The New York Times’ Glenn Fleishman has this piece today on how community Wi-Fi advocates are gaining grassroots skills. Despite the article’s central thrust — community Wi-Fi proponents are political forces to be reckoned with — the piece makes these public broadband proponents sound a little quaint and zany. (“His [Matt Westervelt, head of Seattle Wireless] organization raised $2,500 for a climber to place network equipment on a cellular tower on Capitol Hill, one of the highest spots in Seattle. The cost of upkeep is to be donated by a private company.)
But the heart of the piece is how wireless advocates might turn into important players in the net neutrality debate.
Wireless advocates “have done more to bring forward the concerns of network neutrality as well as open access” than anyone else in the political process, Mr. Richardson [Greg Richardson, head of muni-broadband consulting firm Civitium] said. “They have a very loud voice in an advocacy role.”
Update: As the article’s author Glenn Fleishman notes in the comment to this item, the article really focused on community Wi-Fi advocates, who, while closely aligned with the muni-Wi-Fi folks, are a different breed. I’ve changed the headline and text to more accurately reflect this distinction. Moreover, Fleishman says these local Wi-Fi proponents aren’t zany or quaint.
Cynthia Brumfield at 12:27 AM|Comments(1)
I didn't think I was making anyone sound quaint or zany! The fact that Seattle Wireless will be able to extend their existing network to one of the highest spots in Seattle is a fairly significant point for a network that's not municipally funded or franchised.
There's a distinction I'd argue you missed in the article: these are community not municipal advocates. The community part far preceded the municipal part. Many are now involved in the municipally directed efforts, but often to keep the "community" in that effort. Community wireless advocates were and are focused on building local resources that use the local network; municipal efforts are focused on ubiquitous broadband Internet access.
Posted by: Glenn Fleishman at January 19, 2006 10:31 AM
Blogs We Read
