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Delray commissioners move to allow virtual kiosks in downtown
Blue Web Mobile Media CEO Daniel Kinney presents the virtual kiosk system to Delray Beach city commissioners. Tuesday evening. Downtown Marketing Cooperative Executive Director Sarah Martin looks on.
By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — Delray Beach city commissioners were duly impressed with a virtual kiosk system that Blue Web Mobile Media plans to install throughout downtown Delray.
It can be used as a directory, allowing visitors to find restaurants, shops and services in the downtown. It can be used to highlight information about festivals and celebrations taking place in the city.
It can provide emergency information in case of an approaching hurricane or other disaster.
It would be a first step toward providing wireless internet service throughout the downtown, which Blue Web wants to provide.
And eventually it could be portable, allowing visitors planning trips to scroll through the information by phone or computer before they arrive.
Problem is, it isn’t legal. Not with Delray’s restrictions against off-premises advertising and limitations on window signs.
Commissioners on Tuesday asked City Attorney Brian Schutt to prepare legislation that would change that.
“It’s a great project,” Commissioner Adam Frankel said. “It’s a great way to replace the archaic signs we have that list businesses that have closed.”
Said Dan Kinney, Blue Web’s CEO: “This could be for every merchant in the downtown. This is especially interesting for tourists.”
Blue Web wants to install six kiosks throughout the downtown. Proposed sites include the Seagate Hotel, Hands Stationery, the 110 Building, Delray Beach Public Library, where a demo kiosk has been installed, and in Pineapple Grove.
As described by Kinney, the kiosks would not be standalone, but rather installed in street front windows and would work along the lines of a large iPad. Users would navigate the device by touch. The system would be advertising driven but the ads would be limited. If a visitor was looking for a restaurant, he or she could touch the name and an ad for that restaurant would pop up. The ad would disappear when the machine is no longer in use.
The kiosks would be free to use and free to the city and its partners. Sarah Martin, executive director of the Downtown Marketing Cooperative, said the only obligation would be for her organization to help market the system and build public awareness of the kiosks.
Commissioner Tom Carney expressed concern that an advertising-based system would exclude merchants who wouldn’t be able to afford the costs.
Kinney said the advertising fee would be minimal, $75 a month. The intent is to make the system inclusionary rather than exclusionary. “I want people to able to afford to be on it.”
Martin said the system needs to be useful to the kiosk users, and for that to happen, as many merchants as possible have to be involved.
Also Tuesday, commissioners got a brief update on the effort to tighten city regulations on transient housing. City Attorney Schutt said he has been working with outside counsel on proposed changes. “Hopefully we’ll have something in a couple of weeks.”
Commissioners received an update on the city’s public arts programs from Elayna Toby Singer of Palm Beach County Art in Public Places. She said the county would be open to an agreement to coordinate the city efforts if desired.
