Richmond Free WiFi Blog

Even if you can’t host a node, you can still show your support for RFW by posting one of the following buttons on your website or blog.

Option 1:

To display this button, copy and paste the following code into your webpage:

<a href="http://richmondfreewifi.org/">
    <img src="http://blog.richmondfreewifi.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/rfw1-150-25.gif"
    alt="Richmond Free Wifi" style="border: none;"/>
</a>

Option 2:

For this button, use the following code:

<a href="http://richmondfreewifi.org/">
    <img src="http://blog.richmondfreewifi.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/rfw1-150-40.gif"
    alt="Richmond Free Wifi"  style="border: none;"/>
</a>

Feel free to use these on your own site and help us spread the word!

Every so often we like to surf around and see what other freenet initiatives/projects are up to. We came across an interesting marketing plan for U-Link, an initiative based in Missouri, that highlights marketing free wireless to apartment tenants/residents.

This could be a good way to market the RFW initiative to area developers, property owners/managers and residents and tenants. We also highlighted this on a post recently made at our discussion forum where a local property manager expressed a valid concern about file sharing, etc.

For more info, feel free to contact us if you’re interested in helping out! If you’re ready to participate, check out our “host a node” page. In addition, feel free to visit our discussion forum to converse with our current volunteers.

Greg Hershey, of Brick Weekly, wrote an awesome article about our project, along with an effective picture of the project’s founder (left) by Jay Paul. We not only had the pleasure of being written about but Greg was kind enough to join us for a tour of one of our gateways to get a true sense of our vision as well as seeing, in person, how effective our project and overall efforts really are.

I met Mohr and his son Matt on Saturday morning at the Science Museum. He wanted to show me the first step on the yellow brick road of his dream—city wide, free wireless internet. We walked a few short blocks and knocked on the door of a typical Fan apartment. We were greeted by Justin, a pioneer, the first link of what Mohr hopes will be a Richmond-wide net of volunteers. On Justin’s second-story porch, we gathered around a small box with an antenna on top. Not much bigger than a cigarette pack, this box is what makes Mohr’s dream technologically feasible, a Meraki radio unit.

Thanks for the plug, Greg. We greatly appreciate it!

Special thanks, as well, to John Sarvay of Buttermilk and Molasses fame, for plugging Greg’s story to the RVA blog masses!

Brenda P over at the Petersburg People’s News has generously donated one of her banner ad slots to further support our project. PBURGPN.net is the place to visit for the latest news and information related to Petersburg.

Thanks for helping out, Brenda!

Hello everyone! We continue to plug away our marketing efforts in contacting various entities that might benefit from our initiative. This time, we’ve focused on various restaurants throughout The Fan.

We’ve focused on establishments that offer breakfast and lunch menus with a bit of dinner.  Reason being, we feel the owners might see how they may benefit by offering their patrons free wireless access, particularly during these periods when many of their customers might desire to check email and/or conduct business, etc.

We’ve contacted the following restaurants:

• Buz & Neds’ Barbeque
• Couscous
• Mrs. Marshalls (specifically for the cafe, of course)
• Mulligans
• Nile
• The Robin Inn
• Six Burner
• Strawberry Street Cafe

If you have a favorite hangout, place to eat, etc., and feel they could benefit from our project, let them know about us!