Anyone got one of those critical mass thingies?
A great idea from Spain: FON is aiming to create the ultimate global Wi-Fi hotspot network by getting you to open (in a secure way) your home wireless broadband to other FON users (”foneros”) - in exchange of course you get access to all the other foneros’ access points, allowing you to roam free… Well that’s the theory, and looking at their hotspot map (nice mashup, by the way) it really is impressive. There’s even a FON hotspot at “12 Downing Street, London”! But even though I can marvel that there are already a dozen or so forward-thinking types who’ve signed up in my little home town, Wi-Fi access at 4 Belmont Hill or 50 Langley Crescent isn’t really much use to me I’m afraid.
So whereas other networks let you roam onto hotspots in nice useful locations (cafes, train stations, parks, launderettes, that kind of thing) - with the help of these people, for instance - FON needs that old critical mass thing in a big big way. Can this work? I really hope it does. Maybe I should stop being critical and start adding to the mass…
From experience most people seem to leave their personal wireless networks unprotected. In our office and where i live i have a whole selection to choose from! But is it morally correct? Don’t know, but it is cheap!