At last night’s Personal Telco meeting, an individual who works at the City’s Media Services Bureau encoding city hall meetings, told me they are planning to move to MPEG-4. The City uses Real’s Helix servers.
Another tidbit: the Portland Police may install MPEG-4 video cameras inside the Light Bars on cruiser rooftops. When the lights are turned on, an mpeg-4 camera would be activated. Video would be stored in a hard drive. At the end of a shift the video would be uploaded to the Police Bureau using 802.11g WiFi. The daily video recordings would archived for one year.
The City of Portland has fiber optic maps and PortlandMaps.com, which puts all sorts of property data on-line. Other innovative mapping projects include PortlandGreenmap, blogmapper.com and Evil Bunny’s NodeDb.com, used by Personal Telco’s Wireless Maps.
But I digress…
Portland’s progressive attitude towards information access made me re-think City-Run Community LAN Partnerships. Here are a couple of points:
- Nextel’s frequency interference might be worked out if Nextel and Flarion provide a “4G” system for mobile broadband and voice. Nextel is trialing Flarion. So use it. A “4G” system like that might provide ubiquitous, long range broadband.
- Perhaps a segment of Nextel’s new 2 Ghz band (mere speculation on my part) could be alloted to provide “wireless DSL”.
- That could provide the backbone for FatPort-type, WiFi boxes on public areas like WaterFront Park, Convention Center, PGE Park, or even hot spots on Utility Poles. Running twisted pair or coax up utility poles is costly.
- An inexpensive gateway on a chip could provide secure VPN services for priority police and fire communications as well as “open” public internet access. The Nomadix HotSpot Gateway - HSG-25 (FAQ), provides transparent and secure mobile user connectivity for Public-access networks
- Other licensed carriers (like MMDS from Sprint), might also deliver the backbone for “free” hot spots.
- Community Centers could be linked together through the I-Net with Gig-E. Each could have iSCSC storage for redundancy and a WiFi antenna for local wireless connectivity. With your choice of ISP.
Free Community LANs could save money. Instead of printing and distributing (outdated) materials, the City of Portland could supply them free. City workers like meter readers, inspectors, police and fire could save millions by avoiding costly cellular data links. Broadband interoperability would be another plus.
As Editor & Publisher states:
“The wireless Internet will be ubiquitous in a few years — especially in the major metro areas in the U.S. and parts of Europe. Writing for CNET’s News.com recently, former IBM executive John Patrick said: ‘When people go downtown, they naturally expect the local infrastructure to include streetlights, fire hydrants, and parking spaces. Soon, I believe, they also will expect Wi-Fi connectivity. Sitting on a city park bench and checking e-mail will not seem so strange; in fact, it will be something people demand.’”
Kiosks on train stations or public places could provide local (& wireless) access to:
- Live traffic information like Smarttrek maps current traffic congestion by color
- Live Bus, Train and Streetcar Maps (with real-time postion)
- Thematic maps of the city - find restaurants, hotels, parks, tourist spots
- City Information (meetings, city codes, licenses, traffic tickets, etc.)
- Visitor Information like PortlandWalkingTours and electronic guides to the Oregon Zoo , OMSI, Oregon Convention Center, EXPO Center, Art Museums, Hotels, Restaurants, etc.
- Flash-enable entertainment and information
- Video email is one click away with an inexpensive camera like Logitech’s IM Video Companion providing live video with MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo’s Super Webcam uses enhanced compression for 20 fps, 320×240 videoconferencing. Meetingbywire could link schools, state-wide.
- Display Advertising - Location-specific and cycled automatically, webpad advertising could be transactional and generate a profit for the city
- Location Based Services could be fee or free
- Optional Premium Content - RealOne, FoxSports, live sports, or downloaded music, games, videos, etc.
- Virtual Private Networks for city and emergency services provide secure, broadband, interoperable communications.
The idea is that WiFi is free and ubiquitous. The city provides the backbone and the hotspot hardware. Next generation wireless broadband equipment doesn’t need line of sight to operate. Companies like ArrayComm, BeamReach, Broadstorm, IPWireless, and Navini all seem promising. Flarion and Nextel might be a particularly good fit since Nextel is already involved in public service communications and Flarion’s “WiFi handoff” might deliver WiFi in Max trains, for example. Ideally a “standard” like 802.16a (Mobility draft) could coalese the different technical approaches to the wireless Wide Area Network, delivering economical and reliable “backbone” service to local 802.11b hot spots.
Pole-mounted, solid-state, hot-spot boxes like Pronto Networks and FatPort boxes could be linked by a Linksys Wi-Fi bridge ($95) and panel antenna ($35) to nearby feeders on cell towers. Weather-proof Tablet PC kiosks could be installed at train stops or in vending machines and supply “Portland Radio Free Network” branded services. A Toshiba appliance server (with iPass roaming), can provide 802.11b internet access at convention centers, transit malls, government buildings and dozens of public spaces. iPass will work with Toshiba to ensure that their Wi-Fi hotspot are interoperable with Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other security policy management systems. Their global virtual network is accessed via iPassConnect, a mobile access smart client. Different ISPs could host it.
The Nomadix Gateway ($1999), enables Global Roaming so users can transparently move between different networks while retaining one billing relationship with their chosen provider. Placed on dozens of train stops, they could combine public and private net access with end-to-end security.
Portland wouldn’t have to provide leadership. Jacksonville Florida’s WIZ (Wireless Internet Zones) provide community kiosks throughout the city for both tourists and low-income residents.
The wireless backbone service could be self-supporting with advertising and content fees.
There would be many legal and operational issues to overcome, of course. But “free” community LANs just might be practical.
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