Yesterday evening, I attended a community forum at Boston Public Library to discuss current and future status of wireless networks (also known as WiFi) in Boston.
The meeting was convened by the Boston Wireless Advocacy Group, in anticipation of the WiFi Summit, which will be held on Thursday, May 19 at the Museum of Science, in Boston.
The presenters did a great job of discussing pilot projects currently up and running on Newbury Street in Boston and Moody Street in Waltham, and it looks like they are doing some serious homework about existing wireless hotspots and
about the feasibility of various financial models
for expanding wireless network capacity across the the
city. They've also commissioned BTS Partners to do a feasibility study that includes a survey of individuals and organizations.
I was also delighted to see folks from the Community Technology Center Network (also known as CTCnet) at the meeting - since it seems to me that using community technology centers as beachheads for WiFi connectivity is a strategy that ought to be seriously considered.
However, as the talk turned to the digital divide - and various meeting attendees raised questions about making WiFi available to underserved neighborhoods as well as affluent Boston neighborhoods such as Newbury Street - I queried the presenter about whether they had contacted the Digital Divide Network, an international movement that just happens to have its headquarters in the Boston area. Apparently not; which is a shame, since the network has an entire section of its web site devoted to access issues. Likewise, the presenters acknowledged that they were unaware that Organizers Collaborative had convened a conference over the weekend on "Grassroots Use of Technology."
Later on, the discussion turned to the need to recruit volunteer tech support for the Boston WiFi project, and I wondered if they were aware of the outstanding model that Harbinger Partners, which a local nonprofit, has developed to bring the power of teams of corporate volunteers to community-based organizations that need help with technology projects.
The Boston WAG's presentation, and the discussion that ensued left me wondering. Are the local movers and shakers in the world of WiFi somehow neglecting to do their homework about the mission-based (and technology-oriented) organizations that would be their natural allies in this project? Or are we, who labor in the field of nonprofit technology, somehow neglecting to do the outreach that would make these WiFi activists aware of our work? Or neither? Or both?
