
First - Let me say thank you to all the local business owners, chamber of commerce members, city and county officials and everyone else who has helped in this adventure. Without your support the Freedom Team and our WiFi Alliance Partners would have nothing.
Started in April, 2006, the
Zippy WiFi Alliance and the
Zippy WiFi Freedom Team are groups of individuals who have helped and continue to help us reach our goals of advancing mobility and connectivity within the city of Wichita, Kansas. We have realized the value in the advancements in wireless communications and technologies which make it happen.
Through a unique partnership of free individuals consisting of techie-types who help with design or network structure, business owners who donate and/or host access points at their establishments as well as all the local city and county officials who have made waves to allow our network hardware on owned buildings and other verticle assets who desired to bring current technology to our area.
Our network is something of a paradigmal shift in the way we think about the internet and IP based connectivity. We have painstakenly researched and tested hardware and software from various vendors. We are now proud to say that our efforts are paying off - for the benefit of EVERYONE.
- Free Public Access : Though limited somewhat in nature for security of the entire network, most wireless 802.11 WiFi standard equipment can connect to our network - anywhere. Free public access is granted when you join our community web portal at http://www.mycitylounge.com . Until such time - you are free to browse that site and all the content it provides about our city as well as the website(s) of everyone and every business who has supported our effort to grow. This includes Federal, State, County and local municipal department websites, corporate sponsor sites, local and national ISP's (who are allowed to resell our network capacity), down to the local techie part-time guys (and gals) who help maintain any part of our many sites, forums, network gear or who help with marketing our services to people that can help us grow faster.
- Corporate VLAN : Hey Mr. or Mrs. Big Wig - Need to connect to your private corporate network from ANYWHERE in the city? Do you need a secure, encrypted connection? We can do it! FREE!***while we would like to set up everyone on a private VLAN who requests this service, we simply can not meet the demands currently. Sponsors are given first priority in the waiting list. Due to extensive time required to set up this service for each comapny, certain restrictions apply. Call us to learn more.
- Government Services : ATTENTION Mayors, Council Members, and County Commissioners - How much time is wasted by field employees driving back and forth to job sites simply to get paperwork or to file something. You can now offer every employee access to your private secured network at many locations in the city using out backbone of wireless access points in and around the city of Wichita. We are currently working on deploying more Generation 2 Access Points which include the ability to service government and emergency service frequency spectrum. Please see posts elsewhere on this site which demonstrate the return on investment and cost savings (and in some cases life-saving) results achieved by similar networks deployed by FOR PROFIT groups and municipalities around the world.
- EMERGENCY SERVICES : With ability to tune to FCC regulated 4.9Ghz for Government and Emergency Services - our network works flawlessly and seemlessly as you drive through the city and coverage areas within our mesh network. Broadband internet is now available to each Police Officer with an enabled vehicle and laptop - to each ambulance - to each fire truck. Real-time streaming video of remote locations for supervisors, scene investigators and emergency response / FEMA personnel. We need more of your support locally to encourage federal, local and state grant funding to help us build this vital part of our network.
- City-Sponsored and Private Locations: Imagine - free indoor and outdoor internet access at various locations around town - even in motion! Consider a busy dad going to a ball getting real-time stock news on his WiFi enabled PDA or cell phone - able to watch the game with the rest of the family and still stay ahead of the competition by making timely trades - making emails - taking pictures of the game and sending them to various family members around the world via email - as they happen! Think about larger city and county owned facilities being able to offer visitors and vendors access to the internet and all the e-commerce which will then result from such availability of broadband signals.
- Restaurants, Destinations and Clubs : Offer free hotspot services to connect your clients and customers to all the others in town who support each other - PROMOTE LOCAL BUSINESS by adding an access point to your destination! We will add your website to our white-list of addresses everyone is allowed to visit - from anywhere in the network and we will add your name to our sponsors page! What better way to get noticed? Add our logo to your website, print and/or radio and television ads and receive priority banner rotations and sponsorships of our news letters and forums.
- Hotels and Inns : We can provide wireless internet access to all of your rooms and common areas! Attract more conferences and guests with these services! Ask for our solutions department to get started.
The
Zippy WiFi Alliance is the group of businesses, corporations, partnerships, hardware vendors, banks and financial partners as well as governmental agencies who support our effort financialy through donations, strategic partnerships, discounted pricing and or access to other owned assets and assistance which furthers the development of our network.
The
Zippy WiFi Freedom Team are individuals from every walk of life and expertise who join us to provide one or more service or task necessary to complete for our overall objective to be reached. This includes programmers, support staff, bandit-sign makers, business partners, elected officials and government employees. From jobs as small as moderating a single forum topic or category on the one of our community websites to advanced coding, scripting and design work provided by professional and hobbists alike. School teachers who donate time to browse our site looking for spelling errors and who post teaching techniques for other teachers and help tutor students via our interactive classroom and chalkboards... These people are the core members of our WiFi Freedom Team as they are the ones who donate their time, skills and knowledge to us in an effort to help all of you, now and for years to come!
There's no guessing at how large our venture can grow - the network will grow or die at the hands of those it serves. If you want to be a part of our adventure into the future of mobility and connectivity - please JOIN US. Financial contributions are welcomed - but not necessary to join our team. Send an email to Eric@GoZippy.com and let me know what you can do - there are many jobs and hats to be filled and many more not yet defined!
Send donations through PayPal by sending to Eric@GoZippy.com. Eric Henderson, founder of the Zippy network of companies is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Kansas and a disabled US Navy Veteran with a long history of involvement in technology and comuters. This is his vision he is sharing with all of you.
A network, robust and available to everyone, which is designed to encourage creativity, economic development, residential and employer retention and attention to our area. To give the ability and freedom for all to access community resources and the valuable data contained on the many local community, government and organizational websites. A network which is dynamic, fail-safe and secure enough even for emergency services and governmental agencies - yet fast and smart enough to handle emerging technologies like Voice Over IP (VoIP) phone calls, streaming media, and hundreds of concurent web downloads and users browsing the internet - without dedrigation to the quality of service it provides to each user. This is the technology that can save lives and boost an economy all in one!