Glenn Fleishman, Armchair Critic, Part II

Glenn Fleishman was good enough to post my response to his slam of me on his site along with an apology of sorts:

"Marshall Brown, Wi-Fi Salon's founder, takes issue with my characterization of his operations. No one--especially me--ever claimed that building outdoor networks was easy. From all that's happened in the last few years, it's clear that building large, sustainable, free (sponsored or otherwise) networks requires many stakeholders, a diverse revenue stream, and real purposes for a network beyond public access."

The trouble is, what Glenn here proposed as 'lessons learned' along the way are things that some people knew from the very beginning.    We in fact were awarded the concession based in part on what one must call prescience.    Ideas and words come easy though.   It is making it happen in the first place that mattters, getting to the endpoint still alive and kicking while everyone else has cratered that ultimately counts.   Now with Wi-Fi Salon we fell short of the vision, but the vision is still as valid now as it was when I first proposed it to Parks in August 2003, and through Wired Towns I intend to play a part in its fulfillment:

 



From the Original Proposal to the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation Executive Summary 8-11-2003:

"The WiFi Salon proposes that The City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation become the test bed for a new generation of WiFi Hot Spot design.   We call it WiFi 2.0.   The content is multimedia - with streamed video and music, archived or live.   It is interactive, enabling IP Telephony, gaming, personalization, and even web video conferencing.   It can be delivered to all web enabled devices - phones, PDAs, flat panel displays, kiosks, laptops and desktops.   It is also location specific, where each Hot Spot defines a unique social space through the content it offers.

Our consortium is convinced that WiFi 1.0 deployments, where people are expected to pay for mere Internet access (whether by subscription or a la carte) will not succeed as businesses. Access is but a commodity, and it is one that is rapidly depreciating.The price wars between WISPs, whether they are at core cable/DSL companies, cell phone companies, or WiFi specialists, are rapidly removing any profit from the equation. Further, the 'demand' side for WiFi access, while expected to grow significantly in the coming years, will not generate nearly enough demand to make up for the commoditization of access ( See accompanying Spreadsheet, Attachment A)

We in the WiFi Salon are all in agreement that WiFi's real future lies in the fact that it represents the localization of the Internet as a broadband interactive experience.   Our aim is to turn Hot Spots into destinations for tourists and other park visitors, into portals for art and culture, into a platform for the delivery of business services and essential public services, and into 'social computing' experiences for those residing within the community defined by the Hot Spot.

WiFi 1.0, like the early Internet, was about grabbing land at whatever cost then charging people to get online.  WiFi 2.0 is a broadband experience that offers people customized rich content.  

By creating a platform that allows various content providers to reach their specific audiences, WiFi 2.0 makes the network itself valuable, worth paying for as a resource, service, or source of entertainment, and worth sponsoring, either by corporations or by the content providers themselves.

 

Where Wi-Fi 1.0 just gets you to the web, WiFi 2.0 situates you at the center of a community where local businesses, non-profits and local government are all represented.   In Battery Park, for instance, the Parks Department would have access to the network for its own internal communications.   Small wireless web cams would be positioned both for security and commercial purposes.  Tourists could have a digital snap shot taken to be e-mailed home.  The Korean War Memorial (see photo) or the 9/11 Memorial (see photo) could be augmented with interactive content.   While waiting for ferries to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, tourists could experience a preview of both places wirelessly through kiosks, panel displays, and other WiFi enabled devices.   A location-based tour of Castle Clinton (see photo), using pictures, sounds and text provided by The New York Historical Society, can help bring the past to life.  The American Café, like other restaurants within the park Hot Spots, could use a Wi-Fi driven solution to deploy a system that would take food orders, handle billing, and help control inventory.