Thursday's WiFi Summit in Boston was the product of collaboration among the Boston Wireless Advocacy Group, the office of John Tobin (a Boston city councillor), the Boston Foundation, the Museum of Science, and BTS Partners.

Here are some the highpoints of my experience at the summit:
Adam Weiss from the Museum's Current Science & Technology Center explained the basic technology that makes WiFi possible by giving the best multi-media educational presentation that I have ever seen. No exceptions! I only hope that it will be available online for public viewing or downloading.  Alternatively, I'd like him to accompany me wherever and whenever I am discussing technology, so that he can make every conversation both fascinating and comprehensible.

Geeta Pradhan of the Boston Foundation gave us a very unequivocal message that citywide WiFi is not only quite a feasible goal but also an absolutely necessary factor for keeping Boston alive in in the global economy.

A number of leaders from the community techology movement such as Steve Ronan, Marlene Archer, and Peter Miller - which delighted me, because as I have previously written, I would love to see community technology centers as beachheads for WiFi.

BTS Partners did a great job of not only scanning Boston for existing WiFi hotspots, but also of scanning the far afield for case studies in how WiFi is proving to be sustainable (or unsustainable) in other municipalities, regions, and countries. 

Since the Museum of Science was kind enough to donate access to its wireless network for the event, the auditorium was full of people dividing their attention between their screens and the event presentations.  I took a surreptitious peek at a few of these screens, and found that many were working on other tasks or checking email.  This is good news, because it may mean that WiFi made it possible for some people to attend who otherwise would have been obligated stay close to conventional internet access.  However, I would have loved to see live chat about the event in progress, with the transcripts projected on a screen for all attendees to follow in real time.  This was done with during the keynote talk at the recent Grassroot Use of Technology Conference, and many participants in the latter reported that it was a great help in breaking the format out of the unilateral present-to-audience talking head mode.  On the other hand, a video blog of the summit presentations was posted to John Tobin's web site almost immediately, and that was a cool use of geek tools.

FEATURED SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS

Multi-media presentation:
Adam Weiss, Museum of Science

Wecoming remarks:
Ionnis Mialoulis, Museum of Science
Thomas M. Menino, City of Boston
John M. Tobin, jr., City of Boston
Geeta Pradhan, The Boston Foundation
Brian Worobey, Museum of Science

Feasibility study presentation:
Doug Schremp, BTS Partners

Panel - WiFI:  Implications for a connected community
Doug Schremp, BTS Partners
Nyvia Colon, Madison Park Development Corporation
Vinit Nijhawan, TIE-Boston, airwide solutions
Robert Tumposky, Boston Redevelopment Authority

Panel - What's best for Boston's future?
Jock Gill, Penfield Gill
Michael Oh, Tech Superpowers, Boston Wireless Advocacy Group
Russell Newman, Free Press
Richard O'Bryant, Northeastern University

Conclusions and next steps:
John M. Tobin, jr., City of Boston