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Downtown Janesville Wireless Project
As you might have been hearing over the airwaves and through the grapevine, we are working on a project to implement free community wireless access in the Downtown Janesville area. I came up with this idea one day when I was sitting in courthouse park on Main St. just enjoying the day. I was just thinking about what can be done to drive more traffic to the downtown area, and bring back the luster it once had. Then it hit me…how great would it be if the entire area was covered in free WiFi? Now it is not the solution for everything, but maybe a bump in the right direction. So started my quest…
I have meet with the City of Janesville , Forward Janesville, the Downtown Development Committee, Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, various media outlets and now the wonderful people involved with the Janesville Mile. Our two projects seem to go hand in hand and we are excited to be working with them. This project is going to be supported by the community for the community. Here at Small Business Technology Solutions we will be donating all of the install labor and equipment for the entire project. We will be asking the local businesses located on or around the downtown area to allow us to put a small access point in their establishments and borrow a small portion of their high speed internet; in exchange for an Ad on the network. The project has two main goals and benefits for the local community, the first is obviously give patrons another reason to go downtown, enjoy all it has to offer and visit the local businesses. The second is that all the ads shown on the network will target those people within walking distance of the business displaying the ad. Being a business owner would it not be great to have someone see your lunch special on the screen and look up to see your business right down the street?
So why are we doing this and what are we asking for? Those are questions are simple; we are doing this to add one more check in the good column of all Janesville has to offer. We want to show the community our company is here to stay and want to see this community succeed by giving back in the best way we know how. So what are we asking for? The support of the community in this project; something like this cannot succeed if the people and businesses it is looking to help do not stand behind it. The equipment costs for the project will be huge and of course all donations will also gladly be accepted.
If you are a business in the downtown area who would be interested in having an access point located in your establishment, and donating a small portion of your high speed internet please contact me (Robert) at 608-554-4858. This will only happen if we all work together. Please spread the word, tell everyone what we are trying to do. For more information or to help out feel free to give me a call or drop me an email at robert@seeus4it.com.
More information to come…please stay tuned!
Janesville Small Business Council – Live Stream
Forward Janesville’s Small Business Council has been absolutely delighted with the member participation in its monthly Small Business Listening Sessions. Attendee, Tawnya Hagen commented, “I will be opening All Season Runner (ASR) in downtown Janesville this month, and I love all the positive energy generated at the Small Business Listening Sessions. I feel welcomed by the business community as I attempt to unite Janesville through running and staying active. I feel confident that this group will support my efforts to thrive and grow in this community, so there will be no reason to travel to Madison or Rockford for a specialty running store.”
Guest speakers Vic Grassman, City of Janesville Economic Development Specialist and John Beckord, President of Forward Janesville will be featured at the March 11th Listening Session. They are two of the five Rock County 5.0 partners, and they will provide an overview of the initiative and explain how it has been developed to revitalize and renew our area’s economy. The participants at the February Listening Session were eager to learn more about the exciting initiative and to inquire about how they might assist in its promotion.
We encourage you to attend: Thursday, March 11, 2010, in Forward Janesville’s large conference room at 14 S. Jackson Street. The session is slated to begin at 7:30am and runs for approximately one hour. A light breakfast will be provided by Cakes by Sheila. If you cannot make it Thursday morning, watch the live stream by visiting http://forwardjvl.seeus4it.com/small-business-council/ courtesy of Small Business Technology Solutions.
This event will be held every 2nd Thursday, and it’s open to the public. If you’re a small business person looking for advice, suggestions, resources or simply an ear, please join us.
For more information, please contact Laurie Huml Eckert, 608-757-3160 or lauriehe@forwardjanesville.com.
Mobile Hotspot at Business and Marketing Expo
This year’s Forward Janesville Business and Marketing Expo will be in a new location, the Helgesen Industrial Center on Janesville’s south side. The building is beautiful and provides virtually unlimited space for this year’s expo, but it has a few problems…the building currently is empty and has no internet connectivity and is the size of 4 football fields.
Forward Janesville was faced with a two problems, how they would provide WiFi access to all the expo exhibitors and visitors in a building with no connectivity, and cover the entire four football field area! That is where Small Business Technology Solutions comes in, we will be providing high speed wireless access throughout the building, without and physical changes or ISP’s dropping internet lines. This will be accomplished with our Mobile Internet Rental service. We will provide multiple connections to the internet via cell towers, and then distribute that service through the entire facility via WiFi. The system will consist of multiple 3G cell tower routers, connected to our wireless mesh system. We will install 6-10 WiFi access points with long range antennas through-out the building, blanketing the area with internet connectivity. All this will be accomplished without any physical changes to the building and when the expo is over we pack up leaving the space unharmed. Now everyone at the expo will be able to connect to the internet to check email, visit a client’s website, or just post about a new message on Facebook.
Be sure to visit our booth on Oct. 22 at the Forward Janesville Business and Marketing Expo, 2929 Venture Dr. Janesville WI 12-7pm


