“Internet access for the people, by the people.”

							       “Internet access
for the people, by the people.”
                 Business Model Case Study
                   Law 578: Digital Wars
                        Michael Iafe
The Collaboration Economy
Principals of Wikinomics:
1) Openness: human resources,
     innovation, industry standards, and
     communication
2)   Peering: self-organization over
     hierarchical management
3)   Sharing: benefits of utilizing mass
     collaboration outweighs cost of
     restricting access to patents,
     copyrights, and proprietary info
4)   Acting Globally: keep barrier
     costs low to utilize more resources

Basically, an extension of the trend
    in business to reduce costs by
    outsourcing.
                                  COASE’S LAW:
                    A firm will tend to expand until the cost of organizing an extra
                    transaction within the firm becomes equal to the costs of carrying
                    out the same transaction on the open market.

                    However, because of the changing usage patterns of Internet
                    technologies, the cost of transactions has dropped so significantly
Ronald Coase:       that the market is better described by an inversion of Coate's Law:
Nobel Prize in
Economics in 1991   A firm will tend to expand until the cost of
                    carrying out an extra transaction on the open
                    market becomes equal to the costs of organizing
                    the same transaction within the firm.

                    In other words, a firm should outsource
                    (“crowdsource”) until the cost of doing so equals
                    the cost of doing it in-house.
Why pay someone to do something when
 you can get an army of self-selected
     contributors to do it for free?
PROBLEM: People hate paying a premium for internet access.




SOLUTION: Community Wireless Networks
Wireless community networks attempt to take a grassroots approach
to providing a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks for
consumers.

Four types:
Cluster: Advocacy groups which simply encourage sharing of
unmetered internet bandwidth via Wi-Fi, may also index nodes,
suggest uniform SSID (for low-quality roaming), supply equipment,
dns services, etc.
Mesh: Technology groups which coordinate building a mesh network
to provide Wi-Fi access to the internet
WISP: A mesh that forwards all traffic back to consolidated link
aggregation point(s) that have centralized access to the internet
WUG: A wireless user group run by wireless enthusiasts. An open
network not used for the reselling of internet. Running a
combination of various off the shelf WIFI hardware running in the
license free ISM bands 2.4 GHz/5.8 GHz
Although the spirit of cluster community
wireless networks are that they remain free, it
is possible to monetize them in the real world.
            EXAMPLES:
Shortcomings:
1) Requires users to buy equipment
   (router) in order to access
2) Still have to pay local ISP for net access
3) Forced sharing
4) Fixed pricing for “alien” users
5) Fixed revenue sharing between “Bills”
   and FON (50/50)
Unity Wi-Fi: Proposed Solutions

1) Use current equipment (router)
2) Only share as much as you want
   •   Users can set limits on number of
       “piggybacks” to keep bandwidth
       manageable (up to a set limit)
3) Set your own prices (or not)
   •   Encourages natural supply/demand
       pricing in more populated areas
   •   “Free Access” also allowed (ad-
       supported?)
4) User friendly revenue sharing
   •   Since pricing is so sensitive, UW charges
       only a low fee for service; users can
       charge anything they want above that
           How does Unity Wi-Fi work?


PROSUMER:                             CONSUMER:
1) Registers with www.unitywifi.com   1) Finds available Unity network
      •   Unique Unity ID             2) Registers on www.unitywifi.com
      •   Router password                and validates Unity ID
2)   Sets price                       3) Pays price set by Prosumer
3)   Sets “piggyback” limit           4) Enjoys internet access
4)   Maintains router                 5) Reports problems
5)   Receives checks


          OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR DATABASE
             REQUIREMENTS AND CUSTOMER
              RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Why does the world need Unity Wi-Fi?
                  Goals:
                  1. Consumers save $$$
                      • Stimulates economy
                          through spending and
                          investments
                      • Encourages responsible
                          saving
                  2. “Green”: reduces waste
                  3. Pushes industry towards new,
                     faster technologies
                      • Wi-Max
                      • ???
                  4. Prevents future business plans
                     of future technologies from
                     taking the “one router for every
                     consumer” approach
                          Other topics:
-legality
-revenue sharing with ISP’s
-design of www.unitywifi.com website
-shortcomings (such as privacy, illegal activities, etc.)
-impact of future technologies such as Wi-Max
-spillover to other industries such as iPhone/BlackBerry/Android apps




               “Internet access
        for the people, by the people.”