After my first post on Google’s proposal to build a WiFi network in San Francisco, I came across a piece written last April by Esme Vos, founder and editor of MuniWireless.com (which coincidentally held a conference last week in San Francisco that was expecting 200 attendees but attracted more than 300).
Esme wrote “Fund a free citywide Wi-Fi network: Google ads + local search + maps?” while sitting in a WiFi cafe in Santa Cruz. In it, she lays out several examples of the kind of value such a network could provide to both users and local businesses. Here’s one of them:
Assume I am in Rome, on the Campo de Fiori, one of the main squares in the city. It is 7pm and I am looking for a good place to eat spaghetti carbonara. I tap into my Wi-Fi enabled device which accesses the Internet using Rome’s citywide Wi-Fi cloud or the local Campo de Fiori Wi-Fi hotzone. I type in “Campo de Fiori” and “carbonara” in Google maps and, displayed on my device, are the carbonara restaurants in my area. Over each restaurant marked on the Google map is a balloon which shows if it has been recommended in Fodors or Conde Nast Traveler or La Repubblica (the local newspaper). If you click on the restaurant balloon, you see the menu, the prices, the opening times, etc. Take this one step further and assume that I have GPS on my device. I don’t even need to type in my location. My device just knows where I am and all I have to do is ask where I should go for carbonara.
After reading Tim O’Reilly’s recent Web 2.0 post and Esme’s “carbonara” post, its tempting to spend Sunday sitting at a local cafe pondering the possibilities in a world with free access to a ubiquitous Web 2.0-powered broadband network.
In another post, Esme links to an eWeek column by Chris Nolan, author of the Politics From Left to Right blog, who says “If Google does offer free wireless Internet access, it could change the political, social and economic fabric of the country. And that’s not a bad thing.”
The sudden, over-night, branded provision of free and almost unlimited access to the Internet would mean that telephone, cable, broadcast TV, film and music companies would have to come to grips-now!-with the fact that their hold on their customers is slipping and can easily be undone. That makes the free Wi-Fi idea one very politically shrewd move on Google’s part.
Free Google Wi-Fi would add support to the arguments made by cities and towns that such access is a public safety and health issue. It would also shore up arguments that Wi-Fi is both an economic development tool as well as a municipal money-saver. It would be a potent demonstration of the power and flexibility of the Internet and lawmakers in Washington love demonstrations that reassure people that the future isn’t really that scary. Again, politically shrewd on Google’s part.
Mitch Shapiro at 9:50 AM|Comments(2)
It's amazing how fast things change. Google now has maps and satellite photos for Rome, London, Paris and most other major European cities. Less than six months later, the Rome scenario is not at all bogus.
Posted by: Carl at May 31, 2006 1:47 PM
Of course, the Rome scenario is bogus. Google may have satellite photos for most urban areas, but not maps. It's quite impractical to use satellite photos to navigate a city. To date, Google Maps covers the US, some parts of Canada, and Great Britain.
Posted by: Andrew at October 2, 2005 2:42 PM
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