About Us
For
the past six years, we have been working as public Wi-Fi advocates in New York
City and beyond. We began with a dream that public/municipal Wi-Fi would
one day blanket New York and indeed every major city worldwide. We have faced
many challenges on the road to achieving this dream, but here at the Wi-Fi
Salon we are committed to the proposition that bringing pervasive Internet
access to all people will reap immeasurable benefits both economically and
socially.
We build public Wi-Fi networks. Even after six years, it remains hard
work, but with every new antenna or device or application, it gets a little
easier, and we move that much closer to our goal.
We are a company driven by a vision. We are the digital sandbox for an
emerging wireless world in New York City's parks and public spaces.
We invite you to share in the making of that world.
Marshall Brown, President
Marshall Brown has been active in
public Wi-Fi in New York since 2002, when he formed Wi-Fi Salon to both
advocate for and implement free public Wi-Fi. In 2006 Wi-Fi Salon created
the parkwifi network, which offers free Wi-Fi in 17 locations in 10 flagship
parks including Central Park (7 locations ), The Battery, Prospect Park, and
Washington Square Park through a concession from the New York City Department
of Parks and Recreation.
In 2008, Mr. Brown is applying the
solutions developed on the parkwifi network to business improvement districts,
towns, and other municipalities. In establishing this new venture,
Mr. Brown has brought together the technical, operational, coding, marketing
and design skills necessary to create local community networks that will make a
difference both economically and socially, that will bring to communities
leading edge wireless applications, services and experiences.
Marshall is a graduate of Dartmouth
College and The University of Chicago, and taught for five years at Harvard
University while writing on media and culture. Over the past fifteen years, he
has worked in information technology business development with Fortune 1000
companies and start-ups as clients.
Marcos Lara, CTO
Wi-Fi Salon's CTO Marcos Lara has for the last five years has been building out and managing the Bryant Park Wireless Network. Located in Midtown Manhattan, the Bryant Park Wireless Network was recently cited as the world's most famous WiFi Hotspot in the popular technology magazine Wired. Our experiences and involvement in this first of a kind project back in 2001 makes us a leader in the development of open space wireless networks.