Flickr Photo: ChotdaAs many of you know, I love bacon. Ask me for my recipe for maple and bacon cake (with maple frosting!) some time. Maybe one reason I love bacon so much is because Bacon is the source of one of my favorite sayings. In 1597, Sir Francis Bacon said:

Knowledge is power.

It's practically a moral code at my house. But I've also been thinking about it in the context of nptech lately.

When the Internet first went mainstream, there was a lot of talk about how it would democratize information: more of us would be able to access more information more easily and we'd all become more powerful. Access to information is the key to Thomas Friedman's argument about how and why the Berlin Wall fell and why China is opening up, for example -- and communications technologies are behind all that.

In the early 2000s, I thought a lot about this. Yes, we did know more. More people were able to share what they knew, and more of us could access it. But it wasn't the dynamic, sweeping, grand experience that a phrase like "democratize information" might suggest. Here's why:

1. Lots of information opened up, but lots more is still locked behind walls in old delivery models. You still have to subscribe to many publications. You have to travel to get particular volumes or pay lots of money for experts to tell you what you need to know.
2. Access is not pervasive enough. The folks who, arguably, most need free and easy access to information and knowledge have the least access to the chanels that can deliver it. If you are poor in urban America, or if you live in rural areas, you can't afford or simply cannot get Internet access.

In the last year though, we've seen signs that the democratization of information is about to happen in a very real, rapid, Founding Fathers kind of way.

Flickr Photo: hykuIf you live or work in the Philadelphia area, set aside some time on the evening of June 3 for a public forum on the future of wifi in that city. The event is organized by the Media Mobilizing Project and Temple University's School of Communications and Theater and will feature several speakers as well as an open forum for discussion. I could preach again about why I think muni wifi is so vital to the nonprofit sector, but the event organizers put it best:

The promise of a city where everyone has the potential to be connected, opens new doors for economic, social and political participation.

Flickr Photo: pfhyperMunicipal wireless became a dirty word a few months back. The stories out of San Francisco and Philadelphia were salacious, making the idea of wireless Internet access seem like a pipe dream.

The truth of the matter is that many towns have made it work, and many large cities are still committed to bringing the Internet to ALL their citizens, affordably. Look at Boston. Why haven't you heard about the Boston municipal wireless initiative before now? Probably because they are taking the slow and steady approach. This week, they had their first victory, getting a one square mile patch of the city covered.

With the ashes of so many municipal wireless contracts swirling around us, what makes places like Minneapolis and Boston (and the still viable Philadelphia plan) work? The answer in the case of Minneapolis and Boston is community ownership.

Flickr Photo: hykuPhiladelphia has been at the fore of communities offering wireless internet access to their citizens. With 70% of the city now covered, it's arguably the showcase effort among major cities in the country.

Unfortunately, Philadelphia's CIO, Terry Phillis, announced yesterday that he expects Earthlink will pull out of Philadelphia by the end of the year, leaving the city to prepare for an uncertain future. Phillis told ComputerWorld:

"We consider [the Wi-Fi network] an asset for the city. Our priority is to get it completed, to service the digital divide, to enhance tourism and to serve mobile city workers. But I can't talk a lot about our plans" [if Earthlink leaves].

Repeat after me: "It's not a mobile phone, it's a mobile device."

It's not just the iPhone fanatics who are using their phones for much more than phone calls -- every day citizens are using their phones for email, music, texting, video, photos, and more. When is a phone more than a phone? When you can watch Jon Stewart on your lunch break.

The Detroit Free Press profiles some locals who are in love with their phones... I mean, devices. The stories are great, but what's impressive are some statistics from Verizon. From the article:

...the number of downloads of all kinds of new media - movie and TV clips, music, games, software and so on - jumped from 6 million in 2003 to 106 million recently.The company offers more than 300 games alone (up from 10 in 2002). And the other carriers show the same trends. People are starting to think of their phones as tiny entertainment devices, not just as a way to reach out and touch someone.

Do you have a mobile plan for your organization? You may want to start thinking about it. Check out MobileActive for some great resources.

Flickr Photo: pedrosimoes7I'm working on my presentation for the Legal Services Corporation's Technology Initiative Grants Conference -- say that three times fast! -- where I'm scheduled to talk about the un-Wired nonprofit. There are so many amazing things happening with wireless around the country, and so many more amazing things happening with mobile, that I'm having a hard time focusing.

It's a real joy to think about and explore such fun stuff for a good cause. It's definitely my favorite part of my work: dreaming big and making connections. And now is a great time to dream big. With all the buzz about social media, we've entered another heady period in the history of technology. It's cool to be a geek again!

In the middle of all that big dreaming, I was brought back to earth with a thud by an email we got here at the office this morning from marketing professional at a small organization asking about scholarships for the NTC.

When Earthlink famously pulled out of its deal with San Francisco to install a city-wide wireless network, many individuals declared it the nail in the municipal wireless coffin. It's true that municipal wireless projects are getting knocked around all over the country: the Philadelphia and Minneapolis projects have also come under heavy fire. These criticisms have led lots of folks to question the whole idea of ubiquitous access.

What's more telling than all the hoopla is the fact the communities are persistent, insistent even, about developing wireless solutions. Check out the latest from San Francisco.

It may take a while, but communities will figure this out for themselves. Are you part of the discussion in your community?

Earthlink has effectively killed their muni wifi efforts. According to MuniWireless.com:

Don Berryman, EarthLink's top municipal wireless executive, is out of a job. So are 899 other EarthLink employees amid a massive company reorganization. The shake-up includes office closings in cities that EarthLink had been targeting for public broadband deployments. The upshot for municipal leaders: Our collective focus is moving from big, feel-good public access efforts to government applications that deliver ROI.

This explains why Chicago killed their initiative today.

I certainly understand that rolling out municipal wireless is big undertaking. What's interesting to me is how quickly it has gone from the next great thing to quagmire. This is not a frivolous tech bubble, this is about giving people access to a vital service. In essence, municipal wireless is an infrastructure project. Like roads. Or phone lines. Or fiber. Each time we have taken on those projects, there have been push-backs and set-backs, but we've made each infrastructure project work.

Why? Because infrastructure is the cornerstone of a healthy society.

A short time ago, things went sideways in San Francisco's bid to bring municipal wireless to the city. It's a long story to tell, so I won't. Suffice it to say that I think it's a real shame. Even worse, however, is that there is a distinct voice missing from the muni wifi debate in San Francisco and around the country: YOURS.

As has happened with every technology revolution (Web 2.0 anyone?), we are following the Roller Coaster of acceptance with municipal wireless. When cities and towns first started partnering and building service a few years ago, there was little awareness. But once it caught on, it caught on big. In the last year, we've been experiencing the swell of enthusiasm as a few major cities have begun to bring their networks online. Now we've hit the most interesting part of the ride: the drop.

GigaOM, a tech news and opinion blog, has recently commented on this stage in our relationship with municipal wireless:

Minneapolis is rolling out its Muni WiFi on a large scale this week. Beyond the "Hooray for Free/Cheap Internet Access" reaction, it's my hope that this particular project will also be a great investment in the community. Minneapolis nonprofits and citizens groups lobbied hard for a digital inclusion strategy that would provide resources and actual funding to address the digital divide in Minneapolis. They also insisted that the contractor, local ISP US Internet, guarantee network neutrality. Mad props to C-CAN and NTEN NTC speaker Catherine Settani for their great advocacy work.

If your community is considering or implementing a municipal wireless program, you need to get involved! If you are part of an organization that directly interacts with the neediest in your community, you have the most to gain from community wireless -- but only if you get involved and fight for favorable terms. Check out NTEN's report on the nonprofit role in municipal wireless programs: No Strings Attached.

Thanks to NTEN member Rick Birmingham for the heads up.