By Wellington Grey

A really funny cartoon depicting "the truth" and "irrational fear" of WiFi available at here .

The URL is http://www.petitiononline.com/cksin/petition.html

Petition for a change in name of the proposed Commerce and Economic Development Bureau

The Administration proposed to create a new bureau namely, ‘Commerce and Economic Development Bureau’ by merging the existing Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau (CITB) and part of the existing Economic Development and Labour Bureau. This re-organization is expected to be effective from 1 July 2007.

The new bureau will absorb all the statutory functions of CITB and the responsibility related to tourism, consumer protection and competition policy of the existing Economic Development and Labour Bureau. .  As explained in its proposal, the Administration expects the re-organization will bring merits and synergy among the policy on IT, creative industry and film industry.

We may share such view on such portfolio realignment.  But it is unacceptable and inappropriate that the remit of the bureau is re-titled as Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, dropping ‘technology’ in all government policy bureaux.

To reflect more accurately the fact that ICT policy falls into the jurisdiction of “Commerce and Economic Development Bureau” and, more importantly, in recognition of the importance of technology to Hong Kong as a knowledge-base economy, I intend to urge our Chief Executive, Mr. Donald Tsang, to rename the proposed Commerce and Economic Development Bureau as Economy, Commerce and Technology Bureau.  To make our voice loud and clear, I sincerely invite you to sign this joint letter.  You may also send your views to:

1. Mr. Donald Tsang, Chief Executive (ceo@ceo.gov.hk)
2. Mr. John Tsang, Director of the Chief Executive’s Office (ceo@ceo.gov.hk)
3. Mr. Rafael Hui, Chief Secretary of Administration( cso@cso.gov.hk)
4. Mr. Stephen Lam, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (cabenq@cab.gov.hk)
5. Mr. Joseph Wong, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (cibenq@citb.gov.hk)

If we are not being heard and receive no positive response from the government, I will amend the Government Resolution to rename such policy bureau as Economy, Commerce and Technology Bureau.  If you would like to share your thought with me, please send to cksin@sinchungkai.org.hk

CK Sin

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My general comment is that this should not be allowed, the drop of the name signifies the view that it does not value Technology….

Internet specialists will be recruited to check on the security of the governments free Wi-Fi initiative….and those security consultants would provide report or expertise to ensure contractors abide by that "security".

I’ll be curious to see what the security experts will have to say to this….given that most "experts" would still want to have WPA-2 encryption making it quite unfeasible for a muni-WiFi deployment.

Today we are launching fonero.be together with our partners Scarlet and Tidings. Fonero.be is a new ADSL wireless broadband provider based in Antwerp, Belgium. By combining their innovative WiFi services with the FON Community, Fonero.be customers and Foneros can easily connect to the Internet using WiFi around Belgium. Pricing for this service is 29.95€ per month for 6MB service. Thanks to teaming up with Fonero.be, and Scarlet as the ADSL and voice supplier, the Belgian market will provide a dense network of FONspots that are not only important for Foneros in Belgium but also those who visit Belgium.

FON plans to expand wireless network in German cities

In a company press release, WLAN community operator FON says it plans to give German cities a helping hand in setting up wireless access points (hotspots) for Internet access. In this campaign, the operator will be providing as many as 5000 WLAN routers and signal amplifiers for free to be used by communities in public areas and municipal buildings.

The cities have to compete for the FON City Initiative. FON says that cities will be choosing based on the number and location of public areas and buildings, visitor and tourism statistics, and the willingness of city administration to cooperate. FON spokesperson Florian Forster told heise online that the company is currently looking into whether and how FON users can take part in the selection of cities. At the moment, the form at FON City’s website can only be used to propose cities and communities.

Tags: FON

Free WiFi With Ads Update

In early April FON blogged about an idea they were pursuing; free wifi for viewing ads. They continue to study and improve upon the idea, more changes are likely. Quote:

 I wanted to share our current ideas and get your feedback. For watching a short add someone begging for wifi would receive 15 minutes of free wifi. They could only receive this once, watching another ad would not give them more free time. Hopefully this taste of FON would encourage them to join us so they wouldn’t have to beg for wifi anymore. They can purchase La Fonera and share a little wifi at home so they can roam the world for free!

The Time Warner news was picked up by another blog over at butterboom, they point out that Mid Levels is becoming a very  “hot spot” for WiFi by finding various FON related signals.