Muni Wifi at Minna
So Media Alliance managed to score Lawrence Lessig for a prezzo at the venerable tech-art speakeasy at 111 Minna. We bought soda and took it seriously, and checked out some of the phantasmagoric paintings by LA-based Mear (really -- imagine an immaculately conceived grafito-style, hip-hop tiger with a third eye resting on a robotic prosthetic under a bodi tree). Lessig was no less artistic in his own presentation, maybe employing the first sincerely interesting powerpoint accompananiment to a monologue we've ever seen.
It takes a rhetorical magician to pull of a prepared speech on intellectual property, innovation and internet infrastructure, match it to slides, and engage an audience (even for wonks like us). He started with three stories about innovative technologies initially opposed by AT&T, and compared it to the example of a market-neutral network like power mains -- there are few laws against what you can plug into a wall socket.
The slides and the speech were expertly timed, and the experience didn't sag on such heavy ideas (lightened by arrogant quips from AT&T executives throughout the ages). He loudly complained about arguments that to afford "infrastructure" development and investment, private companies were often given the incentive of a monopoly, or franchise agreement -- something that the nature of wireless can subvert. "AT&T didn't build the [radio wave] spectrum, nature did," quipped Lessig.
After the jump: communism intoned, denied; panelists speak out; what's up with TechConnect?
Lessig emphasized that infrastructure, like freeways (and rail, we'd like to point out), would be ludicrous projects as purely private undertakings, and cast doubt on the opinion that "If the market can't do it, the government shouldn't be involved at all." He invoked the spectre of communism, but only to make light of actual accusations of communism by none other than Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell and Bill Gates. "We're not communists," he addressed the crowd. Sigh. Speak for yourself, Larry.
The panelists included a number of organizers in the field, from folks installing systems in smaller communities to a bilingual tech educator on the plight across the digital divide and a rep from Gavin's TechConnect. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi made a surprise visit to let us know that "We're working very, very hard to municipalize all our utilities," and invoked the spectre of the Comcast deal. The moderator urged us to get drinks, so we had a cigarette and splurged on a martini. Hence, the following editorial digression:
While we've heard the rhetoric around community content, we can't help but think that in light of the accusations against Chris Daly for buttering up his base in the Rincon Hill deal, TechConnect is like Homeless Connect in that it similarly focuses money on non-profit organizations that happen to be outside of the Board of Supes purview. At the same time, Gavin seems very confident that his RFI will be implemented in all due haste -- finishing a project Tom Ammiano originally championed, with little public review -- and the rumors swirling around the City Hall water cooler is that the Google fix is in. What we want to know is, who owns the roof rights for 30 antennas a square mile, and why haven't we heard from the tinfoil hat contingent?
Still, it's no state-wide ban, but we wouldn't put it past the Governator from Hollywood.