Turn your WiFi network into a private messaging service, with Wifis

Here’s one of those “A crazy idea but it might just work” projects. Wifis.org is billed as “A contact form for your WiFi network.”

WiFi access points are little beacons that some people like to personalise, perhaps with a wacky name or even their personal or business names. Wifis.org makes your access point potentially more useful. After registering a unique ID with the site (for example, http://wifis.org/crazysausagecake), you then rename your access point with your ID. Other people can then access that URL, and contact you without ever having to know your personal details.

Why might this be useful? Wifis.org’s FAQ suggests “Friendly neighbors might invite you to a beer or ask if you want to share your wifi for a monthly payment.”

Sure, you could just use a unique email address to the same effect, but if you want people to have the opportunity to contact you from your WiFi network while hanging on to a degree of privacy, this is a tailor-made solution. It also shows that maybe we could be making more of that otherwise unremarkable part of modern life – the WiFi access point.

➤ Wifis.org