"Wireless Woodstock" Comes to Washington

It's a new day and things will never again be the same.

No, I'm not talking about the new Administration since others at HuffPo have already captured that moment's magic. Instead I'm talking about the inauguration itself. Matt Richtel at The New York Times had it right -- it was "a wireless Woodstock."

When it came to coverage, the three traditional news sources -- the TV nets, radio, the wires -- had company: the mobile phone user.

Never in U.S. history has a single event been so well documented from so many different angles as this inauguration. More important, never before have ordinary onlookers been so integral to the coverage.

For mobile users and app writers alike, this was the equivalent of opening night on Broadway. Take a look:

• A company called PointAbout created a special GPS-related app for the inauguration that guided users to the Mall via Metro or street directions. It also offered to find free hotspots, inaugural balls and the nearest Starbucks.
• CNN, The New York Times and other MSM actively solicited emails of real-time photos and commentary. Leading up to the inaugural, their homepages encouraged mobile users to send clips, vids and comments. Throughout the day, they displayed the images.
• Qik streamed camera-phone videos from visitors.
• The image-sharing site Photobucket put its Inauguration Day photos on a separate, dedicated server. No word on how many photos have been uploaded but the company usually handles 7-10 million uploads a day.
• The social media website FriendFeed rolled out a 300 percent increase in server capacity to handle inaugural and post-inaugural traffic.

None of this happened by accident. CNN reported that mobile carriers increased capacity by as much as 70 percent and it seems to have paid off.

So in addition to the inauguration staff, there's one more group that deserves to take a bow: tens of thousands of mobile users who gave the nation a unique view of a great event.

Jonathan Spalter, chairman of the Mobile Future coalition, served as chief information officer at the United States Information Agency during the Clinton administration.

Comments

[bobbyvassallo]

01:53 PM on 02/04/2009

We are in a wireless world now. Cities are realizing the cost savings possible through taking the wireless plunge into a sea of devices designed to lower costs by cities already reeling from a lowering tax revenue base. Early adopters of Wireless got kicked in the teeth, as technology was just not there yet. It is as dependable as any network available, now, and the latest wireless systems are a thing to behold. I enjoyed this article, and, with 3-G in every new phone coming out, it makes sense for cities to continue to seek out wireless systems that work. Taxpayers could use the additional battery life that speedy internet provides.

http://riograndevalleywirelessinitiative.com has a whole slew of South Texas cities buying into the plan of having a ubiquitous network all along the border. Fema and Homeland Security love it too. And, these networks stay up when the grid goes down, making them perfect as emergency networks. Jerrypl would be incorrect in his assessment that these would be more susceptible to failure. They are much less, in fact.
bobby vassallo - City Wireless Consulting

[jerrypl]

11:31 PM on 01/22/2009

Wireless stuff is interesting and useful. But if there is a breakdown in our energy grid disrupting the transmission of the wireless signal, all users will be lost. The coming deep recession, or even a depression will likely create such problems in our electrical grid. So, keep that in mind. I love wireless Internet, but it is only a matter of time before major disruptions in our aging grid system sees failures.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com