February 3- 9, 2005

loose canon

Why Ask WiFi?

Philly's wireless revolution is coming, one iPod at a time.

by Bruce Schimmel

A new word from www.urbandictionary.com recently zipped into my mailbox. It's "podestrian," which is someone who wanders around, plugged into their iPod. It's an ugly sounding word, but I like it anyway. Because know it or not, podestrians are on the front line of a new kind of democracy, especially if this city's plans for WiFi stay on track.

What podestrians listen to now, of course, are audio files downloaded through their computers. But podestrians could become revolutionaries once they have the ability download files directly on the fly through real-time Webcasts via WiFi.

Podestrians arise: You have nothing to lose but your FireWire.

Imagine walking to work, riding a bus or driving around the city in your car and being able to hear what you want, when you want it: KCRW from Santa Monica, the BBC direct from the U.K., a friend's favorite playlist, the news about and from your own neighborhood even as you wander through it.

It's coming — soon. The ability to receive WiFi through an iPod is already on Apple's short list of new features. Recently, an outfit in Australia called Torian (www.torian.com.au) introduced a portable Internet receiver that was heralded at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

If history is any guide, portable Internet audio that's tuned like a radio could revitalize Philadelphia's barren aural landscape. In the 1960s, cheap and portable transistor radios helped spark a generation's musical, cultural and political overhaul. In the 21st century, Webcasting without wires promises to have an even greater effect, especially here in Philadelphia, as the first major city with ubiquitous WiFi.

To be sure, broadcast radio stalwarts like West Philadelphia's Prometheus radio are still trying to get low-power radio licensed here and elsewhere. Hannah Sassaman and Pete Tridish ought to be proud of getting the FCC to open its frequencies for community broadcasting. But at this juncture, I have to ask: Hey, guys, what's the point?

Low-power broadcast radio is limited to the immediate neighborhood. Its start-up costs are high. And the killer clause is that broadcast radio is regulated by the FCC, which patrols the airwaves for obscenity. Utter the wrong word, and you're through.

With Webcasting, of course, you can reach around the world. The equipment is cheap and widely available. And neither the Internet nor the WiFi spectrum are controlled by the government, because they have no reason to. If transmitting via regular broadcast radio waves is like driving one-way on a single-lane road, the WiFi spectrum provides an essentially unlimited number of lanes in any direction. Who needs a traffic cop if there can't be any crashes?

It's often been said that freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press — that is, the means of production. But as anyone who's produced a music CD will tell you, it's just not so. It's not production but distribution that's the biggest barrier to getting your music, poetry or politics in front of the public.

Right now, the phone and cable companies own the wires and therefore the means of Internet broadband distribution. Phone companies at least must offer a choice of DSL providers. But cable companies, thanks to recent legislation, do not have to offer you a choice, effectively consolidating cable's monopoly. Actually, it's worse than that. Today, Comcast, as a content producer, is in the position enjoyed by Hollywood moguls in the 1940s when the studios owned the stars, the soundstages and even the theaters to show the movies. In 1948, the Supreme Court forced the studios to cut loose their theaters, but that was a kinder, gentler time for citizens' rights.

Fortunately in Philadelphia, citizens' rights are about to expand. The city's plans for a WiFi system provide an alternative outlet that's easy to install, cheap to run and open to all. For Philadelphia, which justifiably prides itself on its public spaces, WiFi will emerge as the new commons, a virtual space where every ordinary citizen can be heard.

Can community-based radio really promote democracy? Oh, yes, indeed, it can. In fact, many say that radio is the most democratic medium — more accessible than newspapers, cheaper (and smarter) than television.

Ask Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai about radio. Maathai said that she used community radio to build her democratic Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Or ask Philadelphia's Bill Siemering, creator of All Things Considered. As a MacArthur fellow, Siermering used radio to build democracy in South Africa after apartheid and is now doing the same in parts of the former Soviet Union.

Community radio can strengthen democracy in Philadelphia. With the coming of WiFi, neighborhood groups have a historic opportunity to build a grass-roots information infrastructure. You need money, you say? Here's some: From the James L. Knight Foundation, there's ample seed money for the start-up of hyperlocal news ventures (see http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/164/rfp). And hopefully someone at Pew or William Penn will also recognize what WiFi radio could accomplish.