JiWire Hotspot Finder is US winner of Skype's Mashup Cup 2007
The JiWire Hotspot Finder is a Skype Extra which lets you find Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in the world through Skype. It searches over 140,000 hotspots in 134 countries — the most comprehensive database of hotspots in the world.
You can use it to find free and paid hotspots, searching by location, e.g. ‘Mumbai’ or by using a postal or ZIP code — and you can narrow down your search by specifying a keyword, like ‘café’ or by a specific location like ‘Starbucks’. You can also use the ‘Find Me’ button to find hotspots around your current location, which is probably particularly handy when you’re completely lost.
Jim Courtney of Skype Journal was at Skype’s Developer event in San José where JiWire received the cup, and spoke with Kevin McKenzie, JiWire’s CEO, and Nihad Hafiz, the principal developer:
Speaking with Kevin he mentioned that, while there is no business model associated with JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype, he does see it as providing awareness generation for their services that may lead to both purchase of their WiFi security tool and to use of their ad-supported desktop services. Kevin also mentioned that Nihad had developed the JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype as a ‘work of passion’ outside his normal responsibilities at JiWire. And that passion certainly came through in my discussion with Nihad.
