Ugo Vallauri

WIFI - the new wave of community media.
Community radio and TV stations linked to a wifi network can be a promising solution to the limits generally imposed in licensing local spectrum for non profit initiatives. Web radio stations have so far been marginalized, not offering a real alternative to the fm dial, especially outside of office areas. The opportunity of "un-wiring" small villages or city neighborhoods with wifi bridges, combined with the launch of wifi-enabled radio receivers, offers a whole new potential for the development of such projects. WiFi local distribution of a radio (or television) signal could provide small towns with one or more channels of community based programming and music. My contribution would be a review of significant experiments going on in the field, trying to map the current directions of the technology. Also, by comparing the potential of wifi community media to street television examples in italy, I'd like to highlight the case for a revised look at spectrum politics and ecology, one that enhance the right for many to communicate, as opposed to the right of few to control the communication bandwidth we all access.