Dana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free,...
Dana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks, and writes the Wireless Community Blog. Founded in 2001, NYCwireless an all-volunteer organization with many active members in the New York metropolitan area, across the United States of America, and around the world. In partnership with parks organizations, business improvement districts, conservancies, and other local organizations, NYCwireless has built free, public wireless hotspots at Bryant Park, Madison Square Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Stuyvesant Cove Park, Union Square Park, City Hall Park, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at the United Nations, Bowling Green Park, Wall Street Park, the South Street Seaport, the World Financial Center Winter Garden, 60 Wall Street Atrium, Stone Street, Vietnam Veterans Plaza, and Tompkins Square Park. As Executive Director, Dana created and produced Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City, a three-day event in the Fall of 2003 and 2004 that highlights the diverse ways artists, technical innovators and activists are using communication technologies to generate new urban experience and public voice. Spectropolis was co-produced by the Lower Manahattan Cultural Council and sponsored by the Alliance for Downtown New York. In addition, NYCwireless has worked with Community Access to build free wireless networks in three affordable housing residences. NYCwireless also serves as a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Dana Spiegel is also an independent software consultant and founder of sociableDESIGN, social software and wireless technology consulting firm. He has worked with industry leading companies and small start-ups including Yahoo!, Nike, Primedia, IBM, ComputerRepair.com, and Bloostone to develop products and programs that utilize innovative social software and integrate new wireless technologies. He has also appeared as a speaker at Wireless and Media Industry conferences, and has guest lectured at NYU, SUNY Purchase, Parsons School of Design, and The New School University. At IBM, Dana developed a system to analyze and visualize the communication relationships between people based on their online interactions. At the MIT Media Laboratory, he helped design and build one of the first community-based unified messaging systems, developed next-generation chat systems, and created applications that coulddiscover and visualize conversations within online text chat. Prior to MIT, Dana was heavily involved in the New Media industry producing enhanced CDs and multimedia CD-ROMs for such clients as Atlantic Records and N2K. He also helped create the first multimedia CD-ROM magazine, Blender. Dana holds a Bachelors Degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and a Masters Degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory, Sociable Media Group.
www.fastcompany.com/user/70067
Director, OnForce
Private, 21-50 employees, Internet / New Media / Ecommerce industryCEO, NYCwireless
Non-Profit, 21-50 employees, Nonprofits / Associations industryDana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and Chairman of the Board. NYCwireless is a non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless Internet access in New York City and surrounding areas. NYCwireless, founded in 2001, is an all-volunteer organization with seven (7) board members, five (5) special interest working groups and serves thousands of individuals throughout the New York City metro area. Among U.S. cities, New York has been a hotspot of activity with respect the development and use of public wireless access to the high-speed (or broadband) Internet. NYCwireless has been leading that movement. Originally started as an informal group of wireless technology enthusiasts, NYCwireless has grown into a multi-faceted organization that helps individuals and communities all across New York City to use wireless technology to provide free, public Internet access. Over the past several years, NYCwireless has built free, public wireless networks in over ten New York City parks and open spaces through partnerships with local parks organizations such as the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation and business improvement districts such as the Alliance for Downtown New York. These include networks in Bryant Park, Union Square Park (in partnership with commercial wireless Internet provider TowerStream), Tompkins Square Park, Bowling Green Park, City Hall Park, and the South Street Seaport among others. In addition, the organization has created community engagement programs that take advantage of wireless networks in Manhattan, such as our annual wireless arts festival, Spectropolis (http://www.spectropolis.info). Following the success free, public wireless Internet access in New York City parks, NYCwireless has expanded its mission to including assisting underserved communities in getting affordable Internet access. For example, NYCwireless worked with Community Access, a non-profit housing organization, to train volunteers and building residents to build and maintain wireless networks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The networks will provide more than 50 residents per building with private, high-speed connections. Currently, NYCwireless is using free, open-source software developed by community wireless groups around the world including the Champaign-Urbana Wireless Network, Île Sans Fil (Montreal), Freifunk (Berlin), and LondonWireless to connect communities in large sections of New York City to the Internet. Finally, NYCwireless has built up a reputation as an advocate of the public interest by testifying regularly at New York City Council Technology in Government Committee hearings, filing comments on policy issues related to broadband and telecommunications issues with the Federal Communications Commission, and representing community wireless organizations nationwide on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee as of March 2005. The organization is also helping to coordinate national efforts to promote affordable public wireless Internet access through collaborations with Free Press, the Consumer’s Union, and the Alliance for Community Networking.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, United States
Bachelor’s degree, 1998.
Areas of study: Brain and Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, United States
Master’s degree, 2000.
Areas of study: Media Arts and Science, Sociable Media Group
