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Why Wireless Cities Matter

[Part 1] The urban lifestyle and community collaboration

Email Article Print Article Gregory Daigle (gdaigle)

RSS Wireless collaborative review of architectural design

©2005 Benjamin R. Lindau

There are dozens of cities in the U.S. and other countries employing or planning to e
Wi-Fi technology in citywide hot spots or clouds. Internationally these include Taipei,
Hong Kong, Pretoria, Cebu City, Auckland, Adelaide, Zamora (Spain), Eindh
Amsterdam, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Brussels. Domestic cities include Seattle
Francisco, Anaheim, Minneapolis, Portland (OR), Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dayton, Los An
Spokane, Lexington, and several smaller cities such as Bowling Green, Cerritos
LaFayette and others. Even Macedonia is planning a wireless network covering over
square miles of territory ... essentially making it a Wi-Fi country.

Wireless is different from other broadband services. It is not just about "wide p
Wireless is a commons and among its most important potential impacts is developm
community collaboration. Wireless makes possible better communications betwee
citizens -- at home ... at work ... and at leisure.

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The first Wireless Cities ... Community Context conference was held recently to look p
government services and explore how wireless can be used to enhance comm
collaboration. Speakers included representatives from Wikimedia, Creative Com
Jambo Networks, Gather.com, Digital Access Project, MNartists.org, the cities of Po
and Minneapolis, and the Public Technology Institute, among others. This article re
some of the key discussion points brought out in that conference.

Urban Technologies

Wi-Fi operates in the unregulated part of the spectrum as an information service. It's n
fastest technology. Fiber to the home has greater bandwidth. Even DSL and cable m
are faster. But wireless has low installation costs making it a disruptive techn
competitive with legacy operators like DSL and cable; and its services can potentia
offered at rates that will appeal to the digitally disenfranchised.

In establishing wireless networks each local government focuses its services upo
business of government -- first responders, schools, property revenues and basic se
However, some cities with foresight are gathering input from residents on comm
centered ideas and directions for wireless. These ideas include impacts in the
community projects and create a richer mix of social interconnectedness through wirele

Plans to offer municipal wireless as a free city amenity haven't worked out very
Wireless Philadelphia started as a free public amenity, but last summer they joined the
of cities such as Portland and Minneapolis in establishing public/private partner
Public/private partnerships don't require the city to own or maintain the network. It is o
installed and maintained by a private vendor that also bills subscribers. The city often s
as the anchor tenant. From the city's perspective it's a utility.

Wi-Fi is considered an urban technology because it requires a high density of subscrib

pay for the numerous radio "hanging assets" attached to powered street light pole
traffic signals. A high enough density of assets allows for mesh networks or cloud
completely cover an area, in contrast to strings of isolated hot spots.

Wi-Max is a similar urban technology that covers a city, but uses a "big stick" trans
(similar to a television tower) and local tower receivers (similar to cell phone towers
barriers for Wi-Max are lack of consumer recognition, the large established base of
users and lack of mobility across a wide range of devices.

Mobility matters to a city's chief information officer (CIO). Mobility provides a mea
consolidating and improving upon a wide variety of government services. Wirele
(Internet protocols) improve current analog radio communications between dispatch an
responders. Gas meters, water meters and parking meters can be read automatically
to this capability the flexibility of wireless traffic cameras, transit schedule updates,
alerts and uploading files to/from city workers in the field.

Wireless fits the CIO's mandate to provide dynamic e-government services within lo

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budgets. That's why RFPs and contracts for wireless services focus only on es
services and cost savings. But does a city's vision for wireless always have to be attac
essential services? Why not also leverage it for other purposes as determined b
residents?

Will unwiring a city change social discourse? How will it impact volunteerism? The arts
disenfranchised? What the Wireless Cities conference made clear is that it's not so
the technology that determines the eQoL (e-quality of life) ... but what you're going to d
it.

Enhancing Lifestyle

Wireless is about enhancing current lifestyle with a richer mix. McDonald's offers W
some of its parking lots. Kids, already hanging out, are making parking lots a teen w
venue. They have found this service to be good and make it part of their lifestyl
instead of leaving it in the hands of commercial property owners like McDonal
Starbuck's, why not offer it as part of the civic lifestyle made possible by local governm

There's something positive about a local government using wireless to capture the att
of young people who have never before connected (at least in a positive way
government. Wireless networks can provide access where the people are. But it
responsibility of the neighborhoods to engage young people with social applic
mirroring the key descriptors of their lives: social ... mobile ... and remixed.

Wireless could be thought of as just another technology for transmitting bits. But it's m
provides more ubiquity for access, location-based collaboration and greater opportun
content creation without boundaries.? If the fat digital pipes of fiber-to-the-home, DS
cable are now becoming a tool for on-demand television and film content from cor
sources, then wireless is about creating your own content.

Content rules ... or at least matters. Prosumers make new creative remixes of not only
but also ring tones and home movies with tools such as iDVD and GarageBand
commentary to your neighbor's video blog on local pollution issues. Use Jam
cooperatively make plans for a block party. Interactively chat about the layout
neighborhood truck garden while standing in the garden. Use Google Earth to plan the
for a political demonstration as you walk it. Request the assistance of people around
the lakeshore to help you collect samples for your high school water quality project.
you laptop to an experimental theater so that you can upload your vacation phot
scenery backdrops projected during the play.

Content (and creativity) rules!

Related Articles Why Wireless Cities Matter (2)

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This article was developed with the assistance of Prof. Brad Hokanson of the University of Minnesota.

Image information: Presentation by Benjamin R. Lindau. Masters of Architecture Graduate Thesis: G

technology for Architectural Design

2005-11-2
©2005 Ohm

Other articles by reporter Grego

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Readers' Comments

1. Paris France is allready a Wi Fi City aur챕lia lu , 2005-11-28 20:11

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