Radio Free Palmer liberates the Internet

June 26, 2007

By Will Elliott

Frontiersman

PALMER - Beginning today, Radio Free Palmer will share the airwaves with the city's downtown district as the nonprofit community radio station unveils free public wireless Internet.

Specially designed equipment at two sites and a smaller antenna in a third will allow residents and visitors check e-mail and surf the Web without passwords, advertisements or fees that complicate access elsewhere in the country.

Radio Free Palmer board member Mike Chmielewski conceived the idea after a February incident involving wireless access and the Palmer police. A young man had been using the Palmer Library's free public wireless to access the Internet, but did so after hours in the facility's parking lot, not during regular hours inside. Police confiscated the young man's laptop when he reappeared at the library the day after they told him to desist. Police say he also parked in his neighborhood and used the wireless networks of neighbors.

Chmielewski thought the incident raised intriguing questions about how locals accesses a community resource. To encourage the conversation and further Radio Free Palmer's goals of promoting civic engagement and community education, Chmielewski marshaled a few local supporters and began work on a free wireless system.

&#8220We decided that we can do it, and we can do it in a way that's worth thinking about,” he said.

Chmielewski contrasted this with the attempts of other cities to provide wireless access, which involved partnering with commercial providers looking to make a profit from advertising on the service. Anchorage is developing a network based on that model, he said.

&#8220The Internet by nature has long had this freeing quality about the way it offers information,” Chmielewski said. The Wikipedia encyclopedia and YouTube video library are two examples, where users generate content and other users access it for free. But new media's democratizing influence is hampered when a user has to sit through ads or pay a subscription to surf.

Without revenue from fees or ads, though, commercial providers like Matanuska Telephone Association or GCI couldn't offer their high-capacity, highly reliable service, Chmielewski said. High bandwidth is a necessity for playing large-scale online games like World of Warcraft or downloading large files like movies.

&#8220If you're hauling firewood you want a truck, not your Prius,” he said.

But the metaphorical truck's high capacity isn't needed for basic browsing and e-mail, Chmielewski said. By offering a more modest service catered to that niche, RFP was able to keep costs down and offer truly free community run access, he said.

&#8220We're keeping this as simple as possible,” Chmielewski said. &#8220We're much more nimble because we aren't promising as much.”

Palmer users will see a one-time notice when they log on the network explaining why RFP created the network and where to go for more information. The page will also list local sponsors of the project.

Those sponsors include the Palmer City Council, Palmer Museum, Palmer Convention and Visitors Bureau, local businesses like the Mac Haus computer store in Wasilla and Fireside books in Palmer, and private donors. So far RFP has spent $1,500 on the project and pays a standard $50 monthly fee to MTA for the DSL line to which the free wireless network is ultimately connected. The Mat-Su Borough building, Mat-Valley Federal Credit Union and the Palmer Library house the network's receivers. Those receivers provide the wireless link between user computers and the DSL line.

Intended as a community service, Chmielewski also said businesses will benefit from the network because free wi-fi makes downtown Palmer more enticing. Chmielewski described the ease of walking downtown, stopping on a bench and opening his laptop to go online.

&#8220There's everything that goes with that image for the city,” he said.

Chmielewski encourages anyone interested to contribute resources or expertise to the project, and also said it is vital users respond to Radio Free Palmer with feedback about the network.

&#8220We want to hear … people to tell us not only about their experience, but about how they want to see it develop,” he said.

Chmielewski is eager to see how this grassroots venture will evolve and is optimistic free community access had a viable role to play alongside the high-capacity networks of commercial telecom.

&#8220The proof will be in the surfing,” he said.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.