Earthlink announced Tuesday that they are going to discontinue operation of its muni Wi-Fi network in Philadelphia. They say that they tried to transfer ownership of the network to Philadelphia or to a nonprofit (Wireless Philadelphia, I assume) for free but that the transfer "unraveled due to unresolved issues among the City, Wireless Philadelphia and the non-profit." Holy WAP Batman!

According to Earthlink that's $17M worth of equipment plus they would pay some cash and donate new Wi-Fi equipment. Since they can't transfer, Earthlink says they will remove the network at their cost and try to find alternative Internet connections for customers.

Meanwhile, the Wireless Philadelphia Blog says:

Philadelphia's Wi-Fi network continues to operate in the roughly 80% of the City in which it has been deployed (see map). Nothing in the ten-year Network Agreement permits EarthLink to unilaterally impose deadlines for the network's transfer, turn off the network or remove network equipment.

Metro Philadelphia and CNET have stories.

Meanwhile, back at the Minneapolis ranch, the USIW progress map says the network is scheduled to be completed in April, 2008. The tiny map on the page indicates the network is live in most of the city but there are several large "challenge areas" where it's not working. It would be nice to see an update as to what's going on especially since the Digital Inclusion Fund is waiting on $200,000 from USIW once the network is done and the City signs off.

Thanks to Ed Kohler for a heads up on the Philadelphia situation. He blogs at The Deets and Technology Evangelist.

Technorati Tags: broadband, politics, USIW, Wi-Fi, wireless, municipal, Philadelphia, Minneapolis

Saturday, May 10, Minnebar returns to Minneapolis with new host University of Minnesota Software Engineering Center. As a U of MN employee, I want to say that I'm very proud that we are hosting this event. We talk a lot over at the U about community engagement but sadly we don't walk the walk often enough. This Saturday will be an exception as over 300 geeky types invade the Coffman Student Union. Sessions start at 8:30 a.m. but you will want to get there at 8 to register.

There is a pre-event mixer Friday night (8 p.m.) at the Bulldog NE (401 E. Hennepin). The Refactr bunch will feed you. You pay for the booze. Pfhyper has to babysit grandsons that night but they go to bed early so he's hoping to make an appearance wearing an old Minnebar T. Wave to him.

Presenters please remember that this is an unconference. Powerpoint is tolerated but if the discussion gets going forget about the damn slides and go with the flow.

Bonus links!

@graemethickins somehow found a tentative Minnebar schedule and posted it for us.

A pfhyper tweet from Minnebar 2007.

Technorati Tags: minnebar, conference, 2008, minnebar08, minnebar2008

Local media is reporting on the Minneapolis Wireless network. So far the reports are good.

First up is Brandt William's report at MPR which gives a good overview of the Minneapolis network and some background on other deployments around the country—most of which are not faring well. I get interviewed in Williams piece which ran on Wednesday, March 26. (Just noticed that he didn't mention my blog although he called me a tech blogger.)

MPR is in St. Paul and by coincidence the next two local reports originate at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. First
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo talks about the leaves of spring and their effect on Wi-Fi signals. Wireless vendor USIW thinks they've learned enough about the trees to ensure good reception. Lots of details are in this report including information about the BelAir nodes that are the hardware heart of the system.

Also from the Pioneer Press, Julio Ojeda-Zapata crosses the river to test the network armed with a laptop and iTouch. He experienced a couple of problems but overall he thought the network was satisfactory.

The number of USIW subscribers is not clear from the articles. I've seen figures ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 and I think pre-registrations are sometimes mixed in with true subscriber figures. Suzukamo quotes USIW head Joe Caldwell predicting 10,000 subscribers next month. I have another report that originated with Minneapolis wireless consultant Jim Fartad that there are currently 7,500 subscribers.

Challenge areas where there is no service are still a problem. USIW may have to install poles to get the job done there.

According to Farstad, 85% of the customers are using the Ruckus device for connecting. Some customers also need external antennas but the number is less than 50. Overal customer satisfaction is 90%. I would like to know how they are determing that figure as the buzz on the local internet tends to be negative.

Bonus link:

Steve Alexander at the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the new Wi-Fi network coming to the University of Minnesota.

After 7 years, U puts 'old' Wi-Fi network out to pasture

[Post title is purely a commercial ploy to capture your interest and make some money.]

I am very interested in issues of intellectual property and copyright and strongly support Creative Commons. So does Aaron Landry but he has an issue with how Boing Boing reused a Flickr photo of his. He brings up some excellent points.

Aaron Landry » An Example of Creative Commons Not Working

I'm exploring Hulu tonight a bit. Found old Alfred Hitchcock hours and decided to watch one. I think the date on this was 1964 and I may have watched the original broadcast as a young boy. Listening to Hitch's intro of the episode, I know I didn't catch all the subtleties back then. I'm not sure I even liked the show but it's enjoyable now and I have several of them in my queue. Hulu stocks season 1 and 2.

If you don't have a Hulu account yet, I encourage you to check them out. Playback is pretty good at full-screen on my 15-inch MacBook Pro. They have a cache of old shows (Mary Tyler Moore, Barney Miller, Dick Van Dyke Show, Miami Vice, Rockford Files) some new shows (Bones, The Office, My Name is Earl, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, House) and movies (Usual Suspects, The Big Lebowski, Planet of the Apes).

It's a social network too. You can leave comments, subscribe to shows, share (send a show to another social site like Facebook or Digg), and embed.

For your screening pleasure this evening I chose the embed option. Here is Mr. Hitchcock introducing this evening's episode. [Just reviewed the post and Hulu sent along their branding and a commercial. Sorry about that but it's very short.]

Pioneer Press congratulates Minneapolis on a successful Wi-Fi system. Network was supposed to be done today but according to the story, the recent cold snap set them back. So the new completion date is the end of the month.


Minneapolis looks like Wi-Fi winner

Update: There's no form or email address at the end of the suggestions link. I'll see if I can get any more information or an email address for suggestions.

The Civic Garden portal demo is live on the web. It states that it's a work-in-progress. You can leave comments about it here: http://wirelessminneapolis.org/suggestions.htm

The Garden will be open access to anyone with wireless connectivity. It will link to civic sites of various kinds including community organizations, city government, public safety, and neighborhood groups.

Minneapolis Civic Garden Portal Project

New Media, New Standards: Ethics in Online Journalism is the MPR UBS Forum tonight (Free!) and they have Dan Gillmor on the panel along with a host of local Jjourno types. You can't go though unless you already reserved a seat but you can live vicariously and read all about it as Greg and Erica live-blog and tweet. There's also an audio stream available at the MPR site.


Metroblogging Minneapolis: Live blogging MPR's MSM vs. New Media Ethics Forum. Check comments as some of the luminaries have weighed in.