And there are other, quirkier possibilities that play to the singularity that is Athens. There is a music tour of Athens, a hip, wireless version of those museum walking tours. A video clip shows resident Jared Bailey talking about his friendship with REM back when it was just a local band. As the tour progresses, the laptop or PDA screen features Athens musician Vic Varney standing in front of the Georgia Theatre and reminiscing about how his band opened up there for the B-52s on Groundhog Day in 1979. And on its official kickoff day in December, the WAGZone unveiled a real-time, lyrics follow-along as the Fairburn Royals, a current-day local band, played.

Meanwhile, some businesses have virtual storefronts that give a WAGZone user a quick look-see, but just that so far. Not a way to make reservations for dinner, not a way to buy CDs, but still a first step. It wouldn’t be hard to connect the student-oriented Nimbus to the virtual storefronts. For instance, the places where the students hang out could automatically offer promotional offers and come-ons to the rest of their buddies who log on.

That sounds good to merchant Creighton Cutts. Cutts, owner of Frontier, a downtown store that sells "eclectic and unusual gifts for soul and shelter," says he isn’t sure how soon that will matter to his business, but he’s open to the idea. "We are thinking about putting in a virtual coupon, so if you walked within a hundred yards of Frontier a coupon would pop up, with a time limit to use it," he says.

net access in public spaces

What the WAGZone emphatically is not, is a no-charge wireless Internet connection. Yes, if you are part of the UGA community, the WAGZone gives you a way to the Net when you are downtown and mobile. But the image of surfing the Net from deep in the cafŽ with cappuccino in hand doesn’t necessarily hold?the WAGZone is designed to work outdoors. But Shamp is adamant: The WAGZone will not be competition to Internet service providers. "If we undercut the ISPs, then the Internet would dry up and go away," he says.

There are already commercial arrangements for providing a wireless way to the Net. Starbucks customers, for example, can have Net access via T-Mobile. Other businesses have arrangements with other carriers. And University of Georgia students and faculty already have Net access, so the WAGZone only extends to wireless what they already have. They just have to log on in the same way they do from their rooms. Any other user can have free rein on the WAGZone but will get blocked at the entrance ramp to the Net.