Recently, I’ve been reading about and listening to (i.e., podcasts) a lot of conversations on wireless infrastructure. The topics discussed have been more ‘WiFi-ish’ (i.e., WiFi, WiMax, et al.) than ‘cellular’ (e.g., GSM, Edge, 3G, etc.) for lack of better terms.

The Economist had a recent “article”:http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3535732 discussing the closed nature of wireless chipsets. Here’s the quote that counts.

bq.. Openness is coming to the wireless world, too. Cheap and powerful devices that use unlicensed and lightly regulated parts of the radio spectrum are proliferating. But there is a problem. Though the spectrum is open, the microprocessor chips that drive the devices which use it are not. The interface information—the technical data needed to write software that would allow those chips to be used in novel ways—is normally kept secret by manufacturers. The result could be a lot less innovation in the open wireless world than in the open wired one.

p. “Dana Blankenhorn”:http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/ at “Accelerating Change 2004″:http://accelerating.org/ac2004/ talks about this lack of openness or lack of a ‘wireless platform.’ By platform he means something you can write to and change (he says we are currently stuck in a world of point solutions… that is, access points). Of course, I am paraphrasing, so it’s probably best to listen to him directly “here”:http://www.itconversations.com/clip.php?showid=362&start=10:39&stop=21:58.[1]

Also on IT Conversations and also from Accelerating Change is “Dewayne Hendricks’”:http://www.dandin.com/news.html talk on the history of wireless, various non-traditional forms of creating wireless infrastructure (e.g., “Amateur Packet Radio”:http://www.sinister.com/radio/hampacket.html) and California’s “_Gigabit or Bust_”:http://www.cenic.org/gb/ initiative among other topics. “Here’s”:http://www.itconversations.com/clip.php?showid=364&start=25:54&stop=45:14 the audio clip of his talk. Information on the full panel discussion can be found “here”:http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail364.html.

And today in the New York Times, there is an “article”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/technology/17wired.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1108671038-qjE3pvhUqH7NJrPufHO/5A on the City of Philadelphia’s efforts to blanket the city in WiFi. Philadelphia is hoping that ubiquitous WiFi coverage will attract business and enable Internet access for disadvantaged groups. Naysayers — such as the local DSL and cable companies — argue that the City should not be in this (i.e., _their_) business. Regardless of the arguments for or against this project, I see it as a great, large-scale experiment in pervasive Internet access. Even if it doesn’t work out as the city would like, I am sure that a lot of useful information will come from this.

fn1. This link is to a MP3 audio clip of “IT Conversations’”:http://www.itconversations.com recording of Mr. Blankenhorn on the “Pervasive Computing Panel”:http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail362.html at the “Accelerating Change”:http://www.itconversations.com/series/achange2004.html held in early November 2004. I used IT Conversations “clipping service”: to excerpt Mr. Blankenhorn’s discussion from the full panel talk. You can make audio clips on IT Conversations by clicking on the @Clip@ link on the detail page that describes the audio. Then simply put in the start time and end time to create a URL of the clip you are interested in. Very cool.