Five years in, a pause to reflect-and look forward

It's somewhat hard for me to believe that it was actually five years ago this evening that, while sitting in the atrium of Crown Center hunched over the Athlon 64 laptop from which I took my online moniker, I composed this post and brought this blog into being.

Such a journey it's been-one during which wireless capability has gone from being either a luxury option available only on high-end laptops or an expensive and complicated add-on to a standard feature of any portable computing device, sort of like the evolution of automobile air conditioning we baby boomers witnessed during our formative years.  Indeed we have just recently observed the rise of an important new class of portables-the netbook-obviously fueled at least in part by the wireless revolution.  Just what we would expect at a time when, according to surveys, today's generation of college freshmen-born around 1992-have never used a telephone with a cord, or known a time when the World Wide Web did not exist.

And the number and variety of locations welcoming them with free, open wireless Internet access has relentlessly grown.  Since the start of this year alone both McDonald's and Starbucks have transitioned their national networks from fee to free, following the lead of bookstore chains Borders and Barnes and Noble.  Locally, we can be thankful for the Mid-Continent Public Library having made the same change as a counterpoint to the closed networks adopted or stubbornly held onto by several area library systems. 

So just where do things stand five years in? 

Clearly the battle between Free and Open versus Everything Else still rages.  The fact that, as mentioned above, there are still local public library systems (KCK, North Kansas CIty and Cass County) running closed or cardholder-only networks is disheartening-especially in the case of NKC, whose network started life as an open one.  Public libraries, currently striving to maintain their relevance in a world where information is increasingly a mouse click away as opposed to being ensconced behind a reference desk, would seem to have no excuse for this anymore.  Jumping would-be patrons through hoops would strike me as the last thing they should be doing today.  And while big national companies have embraced 21st-century thinking by tearing down Wi-Fi paywalls to draw in much-needed customers in this recession, it's unfortunate that too many local operators have proven slow on the uptake, clinging to outdated notions of wireless access as a product or service rather than an amenity.  Apparently the lesson of the two coffeehouse operators that failed in the Power and Light District location where Latté Land is now running a free and open network-right across the street from a Starbucks doing the same-hasn't sunk in.  The tide towards free and away from fee has clearly turned, however.  Those on the wrong side have a simple choice-get with the program or be swept away.

Sadly, it must be said that local Wi-Fi has not done as much to bridge the digital divide as one might have hoped.  With only one exception I'm aware of, the Bluford and Southeast branches of the KCMO Public Library are still the only hotspots in the traditional inner city on the Missouri side.  And the situation in Wyandotte County remains worse, with the KCK Library's network closed to non-cardholders and essentially nothing else between the state line and the speedway.  It comes as no surprise therefore that recent surveys indicate the most prevalent method of Internet access in these areas is via cellular phone-the electronic equivalent of payday loan and "rent-to-own" stores and buy-here-pay-here used car lots.  Are community leaders there concerned at all about this?  If not, they should be.  Especially with the economy in the shape it's in, it should be clear that outside investment won't come to the rescue; after all, it hasn't up until now.  Those who live there-particularly the entrepreneurs and the other ambitious and forward-looking individuals among them-are going to need to solve this problem themselves, along the lines of either the large-scale community networks once envisioned during Wi-Fi's infancy, or more likely a partnership arrangement offering help to new or existing establishments in the area to unwire.  Such collective efforts often failed elsewhere because the marketplace obviated the need for them.  That has not happened and does not appear to be happening in this case, so community initiative here would truly be filling a void.

And what of the future? 

Truly mobile alternatives to fixed-site Wi-Fi grow cheaper all the time, but I think we're still a long way from anything replacing it.  Anyone who really has a great need for genuine on-the-go Internet access is already paying for it, and they'll always pay more than those of us who can get by with 24/7 wired backhaul to our home router and an occasional stop at a favorite hotspot.  The "white space" proposal the FCC recently signed off on is intriguing, but if the Big Telecom incumbents simply take over this technology-as a possible replacement for running copper over the "last mile" to subscriber locations in addition to providing mobile service, as some "4G" cellular providers are doing now-why wouldn't fixed site operators merely adopt it to provide backhaul for their existing routers?  The incumbents would have to give away access to compete, and it would, it is hoped, become clear to them that it'd be much better to keep doing what they're doing now-join the Wi-Fiers rather than try to beat them.  They're doing a land-office business selling backhaul over copper and fiber currently.  If it ain't broke, why fix it?

No, wireless Internet hotspots aren't going anywhere anytime soon.  And neither is this blog.  We'll keep our eyes on the news and our laptops at the ready to bring you the latest, whether a review of a recently unwired location or our take on current events or technological, legal or social developments that could have an impact on when, where and how you go online away from home.

Again, this last half-decade has been quite a journey.  Thanks so much for coming along.