All posts in the topic city wifi (Short link)

From: Tom Coady Date: 2007 Feb 13 18:47 UTC Short link

If Norwich can do it and pier2pier.net can do it between piers I can't see
what's stopping the council from doing this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5297884.stm
    

From: Dave Phelan Date: 2007 Feb 14 00:24 UTC Short link

Tom,

On 2/13/07, Tom Coady <tom.coady@gmail.com> wrote:
> If Norwich can do it and pier2pier.net can do it between piers I can't see
> what's stopping the council from doing this:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5297884.stm

Maybe the small matter of the 1.1 million quid it cost?

piertopier.net has no budget (just some sponsorship in exchange for
banner ads), and no staff (just volunteers), and has been running a
reasonably successful free wifi network for over 3 years. If anyone at
the council would like to talk about economical outdoors wifi, we'd
love to speak to them.

Dave Ph
    

--
 Dave Phelan CCIE#3590   ICQ: 50180416    GSM: +44 (0)7776 168561
 <email obscured>                  http://www.davephelan.org
 "I think rock 'n' roll and science fiction were in a
 very real sense all the culture I had."    -- William Gibson.

From: Peter Day Date: 2007 Feb 14 08:16 UTC Short link

It's not free wifi though Helen. Is it?

Peter
    

-----Original Message-----
From: Helen Russell [mailto:helen@chibah.co.uk]
Sent: 14 February 2007 00:38
To: BH-Issues
Subject: Re: [BH-Issues] city wifi


It's already here!

http://www.metranet.co.uk/
Helen Russell
Brighton, Brighton & Hove City Council More info:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/brighton-hove/contacts/helenrussell

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From: Mark Walker Date: 2007 Feb 14 09:13 UTC Short link

[Warning: Long answer]
There is a community-based wireless project in the city. As of the beginning
of this month SCIP is working on a wi-fi based project with the Friends
Centre and some community groups in Tarner - the bit between Hanover and
Amex in central Brighton.
The residents are keen to see how wireless can provide wider access to the
internet and have set up a group called the Tarner Wireless Group [TWIG]
We're currently planning point to point wireless connections between five or
six community centres to start building a network, linked in to a JANET
[Joint Academic Network] connection which will come into the Friends Centre
in Morley Street [next to Ocean Rooms].
Some centres are considering creating a 'wi-fi cloud' around their centre to
create a local access point. At least one centre [Phoenix on the old Brewery
site] has had a wireless hotspot like this for several years. Enabling SCIP,
Friends Centre and others to deliver training there, as well as being used
by local residents with wifi enabled computers.
SCIP is working with the people who run the centres - ranging from community
centres such as Phoenix on the old Brewery site to shared social spaces in
older people's residential blocks. We'll help them identify their needs and
then work with them to provide training and other support to make use of the
connectivity.
The project also includes training delivered to local residents by Friends
Centre, using these wi-fi networks - both IT training and other skills.
We had some really good help from Dave Phelan at Pier to Pier when we
started this process and there is now a budget to bring in cutting edge
wireless technology, so I hope Roger will be getting a call at Metranet and
be bidding for that.
The Council has been supportive, particularly through the education
department as various people at Tarner School are involved in TWIG - I
believe they're looking at loaning laptops to local parents and linking to
this project to provide internet access. I believe the Council [LEA] also
had to formally agree to the offer of the JANET connection before we could
get it.
I have spoken to Bill Parslow, Head of ICT at the Council and he's
supportive - indeed he already uses wireless connections in various parts of
the City Council's network [Metranet I believe?]
The current project runs to March 2008 and is funded by UK Online [not sure
how much but it's not £1m].
Its very early days so I'm still getting my head round the link between the
various parts but it seems to me that it will produce a bottom up network,
based within and controlled by community centres, which distributes access
to a fast connection using localised wireless network.
That's the techie bit.
What I'm keen to see is:
* how the people running the centres manage the use of wifi in their own
centres
* the type of support they need to make best use of it
* how local people use the hotspots and what barriers they face
* technical issues such as capacity and certain restrictions placed on use
by Janet
* how to create a sustainable network that the Centres can afford to
maintain [eg putting current connectivity spend from community centres into
one pot to pay revenue costs for the network]
I hope this will serve as a demo project, showing the community, the Council
and other agencies exactly what support they could provide to enable these
networks to grow, especially in the absence of multi-million pound showcase
funding. There is a link within the project to Hangleton & Knoll Community
Project to help share lessons learned across neighbourhoods and SCIP is
linked into many different community networks to help share those lessons.
We must also remember that Brighton has an extraordinary number of free
wireless hotspots in the cafes, beaches and bars around town, thanks in no
small part to the vision and efforts of pier to pier and Loose
Connections/Metranet. And a similarly dense cloud of paid for services in
Starbucks etc.
To me the flexibility and scaleability of wireless is interesting, but I'm
much more interested in what people actually use it for and how it improves
the quality of their lives.
Mark
    

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Day [mailto:p.day@btinternet.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 8:18 AM
To: 'BH-Issues'
Cc: <email obscured>
Subject: Re: [BH-Issues] city wifi


Hi Dave

I don't think the question was why wasn't pier2pier doing this. My
understanding was that perhaps the council could look at leading a similar
consortium to that in Norwich.

Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Phelan [mailto:dave.phelan@gmail.com]
Sent: 14 February 2007 00:24
To: BH-Issues
Cc: <email obscured>
Subject: Re: [BH-Issues] city wifi

Tom,

On 2/13/07, Tom Coady <tom.coady@gmail.com> wrote:
> If Norwich can do it and pier2pier.net can do it between piers I can't
> see what's stopping the council from doing this:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5297884.stm

Maybe the small matter of the 1.1 million quid it cost?

piertopier.net has no budget (just some sponsorship in exchange for banner
ads), and no staff (just volunteers), and has been running a reasonably
successful free wifi network for over 3 years. If anyone at the council
would like to talk about economical outdoors wifi, we'd love to speak to
them.

Dave Ph
--
 Dave Phelan CCIE#3590   ICQ: 50180416    GSM: +44 (0)7776 168561
 <email obscured>                  http://www.davephelan.org
 "I think rock 'n' roll and science fiction were in a
 very real sense all the culture I had."    -- William Gibson.

Dave Phelan
Hove
More info: http://forums.e-democracy.org/brighton-hove/contacts/phelandave

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Peter Day
Hampden Park, Eastbourne
More info: http://forums.e-democracy.org/brighton-hove/contacts/peterday

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From: Dave Phelan Date: 2007 Feb 14 11:02 UTC Short link

Helen,

On 2/14/07, Helen Russell <helen@chibah.co.uk> wrote:
> It's already here!
> http://www.metranet.co.uk/

That's not the case. Metranet has provided a wireless infrastructure
that *could* be used as part of a citywide wifi network. But it isn't
a citywide wifi network.

You can't connect to it with your wifi laptp, or your PSP, or plug an
antenna into your 4th hand donated PC (cos you can't afford anything
else) and get internet access.

This isn't a criticism of Metranet, BTW. I'm trying to make clear the
difference between what Tom wants, and what exists today.

Dave Ph
    

--
 Dave Phelan CCIE#3590   ICQ: 50180416    GSM: +44 (0)7776 168561
 <email obscured>                  http://www.davephelan.org
 "I think rock 'n' roll and science fiction were in a
 very real sense all the culture I had."    -- William Gibson.

From: Dave Phelan Date: 2007 Feb 14 14:55 UTC Short link

On 2/14/07, Tom Coady <tom.coady@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/14/07, Dave Phelan <dave.phelan@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > You can't connect to it with your wifi laptp, or your PSP, or plug an
> > antenna into your 4th hand donated PC (cos you can't afford anything
> > else) and get internet access.
>
>
> But using the right gear (still unratified I assume) you could use that
> structure to deliver the net part of the solution. Just add wifi & power, no
> BT line required. Not sure how much that would cost and how many might be
> needed, but I guess you multiply the result by 10 if it's a public sector
> job.

Yes, of course.
And working out how much it would cost, and how many of whatever are
needed is part of the job.

You could also run unbundled ADSL to every lamppost and add wifi to
it. Just because we have lamposts doesn't mean citywide Wifi exists
already.

Dave Ph
    

--
 Dave Phelan CCIE#3590   ICQ: 50180416    GSM: +44 (0)7776 168561
 <email obscured>                  http://www.davephelan.org
 "I think rock 'n' roll and science fiction were in a
 very real sense all the culture I had."    -- William Gibson.