Live Blogging The Gavster: Municipal Wifi
Gavin is set to announce his plans for Municipal Wifi today at 2pm. Rumors are a-swirlin' already as to who's going to be responsible for deploying it. Google has been making apparent moves to buy up backbone capacity across the country, and are apparently tres friendly with Feeva, the company that set up the public networks in Union Square and the Main Library. Considering The City is in the red, we're gonna wonder how all this is going to be paid for -- especially considering that Google's CEO seems to have privacy concerns about the company's main product, and Feeva's proprietary technology is based on pinpointing a users location.
But anyone trying to setup municipal networks is going to have to act fast, as congress is considering a defacto nationwide ban and there are plenty of industry groups dead set against it. But if The City's relationship with Comcast is any indication, granting a local monopoly in exchange for private infrastructure investment is problematic at best.
Update: Check back in 90 to 120 days for an RFI (that takes it to the next level!) with all the specifics seems to be what was said. Sorry, we're distracted -- Fiona Ma wants legislation demanding paperwork for the commercial display of corpses...
After the jump, we fight to keep from being mesmerized by how dreamy Gavin looks while he lays out his proposals. Watch along at home or the office, and feel free to chime in with the comments!
1:30 Comcast being snarky? Screen shows "bad signal" error screen.
1:31 Voices of Globalization or something...trying to stay awake...
1:59 Wait? FULL BOARD OF SUPERVISORS! Damnit, guess we have to watch online...
2:05 BOS late as usual, computer b0rking trying to load the online feed...we're missing precious Gavtime!
2:11 Guess Gavin took his time prepping for the camera, it's running late. Either that, or the whole thing was from 2:00 to 2:05 and we missed it.
2:15 People are milling about...chatting. Of course, the mic is 100% open. If you're reading this at City Hall Main Library, you may want to be discreet.
2:18 There's a couple of what we assume are demonstration laptops on either side of the podium, facing out. Can't see what's on 'em -- assume their hooked up to free wifi. Being browsed half-heartedly by people who realize that they shouldn't be checking Flesbot out.
2:23 This couldn't possibly be any more boring. We need a drink.
2:24 Okay, good excuse, Gavin. East Bay funeral. But now the feed is being janky.
2:25 "...a park, a playground, a fireengine..." We hope he's talking about wifi.
2:26 Take that, Philly! Your Request for Information isn't as comprehensive as Gavin's!
2:26 Gavin seems extra throaty. Get that man some Ludens and Throat Coat!
2:27 "Free or substantially reduced cost." TechConnect...hmmm...sounds familiar. Are techies like the homeless now? We practically are!
2:28 "Target low income communities." Like the test programs in the Marina and Castro, where children go to bed hungry every night?
2:29 Content? Narrative? Sites of importance and interest to the people of San Francisco? Hope he's talking about SFist...
2:30 Big telecoms, "Bring it on!" Way to take talking points from Bush via Kerry, Gavin. Very DLC of you.
2:31 "We don't have details yet, the devil is in the details, but we have a vision, and we have goals. And we have goals established with deadlines, so that means that this is going to happen...within the next few months." "We're gonna need to find a partner or write a big check." Ambitious, yet incredibly vague. He is a consummate politician, after all.
2:32 "Cities competing against cities." Really?
2:33 Wow, thinly veiled attack on Comcast and SBC. "Even the cable industry, in the last decade, they've made promises...this will create a competitive environment."
2:33 Susan Leal taking the stand for the PUC. Gavin leaves to rather indifferent applause.
2:34 Tommiano gets credit from Susan for kicking things off with the PUC.
2:36 "We're looking for those brightest ideas." Sounds like Google.
2:36 We're getting beat by those damn Japanese again! Who won the war!
2:37 Chris from the Office of Telecommunications. Shouts out the Library vendor, Feeva.
2:38 Tech spechs: "Anytime, anywhere."
2:39 Once again...a lot of "Affordable, if not free." "Affordable," "low cost," are getting hammered, but the "free" keeps getting qualified.
2:39 Throughput, scalable, doesn't want to deal with obsolescence. Hmmm. Planned obsolescence is kind of the tech sector's forte.
2:40 Amy from marketing at One Economy...a national organization, committed, nationwide, by reaching out to communities."
2:41 Woah, what's this "relevant content?" Sounds like f**king advertising to us.
2:43 Gavin's back. "We're second most wired...we got it backwards, I want to be the most unwired city in the state." Um, not sure that's entirely correct. We thought we were most wired, and second most unwired already...
2:44 Petra Chavez, founder of a school of technology for recent immigrant women. Web design, computer repair -- awesome! From cleaning houses to starting a business fixing computers...
2:45 Man, it's hard to snark on sincere old ladies.
2:46 Gavin's interviewing Angie, who's 17. He's officially 'on' now.
2:47 Angie is adorable. She's a 'digital connector.'
2:47 [laughs]. It's the Gavin show! Starring Gavin!
2:48 But now, a serious tone. Oooooh, questions!
2:49 Uh oh, numbers. The press knows how to trip him up.
2:49 "We've got problems with a lot of things in city government." The dreaded San Francisco public-private partnership rears it's ugly head...
2:50 Referrenced Friedman's "The World is Flat." Touche.
2:52 The pink tie is clashing with his complexion.
2:52 "Leal says stand up or stand out of the way" to private companies.
2:53 "If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen here in the San Francisco Bay Area." Sing it, Gavin.
2:54 Loves what Mayor Street is doing. Smaller communities like Milpitas are really doing the right thing. "I want to take it to the next level."
2:55 Oooooh, the cellphone antenna debates. Those bring out the real tinfoil hat crowd!
2:56 90 days, 120 days. "I'll never use 100 days, that was Mayor Brown." Ooooooooh, snap!
And, we're out...