Wireless Ypsi moves into Riverside, Frog Island parks

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

Parks wouldn't seem like an obvious choice for a wireless hook-up, but it makes perfect sense to the people at Wireless Ypsi. The free-Internet collective has spread into Ypsilanti's Riverside Park and is looking to do the same in Frog Island Park later this month.

"If you're working downtown and want to take a break, it's a great place to go and work," says Steve Pierce, a co-founder of Wireless Ypsi. "It's like being in college and asking the professor, 'Can we go outside today?'"

Pierce adds that a temporary wireless hook-up in the parks last year allowed vendors at the Elvisfest to track a storm and smartly postpone the festival instead of canceling it outright.

Wireless Ypsi is free community-based Internet access system has spread well beyond its original boundaries of downtown Ypsilanti. It now covers points all over Washtenaw and Wayne counties and continues to spread. About 600-800 people a day are logging onto the system.

The initiative was founded by Pierce and Brian Robb, who run it more like a non-profit than a business. They use Meraki technology to supply the free Wi-Fi. The Google-funded start up uses off-white transmitters that look like a child's walkie talkie to connect Internet hot spots at local businesses, institutions and homes. The transmitters use the extra bandwidth from the hot spots to create a mesh-like net of Wi-Fi coverage.

Similar systems are spreading in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and San Diego. More than 250,000 different people have logged onto San Francisco’s Meraki network, which covers large sections of the city and has the goal of reaching every neighborhood.

Source: Steve Pierce, co-founder of Wireless Ypsi
Writer: Jon Zemke