> Jim Westrich westrich at nodimension.com, Mon May 16 08:00:35 PDT 2005:
>> You are promoting wider access to scholarly publications (something
>> I agree with) but your example is WiFi in downtown Dayton.
>
> Free public access to scholarly publications and free public
> broadband (of which free public WiFi is but one means) are two
> different issues. I happen to be in favor of both.
I do not disagree but your example of Dayton downtown WiFi is wrong. It is wholely private financed and limited to people in a particularly area. Even you switched to talking about public efforts in your response. I live in a town that has made a few token efforts at WiFi (with much public fanfare) and they are horrible in their "publicness". They are (as I suspect Dayton is) a few weak signals in a patchwork of cafes--which, despite its usefulness for the hightech caffeinistas, is not my definition of public. I personally think free access to the internet in libraries is much more useful and "public".
There are more "public efforts" for WiFI which I am more supportive than Dayton (like Philly or Cork). Technically speaking though, particularly in bang for your buck terms, WiFi is not currently a very good public option. That may change I suppose, but don't count on me to come to any "WiFi" meetings.
> Jim wrote:
>> There are progressive arguments against public WiFi as well. Its
>> socialism for the high tech commuter/consumer.
> As things stand now, many
> public goods are like that, accessed very disproportionately by
> higher income residents.
No doubt, but there is a continuum of progressive benefits (and financing). I would hate to debate such nuanced issues in such a falsely dichotomous way. Your examples, health care and parks, are all things which bring enormous public benefit and also have a more progressive consumption than WiFi (they are true public goods with externalities). So I agree wholehearedly with them generally. My examples, which you ignored, were golf courses and marinas. I could also add sports stadiums (how come cities never spend hundreds of millions of dollars on things older women like to do and see?). I have much more mixed feelings about them and WiFi--well, except that I am totally against marinas for non-political reasons. I am distressed that you apply the fallacies of boosterism to WiFi (all positive attributes accounted for and subtlety/perspective ignored).
Jim
"The big dipper sure ain't big enough To hold all of your dang good stuff So let the people say we're down right nasty I just say we're down right"
--B-52's