Last week, I had the great pleasure of visiting Austin, TX for the TIG conference. I gave a presentation on the power of municipal wireless networks and mobile devices -- two great flavors that are going to taste even better together!

James spent some time heckling me from the front row, but he finally took pity and let me finish. Turns out, it was a good presentation for him!

Here are my slides, should they be useful to you. Props to MobileCommons for letting us do the demo.

 

When Earthlink famously pulled out of its deal with San Francisco to install a city-wide wireless network, many individuals declared it the nail in the municipal wireless coffin. It's true that municipal wireless projects are getting knocked around all over the country: the Philadelphia and Minneapolis projects have also come under heavy fire. These criticisms have led lots of folks to question the whole idea of ubiquitous access.

What's more telling than all the hoopla is the fact the communities are persistent, insistent even, about developing wireless solutions. Check out the latest from San Francisco.

It may take a while, but communities will figure this out for themselves. Are you part of the discussion in your community?

Earthlink has effectively killed their muni wifi efforts. According to MuniWireless.com:

Don Berryman, EarthLink's top municipal wireless executive, is out of a job. So are 899 other EarthLink employees amid a massive company reorganization. The shake-up includes office closings in cities that EarthLink had been targeting for public broadband deployments. The upshot for municipal leaders: Our collective focus is moving from big, feel-good public access efforts to government applications that deliver ROI.

This explains why Chicago killed their initiative today.

I certainly understand that rolling out municipal wireless is big undertaking. What's interesting to me is how quickly it has gone from the next great thing to quagmire. This is not a frivolous tech bubble, this is about giving people access to a vital service. In essence, municipal wireless is an infrastructure project. Like roads. Or phone lines. Or fiber. Each time we have taken on those projects, there have been push-backs and set-backs, but we've made each infrastructure project work.

Why? Because infrastructure is the cornerstone of a healthy society.

A short time ago, things went sideways in San Francisco's bid to bring municipal wireless to the city. It's a long story to tell, so I won't. Suffice it to say that I think it's a real shame. Even worse, however, is that there is a distinct voice missing from the muni wifi debate in San Francisco and around the country: YOURS.

As has happened with every technology revolution (Web 2.0 anyone?), we are following the Roller Coaster of acceptance with municipal wireless. When cities and towns first started partnering and building service a few years ago, there was little awareness. But once it caught on, it caught on big. In the last year, we've been experiencing the swell of enthusiasm as a few major cities have begun to bring their networks online. Now we've hit the most interesting part of the ride: the drop.

GigaOM, a tech news and opinion blog, has recently commented on this stage in our relationship with municipal wireless:

Add one more item to the long list of reasons that Municipal Wifi is so important in our communities, and to nonprofits in particular: Muni Wifi is playing a critical role post bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Looking for ways to bring Muni Wifi to your community? Check out our guide.

Many thanks to Sheldon Mains for the heads up, and CTFC for supporting the guide!

Hard though it may be to take a pink site seriously, if you care about the future of internet access, you owe it to yourself to read David Weinberger’s broadside against the telecommunications industry, “Delamination Now!” David worries that “the incumbent carriers” are trying to turn the Internet into cable television, with a pricing model that will allow them to charge different amounts for different types of data or favor one content provider over another.

Network neutrality, the flipside of the current carriers’ model, would treat a bit as a bit, and nothing more. Payment to wholesale providers would be made for bandwidth used, while a new breed of ISPs could compete by offering different services: anonymity from one, outrageous connection speeds from another. David’s piece is passionate, heartfelt, and sure to provoke debate.

Minneapolis is rolling out its Muni WiFi on a large scale this week. Beyond the "Hooray for Free/Cheap Internet Access" reaction, it's my hope that this particular project will also be a great investment in the community. Minneapolis nonprofits and citizens groups lobbied hard for a digital inclusion strategy that would provide resources and actual funding to address the digital divide in Minneapolis. They also insisted that the contractor, local ISP US Internet, guarantee network neutrality. Mad props to C-CAN and NTEN NTC speaker Catherine Settani for their great advocacy work.

If your community is considering or implementing a municipal wireless program, you need to get involved! If you are part of an organization that directly interacts with the neediest in your community, you have the most to gain from community wireless -- but only if you get involved and fight for favorable terms. Check out NTEN's report on the nonprofit role in municipal wireless programs: No Strings Attached.

Thanks to NTEN member Rick Birmingham for the heads up.

A recent CNET story asserts that small towns may have to wait a while -- a very long while -- before vendors get around to implementing municipal wireless projects with them. While cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia have announced major partnerships with the likes of Earthlink and Google to provide free or low cost wireless access to their citizens, smaller towns aren't able to attract the attention of the vendors.

Cole Reinwald, vice president of product strategy and marketing for Earthlink Municipal Networks says that right now:

"We should be looking at cities with densities of about 2,500 people per square mile. As tech costs drop, we'll be able to bring that number down."

"Muni wifi projects are popping up all over the country. Big cities and small towns alike are providing free or low-cost access to the Internet. We asked what this mean for nonprofit organizations. Can they play a role in shaping a city or town’s wireless program? How do nonprofit organizations ensure that there are relevant resources for their communities of interest? And how can nonprofit organizations best position themselves to take advantage of the opportunities that wireless access offers for the delivery of programs and services?"

NTEN's Special Projects Fellow Ali Levine summarizes in a two-part report on nonprofit's role in muni wireless programs about how to get involved in the planning and implementation of these programs, and describes how nonprofits can creatively use the potential of ubiquitous wireless for their programs and services.