City parks have not addressed the needs of a Wireless Society. The New York Times story on Wireless Parks (no registration required, thanks to Google) has an interesting angle:
“Walking the streets of New York today means walking amid an unseen tangle of Wi-Fi. The hum of Internet traffic mingles with the jostle of pedestrians. Data “packets” whiz by like bike messengers. In no place are the emerging social and urban aspects of this fact made clearer than Bryant Park, which last spring became what its operations director, Jerome Barth, calls “the first park to have installed a dedicated system that provides coverage throughout its entire footprint.”
“We are intent on loading the park with users and increasing what we call their `dwell time,’ or how long they stay in the park,” said Daniel A. Biederman, president of the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation.
The idea of Internet access surfaced at one of the corporation’s regular meetings more than a year ago, Mr. Biederman recalled: “What can we do to make people stay in the park? Why do they have to go back to their offices at 2? They have to go back to get on the Web. Why don’t we give them the Web?”
Enter NYC Wireless, an ad hoc group committed to the creation of free wireless access in public spaces throughout the city. Bryant Park would be the perfect showcase for their vision. With some clever engineering and hardware from Cisco Systems and Intel, the wireless park was born. Just as park users could sit wherever they liked, so too could they gain access where they liked. The eight-megabytes-per-second connection was as free as the sunshine and the green grass.”
People WILL bring their wireless devices to public parks yet wireless devices (now carried by the majority of the population) are ignored.
Let’s change that.
Managed Public Internet Kiosk software is available from Proxim, NetNearU and Firecast among others. The Wireless Zone is a one-piece, self-contained “hot spot”. It doesn’t connect to the internet but it CAN make portlandparks.org or Portland Visitors Association or Narrated Neighborhood Tours available anywhere. Anyone with a wireless PDA or laptops can download them. Visitor Information could include text, maps and dozens of audio vignettes (in a variety of languages) downloaded to Palms or PocketPCs. Fonix Voice Dial for the Pocket PC – allows users to Dial by Voice — it recognizes spoken names or phone numbers; No Voice Training Required! Speaker independent, voice driven kiosks can eliminate the screen and “press to talk”. Talk to talk.
Interactive, engaging and site-specific applications are a click away. The Dialtone Symphony (.ram) is wholly produced through the choreographed ringing of people’s own cell phones. Start it up by dialing in. Here are some other ideas:
- Talking maniquins
- Interactive Sculpture
- Triggered light/sound sequencers
- City Clouds
- 360 Live Video at public events
- Wi-Fi in Stadiums
- Traffic Maps
- Visitor Information and Narrated Neighborhood Tours
- Videoconference to linked Kiosks around the state or in nearby hotels.
- Real-time Location Information for event managers with devices like Vocera’s communicator badge
- Jogging kiosks with comparitive times, personal history and bio monitor
- E-mail/picture kiosks
- RF-ID wrist bands for kids ($2.99) or “find friends” (free)
- Weather, news and park info
- Recreation Bulletin Board
- Live bird cams
- Events triggered by cell calls
- Jam sessions
- Card tournaments
- Yahoo games
I’d eliminate slow and expensive DSL backbones with a wireless 5.8 GHz backbone. A Proxim Multi-point 20 Mbps Base Station ($4,000), on the KGON tower, feeding perhaps a dozen Proxim 20 Mbps Subscriber Units ($1,200) could do it. They provide a 20 Mbps wireless backbone. The local “hot spot” hardware could be based on Proxim’s Orinoco 2500 ($1000). I’d put a dozen “hot spots” around the city. They could be “free” and make money via kiosk advertising. Kiosk advertising would be managed using NetNearU’s AdTrackOS or Proxim’s Network Management software. If you had 10 kiosks generating $500/month in advertising revenue, that’s $5K/month. In 20 months it’s $100K. A $250,000 grant could get it started, with the expectation of self-sustaining operation in 24 months. Some Kiosks generate thousands a month in ad revenue. Multi-lingual kiosks could also generate $500,000 in PR for the city - if Portland was a trailblazer.
This is not rocket science. It’s simple math. But if YOU don’t take the initiative the opportunity will be lost forever. The Rainbow Consortium (Radio Access Independent Broadband on Wireless), which consists of Intel, IBM Global Services, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, is going to kickstart the initiative soon and rollover cities across the nation. When that happens, the unlicensed band will be “owned” by the cellular carriers. Cities (and individuals) WILL pay. You can kiss “free” community LANs goodbye. Forever. Especially in places like Parks.
The Public Review Draft of Portland’s Waterfront Park Master Plan is now available on-line.
The printed versions is available at Multnomah County public libraries. The public comment period will be until 12/10/02. E-mail your comments to Bryan Aptekar (baptekar@ci.portland.or.us) at Portland Parks & Recreation, 1120 SW Fifth Ave, (503) 823-5594 during the next few weeks.
The Morrison Bridge, in the center of Waterfront Park, has phone line access. An Orinoco 2500 ($1000) could drive Wi-Fi repeaters on the north end (near Saturday Market) and the south end, (near the Alexis Hotel), providing blanket coverage. The repeaters could be camouflaged as animals or Oregon historic figures. ORiNOCO’s Wireless Network Manager integrates with HP OpenView, providing a topographical view of the wireless network and graphical monitoring of real-time data from selected devices. Waterfront Park also has a direct shot to the Council Crest tower where Winfield Wireless has a wireless ISP. Trango Broadband or Proxim’s Tsunami could feed 50-100 hot spots using the unlicensed 5.8 Ghz band.
Another approach for blanket coverage is mesh networking. Green Packet’s software allows any mobile device, such as a PDA, to connect to other mobile handhelds without requiring a centralized wireless network infrastructure. Wireless devices become intelligent routers that multi-hop over other devices. PDAs could show real-time location information. WiFi Metro will integrate SONaccess routers and client software in its Bay Area “HotZones”. As a result, wireless users can roam seamlessly between cellular networks and the WiFi network.
Rent out Segway Scooters with built-in Pocket PCs. Your GPS position would trigger Oregon Historical Society’s Narrated Neighborhood Tours, Portland Visitor’s Association’s Self-Guided Tours, Portland Metro Maps or Lewis and Clark Maps. Wireless cameras could be helpful for the police, too.
Jacksonville Florida’s free wireless hot spots provide tourist information as well as internet access. Multi-lingual kiosks, incorporating webtablets with language translation are available now. Text to speech can be output in a variety of languages. And it sounds good. Human voice samples are now incorporated into text to speech. Choose a language, respond by voice.
Portland Parks wants your wireless ideas! What would you suggest?
What happens when you walk through “The Portal”? Tell Bryan.
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