Gossip

This week's most successful WiFi public relations puff - 'lonely terrain'

It's always rewarding to spot a bit of investigative journalism by a red-hot reporter. Have a google for the phrase "billed as the world's largest hotspot" or "lonely terrain" and you'll find the opposite: a PR puff which has scored, and has been run almost unedited by over 200 Editors.

The story stars Fred Ziari, an Iranian immigrant who set up a state-wide mesh, using both WiFi and WiMAX radios. It is a good one, if you like "world's biggest" stories. Trouble is, it's hardly new news; it first ran back in October - and yet it keeps getting republished.

Your Sniffer spotted the report originally on a backwater site, which acknowledged (in small print at the top) that it came from a mainstream Seattle newspaper. Why would Seattle write about an Oregon WiFi hotspot?

Simple: it's an Associated Press hype story. Now, who sold this fascinating tale to AP? Step forward shy, unassuming Fred Ziari himself. He's also generating PR through seminars, lobbying of Government, and running his own web site

Yes! - the Hunky Mouse has tracked EZ Wireless down to this corner, thereby doing what not even the New York Times did when it first wrote about them in August - provided a source for further information. Tags to follow: EZ Wireless, WiFi, hotspot, mesh