Comment Articles

WiFi revolution

Guy Kewney AnchorDesk

Published: 24 Jul 2001 16:51 BST

Excitement doesn't just happen every day; it takes something special. Examples of things which made the world a more exciting place in my life must include my discovery in 1974 that I could build my own computer, and the appearance of the Internet twenty years later.

Now have a look at http://www.toaster.net/wireless/community.html -- the growth of a "wireless community" around the world. Check this out where you can read about kids roaming the streets looking for "open" wireless access points, using Network Stumbler (and other tools).

That sense of "Wow!" is creeping over me again, with the explosion of WiFi (IEEE 802.11b) wireless networking.

Truly, this is changing the planet -- because, like the Micro Revolution and the Internet Revolution, the WiFi revolution is giving control of mass market technology -- in this case connectivity -- to individuals.

You can do it. I can do it. It takes little unusual skill to get started, and do exciting things. But once you're started, it's not just a "one-button" experience like Citizens Band, where you could talk as soon as you switched it on. Rather, you are just taking your first steps on the yellow-brick road, which could lead anywhere.

For me, WiFi is freedom at home. Instead of having to go upstairs to the study when I need to access the Internet, I can sit with my notebook in front of the television. A trivial matter, perhaps; except it makes me part of the family circle instead of "the nerd upstairs who won't understand the jokes at breakfast" next morning. Or I can work in the garden, if I like.

But other people are taking this whole revolution bit seriously. When you read about: "A grass roots organisation dedicated to taking back the internet from the corporations and returning it to the people," and "Building actual physical communities using networking technology" you can hear, in your mind, an echo of Lee Felsenstein's Community Network project which grew in Berkeley University in California three decades ago, or the equally forgotten but inspiring Fido Network which grew up around the first 1200 bps modems.