Free wifi at the airport?

[Rich Braun]

Tom queried:
> But is it even possible for an outsider to implement a WiFi network
> inside a structure without the cooperation and buy-in from the building
> owner (Massport)?

Well you'd need cooperation from the building management, that's true, but for
a quasi-public building owner who just lost a lawsuit over the issue, there's
some logic to this argument:  by cooperating with a local non-profit, the
organization (Massport) could convert this issue from a financial "disaster"
(the dollars, I'm sure, are small) into a public-relations victory.  And there
would be an additional benefit for them:  limiting the profits to be obtained
by their previous nemesis in the courtroom.

I traveled last year on an airline in Asia which took this one step further: 
they provide two free Internet-connected PCs at kiosks right at each departure
gate.  I was able to email my grandmother each time I got on a plane, even
though I never carried a notebook PC.

The reason I'm posting this to BLU is to put out something of a challenge: 
the more years that I live here in MA, and the more times I travel outside our
region, the more I recognize that Massachusetts is slipping--badly--in
deployment of technology and public infrastructure relative to the rest of the
world.  It's frustrating for me to watch traffic signals, subway dispatching,
even subway fare collection systems stay the same or even go downhill (despite
great public expenditures) while cities elsewhere get more of a clue.

What can be done about it?  Well maybe free Internet at the airport is a small
thing that could be tackled first, by well-meaning volunteers from a nonprofit
organization with the blessing of the mayor and maybe an IT or facilities
manager at Massport.  Who do we collectively know who can help us make the
transit systems here better?

-rich


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