La Presse nous apprenait [1] ce matin – par nulle autre que sa première page – l’existence d’un partenariat entre la Ville de Montréal et l’organisme local Île Sans Fil, pour le déploiement de points d’accès gratuits. Ma première réaction fût « wow! » puisque j’avais eu vent de rumeurs d’une telle collaboration, mais pour que la nouvelle fasse la première page, wow!

Je commence donc à lire.. Plus je lisais, plus je fronçais les sourcils, car moins ça faisait de sens. Je lisais de plus en plus rapidement, tentant de repérer un commentaire des Grands d’ISF, les Michael Lenczner, Benoit Grégoire, Richard Lussier, Alexis Cornellier, Laurent Maisonnave… Rien.

Pendant ce temps, la nouvelle se répand sur la liste de diffusion des volontaires d’ISF. Plus la journée avance, plus on devient sceptique. On y apprend que La Presse et son journaliste Tristan Péloquin se seraient basés sur des documents préliminaires (mais tout de même disponibles sur le site de la Ville [2]). Aucun des membres de l’organisation Montréalaise n’a apparemment été consulté avant la publication.

En plus de se baser sur un document non-officiel et non final (pour un article qui fait la première page d’un journal de bonne réputation, je vous le rappelle), les faits ne pourraient pas avoir étés moins bien rapportés que ça.

On parle de l’installation de 400 nouveaux « hotspots », ce qui représenterait une hausse de 187% par rapport aux 350 actuellement en opération, tout ça pour 200 000$ par année.

Correction : le document prévoit qu’ISF passerait à 400 hotspots, donc 50 – et non 400 – bornes supplémentaires, pour un montant qui est loin d’avoir été confirmé.

Le plus drôle est sans contredis le passage suivant :

La Ville de Paris a quant à elle récemment mis sur pied un réseau de 400 points d’accès gratuits. Le développement du réseau a coûté à la Ville lumière 2 milliards d’euros, plus 500 000 euros par année en entretien.

2 milliards d’euros! Haha! Voir que la Mairie de Paris utiliserait le tiers de son budget annuel [3] pour 400 hotspots! Avoir été parisien, j’aurai appelé à une nouvelle Révolution! Franchement! Il y a une limite à faire des erreurs dans un article (qui je vous le rappelle encore une fois, a fait la une), mais on peut tout de même se servir de son jugement! Je me demande bien ce qu’il aurait pu y avoir de si extraordinaire pour qu’un point d’accès sans fil puisse coûter 5 millions d’euros!

Correction : La Région de l’Île-de-France et la Mairie de Paris ont dépensé près de 2 MILLIONS d’euros, auxquels s’ajoute un demi-million d’euros annuel pour la bande passante et la maintenance.

—

Mis à part tout ça, il n’en reste pas moins que je suis extrêmement content (et jusqu’à un certain point, fier) qu’un tel partenariat ait lieu.

OSBL montréalais, Île Sans Fil fait appel à WifiDog – le portail captif à source libre (« open source ») développé « in-house » par les bénévoles et actuellement utilisé partout dans le monde. ISF agit également comme agent de diffusion et d’échange dans le domaine de l’art numérique et technologique d’artistes montréalais à travers les divers projets ou événements avec lesquels il s’associe.

C’est vraiment une bonne nouvelle pour tout ceux qui ont déjà travaillé ou travaillent toujours au sein d’ISF, pour les citoyens mais aussi pour la Ville de Montréal dont les actes sauront, je l’espère, faire boule de neige au sein de la communauté pro logiciel libre, mais aussi auprès des autres grandes métropoles mondiales.

Longue vie à île Sans Fil! Continuez votre excellent travail!

–
Pierre Nick

[1] Aussi disponible sur Cyberpresse Technaute

[2] Ville de Montréal > Projet d’expansion du réseau de Île sans fil à Montréal

[3] Mairie de Paris > Budget et fiscalité locale > Budget primitif 2007

• Barcamp Montréal 3 was being held past Saturday at the SAT. Montreal Tech Watch has a pretty awesome synopsis of all the projects presented, with a ton of links to them and pictures of it all. I’m still so mad I was sick like a dog and missed it..
  BarCampMontreal3 in pictures
• Haha! The Zune-adoring guy who got a couple tattoos depicting the Microsoft device was tired to be called the “Zune Tattoo guy” so he’s officially changing his name for “Microsoft Zune”. For real. But can you really change your first name for a trademarked company name?
  Legally changing my name (read on) [Warning: Microsoft and Anti-Apple fanboys ahead]
  
• Sherbrooke grassroots organization ZAP was started by members of Montréal’s successful Île Sans Fil network. It is of course powered by the same WifiDog open-source captive portal system. Check it out if you’re in their Zone [d'Accès Public].
  Zap Sherbrooke

Using slogans such as “The best devices have no limits” and “Phones should be open to anything”, Nokia clearly points its position on mobile device openness in this new ad campaign. [Photo credits macrumors forum user mcdj]

This comes just when Apple releases iPhone software update 1.1.1 which rendered unusable any user-installed application and relocking the unlocked devices, while also completely disabling the said phones in an effort to keep its platform closed.

This is a sad thing to behold. An Apple-designed phone user interface sleekness was very welcomed in a world were phone interfaces offer nothing to be proud of, where Palm OS is slowly dying on the account of the exceptionally atrocious Windows Mobile, or where Symbian which even while having a rock solid core, is usually garmented with poor user interfaces. The difference is that all those platforms are known for all the applications you can get for them.

Apple had a slew of developers at its knees, begging for an iPhone software development kit. They were offering Apple the biggest gift of all: propelling the platform higher and further. The Web apps are great but they aren’t only what its all about. If Apple so believes in this, I ask why didn’t they make all their own included applications work this way as well?

On the other hand, I can live without added applications. I must assert that I have faith in Apple’s capability of delivering an amazing user-experience through its own applications. But I still can’t imagine owning a $400 phone locked to one single carrier. That sure is a definite no-go.

It had to come sooner or later..
Facebook is introducing http://iphone.facebook.com

I know everyone is already talking about it, but since I’m such a Facebook whore addict active user and an avid Apple-lover I had to point it out. A simple UI giving you access to Facebook’s main features, the iPhone way. I almost prefer it to Facebook’s mainstream interface.

The interface is so lickable (Jobs referred to Aqua in 2001 at the unveiling of OS X as being “so nice you want to LICK it” and this is how I feel about it). It’s clean and it sizzles[1] for über user-centric leveraging of e-communities social Web 2.0 mobile networks.

To those saying the iPhone’s Web isn’t supposed to be a “mobile Internet” or a “watered down version of the Internet”: let me just say that the Web wasn’t designed for multi-touch goodness ;)

Literally, it’s stalking social networking at your [multiple]fingertips!

[1] (c) François and Olivier

Update – 6:44 PM: Speaking of which.. François – who’s on a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area – just called me from an iPhone in the San Francisco Apple Store by touching “Call Pierre-Nick” from my profile on Facebook for iPhone.. Oh wow.. Can we say killer app?

Motorola just doesn’t get it. Constant innovation isn’t their thing. They do well, and then stop innovating and fail again until it starts (or not!) back again.

I’ve just been made aware that Motorola will be closing their Montreal-based Research and Development Center as part of a worldwide mobile handset division restructuring. Not only are they closing their R&D here in Montreal, but also one they have in Adelaide, Australia, and a major one at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Research Park.

You know Motorola (or any company) is doing badly when they have to lay off people and close off some of their business, but what you also know is that Motorola is doing VERY badly when they are laying off their R&D workforce, the founding roots of innovation > new products > sales > money.

Everyone was praising them when they released the RAZR, for its innovative sleekness. It sold out like crazy and took Motorola’s handset division out of its slumber. But did they think they could live from the RAZR – and all of its variants part of the LETRZ branding – forever?

History only repeats itself: Motorola did the same thing when they released the then revolutionary StarTAC – the world’s first true clamshell cell phone – in 1996. It was a tremendous success. Motorola then virtually stopped innovating, and plunged (until the arrival of the RAZR 7 years later).

The reason I think Motorola still has the second largest mobile phone market share (after Nokia and before Samsung and Sony Ericsson) mainly comes from the fact that they focused on low-end phones, the kind given for free with a mobile operator contract.

Maybe I’m wrong. I believe you need to be a pretty talented engineer to work at Motorola. If that is the case, it’s a management problem. Lack of creative freedom, ideas drowning in the Motorola ocean.

About 200 people are to be laid off from Motorola Montreal’s closing. In other news, Ericsson announced last week that their Montreal R&D center is looking forward to augment its workforce by exactly 200…

In the meantime, you can check out those other handset manufacturers who are actually profitable (there are less than you might think) such as Scandinavian pioneers Nokia and Sony Ericsson (Ok, part Japanese too). Or OpenMoko.

Many factors contribute to the success of those companies. One of them I think is putting user interface design, ease of use and high usability as a top priority. This will constitute the focal point of part II of this series.

– Pierre Nick