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.