| Gönderen: |
Lewis G Rosenthal <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> |
Tam Ba?l?klar
Çözülmemi? ?leti |
| Gönderen: |
os2-wireless_users-owner <os2-wireless_users-owner@2rosenthals.com> |
| Konu: |
[OS2Wireless] PlaceSite - Reinventing Wi-Fi Community |
| Tarih: |
Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:59:51 -0400 |
| Alacak: |
os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com |
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Hehehe... that's the article that led me to PlaceSite. The argument surrounding "if we give it to them for free, they'll never leave," is becoming rather standard in the hotspot deployment game. A couple years ago, when we first got involved in these things, we really had very little control over clients in venues. Now, however, it's quite different.
It used to be that we had the play-for-free vs play-for-fee setups. Either venues gave it away (time unlimited) or they charged for either a certain amount of access or just a flat fee to use the service ad infinitum. Now, however, we have the ability to generate codes which can then be printed on small self-adhesive labels. A customer makes a purchase (say, a cappuccino), and then on his receipt, the barrista simply sticks on the label with the code. The customer sits down, opens his notebook, and upon reaching the captive portal, logs in (or creates a user account for himself), and enters the code. This starts the clock ticking. Venues may give longer time codes for greater purchases (a sandwich and a cup o' joe might yield an hour, whereas a medium latté might come with a 30-minute code. Venues may also sell additional time increments as they see fit.
I was really taken back by that article in the Times. While I do indeed consider it rude to sit in someone's café soaking up the Wi-Fi and not consuming (they don't provide public restrooms, either, I'm sure!), there are so many better methods for dealing with loiterers than to have to get rude with them in return. I recently observed a fellow in the Leesburg, VA Panera Bread, at the height of lunch rush during the week, sprawled out across the table while people were waiting for a seat. Unbelievable.
Anyway, I thought that this idea of near-line connectivity was most intriguing, especially being a "people watcher," as I am. There's another interesting concept on the café scene (okay, not quite Wi-Fi related, but these things would have to be hooked up to the net somehow) over at http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/ChitChatClub/. I'd like to kick around the idea of embedding OS/2 in one of these avatars, one day... ;-)
On 06/13/2005 10:32 pm, Julian Thomas thus wrote :
In <42AE3691.4060403@2rosenthals.com>, on 06/13/05 at 09:44 PM, Lewis G Rosenthal <lgrosenthal@2rosenthals.com> typed:
I know this is far afield from the technology which usually occupies our time on this list (and elsewhere), but I'm curious to get other people's thoughts on this research. Personally (and consider that hotspot deployment is an ancillary business venture for Rosenthal & Rosenthal (see www.hautspot.com), I think this is a great idea with quite a bit of promise.
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~savage/ps/index.html
Interesting. The NY Times just had an item about wireless cafes getting
annoyed about the people who come in and spend hours buying at most one
cup of coffee and otherwise being oblivious to anyone around them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/technology/13wifi.html
--
Lewis
------------------------------------------------------------
Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA, CLE
Rosenthal & Rosenthal, LLC
Accountants / Network Consultants
New York / Northern Virginia www.2rosenthals.com
eComStation Consultants www.ecomstation.com
Novell Users International www.novell.com/linux/truth
Warpstock 2005 - Hershey, Pennsylvania, October 6-9, 2005 www.warpstock.org
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