WiFi: NON-BINDING

Armed with information from public citizen Kimo Crossman along with the ACLU and the folks at SNAFU, the Board of Supervisors resisted Mayor Newsom’s pressure to quickly approve a citywide WiFi franchise agreement with Earthlink.

Instead, the Board, led by president Aaron Peskin, started to negotiate for more favorable terms. Apparently Newsom had accepted Earthlink's first offer.

Anyway, during the delay Earthlink announced they are reexamining their approach to such deals in general. The original agreement as “negotiated” by Newsom appeared dead.

Someone came up with a face saving ploy. Instead of announcing that the deal was lousy from the start, and that the whole thing was a waste of time, and that we need to go back to the drawing board, Peskin and Newsom put a non-binding policy resolution on the November ballot urging city officials to provide free WiFi to SF’s populace.

As Glenn Fleishman at wifinetnews suggests, we might as well add free ice cream and free ponies to the wishlist.

So, good for Kimo and his allies.

Here’s a previously posted clip of Kimo testifying before the supes.

Remarkable about this story is that citizen participation was essential to stopping the crappy contract, and, that the citizen participation was non-political.

The opposition to the Earthlink deal was technical—we’re not getting enough bang for our bucks—as opposed to being pro-Newsom or anti-Newsom. I think even self-identified progressives split on this issue.

Kids whose families don’t have phone service will still need to access the internet at school or at their public library branches. The Earthlink deal was touted as a way for kids in violent neighborhoods to access the internet without having to walk to their local libraries.

If the kids in BVHP can’t go to the library because the streets are unsafe, it’s time to make the streets safe.

They called out the National Guard to escort kids to school in Little Rock. If need be, we should have the National Guard escort kids to their local branch libraries in BVHP.

The inability of Mayor Newsom and Chief Fong to provide safe passage for school kids who want to go to the library is a failure of government so monumental that we hardly notice it. It’s a disgrace.

Of course we won’t have a “safe streets” ballot measure—why bother! WiFi is more “doable.”

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BAD FAITH?

A recent announcement by Earthlink (passed along by public watchdog Kimo Crossman) spells an end to San Francisco’s “Free” WiFi charade.

Basically, Earthlink says they can’t make a profit from the kind of contract that is being negotiated with San Francisco. For Earthlink to make money from “free” municipal WiFi they need the municipality itself to a sign long-term contract to use Earthlink services. Earthlink calls such a municipality an “anchor tenant.”

Earthlink's announcement makes the entire process look like a bad faith effort, possibly on the parts of both Mayor Newsom and Earthlink, to sign a quickie contract and work out the (expensive) details later.

Newsom wanted a cool-sounding resume item. A number of public-commenters hauled in to a Supes Committee meeting said they needed “WiFive,” which sounds cooler yet.

With the Earthlink deal all but defunct, we’ll see if our mayor has a Plan-B for bridging the digital divide.

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GOOD NEWS – MORE WIFI DELAY

My impression is that Mayor Newsom wanted to shove the sixteen-year Earthlink WiFi agreement through the Board of Supervisors quickly.

Why? It turns out that if you slow the process down and look at the actual terms of the agreement, it’s a really crappy deal for San Francisco.

As Kimo Crossman and other concerned citizens have pointed out, the San Francisco deal isn’t even as good as deals Earthlink has with other cities.

Free WiFi—who could turn it down?

How about some free sciatica? Or some free dysentery?

Sure, the best things in life ARE free, but so are some of the worst.

The agreement is scheduled to be considered today, Wed 7/25/07, in Budget and Finance at 1:00pm.

Kimo thinks the item will be continued because Earthlink hasn’t responded to Peskin’s queries from last week.

This is very good news. These sorts of decisions have lasting consequences. Think Candlestick Park. Think Muni Metro.

From Kimo comes this link to a nice overview of the SF/Earthlink plan, written for a British site. It discusses possible delays for environment impact studies, which are being advocated by SNAFU—an anti-microwave group.

A vote requiring the review could prove fatal to the proposed network, which is becoming an increasingly contentious issue between Newsom and his critics. Environmental reviews can take as long as a year to complete, a sizable delay that could ultimately cool enthusiasm for the project.

The technology is changing so fast that this proposal, in a year’s time, will be an anachronism.

Hooray for Kimo! Go SNAFU! ACLU, we love you!

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