I’m at a Caribou Coffee location in a suburb of Minneapolis this morning and just spent 20 minutes with customer support (the Caribou network is managed by WanderingWifi) trying to get the damn network to operate by having the shop staff perform reboots and setting changes on the router.

Since I build and deploy WiFi networks for myself, friends and family, I’m at least competent in getting the things to work. I’ve even installed VPN’s and SSH setups for people so they can get online securely while in these otherwise insecure open locations.

At a Dunn Bros coffee in Eden Prairie, I worked with the manager to THROW OUT their cordless, 2.4ghz phone since every time it rang and was answered….it knocked everyone off the network requiring a reboot of the router. I ended up hammering on the chief operating officer at Dunn in order to get them to take some action (since this location is one of my favorites and I frequent it).

At the Web 2.0 Summit last week, the WiFi connection (sponsored by AOL) was so unusable that I ended up frustrated and not using it much. Excuses notwithstanding (bad cable, etc.), one would think that a thought leading, important summit like this would’ve ensured that the Internet — which was the whole point of the conference — worked. (Was I the only one that saw the acute irony in this?).

I think about Joe SixPack (and, frankly, most other non or modestly technical people I know) who struggle, whine and are befuddled that getting online isn’t simple. Encrypting their connection? They don’t even THINK about something like this requiring more knowledge since just getting online is tough enough.

I’ve had this same kind of experience over-n-over again all over the US and abroad (it’s worse in Europe and expensive in Japan) so I’ve come to believe that WiFi is mainly for geeks.

It’s day two of the Web 2.0 Conference Summit and I’ve learned several new things and had my horizons raised. I won’t be blogging much though since the AOL-supplied Wifi connection is completely unusable (even after a fix of an apparent bad cable) and I’m involved in dozens of some of the most stimulating conversations I’ve had in years here.

Don Tapscott has a new book coming out called Wikinomics and he gave an excellent talk. I’m specifically keen on any insights he has related to the shift in value occurring in a world of participation and mass collaboration.

While talking with Don, Kim Polese (CEO of Spikesource) stopped to chat and the three of us went off on tangents about mass collaboration…and I was able to ask Ms. Polese several questions about their strategy (which must’ve made her wonder, "Who the hell IS this guy?") to bundle, certify and support a suite of open source applications. We talked about supplying all of them through the channel as well as the support services around this software and a host of other issues.

Let me just state that I’m 100% in alignment with their strategy though am not close enough to it and its success to date. In my view, their wrapping open source in a bubble of love like this is the only way a healthy ecosystem will build around strong, open source projects. Even though the software is free, it’s too difficult to implement multiple packages, each with their own respective interfaces, and small-to-midsize businesses would be mildly better off if they tried to expend the resources necessary to do all of this themselves. Too much risk, no support through the channel (Value Added Resellers, hardware resellers, service organizations) without a strategy like Spikesource is delivering.

I’m going to write more when I get a chance and a decent connection. Had a few other "Aha’s!" some of which I’ll share and others I’ll keep to myself for now. If you’d like to read one of the best recaps of this conference, head on over to ReadWriteWeb and look at the great stuff they’re producing.

Heading to the Web 2.0 Summit (renamed from "Conference") today and will be blogging from there. In some ways I’m stunned by how dramatically different this event is shaping up to be: stronger roster, announcements in the queue, A LOT more expensive (late registrants paid $3,295 this year) and I’m anticipating a great event (and to connect live with people I’ve only had email or Skype connections with over the last year).

There is a one day "counter" event happening in downtown SF Thursday called Web 2.2, an unconference that’s more along the lines of barcamp. When I think about all of the possible innovators creating the next Web out there that couldn’t cost-justify fees like the Summit commands, I feel torn. It’s usually not the thought leaders, pundits, journalists, bureaucrats, suits or those trying to wrest control of protocols and approaches that are inventing the future of the Web — but like anything else, it’s critical do what Deep Throat (of Watergate fame) recommended to Woodward and Bernstein: follow the money.

The money will be at the Summit.

There’s another venue coming (Web 2.0 Expo) that holds the promise of being a place for innovators and interested others to coalesce around FutureWeb and all that we intend the Internet to become. I intend to ramble on over to the Expo in April too.

If you’re out at Web 2.0 and want to connect, email me at sborsch at gmail.com. By the way, all the Mac OS X users with iChat open can be found quite often using Apple’s Bonjour (there’s great Wifi in these venues and everyone usually has their laptop open) so look for me there as well.