You've read my posts about the WiFi revolution here on the blog pretty often, but I bet you've been wondering what that term really means. According to this awesome piece on the BoingBoing Web site (free text link below), it doesn't mean anything...
The founding members of the Wi-Fi Alliance hired Interbrand to develop a name and logo the group could use to market its efforts, certainly something much catchier than "IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence."
WiFi made the cut out of 10 names Interbrand submitted, although the tagline "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity" was invented after the fact by the group but soon disappeared because they didn't want to be in the business of making standards.
An interesting sidenote: Interbrand has been responsible for developing many other brand names, including a useless antidepressant drug called Prozac...
BoingBoing November 8, 2005