Michael Oh is the force behind NewburyOpen.Net, one of the earliest and most influential commercially supported free hot zones: Oh started NewburyOpen.Net out of his computer consulting and sales firm, TechSuperPowers on Newbury Street in Boston. Experimenting with early AirPort gear, he was amazed by the distance signals would carry outdoors. His neighbors on the street became interested as he discussed the potential of sharing Internet access to their customers, and several businesses signed on.
The project turned into something bigger because of the prominence of that commercial street's access because Oh has evangelized the idea, writing detailed white papers that explain how to duplicate his efforts socially and commercially. SalemOpen.Net is a "franchise" of sorts in that Massachusetts city.
Oh's interest has broadened from Internet access into the power of the local network. In this podcast, we talk about the history and function of NewburyOpen.Net, and then move into how a fast local network can deliver content in a way that an Internet feed--with speed as a gating factor--can't match today. That disparity in local wireless network speed and Internet pipe will only continue to grow, too. [37 min., 18 MB, MP3]