Our Take: NYC RFI on “City Wireless Internet Access for New York City Parks and Other Open Spaces”

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on May 11, 2009 under NYCwireless, News, Policy   Tags Tags: , , , , , ,    Comments 2 Comments »

Earlier today (Wednesday) DoITT released an RFI for “City Wireless Internet Access for New York City Parks and Other Open Spaces” (PIN: 85809RFI0045). I’ve had a chance to review the RFI, and NYCwireless will be responding to it, but I wanted to provide a summary for those of you who haven’t had a chance to [...]


BREAKOUT! Festival in Fall 2009

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on January 6, 2009 under Art, News   Tags Tags: , , , , ,    Comments Comments Off

The Architectural League of New York has chosen BREAKOUT! Escape from the Office as one of the big exhibition pieces for their “Situated Technologies: Toward the Sentient City” in 2009.
NYCwireless is one of the key team members of BREAKOUT!, and Anthony Townsend (one of our co-founders) is chairing the exhibit. The rest of the board (including [...]


NYCwireless Testimony for NY City Council Hearing: The Regulation and Use of the Unallocated Portion of the Radio Spectrum, Also Known as White Spaces

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on September 29, 2008 under News   Tags Tags: , , , , , , ,    Comments 1 Comment »

This is the testimony that I gave and submitted to the NY City Council:
NYCwireless New York City Council Testimony on White Spaces (pdf)
NYCwireless Testimony to the New York City Council
Regulation and Use of the Unallocated Portion of the Radio Spectrum, Also Known as White Spaces
Ladies and Gentlemen of the New York City Council and friends [...]


Idealist.org NYCwireless Podcast

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on August 25, 2008 under News   Tags Tags: , ,    Comments Comments Off

Idealist.org has posted a podcast interview of me (Dana Spiegel) and Laura Forlano talking about NYCwireless and the work that we do. Check it out!

Most of us probably think of using the internet as a solitary, indoor activity. NYCwireless thinks differently.
In the latest Community Podcast, we look at how NYCwireless is working to bring [...]


Using Common Sense When Sharing a Wireless Network

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on July 9, 2008 under From the Executive Director   Tags Tags: , ,    Comments Comments Off

Today I received an email from an NYCwireless supporter about sharing out their organization’s Wi-Fi network. I thought it was a general enough request for information that I’d share our viewpoint and suggestions with other NYCwireless readers:

Should we share our password-protected network with a neighbor???
Hi. Thanks for your advocacy.
We recently password-protected our Verizon wireless [...]


Excellent documentary on Philadelphia/Earthlink Muni-Wi-Fi network

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on June 14, 2008 under News   Tags Tags: , ,    Comments Comments Off

George Rausch has filmed an excellent documentary on Philadelphia’s Muni-wireless Wi-Fi network built by Earthlink. Now that the network has been shut down (as of June 12), its a great time to gain some additional insight into what happened and why (on Philly’s side).

Change is in the Airwaves: A Documentary about the Philadelphia Wireless Initiative [...]


Earthlink Leaves Philly, Network to Go Away

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on May 13, 2008 under News   Tags Tags: , , , , ,    Comments 1 Comment »

Earthlink today announced that they are discontinuing their Philadelphia muni-wireless network. Apparently, the company has been trying to work with the city and Wireless Philadelphia (the non-profit formed by the city originally to manage the Wi-Fi network) to transition the wireless network assets and maintain its operation.
Those discussions have fallen apart, and now Earthlink has [...]


Doc Searls on Why Hotels and Airports Should Have Free Wi-Fi

Date Published by Dana Spiegel on March 31, 2008 under News   Tags Tags: ,    Comments Comments Off

Doc Searls (who wrote a great article in Linux Journal about NYCwireless in 2004) has a great blog post on the frustrating world of for-pay Wi-Fi in hotels and airports. NYCwireless has long said that public and semi-public spaces like hotels and airports (and parks!) have a lot more to gain if they make their [...]