Unwiring Portland

By Ed Carroll, Agilis Solutions

Introduction
The City of Portland is determined to build a citywide wireless network, and everyone seems to be interested and intrigued at the possibilities (and probabilities). Recently, the SAO held a panel discussion to see how a wireless Portland will help the software industry.

Panel:

Rich Bader, CEO, EasyStreet, did a splendid job of moderating a panel made up of:

Matt Lampe, CTO, City of Portland, represented the interests of the City, who led the RFP.

Randy Walter, manager of data solutions, Verizon Wireless. Verizon, as a major wireless and cellular phone provider was considering providing a proposal to the RFP.

Michael Stepan, regional sales director for government and education services, Qwest. Qwest was another major provider considering a proposal to the RFP. Qwest has subsequently decided to not bid.

Paul Butcher, marketing manager, SLG, Intel. Intel represented the industry support for wireless technology. Paul is an evangelist to the people and organizations such as those responsible for the City of Portland RFP.

Don Park, PSU graduate student, represented the 7,000 wireless hobbyists who have established numerous free wireless hotspots around the city.

The obvious questions

The obvious questions were dispensed with early on. For example, why not just let someone like EarthLink implement a service and then buy the desired service? Matt Lampe explained that a standard commercial service does not meet the needs of city services, such as police, fire and safety groups who need priority and secure (encrypted) services.

Another question prompted a description of so-called free services –- those funded by advertisement, where the user is splashed back to the home page (where the ads reside) every twelve minutes. I can imagine liking that service, especially when it splashes me back to the home page when I’m right in the middle of a lengthy email message.

And there was an interesting discussion around the difficulties of a wide-area wireless network which needs to deal with issues that a wired network does not; essentially mobility and speed. For example, a wireless device needs to be able to seamlessly compensate for movements such as walking, driving, or even flying –- within a room, up and down an elevator, or even speeding along the freeway. The ideal (future) network would also change between networks, or even types of networks (broadband, cellular, etc).

Infrastructure

Lots of people are looking at the City’s unwired concepts and asking: Why should the city undertake this project? What will the advantages be for my industry, my company, my job, or even me personally?

For the software industry in Portland, I see this project as synonymous to the loop highway system around the city. The loop provides a freeway infrastructure that makes it easy to get around town, easy to do business. By anchoring the provider of the wireless system, the city ensures that the project has a firm basis upon which to build success. Numerous software application opportunities will present themselves, offering growth to the software industry. Even within the city government base, there will be many opportunities for developing new software applications that can take advantage of this wireless infrastructure. Matt Lampe threw out the example of using the wireless infrastructure to upload purchase information for parking meters. This is an application that should be fairly easy to modify from its current cellular broadcast mode to a broadband mode. However, there are many more desires from police, fire, and other city services who are anxious for the wireless infrastructure, so they can develop their own wireless applications. Applications that might link first responders for better cooperation on emergency events, identify property ownership, ease permitting, or provide directions are all being suggested as possibilities. And most of these ideas represent new software application development projects.

Product cornucopia

The public sector use of a wireless infrastructure is interesting, but what about the commercial software industry? Will unwiring Portland promote the growth of our commercial software industry? It seems to me that a significant opportunity exists for Portland-based software companies to use the local infrastructure as a proving ground for applications that can be sold worldwide, as wireless networks spread. As Rich Badder asked, “What are the cool apps that will run on this wireless environment?”

Consider what local software companies are already building for the wireless market without a citywide broadband network, and then imagine what might be possible.

• Sales force automation: In the vended beverage industry, it is not possible to adjust inventory based on utilization demand, record sales, monitor machine maintenance and provide warning of vandalism –- all before the driver leaves the truck. Applications that make this possible translate to more sales revenue for the vending machine owner and lower service cost –- a double advantage.
• Physician diagnostic guides: Untethered mobile devices are being developed that will walk a physician through diagnostic options that he or she would not have thought of otherwise –- while he or she is in the presence of the patient, no matter where the patient might be (in the doctor’s office, the hospital, or on the battlefield). And if the tending physician, nurse, or practitioner needs the advice of a specialist, he or she can make a phone call directly to the specialist with a single click of the mouse (via embedded Voice-over Internet Protocol or VoIP).
• Medical procedure/drug guides: Other applications provide step-by-step procedure instructions, work-ups, treatment plans, medicine descriptions and differentials for a myriad of medical conditions.
• Nationwide maps: In a wireless world, mobile devices can overlay key information to digitized maps provided from Google’s global map service. Finally, men will be allowed to find themselves without asking for directions.
• More maps: The convergence of online navigation systems in more and more automobiles, along with a citywide wireless network, makes it possible to have traffic congestion reports graphically represented to the driver in real time.
• Games and entertainment: Many games are targeting the wireless market.

o  The next killer app: Video for the driver.

o  Music sharing: One of the speakers mentioned that he was recently connected to an open network where someone had stored a ton of music files, just sitting there ready to be “shared.”

o  Personal profile: A personal profile card would contain your most promising attributes, as well as those of your greatest desire. Then when you are walking down the street, in the mall, or wherever, and someone else with a card whose attributes match those of your desire passes close by, your card would beep (or perhaps vibrate).

Conclusion

Portland (metro) already has a strong technology community in the integrated circuit, engineering design, and open source arenas. A city-supported wireless network infrastructure will provide another platform for growth. Other cities are building wireless infrastructures, so the chance to be the center of attention will not last long. However, with the largest wireless broadband network in the US, we could be the model for cities all over the country to emulate. And as the wireless network infrastructure grows, so do more and more opportunities for new and creative software applications. Portland should take this opportunity to expand our presence in the (wireless) software industry.

About the author
Ed Carroll has been building software products for over 20 years, with particular expertise in automating economic analyses, decision support, and supply-chain management processes. He is presently a sales executive with Agilis Solutions and has provided strategic technology leadership in roles such as the vice president of engineering for Egghead.com, director of technology at Nike, and director of software engineering at Boeing. He can be reached at EdCarroll@AgilisSolutions.com.