War-driving Owen Sound

mrG — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 14:04:14 -0400

After reading up on Richard Florida's micropolitan economics and how the Creative Class is attracted by Richard's Three T's of Tolerance, Talent and Technology, I was prepared for success in today's first-run war-driving of Owen Sound (a 'Creative Class' town if there ever was one) but I wasn't really completely prepared for the results. Among the expected results: the downtown core is teaming with WiFi hotspots, most of them inadvertently open (as with any urban area) but a surprising number fully aware of what they are doing, a few even including their contact phone number as their SSID. Also somewhat expected, the Federal HRDC offices and the Harbour Authority (OSnorthwest?) both have first-class Cisco networks, and both properly secured, and also, of course, the first wide-open network on our hunt was the Owen Sound Police Station (or at least, a hotspot correlating closely with the police station). An un-expected result: While the creative-industry downtown core was a spotty grid from 6th and 2nd to 12th and 3rd (curiously, most hubs are near the lights), the north-east industrial parklands out beyond 16th, which includes manufacturing, wireless technologist and even Rogers Communications, was completely WiFi-free except for one lone but really-powerful access port for, of all things, a packaging company, read as far away as the OSCVI hill! Similarly, the west-end retail business district which includes many automotive dealers and the entertainment complex, and the south end concentrated by motels and law-courts buildings were also devoid of wireless network activity. My next step is to publish my findings, first and foremost because people need to know where they've left their Aeroports open, and then to encourage people to leave them that way (intelligently, of course)

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War-driving Owen Sound