Wafting in the evening air, a radio
signal carries high-speed Internet
access from the cafe's back-office
computer to these patrons' laptops,
transporting the customers into the
virtual surf, free of charge, no wires
attached.
Got WiFi?
This place
does.
Some think Web
surfing in public is obnoxious: "Could
you just lose the techno gear for ONE
MINUTE?" But the contagion is about the
power trip. Reading book reviews online
while in the stacks at Powell's.
Searching movie listings in the South
Park Blocks when it starts to rain.
E-mailing a work report while lounging
at Urban Grind.
And if the
Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, trend
bothers you, get used to it. City
leaders just announced that, as early as
next year, a private company could be
blasting low-cost wireless Internet
access from the sidewalks to the buses
to the buildings citywide.
Sure, Wi-Fi is
taking off across the country. Just go
to a major airport and watch the
laptop-toting business travelers. But
what sets Portland apart is its
grass-roots, do-it-yourself approach.
Behind the
citywide Wi-Fi project, behind many of
the hangouts where laptoppers can now
surf the Web for free, is a bunch of
geeks creating Wi-Fi systems from
recycled computers over soda and
microbrews in the basement of a
Southeast Portland home.
Aaron Baer
motors home from his Mentor Graphics
job, trades his work wear for bike
shorts and pedals over to Tom Higgins'
massive old Craftsman on Southeast
Alder.
Joe McCann, 48,
a recently unemployed network systems
engineer, and Higgins, 40, a laid-off
software developer turned stay-at-home
dad, are at the cluttered kitchen table
discussing the equipment McCann needs to
set up Wi-Fi at a gallery that weekend.
"You build it,"
McCann tells Higgins, "and I'll haul it
over there and install it."
Baer, 31, grabs
a slice of greasy pizza and hunts for a
napkin.
"I'm thinking
pretty much by summertime we'll light up
Southeast Portland," he says.
These are a few
of the guys from the Personal Telco
Project. This all-volunteer nonprofit
got its start in late 2000 setting up
free wireless "hot spots" at cafes,
bookstores, parks -- nearly two years
before Starbucks began offering Wi-Fi
for a price.
More than four
years later, Personal Telco's hot-spot
roster has shot past 140. Not only can
visitors at these hot spots use Wi-Fi
for free, Personal Telco also does not
charge the cafe or bookstore owner for
installation.
Personal
Telco's mission is simple: Free Wi-Fi
for the people.
"Some of what
we do has been so successful because we
embody the Portland spirit," says Nigel
Ballard.
Ballard (who
coined "got wi-fi?" from the milk ads )
helped city officials see how Wi-Fi
could bring the Internet to more people
-- and keep Portland on the map of
tech-savvy places.
A coalition,
including Ballard and city and Portland
Development Commission leaders, plans to
seek bids this summer from private
companies to build, own and manage a
citywide Wi-Fi network by some time next
year.
If it works,
the project would give a low-cost
alternative to buying Internet access
from such companies as Comcast or Qwest.
Such companies could bid to create the
network or contract to provide Internet
services within the network. But city
leaders think the heightened competition
would drive down the cost.
Personal Telco,
as a bunch of volunteers, doesn't want
the citywide job. But the group would
keep creating free Wi-Fi spots, since
the citywide offering would come at a
price.
Marshall Runkel,
aide to City Commissioner Erik Sten, a
Wi-Fi backer, says Personal Telco's free
Wi-Fi hot spots are what pushed Portland
into the top ranks of the nation's most
unwired cities.
Says Runkel,
"They're the Robin Hoods of new
technology."
Back at Tom
Higgins' house, a few more guys arrive,
and they head for the basement to do the
nitty-gritty behind their magic.
Michael
Weinberg, russet sideburns framing his
25-year-old baby face, camps out on a
sofa. He flips open his laptop and pulls
up photos of the Labrador/boxer mix he's
getting. He's a freelance clothing
designer and writer who helps with PTP's
grant writing and promotion.
Baer straddles
a folding chair at a monitor and inserts
an extra networking card in a desktop
computer, among those that Personal
Telco saved from a landfill.
Baer's mission:
Install software telling the computer to
route a high-speed connection from a
modem to an access point. The access
point -- usually a slim black box with
two antennas -- is what projects the
high-speed connection over radio waves
to WiFi-ready laptops.
"Yeah, now
we're talkin'," says Baer at an early
sign of success.
"Oooh, yeah,"
says Weinberg, joining the guys gathered
around.
In their spare
time, the Personal Telco guys go to the
hangouts that have requested their
services. The places purchase their own
high-speed Internet connection. PTP asks
that they select an Internet provider
that permits sharing its connection. The
PTP guys install their rejiggered
computers to create the WiFi.
PTP does its
work free and, in turn, expects that the
hangout will not charge anyone to use
the WiFi. It's a boon for the hangouts.
Free WiFi lures customers. But the
hangouts' interest in Personal Telco's
service is also about that "pro-local"
Portland ethic.
Personal Telco
operates like a group hug -- the
hangouts promote Personal Telco, which
in turn lists them on its Web site. The
nonprofit eventually plans to network
the hot spots and offer a calendar of
events at those sites and music by local
bands.
John Mitchell
just got Personal Telco-powered WiFi at
Gladstone Coffee and Gallery , at 3813
S.E. Gladstone St. It took awhile to get
a Personal Telco volunteer out to the
shop, and he had to make a second trip
when his hardware failed. But that's
sometimes part of the grass-roots
package.
Mitchell says
coffeehouses always have been a place
where people come for information. Makes
him think of the handbills posted in
public houses during the American
Revolution.
"This is the
exact same thing, but with new
technology," Mitchell says. "I like
being involved with that."
Businesses are
shuttered for the evening in the
light-industrial district around the
eastside Urban Grind when some 25 PTP
geeks arrive for their monthly meeting.
These meetings
gather the larger membership -- tallying
well over 100 -- to trade information
and, well, brag a bit. On this night,
the big talk is about Personal Telco's
latest phase, beyond hot spots. Call it
Operation Rooftop.
It's where PTP
members mount rooftop antennas to create
clouds, emanating from a purchased
high-speed Internet connection, that
rain free wireless access over several
blocks. It's a mini-model of what the
citywide project would do. And it's what
a newcomer at this meeting calls "gettin'
on the roof and makin' it happen."
Baer stands up
and shares his adventure mounting an
antenna atop an apartment building.
"It's a really
awesome install. It looks really nice up
on the roof," he says. "Mike and Troy
were up on the roof with me. . . . It's
a cool node."
Last week,
Meyer Memorial Trust awarded Personal
Telco $14,752 -- a "small grant" in
Meyer Memorial's parlance, a windfall to
Personal Telco, which last year operated
on $3,000 in donations.
PTP will use
the grant to pump free Wi-Fi over the
gentrifying North Mississippi Avenue
business district. It'll radiate eight
to 12 blocks from a Mississippi and
Shaver rooftop antenna and a high-speed
connection donated by Stephouse, a local
Internet company co-founded by a
26-year-old, self-taught techie. PTP
plans to start work in May and finish by
year's end.
Meyer
Memorial's Doug Stamm said that a
clincher for the trust was PTP's ability
to spread Internet access to people who
typically lack it. To that end, PTP will
offer seminars to teach neighbors to use
and eventually maintain their free Wi-Fi
network.
Baer, who says
he sticks with PTP because he's good at
the work and wants to contribute to the
community, is psyched about the North
Mississippi project. He's already
scrambled up on one of the rooftops. He
doesn't see the moss or sweat the
heights. He just sees the free Wi-Fi
potential.
"It has the
most gorgeous line of sight."
Erin Hoover
Barnett: 503-294-5011; ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com
