Ian Keldoulis' article in today's New York Times Technology section, "Where Good Wi-Fi Makes Good Neighbors," is heart-warming (warms my heart, at least).

What's not to like about a New York University student who shares his wi-fi connection with neighbors, and uses it to encourage them to use a neighborhood BBS?

Keldoulis explains that the student is taking part in "Neighbornode, a project created by John Geraci that is part of a bare-bones software package provided by NYCWireless, a volunteer advocacy group instrumental in turning places like Bryant Park into public hot spots. The group is encouraging people to set up their own hot spots and electronic bulletin boards to let communities of otherwise anonymous urbanites find one another."

I wonder if anybody is doing anything like this in Silicon Valley. I share my Airport Extreme wi-fi connection with my next-door neighbor, a sweet little old lady (80-something!) with a killer iMac who was previously suffering from dial-up Internet connection death-watch when she tried to read the latest political news on the Web and email far-flung family and friends.

But I hadn't considered a neighborhood BBS. Maybe that would be a good way to get something done about the little rat-dog that yaps incessantly next door when its owners forget to put him back inside before they go to work....

Shadow side ... slowly moving into the light

Some Silicon Valley companies (and many others elsewhere) that manufacture overseas have been criticized for exploiting workers in countries with low wages and weak labor force protection, beginning in the '80s when chip makers set up wafer fab facilities in places like the Philippines, if not earlier.

It's welcome news, then, when Therese Poletti reports that " HP, IBM, Dell set 'code' for treatment of workers, firms to audit working conditions in foreign plants," in today's San Jose Mercury News.

Writes Poletti, "Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell, which were accused earlier this year of having 'dire working conditions' at factories outside the United States, announced Wednesday that they have agreed on a 'code of conduct' for the treatment of workers and the environment."

Poletti notes that "In January, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom, issued a report stating that workers who make computer components for IBM, Dell and HP in Mexico, China and Thailand are suffering 'atrocious conditions for extremely low pay.' "

This is the sort of thing that individual companies and industry groups must do, unless they want to suffer backlash and boycotts, like that of college students who work to alleviate overseas worker exploitation by companies like Nike and other famous brands.

Links:

Where Good Wi-Fi Makes Good Neighbors by Ian Keldoulis, New York Times, 21 October 2004

NYCwireless Community Hotspot Project

< a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/9956462.htm">HP, IBM, Dell set 'code' for treatment of workers, firms to audit working conditions in foreign plants by Therese Poletti, San Jose Mercury News, 21 October 2004