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Chicago Goes Wi-Fi . . . What Does that Mean to Business?

February 19, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Chicago gears up for wireless broadband

Philadelphia. . . . San Francisco. . . .

Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Large cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco see wireless broadband technology as a low-cost solution to providing broadband access to low-income residents.

They also believe that these Wi-Fi networks can help them save millions of dollars in operational costs by providing broadband connectivity for public-safety and other agencies within city government. Many believe the networks will help boost economic development by drawing more people to the city.

Philadelphia, which plans to have its citywide Wi-Fi network up and running by summer 2006, is the poster child of the municipal wireless movement.

Now Chicago. . . .

By DAVE CARPENTER
AP Business Writer, BusinessWeek

Chicago has hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots in places like coffee shops, bookstores and libraries, where anyone can walk in, sit down and connect to the Web. Hoping to extend that wireless blanket to all 228 square miles, the city plans to ask technology companies this spring to submit proposals for the project.

While it’s too soon to say how the system would operate, the goal is to make Internet access “broad and affordable” for residents and heighten Chicago’s appeal for businesses and tourists alike, according to Chris O’Brien, the city’s chief information officer. . . .

“We think it’s important for residents of the city and tourists and businesses to have lots of different ways to connect,” O’Brien said. “For a city as big as Chicago, with the vibrant business community and diverse citizen base that we have, you want to make sure all kinds of technology are available to them as they work and enjoy entertainment options.”

If all goes smoothly, the system could be running as soon as 2007 . . .

Other cities with or planning Wi-Fi networks include: Anaheim, CA, Arlington, VA, Brookline, MA, Denver, Co, Miami, FL, Minneapolis, MN, Grand Rapids, MI, New York, NY, Pittsburgh, PA.

What Does This Mean?

While you and I may or may not be going Wi-Fi, the world around us is. Cities large and small are planning for Wi-Fi and putting networks up. Even Google has a hand in Wi-Fi with something called Secure Access which is secret. Find out more about it at Secure Access FAQ. (Thank you, Wired News.)

The goal, of course, is national-wide access. With that come the large, long-term legal, moral, ethical, practical, business questions:

  • Who runs it?
  • Who owns it?
  • Who pays for it?
  • Who makes sure no one is shut out?
  • How do you prevent conflicts of interest?

However, there is one immediate, compelling elephant in the room.
Any business that isn’t online needs a plan to get there now.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Click the screenshot to read the BusinessWeek article.
Cities Unleash Free Wi-Fi by Wired News
Google Moves Into Wi-Fi Arena
The citywide Wi-Fi reality check
CNet Cities Brace for Broadband War

Filed Under: Business Life, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc

Explore the Magic Middle with Authority

February 14, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

David Sifry posted The State of the Blogosphere–Part 2 at the Technorati Weblog today. Part 2 focuses on how information is handled both in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere.

Once again Sifry provides information and analysis that will serve you in your online business and in your personal life. Everyone who wants an understanding of the state of the national media should read this. Businesses should be keeping an eye on the data Mr. Sifry has to offer, particularly businesses that spend advertising dollars. Bloggers should pay attention because opportunities are replete. But bloggers be prepared. It will require creative bloggers that can recraft this information into persuasive messages to help businesses understand that the world is becoming an economy of knowledge and that the base of that knowledge is moving as we speak.

MSM, the Long Tail, and the Top 100

David Sifry discusses the Mainstream Media stalwarts in relation to the Long Tail Blogs telling the story with his usual graphic detail. He also speaks to the Top 100, and the network effect that seems to hold the same blogs in those 100 positions. He points out, that despite the network effect, new blogs have moved in and out.

The Magic Middle

Sifry also spends time defining a group he calls the Magic Middle–bloggers who are in niche publishing with 20-100 other sites linking to them–as sometimes radically changing the economics of trade publishing with their interesting, topical, and influential blogs. These are the blogs that people like you and I read and write. We might well know them better than Mr. Sifry does.

Technorati Explore

The first new feature David Sifry describes is Technorati Explore. I have to say, I’m not clear on how it works. I’ll let him explain it.

The idea is to use the bloggers that know the most about an area or topic to help spot the interesting trends that may never hit the “A-list”. We call this new section Explore, and we’ve seeded it with some of the most interesting topics that we could find. But one of the nice things about Explore is that there are no gatekeepers, and that anyone who writes interesting topical blog posts can get included simply by tagging his blog and tagging his posts.

Sounds great doesn’t it? The post says much more about it. I tried it out tonight . . . I’m still not sure how it works.

What’s Authority?

The second new feature Sifry introduced is Authority Filtering. A new green slide allows you to tune your searches to adjust your results to only those with a lot of authority. Authority is calculated on number of links.

What's Authority?

Why You Should Read This Post?

I hardly told you half of what’s in it. Here’s just a few notes–a taste–from the summary.

  • Blogging and Mainstream Media continue to share attention in blogger’s and reader’s minds, but bloggers are climbing higher on the “big head” of the attention curve, with some bloggers getting more attention than sites including Forbes, PBS, MTV, and the CBC.
  • Bloggers are changing the economics of the trade magazine space, with strong entries covering WiFi, Gadgets, Internet, Photography, Music, and other nice topic areas, making it easier to thrive, even on less aggregate traffic.
  • The Magic Middle is the 155,000 or so weblogs that have garnered between 20 and 1,000 inbound links. It is a realm of topical authority and significant posting and conversation within the blogosphere.

I sit in the Magic Middle. Tagged with Authority–if the sliding scale works the way it’s supposed to. The MSMedia is losing ground and hardly has a clue. The blogosphere is growing faster than most folks can contemplate how to make something of it. The information is here. The future is around the corner.

What will you do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
David Sifry Writes about the Future–Janice Myint Please Don’t Read It
Explore the Magic Middle with Authority
Want Technorati Fixed? Link to Janice. Give Janice AUTHORITY.

Filed Under: Successful Blog, Tech/Stats, Trends Tagged With: Authority, bc, David_Sifry, long_tail, Magic_Middle, Mainstream_media, Technorati

CoComment Echoes

February 8, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

coComment logo

I used to stand on the hill outside of the house where I grew up, shouting to hear the echo come back . . . now that coComment has arrived, I don’t have to drive 100 miles when I feel the need to hear my echo anymore.

I had my first coComment experience the other night when NZAlan left a comment and took it with him too. That was the night we moved servers for Successful-Blog, and unfortunately about 10 comments were lost. Alan returned the next day and asked about the lost comments. I told him the story. He was able to take his comments from the night before and put them back. WAY COOL!

What Is coComment About?

Duncan Rileyat the Blog Herald has written an indepth review on his test of coComment in Beta Version. Duncan starts by admitting he was a disbeliever. He’s tired of all of the hype around Web 2.0 applications. Can’t say as I blame him. Most are way over done, clumsy, or don’t even work. But once Duncan worked with it, he ended up putting coComment on his personal blog.

What changed his mind? He gave these reasons.

      The concept
      The simplicity
      The lack of bad stuff

I let him fill you in on the details himself. He’s the one who has actually worked with the app and he explains the features and benefits quite well.

What’s the Verdict?

Here’s snip of what Duncan says:

If I was scoring it, maybe 9.5 out of 10. I’ll hold the .5 back because the service still has a few bugs (it is in beta after all), but kudos where its due, I’m likely to be using this service fairly regularly.

Read the review. It answered every question I had. Then click this image link to visit the site.

There’s a box on the front page of the coComment site where you can request an invitation to test coComment for yourself.

–ME “Lizâ€? Strauss

Filed Under: Blog Comments, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc

Fun Find: DONTCLICK.IT

December 10, 2005 by Liz Leave a Comment

Great Find: DONTCLICK.IT by Institute for Interactive Research
URL: www.dontclick.it
Target Audience: Anyone interested in web interfaces and interactivity

Content: The Institute has packed more information than first meets the eye when you enter this award-winning, flash-driven website. Everywhere you mouse over you will find options to learn and invesigate without ever needing to click.

Dont click it

You can play a game called Housecamp. It’s a bit addictive and not easy. You can cast your vote for clickless interactivity and try out several types of clickless button interfaces. You can explore the history of computers, leave a message in the crowd of visitors, and much, much more. Look for something behind every word you see. In the experiment lab, you can replay how others moved through the site. This website is like a giant puzzle. Enjoy and explore at the same time.

Be sure to mouse over the gold seal on the opening screen before you go in.

Who knows? There may come a day when the words click here will be history.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Business Life, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc, clickless_website, DONTCLICK.IT, interactivity, survival_kit, ZZZ-FUN

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