Subject: [NEXTEL-1] MagicBike Hits Mainstream Media- Wireless Week

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:44:26 -0400

MagicBike Hits Mainstream Media- Wireless Week
As previously reported-

2-Wheel Hot Spots Take Manhattan
Yury Gitman, Media Artist Rolls Out Access

BY SUE MAREK
JUNE 15, 2004
WIRELESS WEEK© 2004, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION, A DIVISION OF REED
ELSEVIER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Just as paint and brushes are the tools of the trade for a painter,
wireless spectrum is the medium of choice for Yury Gitman, a
self-described wireless emerging media artist and adjunct professor at
the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Exactly what it means to
be a wireless emerging media artist depends upon your interpretation.
But for Gitman, unlicensed spectrum and the developing Wi-Fi networks
are the landscapes for his art, in whatever form it takes.

For now, that form is the MagicBike project, a Wi-Fi hot spot on wheels
that Gitman developed as a way to bring free Internet connectivity to
anyone anyplace. By riding the bike in areas where there is no existing
infrastructure, Gitman and the MagicBike become a roving wireless access
point, allowing passersby and others to get free wireless Internet
access. Backhauling that traffic is a more complex issue. Gitman says
that ideally the MagicBike access point acts as a repeater and extends
an existing Wi-Fi network, allowing the traffic to be carried back to
the wired network through the existing backhaul system, whether it is
wireless or wired. If that's not available, then it can use the existing
cellular network for backhaul. "It is designed to be as flexible as
possible. We don't want to tie it into a particular network."

The concept for the MagicBike started a little over a year ago as a way
for Gitman to take the free bandwidth movement and Wi-Fi access to a new
level. Gitman wanted to show that there was a way to extend the wireless
infrastructure into new areas that are not served by traditional telecom
providers. "For example, in the New York subway, there is no wireless
access and it's fairly easy to take a bicycle there and have a free
network," Gitman says.

Unlicensed wireless spectrum is the medium of choice for Gitman and he
expects that to continue because using licensed spectrum and working
with wireless operators is too difficult, he says.

And unlicensed spectrum seems to be working well for Gitman. The
MagicBike concept has garnered worldwide interest. Gitman says he gets
inquiries about the MagicBike from people around the world and he is
currently exhibiting the bike in art galleries and at technology
conferences. In September, the MagicBike will be part of an electronic
art exhibition in Perth, Australia, and it also will make its debut at
the Portable Power Conference in San Francisco. "I'm trying to start a
wireless bicycle craze with MagicBike," Gitman says. "There are wireless
bike projects happening around the world. People are creating wireless
bicycles, or as I call them, 2-wheel hot spots."

Besides the MagicBike project, Gitman also is in the midst of planning a
wireless art festival that will be held in lower Manhattan the first
week of October.

Ultimately, Gitman hopes to commercialize the MagicBike project and show
it is possible to create wireless infrastructure on vehicles as opposed
to static networks with towers. "I don't like it when technology gets in
the way of life," he says. "Putting technology on a bicycle and making
it conform brings out the better part of wireless."

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA426376?spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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