SF Politics Over Free Wifi: A Bunch Of Dopes!
This is amazing: Google and Earthlink are running into problems over their free wifi, because stupid local activists and special interests are driving them up the wall, not understanding that sometimes free is just free. Google’s Chris Sacca got railroaded at a Tuesday night meeting about the project.
Some coverage:
I did get to see Chris Sacca from Google face a parade of activist oddballs who neither understood technology nor the positive social impact that free wifi could bring to some of the city’s most disadvantaged citizens.
At the meeting, Sacca did an excellent job or remaining calm and explaining the technology in language that anyone could understand, still these local political gadflies seemed to feel that EarthLink and Google providing free WiFi to the citizens was akin to killing kittens because, they attacked Sacca with a venom that was absolutely shocking.
Some of the crazier demands that were suggested at the meeting included a “requirement” for every San Francisco renter to sign a lease addendum with their landlords before being allowed to install a WiFi card in their PC, forcing Google to agree to transport kids back and forth to the Zoo in their Google busses and a requirement for EarthLink to pay the electrical costs for running computers in order to prevent brownouts.
One crazy guy, at one point, actually started making threatening moves towards Sacca and had to be restrained when Sacca tried to tell him that his renters wouldn’t need to sign special contracts if they want to plug their wireless access card into their home computers. When the guy threatened to block the wifi signals for his renters, Sacca pointed out that he couldn’t block the air and the crowd went ballistic.
The query “what is Google getting out of this?” and “nothing is free,” was a common question by the audience. Google executives have insisted that the SF WiFi network is mostly a public good. We’re giving back to the community, they said.
Okay, if you are one of the nutjobs trying to prevent a free service, let me explain: The internet costs money now. Google wants to give it to you for free, by broadcasting off of lamp posts. If you don’t want it, nothing happens to you. If you do, it is free. What is the problem?
Dopes.
“If you don’t want it, nothing happens to you.”
There’s always the “OMG spare me the Wi-Fi death radiation”-types.
Honestly, I have no clue myself how powerful Wi-Fi is (when comparing the level of ionization by Wi-Fi against cellphones, for example).
Myself, I don’t use it - it seems to be slower, more expensive and less private than a plain old CAT5 cable. This is a desktop anyway, so I don’t need the “portable” factor.
Comment by Tim | October 20, 2006
[…] This is an interesting blog post I read about Google offering free wireless access to the city of San Francisco. Apparently, a fairly hostile activist crowd showed up to greet Google. […]
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