Wireless Community » Community Wireless

The Internet is Serious Business Film Screening on Sept 30 @ 7:30pm

dana — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:53:42 +0000

I, along with Joe Plotkin and a number of other Community Wireless and network innovators, gave a talk a while ago for at People’s Production House. It was a great experience talking about the history of NYCwireless and the Community Wireless movement, and the students were very engaging and asked a lot of thoughtful questions.

The talks were recorded and edited into a movie, which will premiere on September 30. Everyone is invited to attend the screening:

An alien comes to New York City to discover how humans communicate, and is intrigued by the huge networks of cables, routers, and servers that we call the Internet. Who owns all that stuff and how does it work? Join us at Anthology Film Archives for the debut screening of the video “The Internet is Serious Business.” CUP Teaching Artist Helki Frantzen worked with People’s Production House and students from City-As-School to produce this Urban Investigation about the physical infrastructure that undergirds the Internet. Please RSVP to info@anothercupdevelopment.org

The Internet is Serious Business
Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30 pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at 2nd St.)
New York, NY
F/V to 2nd Ave
free and open to the public

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New ITIF Report: “Explaining International Broadband Leadership”

dana — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:42:00 +0000

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has just released a new report examining in depth broadband policies in 9 nations, and concludes that while we shouldn’t look to other nations for silver bullets or assume that practices in one nation will automatically work in another, U.S. policymakers can and should look to broadband best practices in other nations.

Learning the right lessons and emulating the right policies here will enable the United States to improve our broadband performance faster than in the absence of proactive policies. The report analyzes the extent to which policy and non-policy factors drive broadband performance, and how broadband policies related to national leadership, incentives, competition, rural access, and consumer demand affect national broadband performance. Based on these findings the report makes a number of recommendations to boost U.S. broadband performance.

Executive Summary (pdf)
Full Report (pdf)

The report is extensive, and has some very good policy recommendations that should be heeded by all levels of government.

Overall, at the broadest level, nations with robust national broadband strategies—that is, those that make broadband a priority, coordinate across agencies, put real resources behind the strategy, and promote both supply and demand—fare better than those without.

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IS4CWN ‘08 Opening Plenary Speakers Announced

dana — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:24:49 +0000

I just received this email from Sascha Meinrath about the speakers that have been annouced for the 2008 IS4CWN conference:

IS4CWN is pleased to announce our opening plenary session will feature Amir A. Dossal, Executive Director of the UN Fund for International Partnerships and Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of Article 19.

Amir A. Dossal, guides the development of strategic alliances for the United Nations with corporations, foundations and philanthropists aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He also oversees the management of the UN Democracy Fund (www.un.org/democracyfund) which aims to strengthen democratic institutions and enhance democratic governance in new or restored democracies. Amir has developed numerous partnerships for the United Nations, including with the Commonwealth Business Council, the European Foundation Centre, Google.org, the LTB Foundation, the Synergos Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, and others. He has also spearheaded the UN’s engagement in new areas including the technology sector working with Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Microsoft and Vodafone.

Dr. Agnès Callamard is the executive director of ARTICLE XIX, an international human rights organization specializing on freedom of expression and freedom of information. Agnès Callamard has evolved a distinguished career in human rights and humanitarian work. She is a former Chef de Cabinet for the Secretary General of Amnesty International, and as the organization’s Research Policy Coordinator, she led Amnesty’s work on women’s human rights. Agnès has conducted human rights investigations, including on violence against women, in a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She has founded and led HAP International (the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership) where she oversaw field trials in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sierra Leone and created the first international self-regulatory body for humanitarian agencies committed to strengthening accountability to disaster-affected populations

More information at: www.wirelesssummit.org

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Doc Searls on Why Hotels and Airports Should Have Free Wi-Fi

dana — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:02:13 +0000

Doc Searls (who wrote a great article in Linux Journal about NYCwireless in 2004) has a great blog post on the frustrating world of for-pay Wi-Fi in hotels and airports. NYCwireless has long said that public and semi-public spaces like hotels and airports (and parks!) have a lot more to gain if they make their Wi-Fi networks free and treat them as PR and marketing pages.

The problem here is that the Net is seen by too many hotels and airports as a way to make money rather than to keep customers happy. That’s because it’s seen as a private business rather than a public utility. It would be better for everybody if we admitted that it’s the latter, even when private businesses provide access to it.

Yes, it has costs. So do electricity, water, waste collection and road maintenance, and neither airports nor hotels charge for those—at least not Thing is, the Net is not a steady scarcity, such as parking. Nor is it simple. But making it gratis removes the billing complexities that are one of its main costs and a frequent cause of failure.

So here’s a message to the aviation and hospitality industries: You’re not in the pay toilet business. Quit trying to turn the Internet into one.

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Silicon Alley 100

dana — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:55:38 +0000

So its a stupid popularity contest, but its a good idea none-the-less. If you think I do good work with NYCwireless, I’d love it if you would vote/nominate me and leave comments. And don’t forget to vote for other Alley folks too!

Silicon Alley 100 – Dana Spiegel

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Laura Forlano’s Presentation on Search and the City — A Comparative Analysis of WiFi Hotspots in New York and Budapest

dana — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:37:30 +0000

Maxigas of Indymedia/IMC Hungary has posted Laura Forlano’s talk on how people use hotspots. She’s been working on this research (as her PhD at Columbia) for quite a while, and has some very interesting results.

Laura gave her presentation at the The Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence Conference at the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) in Budapest on September 27, 2007.

MP3, 20min, 30MB
Quicktime Movie, 20min, 128MB
Quicktime Movie, 20min, 6MB

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