An article was published in today’s Journal about the Free WiFi project I started.
An Old Strathcona cafe owner hopes to blanket the area and eventually much of the city with what’s apparently Edmonton’s first free wireless Internet network created by a private group.
Eric Warnke of Free WiFi says the group has set up at least seven locations since June from which people can access the Internet with laptops, cellphones, new iPods and other equipment…
This morning I noticed that Open-Mesh introduced a new logo.
I certainly hope it’s a stop-gap before a better logo because this one looks like someone spent five minutes learning Photoshop while making it.
To Mike and anyone involved with Open-Mesh, I suggest you check out Worth1000. It’s an awesome site where you can get a really quality logo for only a couple hundred dollars.
BarCampEdmonton was a great success this weekend. There were over 100 people in attendance and it was great to meet new people and learn about new projects and interests.
A picture of the schedule is here:
I went to
I also led a session on Edmonton Wireless & WiFi Mesh Networks with Mack Male.
One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a fellow named Clark Murray. Clark and three other guys have created a great product called dub5 which stands for the 5 W’s in everyone’s life, the Who What Where When and Why. Essentially dub5 is a new take on scheduling and calendar management. Their major advantage over competitors like Outlook and Google Calendar is their text message integration. Personally I love this and I hope to be using it as soon as it’s ready.
Since all the video I took of my sessions ended up being like 300mb a piece and 20 minutes long I haven’t finished uploading them to Google Video yet. However, check out the quick demo I had the dub5 guys give me.
As part of my mesh network interests I’ve started up WirelessEdmonton.ca. This will serve as the main website and splash page for my free wifi initiative.
I am starting with Whyte Avenue, where my Internet Cafe is located. I have 20 Open-Mesh routers that need deploying. I will be going to different businesses along the avenue where I feel the network needs a boost and asking them if they will help out.
If a business hosts a repeater they will get a mention on the website. If they host a gateway they will get a specific ad on the front page indicating they are helping out.
In order to generate money I’ve put a simple 160×600 skyscraper ad on the right hand side of the splash page. For $75 a month an advertiser will get equal rotation on the front page. These are just rough numbers to start. As traffic and advertisers grow I’ll make adjustments. Right now the most important thing is to get people to carry my routers.
My buddy Mack was visiting with me the other day and we were doing some crazy brain storming into the future of a free network like this. We both think it has amazing potential and I can’t wait to see this thing explode.
I posted earlier about buying a Meraki Pro Wireless Repeater. So far it’s been doing pretty well sitting in the window. This last week I’ve had over 100 people access it and most of them were not in my cafe. I’d say that’s pretty good for the first router.
Because it’s doing well I decided to order 20 of the Open-Mesh routers. At that number I get them for $39.99 each. The plan is to cover my street in wireless and then go and sell ads to the businesses that operate in the area.
The reason I’m switching to Open-Mesh from Meraki is pretty clear cut. First the price of a Meraki router is like three times more than an Open-Mesh one. The gain isn’t that much smaller and I can easily stick a bigger antenna on them.
Open-Mesh also comes pre-flashed with RO.B.IN which is an open source mesh network. Meraki has proprietary, locked down, restricted software that doesn’t let me properly implement a good splash page, which is essentially my goal.
At a municipal WiFi focus group a month ago I learned about the proposal of having an Edmonton WiFi portal of sorts that shows you information about the area you are in. I think some sort of Wiki would be perfect for this and I’m going to look into it for my project.
My friend, Mack, suggested that I demo the mesh network stuff at the next DemoCampEdmonton. While it would be interesting to show, it’s not my technology, I’m just doing an implementation.