more on Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Staple, Greg" <gstaple () velaw com>
Date: July 26, 2005 11:02:55 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] more on Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall


Dave:

Cliff Rohde has a point -- quiet space in urban parks is increasingly
scarce.
But on the National Mall, I think it's a question of balance. The Mall
is America's
town hall as well as a park, and sometimes democracy can be a bit noisy.

But, as a co-founder of Open Park, I can tell you that we want to
preserve the Mall's quiet spaces
as much as the next person. That is one reason why our current proposal
for roof top access at the Smithsonian
is only aimed at creating a WiFi zone on the central 10 block area (the
museum corridor between 4th and 14th Streets NW)
that is already most heavily trafficked, leaving the great green
swatches of parkland to the west and south
(by the Jefferson Memorial and along the Potomac) wireless free --
assuming the swarms of cell phone users
will agree to power down too. And then are the summer caravans of  SUVs
with
their back seat DVD consoles and satellite radios...and so on and so
forth.

Yes, by all means, lets preserve some quiet places in our National
Parks, including the Mall.
However, strange as it may seem, with a little popular encouragement,
creating a central public
commons for people to tune in together just might create more public
space elsewhere on the Mall for
people to tune out alone. It's worth a try.

Greg Staple
President and Co-Founder, Open Park


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:12 AM
To: Ip ip
Subject: [IP] more on Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall




Begin forwarded message:

From: Clifford Rohde <ccr7 () cornell edu>
Date: July 25, 2005 8:50:29 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall


I'm a technophile and big believer in the advantages of readily
available
communications media (including free to the public services). That
said, why
would the public want this and shouldn't the burden be on its
proponents to
prove it's a good thing rather than everyone else to prove it's a bad
thing?
The Mall is a nice play to jog, stroll, fly a kite and even find, on
occasion, quiet solitude among the national monuments. There are
increasingly fewer public places to engage in such unplugged,
unmechanized
activities, especially where most others present are unplugged.
Opening our
public green spaces to laptops and more yammering (VOIP I suppose)
phoners
seems a bit like opening wilderness trails to snowmobiles and ATVs.
What am
I missing?

/cliff rohde

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com] On
Behalf Of
David Farber
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 8:18 PM
To: Ip ip
Subject: [IP] Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall
Importance: High



Begin forwarded message:

From: John Scott <johnmscott () mindspring com>
Date: July 25, 2005 6:27:40 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Greg Staple <info () openpark net>
Subject: FW: Hotspot ---> OpenPark.net, WiFi on the Mall
Reply-To: johnmscott () mindspring com


NEED SUPPORT!!!

Dave, for IP,

The Open Park initiative (www.openpark.net) is leading an effort to
deploy
hot spots (for free) on the Mall in Washington DC, at no cost to the tax
payer or the Smithsonian (all hardware/software/bandwidth costs are
being
taken care of). All that is needed is a little bit of roof space on
top of a
few of the Smithsonian Buildings.


Letters of support have been received from Congress and more recently
Vint
Cerf. We need a final push of positive support from the inter-webs to
let
the Smithsonian Board of Regents know that the public wants this and
that
its not a bad thing.

Letters to the Smithsonian should be directed to addresses at this link
(with a CC to
info () openpark net) : http://www.openpark.net/smithsonianContact.html :

Lawrence M. Small
Secretary
Smithsonian Institution
Castle Bldg., Room 205
1000 Jefferson Drive SW
Washington, DC 20560
smalll () si edu
Fax: (202) 786-2515

Sheila P. Burke
Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer Smithsonian Institution
Castle
Bldg., Room 219 1000 Jefferson Drive SW Washington, DC 20560
burkesp () si edu
Fax: (202) 357-7031

Roger Sant
Chair, Smithsonian Board of Regents
Executive Committee
c/o The Summit Foundation
2100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Suite 525
Washington, DC 20037
achupp () summitfdn org
Fax: (202) 912-2901

Alan Spoon
Smithsonian Board of Regents
Executive Committee
c/o Polaris Venture Partners
1000 Winter Street
Suite 3350
Waltham, MA 02451
aspoon () polarisventures com
Fax: (781) 290- 0880


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