In the Express and Echo yesterday there was news on the business pages about free wi-fi access at the Southgate Hotel and later on the cathedral green. More follows later.

Psand have started their activities for 2004. They will probably do more over the summer. In the previous two years thay arranged web access at Glastonbury (lost vaguness) and at the Big Green Gathering. Somerset is not too far from Exeter so maybe there will be some connection. There was a short notice of the streaming event so a few people in Exeter got to hear of it.

I had a mixed response to the event. It was amazing what was possible and there was a sense of occassion. However the sound quality varied quite a lot. Meanwhile in Exeter there is Vibraphonic, a music festival with a temp radio licence for FM -106.2 . This is such a rare and high quality chance that I found myself losing interest in the streaming media and turning back to radio. This might change as bandwidth improves but it set me thinking. I undersatnd some of the streams will be backed up and made available as archive. Maybe for Animated Exeter there could be an edited version of highlights in high quality. Could be on CD in the post if bandwidth is still an issue. This could work at any festival meanwhile. The style strikes me as animation in all but name and inclusion in an animation festival. Mostly in Quicktime format so it could be shown large scale on occasions. Wi-fi is one option but maybe there are others.

http://wireless.psand.net/live/

Includes an archive of previous events

http://www.vibraphonic.co.uk

Just to note that there is wi-fi access in the George Fox building for the Networked Learning conference.

So there is some use of this being made. Presumably conferences in Exeter also have this but I'm not sure about how much this is used.

This is sent from the one of the PCs available anyway.

The conference is howing signs of momentum for the web in education. There are now loads of people with a job recognised as a 'learning technologist'. They don't talk much about technology though, mostly learning theory. And they want to do research. It seems to me that the idease around pc support are mucg too various and unstable for this to happen as an academic subject.

More later. Time for lunch.

Another set of suggestions for a reference pub site

http://www.wialess.com/locations/index.htm

This comes from the discussion around next week's wi-fi event

http://www.quicktopic.com/24/H/ddepWRbdUrVB

http://www.guykewney.com/articles/040226-beer.html

Wednesday April 7th Frigate and Firkin Pub, near Olympia

Some progress on the message board for the Access to Broadband Campaign.

My question has been asking about where a pub exists with a wi-fi culture strong enough to support knowledge.

Guy Kewney has written in with a suggestion, the Progress Bar in Tufnell Park

This has come about because on Guy Kewney's wi-fi site there is mention of a pub meeting next week after a wi-fi show at Olympia.

Can't be there myself but this is a sign of some progress. Exeter is still cold and grey at the moment but people from Tufnell Park may visit in the summer and explain a bit more.

During the festival I noticed that there could be a connection between the animation from Lumen and the new experiments from scene.org.

Lumen distribute "A Beautiful Virus Inside the Machine: Animation works by Lillian Schwartz, 1970-8"
It might be possible to show this as well as project scene.org stuff from a computer.

If this works anywhere, please get in touch. Something like this might happen at Animated Exeter next year.

There is a fairly new organisation in Exeter called Wired West. I have been to one meeting and told a few people about how animation and wi-fi could both be supported. They seem more interested in a 'business case' for wi-fi so i have added a link to Intel.

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Some students at Plymouth College of Art and Design have done a short Flash piece as work experience. I could not offer much of a script except to ask they showed a wi-fi bus reaching Exeter where something happened at a festival. They have done a great job in the time. I hope to do more promotion on this later.

http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/animation/animex.swf
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Still not a lot of sign of wi-fi in Exeter. However there is an article in Personal Computer World ( May p 97 ) about broadband in Buckfastleigh.

www.broadband-buckfastleigh.org

It seems there are a couple of pubs with wi-fi so this could be investigated. Buckfastleigh is not too far from Exeter. Things could move over the summer. I think it is safe to assume that wi-fi will be widely available in time for Animated Exeter in 2005. Meanwhile something will continue online.

Apologies for lack of new information.

There will be an update soon.

One more thing.

There is now a guide to Psand intentions for 2004

http://www.acrobat-services.com/eten/psand2004synopsis.pdf

There will be hard copies of this at the Games and Careers days so maybe there will be a connection or two.

'wi-fi Exeter' may need development but there can be some base for discussion here for people passing through.

Tomorrow is Games Day at the Phoenix. At least three of the PCs form Hyperactive storage seem to be working.

Games is on the edge of the animation scope and PCs are on the edge of that. The assumed interest is around PS2 and X box. However we should get something to happen and ths scene.org material is working ok on a laptop. The technology changes quite fast though. Hardly any of the scene.org files work on the Hyperactive kit, roughly eighteen months out of it. So this is an archive display.

Bandwidth returns as an issue. Looking again at various sites it turns out that Atom Films now have a Hidef section. Some of this is animation and it really is better than anything on television from a picture quality. 'Uncle' was created in plasticine so would fit with a film program such as much of animated Exeter. So there is a connection there, if there was bandwidth.

BBC4 had a program on games to be repeated next week. It includes information on BAFTA awards for 'interactive' and games. I don't know who set up the British Animation Awards but maybe they would take in games and/or interactive. If not there should be some connection with BAFTA. The software and skills is much the same. This may come up during the careers day on Monday or maybe I shall find out where my view could be going wrong.

For the next couple of weeks this blog will be about animated Exeter.

wi-fi Exeter is ok but to simplify things there is now a CD with downloads of Quicktime and from scene.org . This is easier to explain and will help to identify the screens where stuff can be shown.

http://www.acrobat-services.co.uk/animation

There were about 700 downloads of an A4 page with photos of Exeter's famous BT phone boxes with wi-fi. I'm not sure how many were from people in Exeter though. There was not much sign of extra activity during the week of the BT offer. As it co-incided with snow blizzards that kept people at home, maybe they should repeat the offer in the summer.

wifiExeter is now almost the same in my mind as Animated Exeter ( digital fringe )

This seems the best chance to show off what broadband might mean.

However I intend to make sure any demo animation is downloaded to a hard disk. Things can go wrong and technical support is often hard to find.

The idea now is definitely to talk about possibilities next year rather than make claims about this year.

Meanwhile Joss Stone seems to be a reality in the UK album chart and there is debate about how this could come about for soul from Devon. It was a surprise to start with but through Guardian talk I am getting to slightly resent the view that this must be a one-off and that there can't possibly be a Devon soul scene. It is at least as plausible as the idea that Exeter is a centre for wifi.

The new year seems to be starting so the gaps could be shorter between postings.

Several developments

PC World near Exe Bridge has a BT hotspot and a demo laptop that seems to be working. This is a useful base to demonstrate what is possible.

Co-ops UK has joined in with an effort to promote rural broadband. Not sure what this is about but there is a conference coming up

http://www.liquidzope.com/abc/1n/conf2

There is a bulletin board where I have started enquiries about Mycloud pubs where wifi is actually in use

http://www.visionmatters.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=118

BT will offer free access later this month. I'm not sure how many people in Exeter know about this.

http://www.btopenzone.com/wbw/

Not much actual progress but I have realised one reason why this idea is interesting.

The BUS project a Psand's knowledge / experiments have been an inspiration during a time when actual bandwidth in the Uk has been not too good in comparison with other places one hears about. Now at least there is the possibility of actual broadband so the next phase is to demonstrate some content that uses what exists. BT will provide some more as it gets used up.

This is a test to see if the new template is working.

I hope it has a link to Animated Exeter and Psand.

Psand know about wireless stuff and may turn up next summer. They got as far as Somerset earlier this year.

Aniamated Exeter could feature much digital stuff. Knowledge to support wireless should be more widespread by February

http://www.internet-magazine.com/news/view.asp?id=3811

Intel has found that Exeter is a centre for wifi. Well, this comes as a bit of a surprise for those of us who live here. But maybe I should get out more. There may be much more happening than seems to be the case.

I was based at Hyperactive Cafe on Queen Street till it closed down. There is now no internet cafe in exeter other than a few screens in Extreme, Princesshay. The library has good access but I don't think they allow sound. Actually Extreme has no sound either.

http://www.hyperactive-cafe.co.uk

Most of the sites Intel know about are based on games machines in pubs. Apparently the games update overnight using bandwidth that is still there by day. However, not every pub has a support unit to explain how things work. My intention is to diligently explore all the sites but this may take some time.

So far I have tried out the Turk's Head. Some interest but no track record so far. The City Gate has got Young's but no technical staff either.

I invested in a £6 deal with BTOpenzone. So far I have not been able to log on but do get a signal. The Buckerall Lodge seems to be working ok and tghe word is that there is occasional use, often by people at conferences.

The Cavern still has a dial-up modem device. £1 for fifteen minutes.

The BT phone boxes on South Street and the coach station both show a signal but no sign of use. The people in the computer shop opposite on South Street have not seen anything yet.

Further investigation follows. Any news of developments please contact me. The bandwidth appears to be 11 megs per second which would be quite good if it was being used.

Will Pollard
will@exetreme.com

http://www.btopenzone.com

http://www.mycloud.net