Okay, he never said that. And in fact, although he is European, his attitude is the exact opposite of Marie Antoinette's on the eve of the French Revolution. For all we know, as he throws up wireless Internet nodes willy-nilly, Ballard is actually wielding his own sort of high-tech guillotine, chopping off old-style dial-ups at the knees.

Portland used to be known as the Most Wired City, but now it's gone over the top as the Most Wire-less. With no-strings Internet access, anyone with a suitable computer (and all the new ones are) can open their laps near any 'hot spot' and start emailing Mom. And look, Mom! no plug-ins.

In the past three years Ballard and his friends at the Personal Telco Project have not only pushed WI-FI technology, they've built free hot spots everywhere anyone will let them, and a few places they haven't, such as PGE Park. It's a trend. It's a movement. It's what's happening now.

Eschewing meatspace, LT emailed Ballard on the eve of his greatest triumph so far; the official WI-FI switch-throwing at The Ecotrust Building.

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT THE ECOTRUST PROJECT?

Our latest node, which will go live tomorrow night, will be a SUPER NODE with two Cadillac-class enterprise Wi-Fi access points providing coverage to the coffee shop, pizza place, Patagonia store, Pharmacy, the community meeting room upstairs, the outside seating and the apartments lucky enough to live within range of the AP's. This is a great building and a great public space. Go Portland!

TELL US ABOUT PERSONAL TELCO. ARE YOU ALL A BUNCH OF NERDS?

We are a volunteer group of Portlanders who believe that 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology is both cool and empowering. We started out by turning our own houses and apartments into wireless hot spots (also referred to as 'nodes'), and then set about building these nodes in public locations such as parks and coffee shops. Currently we have over 107 active nodes, and we eventually would like to cover the entire city of Portland with even more.

PTP has steadily grown over the last two years.
We played an important part in Portland being named 'Hottest' in Intel's first 'Most Unwired Cities' survey. We're also proud to have helped educate many people as to what this wireless technology is all about, how to set up nodes, and how to configure the equipment through our educational program. We don't advertise, spam, track or limit your net access. You find one of our nodes, the SSID or network name is always www.personaltelco.net so you know you've found a friendly open node. Associate to it with your Wi-Fi enabled laptop or PDA (Wi-Fi cards typically cost $40). Our splash page appears on your web browser, you agree not to do anything anti-social by clicking the AGREE button, and you are off and running.
No cost, no time limit and no restrictions on where you go or what you do. Free really does mean free with PTP.

IS THIS A MOVEMENT OR SOMETHING?

This is Nigel speaking personally: We all know information is power, it could also be said that access to the wealth of information available on the Internet is empowering. However, not everyone has access to it, and increasingly, dial-up just doesn't cut it as everyone is designing Media rich web sites that require broadband to view the content.

Google really is the window to the world; I consider it the living dictionary. Too many of us take it for granted the ease at which we can spin round in our Herman Miller chairs, tap the space bar and bring up the Google interface safe in the knowledge that the secrets of the universe are within our grasp. By providing free broadband Wi-Fi access to Portlanders, Personal Telco Project is helping to bridge his very real and tangible digital divide. Added to which, we think the technology is kick-ass cool and empowering.

Portland has more Wi-Fi nodes per capita that anywhere else in the USA, but other cities, even towns in unlikely locations such as Estonia are fast playing catch up. We at PTP know we need to keep the pressure on to ensure Portland remains on everybody's radar screen as a technology savvy city.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL BACKGROUND' HOW DID YOU END UP AS PORTLAND'S WI-FI JOHNNY APPLESEED?

I was the global Bluetooth Manager for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young based In France, Cap Gemini folk based in Portland persuaded me to leave the corporate grind and co-found a wireless startup here in PDX. Our company turned from a Dot Com into a Dot Bomb in classic Internet-crash style. I liked Portland so much, I decided to stay, I've not regretted the decision once. How could I not love a town that has more restaurants, bars and Wi-Fi access than anywhere else in the States?

I wear two hats. By day I'm the Director of Wireless for local 20 year telecom veterans Matrix Networks, my job is putting in Wi-Fi into hotels motels, marinas and corporate locations. I just turned up free Wi-Fi throughout three Portland airport hotels, namely The Hilton Gardens, Courtyard by Marriott and the Fairfield Hotel. By night I'm a board Advisor and press manager for Personal Telco. There is a LOT of free Wi-Fi in this town!

WHAT'S THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD OR UNDER-REPORTED ASPECT OF WI-FI TECHNOLOGY, AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN PORTLAND?

People think it is complex, but Wi-Fi isn't rocket science, this is easy stuff, really! We need to get the word out about what PTP is about and how we welcome every man woman and child in this town to connect through our open nodes, but that's hard as we have less than $500 in the bank!

HOW WILL THIS TECHNOLOGY PLAY OUT IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS? WHAT'S NEXT?

It will get more secure and it will get much faster. Next generation wireless delivery standards such as 802.16a are just around the corner and will enable fast and secure delivery of wireless to remote locations bypassing costly and bandwidth limited copper telephone lines.

Cheers Nigel


Reprinted with permission from the Portland Lunch Times. Copyright, 2003, FTN MediaWorks. All rights reserved.