2005 25
Joichi Ito joins FON´s American Board
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Joi Ichi Ito, one of the world’s most popular bloggers, accepted to join FON’s advisory board for North America. Joi is originally from Japan but grew up in the US. His blog is in english and it’s fascinating. Joi is one of the leading figures of the blog movement both as a blogger and founders of Six Apart. One of the things I really admire in Joi is his ability to start companies that generate social value and are profitable at the same time.
An interesting detail: this blog is designed with the software Joi’s company created: MoveableType. So while Joi becomes a fonero, I blog using his software.
2005 22
Andrew Rasiej as our North American advisor?
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
The other day, I wrote about how I had discovered a brilliant North American political activist, Andrew Rasiej, who lost the September elections in New York but who managed to spark a lot interest in his campaign to create a WiFi New York. Well, it just so happens our Fonero leader for North America, Ejovi Nuwere, contacted him and got him interested in FON. So much so that that he’s now considering joining our board for North America.
He basically told Ejovi that he likes the fact that FON is a popular movement and not a big public company, although he rightly notes that we will have to complement FON with a public branch that would be present in public buildings, hospitals and schools.
But the difference between the cost of making New York WiFi and the cost of setting wifi only in public buildings, hospitals and schools is abysmal. The same would also be true in Madrid if one wanted to create a WiFi Madrid.