Paradise upgraded... with mesh Wi-Fi

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- The Greek island of Patmos is an idyllic paradise of sleepy blue coves, biblical history and excellent traditional Greek food. How could you possibly improve on that? The answer: Island-wide Wi-Fi.

Patmos is one of my favorite places in all the world. It's where a guy named John (a.k.a. "John of Patmos" or "Saint John the Divine") wrote the Bible's Book of Revelation while he was exiled there by the Romans. That inspired a monk to build in the Middle Ages what would turn out to be a spectacularly tradition-bound Greek Orthodox monastery, which inspired a bunch of awesome churches and two incredible towns.

Because of its serenity, beauty, great food and other qualities, Patmos is a wonderful place for extreme -- and extremely relaxing -- telecommuting. You can rent an incredible house with an even more incredible view in the amazing mountain-top town of Chora, in the seaside town of Skala -- you can even rent a goat farm in the countryside.

Renting on Patmos is more expensive than most places in Greece, but still cheaper than a shabby apartment in L.A. or Brooklyn.

Anyone who's tried to work and travel abroad at the same time knows that the biggest challenge is always connectivity. While visiting Patmos about two months ago, I was able to work only by using my hotel's slow, problematic connection. I also found a couple of Wi-Fi networks in Skala at restaurants, and a cybercafe that offered the unusual additional service of showers. Though challenging, connectivity was better than most Greek islands -- as long as I stuck to the main town.

It turns out that I'm not the only American who loves Patmos. MIT Media Lab founder Nicolas Negroponte owns a home there, and even established a dial-up ISP called 12Net in the 1990s.

Now, Negroponte plans to launch this summer mesh network Wi-Fi that will cover most of the island. The service was put together in a joint effort by MIT Media Lab and Nortel Solutions Interoperability Laboratory in North Carolina. It will have eight core nodes and 50 access nodes.

The network will transform the experience of everyday Patmos residents, who will be able to get access from within their homes, boost education, enhance business and -- most importantly -- transform Patmos into an extreme telecommuters' paradise.

Negroponte believes his little project represents the future of connectivity -- it will be wireless, mesh, and provided by small local providers. I'm not sure if he's right or wrong about that, but his project is enough to convince me to go back to Patmos -- and hopefully stay longer now that I'll be able to work from the beach.

Efharisto, Nicolas!

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