Wireless Philadelphia Non Profit Organization [1]
As mentioned in a previous post, The City of Philidelphia is launching affordable wireless access.
A non-profit organisation, Wireless Philadelphia, has been set up to manage this.
Below is a quote of Wireless Philadelphia’s mission statement and objectives:
Mission statement:
Wireless Philadelphia aims to strengthen the economy and transform Philadelphia’s neighborhoods by providing wireless internet access throughout the city. Wireless Philadelphia will create a digital infrastructure to help citizens, businesses, schools and community organizations make effective use of this technology to achieve their goals while providing a greater experience for visitors to the City.Goals:
# To spur economic development
# To enhance community neighborhoods
# To help overcome the digital divide
# To reduce the cost of government
I find the goals interesting and the last one surprising, but improvements in infrastructure can lead to lower costs, and there are a lot of potiential savings for the government, by having a wireless infrastructure.
Today the government and municipalities of Denmark, are steaming ahead with eGovernment projects, with no regard to the fact that a digital divide exists. Sometimes I wonder if the danish authorities assumes that everybody has a computer and a broadband connection at home.
It will be very interesting to follow the Wireless Philidelphia project, and I hope that they will achieve their goals.