The Google/Earthlink Traveling Roadshow
For those of you following along at home with the proposed citywide wifi debacle (starting with the letter “A” for the ACLU), you may have noticed that *we still don’t have free citywide wifi*. Because um, like, wifi is like internet tubes but INVISIBLE and so it’s really easy to set them down in like the Sunset and forget where you put them… Seriously, it’s taking forever but for a lot of good reasons. Still, it looks like a crap deal — Earthlink will own the network, Google will offer the free service that will be slower than the N Judah at 5pm, and Earthlink will try to *sell* us better service. Um, yay.
But because Google is getting imaptient about all of our “concerns”, they’re teaming up with Earthlink to hold meetings all over San Francisco to win us over or something; 11 community meetings, one per supervisorial district. This way we can ask them important questions and they can give us ice cream so we’ll like them better. Kimo Crossman has some hard questions he’d like to ask, but I’m going to start with:
* Google — can I have a pony?
* If I make Sup. Jake McGoldrick to be nicer to you guys, can the Castro have better wifi than the Marina?
* If you make Google-logo’ed condoms, can I use them on Yahoo staff?
* If Earthlink owns the wifi network, do we all have to get audited before we can use Google again? Do we have to worry about Thetans reading our email? Will Tom Cruise enforce ‘silent downloading‘?
* If I get tired of using SafeSearch, can I just get my tubes tied?
* Hey Google — Scott Beale was *my* friend first. I can take him back at any time if I don’t get a pony.
The entire meeting schedule and locations are after the jump; we missed monday, but there are 10 more to go, starting tonight… In all seriousness, I think we should ask Google to win us over by feeding our homeless from their cafeteria, even if just for one day. (Scott Beale photo via Laughing Squid)
* * * * * * *
All meeting times are between 6pm and 8pm; info snarfed from Media Alliance.
Tuesday, October 3
Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church
32 Ocean Avenue (by Mission Street)
Wednesday, October 4
SE Community Facility Commission
1800 Oakdale Avenue (at Phelps Street)
Tuesday, October 17
Eugene Friend-SOMA Recreation Center
270 6th Street (between Howard and Folsom Street)
Thursday, October 19
Chinese Recreation Center
1199 Mason Street (at Washington Street)
Monday, October 30
Sunset Recreation Center
2201 Lawton Street (by 28th Avenue)
Thursday, November 2
Palega Recreation Center
500 Felton Street (at Holyoke Street )
Tuesday, November 14
Ella Hill Hutch Community Center
1050 McAllister Street (by Webster Street)
Wednesday, November 15
Helen Wills Clubhouse
Intersection of Broadway & Larkin
Monday, December 4
City Forest Lodge
254 Laguna Honda Boulevard (by Clarendon Avenue)
Wednesday, December 6
Richmond Recreation Center
251 18th Avenue (between California and Clement Streets)
Thursday, December 7
Glen Park Recreation Center
70 Elk Street (by O’Shaughnessy Blvd)
Mmmm, Yahoo’s staff.
> This way we can ask them important questions
> and they can give us ice cream so we’ll like
> them better.
What’s the point of this — that they shouldn’t hold meetings and simply accept the presumption that they don’t care about citizens’ concerns?
My personal feeling is that the Google/Earthlink deal is the best deal that the city will ever be proposed in the foreseeable future. This includes other potential commercial entities and definitely includes a theoretical system built by the city itself. And this is even more the case, given the amount of special interests trying to piggyback demands on the network and the resulting delays with no end in sight.
Of course, my presumption is that not every concern can be met. Not everyone’s fears will be quelled. The only system that will ever be implemented will be, by various necessities, a flawed system. And to hold out for the perfect or near-perfect is to hold out forever. And, in my eyes, then nobody wins.
Just my opinion. I guess time will tell…
If you make Google-logo’ed condoms, can I use them on Yahoo staff?
bahahahahahahaha