WiFi Netnews points out that Vancouver, Washington, is getting free WiFi in Esther Short Park, a shady, downtown park, just North of the Columbia River.
This is just the beginning, said Richard Keller, a member of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority Board and a driving force behind the project. Ultimately, our goal is to provide Wi-Fi throughout downtown and the Vancouver National Historic Reserve and go on from there.
A $30,000 goods-and-services grant from Hewlett-Packard (which has a large facility in Vancouver), helped organizers get in kind donations from Electric Lightwave (free bandwidth), Power Systems (which installed the physical equipment), and Portland-based Eleven Wireless (for authentication software and network design services).
Eleven Wireless often uses Nomadix products for access to a pre determined Walled Garden until the user has been authenticated. In addition to supporting the secure Browser-based Access, Nomadix simultaneously supports Port-based Authentication using IEEE 802.1x and authentication mechanisms used by Smart Clients.
Two wireless hotspot antennae are mounted on park buildings. The park s bandstand and restroom structure relay signals to the nearby Esther Short Building, where it connects to the city s fiber-optic network.
Our goal is to provide commercial-level service with commercial-quality partners, Keller said. With of all the different parties involved, it can take a lot of work to get things to the end stage. The city wants to have a (wireless) network that they can actively manage and be proud of, and Esther Short is a great place to start.
Portland s nonprofit Personal Telco Project has established more than one hundred free hotspots in the Portland-metro area, 15 miles south of Vancover.
Making Wi-Fi happen locally is often the result of one individual. The same was true in Stevenson, Washington, up the Columbia River, which installed a city-wide mesh network and in Medford, Oregon’s mesh network.
In his dual role the redevelopment authority and the National Historic Reserve Trust, Keller brings a vested civic interest to the project. He is also involved in venture capital work in the telecom sector as president of Officer s Row Capital.
It was sort of a natural for me to take the baton and run with it, Keller said, but this is just one more example of a bunch of partners the city, the county, the reserve and its partners working together for the greater good. Our notion is to do something that s a direct and obvious benefit to the citizens of the community. If we build it out, I think it will have a very positive impact.
While (Esther Short) will probably be mostly about people getting e-mail and keeping in touch with friends, in the reserve it takes on a potentially much more significant role, says Keller. Whether it s used on a self-guided tour, an archaeological dig or by students near the West Barracks, it s going to provide a heck of an advantage.
Unwiring parks in the region might be done cheap. Perhaps a 19dB panel ($60) and a wireless bridge ($99) could connect to Verilan’s Wireless ISP ($35/month) on a nearby TV tower. That could eliminate wires and supply a local Portless WRT-54G one-piece hot spot ($75) in a weather-proof case ($75). Solar power ($150) could feed it. Sputnik’s 200 mw outdoor unit can be centrally managed and lots of other industrial strength options are available.
Toshiba’s high-resolution webcams ($500) use beautiful 1280 pixel CCDs (demo) and can pan over 120 degrees. Virtually Vancouver might be available on cellphones, too.
Every city has a 40 Mile Loop. Unwire it. Amos Latteier designed an urban wildlife tour, Call of the Wild, which he guides by cell phone. Just call.
Michael Houck wrote the definitive naturalist’s guide to Portland. Add Regional Roadside Information or Walled Garden Content.
A Linksys WRT54G with embedded NoCat can re-direct users to the spash page. Multi-media files can be available through a Netgear 634 Gateway ($75) with USB Flash ram ($25). Solar-powered, it would require no backbone. The Possio AB, a small WiFi/Bluetooth access point, can backbone through a cellular link.
WiFi-enabled PDAs and Bluetooth-enabled cellphones will get more popular as WiMax backbones become more cost/effective. Listen to Oregon Historical Markers. Everyone’s got a cell phone.
Related DailyWireless articles include Mapping the Lewis and Clark Journey, 360 degree Event Cams, Mobilized Sound + Pictures, Localizing PDA Content, MPEG-4 Hotspots, Handheld Video: $99, Mapping Oral History, My Pal Mickey, GPS Narrative Archaeology, Electric Bike Tours, Poem Spots, Wireless Museums, Oregon Historical Markers, Broadband Handhelds, Wi-Fi Birdhouses, WiFi Flower Boxes and Birdstep’s Location Server.
Here’s My Guide to Vancouver, Washington Bike Trails.
