Edmonton Next Gen WiFi Focus Group

By Mack D. Male ·

edmonton next gen Unfortunately I am not going to be able to make it to this event (I’m going to San Antonio on Sunday) but I thought I’d mention it in case someone else wants to go and can fill me in later! Edmonton’s Next Gen organization is hosting a focus group on WiFi, to discuss the next steps in their initiatives for public wireless access in our city:

Now, Next Gen and the City’s IT branch are preparing a new report to City Council, which will give an update on the success of the pilot projects over the past year, and recommend next steps to take towards Next Gen’s vision. If you would like to take part in deciding what those next steps will be, please contact Megan Pilby at megan.pilby@edmonton.ca to RSVP for our upcoming session.

The deadline to RSVP is tomorrow at noon. The event takes place on Sunday, April 13th, from 1pm to 4pm. Location details will be given once you RSVP.

For background information, you can read the NextGen report on WiFi (PDF). To learn more about Edmonton’s Next Gen, check out the website.

  • http://adamsnider.com Adam Snider

    I would love to attend this event and give my input, but, unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it. :(

  • http://blog.mastermaq.ca Mack D. Male

    Yeah, me too…at least it’s happening I guess!

  • http://www.cadencecreek.ca Rob Davy

    Ever been to any Next Gen things? Eric and I went to the launch of it. It seemed like a waste of time – something to be seen to be involving young people in decision making, etc, etc. They spend/waste lots of money on it too. The launch alone must have cost thousands, with all the food, entertainment, etc.

  • http://blog.mastermaq.ca Mack D. Male

    Hi Rob…I’ve only ever been to one of their events. I wrote about it here:
    http://blog.mastermaq.ca/2007/06/26/edmontons-local-media-should-embrace-the-web/

  • http://www.cadencecreek.ca Rob Davy

    And there report is factually wrong…

    “In Edmonton, WiMax service is already available on a limited basis”

    No, it’s available on a very wide basis from two providers (Rogers and Bell), all over the city for just $50 a month (cheaper than many other access methods).

    /edit – ok, that report is from May last year. Actually, WiMAX was an option in May last year – I had it on the farm outside of Edmonton. Hmmm.

  • http://www.cadencecreek.ca Rob Davy

    Hmm, I just read that post. I won’t lie; I think you have a fairly simplistic view of the issue re the media and the internet. Traditional print/tv media has decades before it’s ‘irrelevant’, even to young people. Also, things like the city offering people a place to upload video/content in generel; why? Where is it in the Cities mandate to offer such a service. And the local media won’t, because there simply isn’t demand.

    Sure, 140,000 people on Facebook say there from Edmonton, but
    a) how many of them are active?
    b) why do they use Facebook and not on of the dozens of other social networking sites? If they don’t use other sites, why would they use a site made explicitly for Edmonton, which in all honesty, would probably be nowhere near as good as Facebook.

    Same applies to YouTube, FlickR, etc, etc. There’s plenty of existing services out there that do the things you talked about, but not geographically specific. Any geographically specific to Edmonton app is probably going to be sub-standard and competing with existing, well used, well made apps.

    /mind-dump-complete

  • http://blog.mastermaq.ca Mack D. Male

    Rob, you’re entitled to your opinion :)

    My main point wasn’t that the city should use Facebook or YouTube or any service in particular, it’s that the city should go to their audience. If Edmontonians are using Facebook in large numbers, it would be wise for the city to have a presence there.

    And more generally, it would be good for marketing efforts via the web to be emphasized over television and radio.

  • http://www.cadencecreek.ca Rob Davy

    Personally I don’t think the city should get involved with events, etc. By my understanding, their track record and value/ROI is not good, with a few exceptions (New Years being on). It’d be interesting to see how many individual Edmontonians actually attended a City organized event last year (not just City supported like many, but something actually organized by the City). Then calculate the cost of those events by visitor.

    Reminds me of the new art gallery they want to build. $40m or something? Maybe 5% of the City will visit it? Waste of money IMHO.

    /now-I’m-ranting :-(

  • http://solicitingfame.com Eric

    Hey Mack, it’s too bad you’re not going, I RSVP’d on Wednesday :)

    I’m going to be asking if they’ve heard of Meraki, it seems promising. In fact, it might be a good business to get involved with independently :)

  • http://blog.mastermaq.ca Mack D. Male

    Eric – glad to hear you’re going. I look forward to hearing what you thought of the event.

    The Meraki stuff is pretty neat, there’s some cool stuff happening with that in Vancouver. I’d be interested in exploring some possibilities with it.

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