Silicon Valley Watcher proposes free WiFi solution for most of San Francisco. . . and it could be done this afternoon!
There has been much chatter about San Francisco's plans to offer WiFi to all its residents and businesses, and Google's offer to set up a city-wide hotspot for free.
Here is my proposal for (nearly) free WiFi solution that could be in place this very afternoon:
I realized we already have much of the infrastructure in place. In virtually any location in the city, I can pick up several WiFi signals from local networks. We just need to persuade people in SF with a wireless router to remove password protection and hang their antenna out the window, or place it by an outside window.
We already have the simple technologies to protect individual PCs/notebooks from being hacked wirelessly, which means we don't need to have closed wireless networks. Instant bridging of the digital gap!
What do you think?