Wireless in Dudley Project There is a place called Dudley Square in Roxbury, MA which is a 10-minute drive from Newbury Street. But in a digital sense, it's another planet. Somewhere in that 10 minutes, you cross the digital divide, but you're not quite sure when it gets crossed. But once you arrive, there's little sign of technology. You see many cell phones, to be sure, but few computers, no laptops, no PDAs, and very little high-speed Internet. These are not the slums of Boston. These are places where the people that provide the vital services in and around Boston live. The people that serve your coffee; that drive the taxis; or that answer the phones when you call a customer service line. They are active participants of our society with jobs that simply pay less than the average wage. Are they digitally disadvantaged because they are unwilling to participate or unable to do so? No. They are disadvantaged because the tools are placed just outside of their reach. Computer companies never price their computers less than $500. Why? Because selling cheap computers means cannibalizing their own sales of higher-priced systems. And high-speed Internet is priced for the rich: $50 per month. That's fine for someone paying $2000 per month for an apartment in Cambridge, but if you're trying to make ends meet with $300 rent, $50 is impossible to afford. The divide is about more than technology - it's about the flow of goods of services, constructed by a society obsessed with credit cards and e-commerce. Many of the people that live in the inner cities don't have credit cards and some don't even have bank accounts. How can they participate in the digital age without the fundamental tools to participate? Without access to the digital information and without the means to enter into the flow of online commerce, the divide remains. The Dudley Square WiFi project is about shattering the divide. The concept is simple - place a kiosk in the most useful place in the neighborhood - the biggest bus station in the inner city. Place links to health resources, government agencies, bus and subway schedules, free email, e-commerce sites, and other resources. Bring the Internet to those that need it the most - for free. The implementation is nearly impossible. You need a kiosk, ruggedized and ready for anything; you need someone to oversee it so it doesn't get stolen; you have to have AC power provided to it; you need content; you need an interface that's easy to use by people not familiar with computers; and, most importantly, you need high-speed bandwidth in a place where there aren't even DSL lines or cable. But the team is incredible: Eric Bobby of CityKi, the visionary; Derek and Alex Brooks of Inside Cable, providing wiring expertise and marketing savvy; Nuestra, providing the support of the push cart owners; Kevin Fisher of The Black Library, the man on the street overseeing the day to day operations; Darnell and Kahlid of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, providing the T1 and a nearby resource that for those that want even more than a single kiosk can provide. And that's not even half of the people that were involved. For Tech Superpowers, Inc., creators of Boston's NewburyOpen.net, we were given our challenge: bring the bandwidth of a T1 from the Urban League of Massachusetts to the pushcart. At a distance of 750 feet in an urban environment with obstructions, the link had to be fast and reliable. What we provided was an Apple Airport access point, Proxim parabolic dish antenna, Netgear wireless bridge, and the installation and setup. A thousand dollars of stuff and a dozen hours of labor donated. From others, there was many thousands of dollars of donations, and hundreds of hours of labor. Together, we launched the Dudley Square WiFi Kiosk on July 30th, 2003. Thus begins not only the bridging of Boston's digital divide, but also the mending of a rift caused by the over-commercialization of technology and the Internet. With this collective effort, we can begin to make a few more people part of the digital age and provide the tools to do even more. Imagine what happens when everyone starts to think and do the same. Comments or want to help? Post here on our online forum about this project. Back to Our Projects