I was interviewed for an article that appeared in the South China Morning Post this past Tuesday: Wi-fi the link to new networks (paid subscription required.)

Like a good wine, new technology requires time to mature before it becomes really interesting. Take the internet, for example. A brilliant concept from the outset, it took the creation of web browsers before it excited anyone who did not have a handful of PhDs and a cluttered laboratory.

The article is all about how Wi-Fi networks can be used to provide location-based services, with a focus on social software. I also mentioned how location-based service could make our computers easier to use. If your computer already knows where it is, it can give you information about that space with a single click. And if you're searching for somewhere to eat or shop, chances are you're most interested in a place that's nearby.

More updates soon...

Brad Ideas: 802.11 broadcast of local info. This article talks about a lower level than I usually deal with here, but there are some interesting thoughts in it about how an access point could broadcast more detailed information about itself.

All this happens because most access points transmit a regular "beacon" packet which lists their SSID and other information needed to connect to them. Seeing that the SSIDs were sometimes interesting, I wondered if we might do much more with a special beacon.



This beacon would deliberately tell you a bit about the access or location. It would contain a mixed XML/HTML packet with a variety of useful fields and general text. ... Access points would also talk about themselves, declaring, for example, if the owner is offering open internet access for free or for fee, or has a local database of information, and what classes of information are in the main text. The local lattitude and longitude for those without a GPS could be useful, along with local maps data in a compact form.

Perhaps they could also provide hints such as, "quiet area: devices should switch to vibrate mode here."

The article also talks about how mobile clients might be able to grab data from an access point without having to fully associate with it. If you've used a mobile device with WiFi, you know it takes a few seconds to establish a usable connection--and that's assuming the network doesn't force you to go through some login or registration procedure. From a usability point of view, it's far from ideal. Of course, a bigger problem in many cases is figuring out which of the 10 visible access points will be able to provide a usable internet connection.

I just linked near near future a few days ago, but they found another interesting PDA/GPS game. Seamful Game shows how you can take a design limitation--WiFi's imperfect coverage--and turn it into a feature.

Players travel around a designated area collecting digital "coins" (which appear all over the map, including in places not covered by the 802.11b wireless network) and uploading them to get points. To gain these points, players must upload the coin to the server, by pressing the "upload" button on their PDA in an area where there is 802.11b coverage. If players attempt to upload coins in an area not covered by WiFi, the upload fails and they loose all the coins they are carrying.