Our genealogy class got out early today so that people could either work on assignments, do research or come down to LPL to vist the “London Room”, the library's local history room. I'd seen the room briefly during our LPL tour in Public Libraries class but had a couple hours to kill before I had to be anywhere so decided to come down and look around a bit more in depth.
I did that but have to admit I had an ulterior motive in coming down as well – I knew that LPL had launched a free wireless service in mid-October and hadn't had a chance to check it out yet so thought this was a good opportunity.
So now I'm sitting in their reading lounge on the second floor (which is where they recommend as the best place to pick up a signal. I started at a carrel in the stacks on the third but couldn't get connected so decided to do the proper thing and ask at the reference desk just like I learned in library school!)
I know how distracting clackety-clack can be in a classroom setting (even if I'm guilty of contributing to it myself sometimes) so I wonder if telling people to go to the quiet reading area in the library is the best solution. But nobody's giving me the evil eye yet so I guess it's not as loud here as in a small classroom.
One of my “can't wait for it to happen” ideas will be the day that some type of free, high-speed Internet access is available citywide in all major centres and preferably right across the country anywhere you might go – populated or not. (I think cell phones can do this but I'm talking about real, on your laptop with a full-sized keyboard and screen access rather than the thumb-buster and eye-strain inducer that is the cell phone.)
But my experiences with the free high speed being offered in Toronto was less than satisfactory (you need a cell phone to get access which I don't have – but my impression and what I've heard from others is that the speed is quite slow, even once you get on.) so I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.
In the meantime, I think libraries should have a role in making Internet access available to anyone in the country. Most libraries already provide high speed access terminals so for the cost of an $50 wireless router, they could extend this service to anyone with a wireless-enabled device as well (although some libraries still seem to limit access to card-holding local patrons which is unfortunate.)
There's probably a good reason for this. One of the concerns with providing Internet access which was raised at the LPL board meeting I attended at the end of September was with people using the access for illegal activities.
I am not a lawyer (although I play one at library school 😉) but my take is that the situation is similar to a service organization who maintains a bulletin board in a small community but who can't be held liable for any communications conducted via that bulletin board. (Again, I am not a lawyer so that might just be something I picked up from an old episode of Street Legal.)
So yeah, I didn't need to enter a name or password or library barcode to get access to the Internet here at LPL. Once I found the “hot spot”, I simply turned on my computer and was off. Now, I'm off again…to search for the Anarchist Cookbook…😀
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At the University of Victoria, in the Law Library, there are designated “laptop” areas. This is not a recommendation, but rather is an enforced rule (I was once told to move out of the general area and into the laptop area). The reason? Keyboard noise. This seems crazy to me, since people sniffling, shuffling, talking, eating, and everything else is a lot more disturbing than the methodical click-clack of keyboards.
Legal culpability is surely one of the reasons that public libraries are worried about having open-access wifi, but as you point out, there is not really a lot of sense to this. I suppose if you controlled the hardware and had a connection you could do more nefarious things (like spamming and hacking, which could be prevented if the system was locked down), but from what I have seen of public library terminals you can easily pop in a live Linux CD and get 'root! This is one of the big advantages to using a system like Weldon's Sun Microsystem's thin clients–those babies are so locked down you can't do anything bad (and students hate them, so there are always lots available).
As for municipal wifi, you must remember that north America is WAY down the list for global internet connectivity. Places like Korea and China have wi-max across huge areas of land–you can get connectivity at 120km/h in a bullet train crossing the country. And wi-max is REALLY fast–basically like good ol' 802.11G that you would be used to in your home. Of course, there is pretty good ev-do coverage in north America now (basically the same as digital cell coverage), and it is pretty quick (not quite as quick as 802.11G or wi-max though), but it costs a FORTUNE.
I recently heard a pretty decent argument against publicly-funded wifi (stemming from similar concerns that the libraries are worrying about).
1) If the wifi is publicly-funded then liability becomes a problem. Municipalities do not have the wherewithall to deal with lawsuits, and even if they did, they need to respond to tax payer wishes.
2) Municipal wifi will lower the cost of entry to almost nothing, or perhaps nothing (getting rid of stupid Ontario Hydro requirements for a cell-phone). Thus, municipal wifi will kill off competition (not necessarily a bad thing if you ask me–go big gov.!)
3) However, and here is the rub, from 2 and 3 you have a situation where there is a monopoly of service (again, monopolies are not necessarily bad–some are even good) but the monopoly is run by citizens and responsible to them. Soon people will begin to spam, hack, and generally do illegal things on the free and only network. The citizens will cry out for regulation and filtering, and then the situation will be one in which the only game in town is a filtered internet.
I think this is a pretty compelling argument, although I still think muni wifi is the way to go, as long as the government is strong fisted enough to let things be as they will, or offer the service in a way that does not kill competition (perhaps offering a very barebones service for free, leaving a space for highspeed to thrive privately).
If anyone cares, if you come by my house there is always free wifi, provided through Wireless Nomad (http://www.wirelessnomad.com). The system is secure (linux firewall) and allows my connection full speed while throttling the free-loaders. They are working on getting a Toronto MESH network set up, but there is still a long way to go. The system ain't perfect, but a step in the write direction.
Cross-posted to http://www.iqdupont.com/blog
i sat on the third floor today and got zip.
but instead i actually got work done and did the online stuff at home.
see, when I've got internet I waste time viewing blogs and listening to friends music on myspace.
if you are free and haven't got huge assignments due Friday a.m. come check out LURE at the Last Drop.
http://www.myspace.com/lureottawa
Yep they're from Ottawa and the drummer is fantastic. He drums with lots of folks and yes even folkies like Tiiu Millistver and Sarah Noni Metzner. But Lure ROCKS!
I will try to go out despite various deadlines & duties.
Hey there,)
Thanks for the thoughts – especially on what's happening in other countries with wide access.
I don't agree with you that publicly funded, monopoly Internet access is a bad thing. Although the Internet is pretty much a “soft” utility like telephone or cable, I think a better analogy might be with core utilities like electricty and natural gas which (at least in Saskatchewan), are provided by government-owned Crown corporations. (For the record, our phone company was also a monopoly situaation until recently and may still be for local calls I think.)
The reason those core utilities are provided by government (at least in Saskatchewan) is partly to reduce redundancy and partly because these arrangements make costs lower (highly privatized Alberta has some of the highest utility rates in Canada, Saskatchewan has some of the lowest).
These benefits would equally apply to public Internet I think. As for the concerns about regulation and abuse, I think you could draw an analogy to another core, monopoly government service – highways.
Highways have regulations just like a publicly funded Internet would (I would presume similar regulations to those of private ISP's today) and just as with highways, people with public Internet will break those regulations – some being caught, some not.
(Er, this message brought to you by the Tommy Douglas fan club of London, Ontario