The OPLIN 4cast

The continuing explosive growth in the amount of data being transmitted to and from mobile devices is causing headaches for wireless carriers. One option for dealing with this demand is to offload as much data as possible onto Wi-Fi access points, which are more efficient than connecting devices through 3G, 4G, LTE, or other cell phone technologies. This year, the Wi-Fi Alliance is working to develop a standard called Passpoint that would let mobile devices connect automatically to Wi-Fi hotspots, possibly including hotspots in public libraries, just as they now automatically connect to cell phone towers. How this would work is not exactly clear yet – would carriers pay libraries for handling some of their customer traffic, for instance? – but it’s a development that certainly bears watching.

• How Passpoint could make Wi-Fi hotspots more like cellular data services (Network World/Brad Reed)  “Known as the Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint program, the initiative essentially creates a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and allows you to access any in your area that take part in the program. What’s more, any hotspots that take part in Passpoint will allow you to connect without entering in any login or billing information since the program supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication that cellular networks currently use to grant users seamless handoffs between cell sites.”
• Wi-Fi Passpoint standard could end hotspot sign-on hassles (Computerworld/Stephen Lawson)  “The most obvious advantage of the Passpoint standard may be doing away with the browser ‘splash screens’ that greet visitors to most public hotspots. Instead, admission to the network will happen in the background, through a variety of mechanisms that can include an SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card and certificate-based methods.”
• Passpoint: a recipe for wider Wi-Fi (CEA Digital Dialogue/Rob Pegoraro)  “There’s a precedent for this: over the past few years, AT&T has been shifting a steadily increasing amount of data to Wi-Fi, thanks to the ability of iOS and Android devices to switch automatically to its hotspots whenever one’s in range. But that is a single-company effort. Passpoint/Hotspot 2.0 would widen the scope of participating access points – and it shouldn’t cost you extra.”
• With new standard, Wi-Fi could become as widespread as cellular (Popular Science/Stewart Wolpin)  “In a Passpoint and Super [long-range] Wi-Fi world, a user within a short drive of a city or town could have instant, ultrafast Internet access without having to rely on cellular service. Business travelers could use their laptops without cellular USB dongles, tablets wouldn’t need power-hungry 3G and 4G radios, and a Skype account could practically replace a phone line.”

Traffic fact:
According to a recent study [pdf] by Informa Telecoms & Media, over 80% of smartphone data traffic in Britain already uses Wi-Fi instead of the cellular networks.

If you’ve stayed at a hotel recently – say for the Ohio Library Council Convention – you may have experienced wireless Internet service that was…well, less than outstanding. In fact, chances are good that you have experienced poor WiFi service because many hotels are struggling these days to keep up with demand. There’s not that much difference between hotel WiFi and library WiFi; are your library patrons getting good wireless Internet service, or is it time to make some improvements?

• IPads change economics, and speed, of hotel Wi-Fi (New York Times/Joe Sharkey)  “Studies conducted for iBAHN indicate that while free Internet service remains a big factor in choosing a hotel, nearly two-thirds of business travelers say they have encountered slow Internet downloading in the last 12 months. Over two-thirds said they would ‘not return to a hotel where they had a poor technology experience,’ iBAHN said.”
• Don’t blame the iPad for poor hotel Wi-Fi service (T-GAAP/Karl Johnson)  “One thing is for certain, this is not about the iPad, it’s about internet usage. Blaming a product that efficiently uses services hotels claim they do very well at providing is just silly. Internet use will accelerate with or without the iPad. In fact, it is easier to get on the Internet with the iPad than a laptop because of the iPad’s 3G connection. iPads with 3G may in fact be helping the hotel situation rather than hurting it.”
• Wi-Fi to overtake wired network traffic by 2015 (GigaOM/Janko Roettgers)  “The iPad and its newer Android competitors have introduced a new class of mobile devices that make cellular connectivity optional. Studies have shown that iPad users mostly access the device within reach of their home’s Wi-Fi hotspot, and a recent poll by GigaOM’s Mobilize showed that three out of four consumers prefer a WiFi-only tablet.”
• Why or why not WiFi? (Lodging/Kevin DiLallo, Marc Lindsey, and David Rohde)  “For example, WiFi offload increases usage of a hotel’s existing WiFi infrastructure, which in turn may increase WiFi support costs (e.g., more calls to the support desk) and impair the performance and availability of the Internet access for the hotel’s paying guests unless additional bandwidth, switches, and access points are added to handle the increased load.”

Library WiFi fact:
At last count, 654 (over 90%) of the public library buildings in Ohio offer free wireless Internet to library visitors.

Up until now, many public libraries have not been too concerned with the security of their public wireless networks. Libraries, after all, are open to the public, so why shouldn’t their networks be “open,” too? Does it really matter if a neighbor might “steal” some of the library’s bandwidth? But about a week before Halloween, the Firesheep extension for the Firefox web browser rattled the WiFi world. Suddenly, it became ludicrously easy to use open WiFi library networks to steal patrons’ usernames and passwords to unsecured websites like Facebook and Twitter. Suddenly, there’s a really good reason to lock down the library WiFi.

• Firesheep in wolves’ clothing: extension lets you hack into Twitter, Facebook accounts easily (TechCrunch/Evelyn Rusli)  ”Developer Eric Butler has exposed the soft underbelly of the web with his new Firefox extension, Firesheep, which will let you essentially eavesdrop on any open Wi-Fi network and capture users’ cookies. As Butler explains in his post, ‘As soon as anyone on the network visits an insecure website known to Firesheep, their name and photo will be displayed’ in the window. All you have to do is double click on their name and open sesame, you will be able to log into that user’s site with their credentials.”
• Protection from FireSheep (ReadWriteWeb/Audrey Watters)   ”Since Firesheep was released, there have been a number of countermeasures developed, ostensibly to warn if not protect users from potential side-jacking. Blacksheep, released earlier this week by Zscaler, generates ‘fake traffic’ then monitors the network to see if Firesheep is active. But Blacksheep warns you that it is, then what? Other than shutting off your notebook and perhaps relocating to a different cafe with free Wi-Fi, what are your options?”
• Free WiFi should use “free” password (Ars Technica/Jacqui Cheng)  ”…businesses that offer free WiFi to customers—such as Starbucks or hotels—are still putting everyone at risk of being sniffed and hacked by leaving their networks open. If those businesses were to simply lock their networks down (WPA2, of course) with the password of ‘free,’ then customers’ information would be much more secure and the world would be a happier place.”
• Password doesn’t shear Firesheep (BoingBoing/Glenn Fleishman)  ”Thus, you could defeat Firesheep today by assigning a shared key to a Wi-Fi network until the point at which some clever person simply grafts aircrack-ng into Firesheep to create an automated way to deauth clients, snatch their keys, and then perform the normal sheepshearing operations to grab tokens. [...] The way around this is to use 802.1X, port-based access control, which uses a complicated system of allowing a client to connect to a network through a single port with just enough access to provide credentials.”

OPLIN Fact:
89% (645) of all Ohio public library buildings offer free public WiFi.

Picture this: You go into a library and point your smartphone in the general direction of the shelves. Through “augmented reality” technology, labels appear on your screen, and you touch the label for “Cookbooks.” Then as you begin to walk in that direction an active GPS map appears on your screen directing you not only to the cookbooks, but suggesting you also go to the location of cooking videos. This scenario is not as far-fetched as you might think; many of the required elements are already being used by businesses.

• mTrip iPhone app uses augmented reality (Associated Press/Colleen Long, 9/3/2010) ”It works like this: You turn on the application, hit the augmented reality button and then look through your phone’s camera at the Brooklyn Bridge or the Empire State Building. Icons pop up that show you other points of interest, or restaurants within a half mile of your location, whether the restaurant is open, and what reviewers are saying about it.”
• Augmented reality’s gradual progression (Information Age, 8/18/2010) ”They can therefore be used to locate buildings or cars with GPS systems, but not small objects and not to an accuracy of less than a metre. In time this will change, however, Lens-FitzGerald says. ‘Indoor positioning is one of the holy grails for augmented reality, and lots of people are working on it.’”
• Location-Based Services Move into the Supermarket (ReadWriteWeb, 8/25/2010) ”Determining a shopper’s location inside a store, of course, is not an easy task, as GPS signals don’t work inside a building. Instead, Point Inside triangulates a shopper’s location in the store with the help of WiFi access points inside the building. [...] Meijer now has 26 hotspots inside every store that is participating in this pilot, which allows the company to locate a shopper with a good enough accuracy to be useful.”
• HP Case Study (WiFi-based digital shopping solution for Steen & Strøm) “From the customer’s perspective, the system provides valuable assistance in navigating around a very large shopping area. It also represents a short-cut to finding out about the best deals. Extensive testing has revealed a high level of enthusiasm among potential end-users — most notably an elderly woman who was filmed for television as she used the system to track down the luggage she wanted.”

And another thing about augmented reality…
Can Augmented Reality Help Save the Print Publishing Industry? (ReadWriteWeb)