DATE: September 19, 2018 TO: FROM: SUBJECT: Honorable Mayor Jerry Smith City Council Molly Talkington, Interim City Manager Marc Thorson, Information Technology Director Downtown Wireless Internet Proof of Concept Update. This item provides Council and the public with an update on the Downtown Wireless Internet (WIFI) proof of concept project that was approved via Resolution 2018-109 on August 13, 2018. City staff, working with Digital Lobby, VACK Inc., and Northern Illinois University (NIU) engineering, procured and installed a WIFI system in the Downtown Business District between 1 st Street and 4 th Street along Lincoln Highway and in the Van Buer Plaza parking lot. This system consisted of 11 access points mounted to light poles and four mounted on buildings. As part of this proof of concept, Digital Lobby created a custom authentication (login) page prominently displaying the City of DeKalb and Corn Fest. Users are asked to login using Facebook, or by providing an email address and zip code. Once a user has logged in, the device is set to remember the user as a returning user but will provide a Welcome Back authentication page on subsequent returns without asking to re-authenticate. Once a user logs in, he/she is brought to the sponsor page. As part of this agreement, Northern Illinois University (NIU) was provided the primary sponsor slot at no cost in lieu of partnering with the City on this project. On this page, users are prompted to continue to free WIFI through a link at the bottom of the page. After the sponsor page, a web browser would open on the device that provides access to the Go Local page. This provides details on local businesses that participated in the proof of concept. The WIFI performance was very good. During low congestion periods, we had seen speed test results as high as 200 Mbps download and 150 Mbps upload speeds. During congested times the average speed was 15-20 Mbps download and 10-15 Mbps upload speeds. VACK and Digital Lobby continue to modify settings to improve those speeds, and as the infrastructure changes, these speeds will grow further.
WIFI is only part of what this project offers, and that cannot be emphasized enough. The key components are business engagement and data. This proof of concept just scratches the surface of what the community can gain. Syndeo has donated the Internet connection for this process and several members of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce opted to be a part of the project by being listed in the Go Local lobby page. The listing was only one small piece of the marketing services Digital Lobby can offer to help local businesses gain visibility and targeted marketing information. Digital Lobby will work with interested local businesses to help expand the offering. The City has been provided with data on the usage of the WIFI during Corn Fest. This aggregated and anonymized data can be useful for a variety of good for the community. Drilling down into the data provides a host of insights that can be used for decision making. The data includes: 268 Unique Logins 414 Total Logins Successfully Connected 287 New Visits First-time Network Logins 127 Return Visits Accessed Network Before Logins Friday 103 Saturday 220 Sunday 91 Total 414 Top Zip Codes DeKalb 229 Sycamore 38 Waterman 12 Minooka 9 McHenry 9 Cortland 6 WIFI users that chose to login using Facebook provides more insight: Men Ages Women 38% 18 24 40% 47% 25 34 32% 11% 35 44 8% 4% 45 54 5% 0% 55 and Up 5% Men Women 51% 49% Page 2
In addition to the top locations of origin for people, the reports indicate attendees that connected are scattered throughout the Northern Illinois areas, and from as far away as Kentucky, Virginia, and Washington State. This is good information to be aware of when determining the reach of attendance and advertisement. The final data components include the anonymous passersby. This calculates the number of unique devices that are within range of connecting to the network. This number includes every device within range, which includes traffic passing by and rerouted around Corn Fest. No other information is collected outside of the unique address of each device. Date # of Devices Estimated # of People (60%) August 24 86,030 51,000 August 25 120,216 72,000 August 26 46,995 28,000 Staff is working on ways to drill further into this data in order to isolate only foot traffic within the festival to provide more information to the Corn Fest organization and the City. Page 3
2018 CORNFEST ACTIVATION REPORT
LOGIN PAGE Authentication Page The Authentication page was custom branded for DeKalb and Corn Fest and logos were added for network sponsor NIU and bandwidth sponsor Syndeo
SPONSOR PAGE Sponsor Page Sponsor page was given to NIU (at no charge) for the period of the POC. NIU designed the sponsor message that was displayed.
CORN FEST LOBBY PAGE Lobby Page We used the Festival/Show Lobby page for Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Corn Fest. This Lobby had a different feature set than the standard Municipal Lobby and is focused are information of the current event that is taking place, Lobby Features: Custom Event look and feel Announcements Event Schedule Event Map Social Media integrations Sponsor logo scroll
GOLOCAL NETWORK GoLocal Page Digital Lobby worked with the City of DeKalb and the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce to create a 60 day pilot program to give Digital Lobby to 13 selected businesses (as chosen by Matt Duffy) free of charge. An email went out less than 24 hours before the start of the show and we were still able to obtain 4 signups by the start of the festival and a total of 6 in the 48 business hours that have passed. GoLocal participants so far include: Northern Illinois University Egyptian Theatre OC Creative Foster Buick Conklin & Lundgren Banner Up Signs Illinois Community Credit Union
Analytics Overview Corn Fest Users User Demographic LOGINS Passers By Total Friday 103 Saturday 220 Sunday 91 3 Day Total 414 0% 38% 47% 11% 4% 0% 13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55 & up 0% 40% 32% 8% 5% 5% Date #of Devices Est People August 24 86,030 51,000 August 25 120,216 72,000 August 26 46,995 28,000 51% 49%
Analytics Zip Codelist Zip City State Count 60115 Dekalb IL 229 60178 Sycamore IL 38 60556 Waterman IL 12 60447 Minooka IL 9 60050 Mchenry IL 9 60112 Cortland IL 6 60193 Schaumburg IL 4 61068 Rochelle IL 4 60604 Chicago IL 3 60103 Bartlett IL 3 60550 Shabbona IL 3 61021 Dixon IL 3 61008 Belvidere IL 2 60506 Aurora IL 2 60187 Wheaton IL 2 60004 Arlington Heights IL 2 61104 Rockford IL 2 60134 Geneva IL 2 60440 Bolingbrook IL 2 60119 Elburn IL 2 60140 Hampshire IL 2 60521 Hinsdale IL 1 60515 Downers Grove IL 1 61108 Rockford IL 1 54115 De Pere WI 1 60445 Midlothian IL 1 60915 Bradley IL 1 60146 Kirkland IL 1 41001 Alexandria KY 1 Zip City State Count 60542 North Aurora IL 1 60181 Villa Park IL 1 99036 Valleyford WA 1 60656 Chicago IL 1 60016 Des Plaines IL 1 60111 Clare IL 1 60101 Addison IL 1 60021 Fox River Grove IL 1 60585 Plainfield IL 1 60010 Barrington IL 1 60135 Genoa IL 1 61065 Poplar Grove IL 1 61530 Eureka IL 1 60560 Yorkville IL 1 22902 Charlottesville VA 1 60056 Mount Prospect IL 1 61071 Rock Falls IL 1 60455 Bridgeview IL 1 60518 Earlville IL 1 46375 Schererville IN 1 60007 Elk Grove Village IL 1 63376 Saint Peters MO 1 63103 Saint Louis MO 1 60941 Herscher IL 1 22124 Oakton VA 1 61010 Byron IL 1 54915 Appleton WI 1 60174 Saint Charles IL 1 60169 Hoffman Estates IL 1 60543 Oswego IL 1 60417 Crete IL 1