Vancouver park board to consider motion calling for free public Wi-Fi

by Yolande Cole on April 8th, 2014 at 4:10 PM

1 of 1 2 of 1

Park board commissioner Trevor Loke wants to see free Wi-Fi implemented in public spaces across the city.

The Vision Vancouver commissioner plans to introduce a motion next week calling for the park board and the city to develop a strategy aimed at offering free Internet access at sites including parks and beaches.

“I think that the accessibility for Wi-Fi in public spaces is first of all very good for everybody to have access to the Internet and to the information that’s stored on it, but it’s also good for business, and I think that there’s no reason business has to happen just in office buildings,” Loke told the Straight by phone.

“I think people should feel free to have meetings in parks and community centres and beaches and have access to the Internet.”

Loke’s motion calls for the general manager of the park board to work with Vancouver’s chief digital officer on identifying the potential costs and timeframe associated with setting up a Wi-Fi network, and for staff to pinpoint park board and city-operated sites that could be part of the rollout.

“This is kind of the catalyst to begin that work and to direct staff to move forward on it,” said Loke, adding that ideally, he’d like to see public Wi-Fi in place by next spring or summer.

The motion is scheduled to go before the park board at its next meeting, which takes place at 7 p.m. on April 14.

Comments

24 Comments

Hackez

Apr 8, 2014 at 5:11pm

Make sure you use a VPN when using any public wireless or blackhats can sit on this new network and harvest credentials all day long.

Sherry Ridout

Apr 8, 2014 at 5:11pm

I can appreciate the good intentions behind this initiative but just wondering if you are aware that a small percentage of your citizens are Electro-magnetically sensitive, even if though don't know it yet. Widespread Wi-Fi makes it difficult for some people to be in public places due to the effect on their health. Perhaps worth a little more research before moving ahead...

OpenBSD

Apr 8, 2014 at 6:00pm

Tinfoilers go away, there is no such thing as "Electro-magnetically sensitive". Please go to UBC and talk to a physicist, or feel free to jump on coursera.org and take physics yourself. This is desperately needed, look at any coffee shop and see all the students crowded around trying to use feeble wifi because they can't get or afford internet wherever they live. Feel free to wear tinfoil on your head if you experience any problems.

City of Vancouver look into OpenBSD (free) and how to set up a secure, pf filtered, and VLAN segregated network to prevent all kinds of abuse. Avoid finding some contractor who will charge millions to do this with closed source junkware when you can do it for free minus the cost of (open) infrastructure with very little maintenance.

If it's reliable infrastructure I can fork Textsecure (secure messaging) and Ostel (secure voip) and you will be able to use a cell in Vancouver without even needing a sim card. Build our own voip network. We can also use this as a gateway into a private community network much like how the Athens community wireless network runs which is a decentralized, censorship proof and free to all network for hosting educational videos (site ripping udacity, coursera, MIT), news, activism and whatever else you want. The free public wifi acts as a gateway to VPN link with Athens, Austria and other worldwide community networks.

Informed Citizen

Apr 8, 2014 at 9:02pm

OpenBSD: You sound like a computer geek who has no thorough understanding of the issue. You should take a course in biology rather than physics if you are interested to know how the human body is affected by WiFi microwave, how human cells communicate with each other electromagnetically, and why you have electrical currents in your heart and your brain (think ECG & EEG).

You should stop confusing online learnig with WiFi. People - can and do - use wired computers to access educational numerous online educational applications.

You should check out what the 60,000 pediatric surgeons and pediatrician at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) say about wireless devices, that the"differences in bone density and the amount of fluid in a child’s brain compared to an adult’s brain could allow children to absorb greater quantities of RF energy deeper into their brains than adults... the current exposure limits may not reflect the latest research on RF energy".

You should seek out the real experts - not UBC pyschiatrist (see below) such as Dr. Anthony Miller (Professor Emeritus at University of Toronto's School of Public Health, renowned epidemiologist and International Agency for the Research of Cancer Expert Panelist) who recently presented to the Toronto City Council against public WiFi. Dr. Miller asserted that based on the latest scientific research, classification of the cancer-causing property of non-ionizing radiation should be upgraded from 2B "Possibly Carcinogenic" to 2A "Probably Carcinogenic". He emphasized the importance of Prudent Avoidance.

Which UBC psychiatrist do you talk to about the health effects from non-ionizing radiation? Does he have conflict of interest with the wireless industry? There is a psychiatrist in UBC who loudly dismisses concerns about electromagnetic radiation. His name is Dr. Rob Tarzwell. Is he the one you recommend talking to? Tarzwell recently applied to speak as an intervenor for BC Hydro in discussing the health effects of wireless radiation but got REJECTED by the Provincial Human Rights Adjudicators. Tarzwell failed to disclose to the press that he is a Board Member of Medeo Corporation, a privately-held company in BC which "connects doctors to patients via computer, iPhone or iPad". "With Medeo, Canadian medical care joins the mobile revolution..." In addition, Tarzwell is a founding investor in mobile gaming gia

Informed Citizen (...cont'd)

Apr 8, 2014 at 10:01pm

...mobile gaming giant Hothead Games whose mission is "to create and publish great games exclusively for mobile users" and whose business partners include Apple and Google. He is also a member of a fringe group called Bad Science Watch which is run by people having close financial ties with the high-tech and wireless industries. This type of industry opinion has no place in fair discussion of public health.

derrrp

Apr 8, 2014 at 11:36pm

@Informed Citizen
Yes, you should talk to a UBC *psychiatrist about these conspiracies. If you want to know the average power of a wifi signal, and how it's totally harmless then talk to a physicist.

Wifi is not nearly a strong enough freq to do anything. You're already swamped with hundreds of wifi networks go do a site scan sometime for all the unlisted SSIDs. I have 230 available networks, only 45 of them have SSIDs, right now in a downtown area (and all of them locked, which is why this free service is needed).

You are confusing (purposely, to push a tinfoil agenda) hand-held, GSM baseband wireless devices held up to your head with harmless low powered wifi waves that do nothing. That is what that pediatric study was about: baseband radios.

You again, confuse the issue with Dr. Miller's comments on 3G/LTE Wireless towers (GSM != WIFI), and his worry was that they should be higher than 15FT which the majority here are. Anyways, that's not wifi, that's telecom towers. If anything you should be going after Telus/Rogers/Bell/Mobilicity and Wind for their towers and not weak wifi signals that can barely penetrate walls let alone your brain.

There's plenty of IRL, non tinfoil things to worry about. Like hospital equipment. Did you know insulin pumps and other essential medical equip is stupidly connected to outside networks for god knows what reasons? This means somebody can sit in the parking lot, break into the hospital network and start messing with fatal dosages. Google Barnaby Jack

AlanB

Apr 8, 2014 at 11:36pm

This is odd... I'm pretty sure city staff have already been working on this for over a year.

HellSlayerAndy

Apr 9, 2014 at 12:00am

Sherry Ridout?
Informed Citizen?

You're both confused.
The proposal is about FREE wifi.
Is the overpriced stuff sold by corporatists that is ALL AROUND YOU chocked full of healthy goodness or something?
Seems to me if you believe that nonsense, then you should just think of FREE wifi as a 'health' offset.

ProTip for WingNuts: Use Socket Covers When Sockets Are Unplugged To Keep Electro Rays At Bay!

iknowjanis

Apr 9, 2014 at 11:19am

OpenBSD As far as I am concerned you have a right to wifi your brains out with all the pulsating microwave radiation coming from your wireless devices BUT don't take away my right to not be exposed! The same rules should apply to wifi as it does to smoking and Wifi is clearly imposing on my right to choose not to be exposed to a 2b carcinogen the same as lead, DDT, asbestos...

Nothing is ever free, there is always a price to pay and that is your health!