Portland has plenty of bizarre wifi nodes, including strip clubs (yes, I've already made that joke about "laptops") and bathhouses (ditto the joke about "hotspots"). I think that BMW's plan to put wifi access points in BMW dealerships is just as dubious (although not as dubious as this laughable publicity stunt) .
Part of the reason these new access points seem so odd to me is that they're being discussed solely in terms of mobile workers with laptops - regardless of the actual way these spaces are being used. The scenarios are technology-centric, not place-centric or even person-centric. Which is obviously kind of dumb, since it's people who use wifi networks, not the other way around. And I still don't understand the use of a laptop in a strip club. Wouldn't it get in the way?
Here's the funny thing, though. By putting in free nodes, the business owners are trusting that someone will find a use for them. And if they maintain the nodes long enough, someone will. It just might not be the expected mobile worker with a laptop. If you envision a future landscape populated with a diverse set of devices - some laptop-sized, some smaller, some larger - the possible uses for these funny wifi nodes look very different. I don't know what these devices might look like (hopefully not much like current PDAs) - but to me the nodes look like the beginnings of an infrastructure for mobile players, not just mobile workers.
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