The city of Boston is hosting a WiFi Summmit in May that a group I’m involved in, BostonWAG (wireless advocacy group), is helping organize along with City Councillor John Tobin’s office and the WiFi Task Force he’s assembled. In advance of the summit, there’s a community forum coming up on Tuesday, April 19th at The Boston Public Library’s Copley Branch at 7pm in the Johnson Building.
The purpose of the forum is to get community input on the possibility of wireless initiatives in the City of Boston. This includes opinions on how such a network would benefit the residents and what are the populations that would gain the most from a low-cost or free wireless network in parts of the city.
There’s a press release about the event if you’re curious. BostonWAG is also preparing a “WiFi 101″ info sheet that will be online soon and available at the forum.
3 comments
Peter Wood says:
Apr 15, 2005
Sooz – just wondering if you’ve informed other Boston-area wireless groups of this event. MIT Rooftops (http://rooftops.media.mit.edu/) and BAWIA (http://www.bawia.org/) come to mind. Other usergroups might be interested too, for example Boston Linux & UNIX (http://www.blu.org/) and BMAC (http://www.bmac.org/).
Sooz says:
Apr 15, 2005
Hi Peter:
Thanks for the info!
One of the BostonWAG organizers/members emailed the BAWIA list with the forum info.
Councillor Tobin’s office created a flyer and a press release and has been doing outreach the past week as the event came together.
It’s probably worth pointing out that this will not be a technical meeting. It’s meant to provide an overview about ideas and possibilities.
If you’d like to share info with the other lists (if you’re on their mailing lists/etc) here’s the info that went out to BAWIA.
Thanks!
—
The Boston Wireless Advocacy Group would like to announce a Community
WiFi Forum, organized by City Councilor John Tobin and BostonWAG, this
coming TUESDAY, APRIL 19th at 7PM at the BPL’s Copley Square Branch.
More specifically, it will be in conference rooms 5/6 in the Johnson
Building on Boylston Street.
The purpose of the forum is to get community input on the possibility
of wireless initiatives in the City of Boston. This includes opinions
on how such a network would benefit the residents and what are the
populations that would gain the most from a low-cost or free wireless
network in parts of the city.
Although the City of Boston does not have any official current plans
for a public wireless deployment, this forum is the first step in the
process. Step 2 is a Wireless Summit on May 19th where this feedback
will analyzed in conjunction with a study being done by BTS Partners on
the state of broadband and wireless in the city. Step 3 is a written
recommendation made by the WiFi Task Force, including members of
BostonWAG, for why and how the city should implement wireless.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Press Release:
http://www.bostonwag.org/summit/WiFiCommunityForumPressRelease_2.pdf
There’s a WiFi Meetup event page you can (optionally) RSVP to the event:
http://wifi.meetup.com/3/
Please send any inquiries to info@bostonwag.org.
Thanks,
Mike Oh, Susan Kaup, Pat McCormick
Founders, BostonWAG.org
aslam says:
Apr 16, 2005
In case you don’t already know of them, I recently saw a talk by LESS Networks – http://lessnetworks.com/ – on free WiFi. You can find it on SeattleWireless TV – http://tv.seattlewireless.net/.