[DDN] US cities' Wi-Fi dreams fading fast

[tom abeles]

The World Health Organization has focused on clean water and has said that the best way is to treat water in the home. They have 3 criteria:
technology works at the right price
systems are acceptable to the market- the people in their homes
the system is transferable or duplicable

the idea works well because it is a sound business model. Wifi and ICT's must follow the same dictums.  Looking at development technologies, particularly ICT's in this case, most of the models which try to bend around this whether by good intentions of the non-profits or governments getting involved, the chance for failure at any level is significantly multiplied. This is not to say that these sectors don't have a roll. But that roll needs careful consideration since seldom is the situation good for the transferability or duplicability sought by these organizations.

We should know that the scientific method which has shown "progress" does not transfer, as hoped for by the philosophers, to the social sector. The problem is in the simplistic belief that social systems reduce to reason which often even fails in science. And therein lies the problem especially when all the systems from funding agencies to  idealists in the field need to operate as if  this were a rational world. 

thoughts?

tom

tom abeles



> Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:22:41 +0200
> To: digitaldivide at digitaldivide.net
> From: jc at coyotecommunications.com
> Subject: [DDN] US cities' Wi-Fi dreams fading fast
> 
> US cities' Wi-Fi dreams fading fast
> by Rob Lever Sat Sep 22, 11:54 PM ET
> 
> WASHINGTON (AFP) - Ambitious plans for big Wi-Fi networks to provide 
> free or low-cost wireless Internet access are being abandoned or 
> scaled back by US cities as the economics of the deals turn out to be 
> more challenging than expected.
> 
> San Francisco and Chicago in recent weeks abruptly halted plans to 
> set up municipal Wi-Fi networks while Internet giant Earthlink, a 
> partner for a number of cities, has begun a reorganization that will 
> limit new projects.
> 
> Rest of story:
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070923/tc_afp/lifestyleusinternetit;_ylt=AklOr69HK4A2os2a19mKarJk24cA
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> Ms. Jayne Cravens MSc 
> Bonn, Germany
> Kabul, Afghanistan (March - August 2007)
> 
> www.coyotecommunications.com
> 
> www.ivisit.com id: jcravens.4947
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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