups campaigning for social change (the anti-globalisation groups, for example) which have used mobile telephony (mobiles in the UK, cell-phones in the USA) to organize themselves during demonstrations. However, the main use appears to be to set up dates through texting (aided in Japan by the existence of Web-based dating services), or otherwise aiding (or abetting) social communication of various kinds.

Frankly, I regard them as a pain in the bum - I carry one for emergencies and I think that is their key function, but the clamour of mobiles on the street, and in trains is a nuisance. They also contribute significantly to information (or communication) overload - some business people daren't even switch the damn things off when they go on holiday. In fact, in one organization we found one person who took holidays in Nepal and Peru to avoid getting a signal - but kept her mobile 'on'.

The writing style is somewhat breathless - the author rushes around from place to place, scattering famous names all over the place - but it is readable. Not un-put-downable, but readable.

Anyone else reading it?

Tom