The world’s busiest public library system is (yet again) even better, part of a pattern at the city department it’s most difficult to find anything to complain about. If you have the new issue of Spacing, you can read Ryan Bigge’s article on how the Toronto Reference Library has evolved (for the better) over the thirty years it has been open, and earlier this year we reported the TRL was offering free wifi. As of last week the TPL has expanded that service to 19 branches around Toronto.
These new wifi sites were funded by a grant from Citizenship and Immigration Canada to expand the program into some of Toronto’s designated high need areas, and is a small example of an occasion when federal funding is helping the city. All the new wifi sites can be found here (including a google map of the locations). It’s good, and important, to see open and free wifi sites extending outside of Toronto’s core where there is less chance to catch an open network or find a wired café. If all 99 branches eventually go wireless, the TPL may contribute far more to a crucial piece of this city’s infrastructure than does Toronto Hydro’s One-Zone downtown pay-per-use system.
As I argued here once before, wifi should be viewed as an important piece of civic infrastructure and be provided free to use in the same way roads and storm sewers are as it can contribute as much to Toronto’s economy and well being as those traditional pieces of infrastructure do.
Photo by striatic.
3 comments
This is a great! I wonder why the library is dragan their feet in promoting it.
“Wifi as an important piece of civic infrastructure provided free of use”
Wifi is not a suitable technology for this purpose because it is has too short a range. Look at the OneZone wireless internet – it is pretty useless because it only works outdoors because the signal strength is weak, and only in a small area because many transmitters are required. If we want to do this properly, we have to look at longer-range technologies like WiMax which has a range similar to that of cell phone towers. WiMax, if fully implemented, will kill wifi and hotspots.
Andrew> Yeah, either one. For now Wifi is easier and quicker to roll out, and the TPL is doing it. But if WiMax doesn’t run on a free or ultra-cheap model, then places like TPL will still be useful.