>Congratulations Charles, so now we have a "little Wu" I'm sure you're a proud father. That's great.
Well not yet...in about 2-4 weeks (depending on how things go) >I'm not trying to start an argument here but WISPA was not invited to attend this function. We received very late notice about the conference call two >weeks ago and none of us caught it in time. Because of that missed conference call, Part-15 submitted a plan to the FCC and became one of the "approved >vendors". It is my understanding that this open commission meeting is to allow those vendors to tell their story. >Each vendor has five minutes to give a short presentation. Would the FCC allow another slot for WISPA? I'm not sure, maybe Marlon would have insight >into this. The next question is: Do we want to portray a divided industry with Part-15 and WISPA taking credit for the same work? Michael has asked the >WISPA board to provide him with bullet points of what we have accomplished this week. He given his word to portray WISPA as an important contributor in >the efforts of this week and last week. He is very aware that the Mac Dearman team has been aligned much closer to WISPA than Part-15 and he realizes the >damage he will do to his own reputation if he labels this effort as a Part-15 project. Well...here's the situation as I see it Part-15 has "promised" a lot to the FCC, but has been unable to deliver WISPA on the other hand, just got busy on the ground and "got work done" Now, Part-15 has nothing to report to the FCC, and they're trying to ride WISPA's coat tails to save face If I were Part-15, I wouldn't have the gall to go up in front of the FCC and try to claim that I was some sort of "parent umbrella" (especially when I was focusing my efforts elsewhere)...rather, I would invite a WISPA representative along, tell the truth about how I errored (people respect people who admit mistakes, and we all understand that nobody's perfect) and introduce WISPA to the FCC as the ones who "saved the day" >I have been communicating with Michael a lot lately and I believe I have convinced him that part of his frustration in getting assistance has been because >his first several press releases focused most of the attention on Part-15. He IS GETTING BETTER now. He took on a huge project, one that is bigger than >any one man can handle himself. He has assigned volunteers to help lead different aspects of his plan. If you really look at it, Michael took the reigns >of a "no win" task. I know I appreciate his willingness to do this......I recognized that I didn't have the time to do it right now and thus recommended >that WISPA throw our support behind his effort to consolidate resources and give the public a view of a stronger effort. BINGO Many still have the perception that Michael's involvement is purely from a standpoint of personal gain -- Right or wrong, I know of a lot of people who, upon seeing the Part-15 centric press releases, didn't join in w/ Part-15's effort (instead donating to other sources / etc) due to the perception that "Michael is once again doing this to increase exposure to his 'non-Profit' that basically is a front for putting $$$ in his pocket" >So, Michael has been burdened with this huge project and now has a competing association board and members to deal with at the same time. He not only has >to organize the effort but he has to try to keep the WISPA members happy at the same time. Sound impossible? It does to me! The real fact is, Michael >Anderson has done a trememdous amount for our industry in the last 5 years. Not everything he does is approved by everyone, how can it be. Heck that is >why WISPA got started in the first place. Is WISPA perfect, no way, we get criticized all the time for different things. Face it, our industry is a >group of rather independent thinkers and businessmen that want to prove that they can do it on their own. We are all leaders in our own minds, we bring >solutions to people everyday that make their lives better. >I personally think it is time for the Part-15 leadership and the WISPA leadership to unite our efforts or our fragmented industry will crumble a slow >death. For some that means swallowing some "crow", but if we truly care about the industry and our future, we need to open our eyes, recognize our >weaknesses and other's strengths and combine these resources to create a powerful team. Lol...I'm in complete disagreement >Ok, flame away! :P <Flamethrower on> Sleep with the dogs, and you're bound to get fleas Although I have my personal criticisms of WISPA, the one thing that keeps me supporting them is the fact that WISPA represents "PROFESSIONAL WISPs" -- although somewhat slow, WISPA has managed to do things correctly (e.g., they didn't cut corners on non-profit incorporation, they actually put together bylaws - heck, EVEN Marlon has evolved from a pink Disco outfit to a suit) - sure, we may scoff at the "suits" and "additional overhead" - but if we are to make it in the industry and play with the "big boys" - we need to act as if we have our #$%^@ together Think about it...think of how much damage a "fly-by-night" WISP competitor does to your market -- usually, they go bankrupt fairly quickly, but the ensuing negative perception of "crappy wireless technology" makes for an uphill battle As an industry, we already have an uphill battle against entrenched, well funded competitors (cable ops / RBOCs / etc) -- the last thing we want is the association that "we're just a fly-by-night" industry. Unfortunately, I believe that Part-15's lack of professionalism gives the WISP industry that perception - for example...I've seen Michael (in front of his professional installer "training") state that he doesn't believe in grounding, since it doesn't do any good (while real engineers in the back of the room just shake their head in shame). In addition, industry media / analysts have commented that the lack of organization of the WISPCON events (events they perceive to represented the general WISP industry) reinforce the myth that WISPs in general are a bunch of unorganized "cowboys" Sure, there is strength in numbers, but remember, we're only as strong as our weakest link That said...who wants to go to DC? <g> -Charles -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
