(From yesterday’s Globe and Mail)

Following Philadelphia and Washington D.C., Boston appears poised to take the non-profit route to providing “civic bandwidth”.

It’s a brief article, but highlights how more and more cities seem to be recognizing that relying on private (profit-oriented) providers may be counterproductive to  genuinely addressing “digital divide” issues.

If approved, this ($20million project) would be a major public policy initiative, and there are myriad ways this could falter, if appropriate discussions and plans are not put into place.

Richard O’Bryant from the Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University has emphasized that there are some key issues that must be considered, lest Boston (or any other city considering public Wi-Fi) end up in a “we built it but noone came” scenario.

According to O’Bryant, these issues (and recommendations for addressing them) include:

1) policy makers should refrain from the temptation of the city becoming an Internet or quasi-Internet service provider.  The service should be attached to institutions and entities that will not be so readily subject to changes in leadership and leadership ideologies and priorities.

2) build the system as a public and private partnership.  However, the process should be a bottom-up instead of top-down approach. In particular, identify community level individuals and groups to develop specific community needs assessments and gauge, (i.e. through polling/surveys), what the expected utilization rates might be.

3) policy makers should also be prepared to inform and train residents, specifically those technologically challenged, on how to make meaningful use of their new found wireless Internet service.

O’Bryant’s recommendations are right on, and are good starting points for any plan of this nature…

 (Full Article from G+M…) Continue reading →