A year after Meraki, a startup with a grassroots model for blanketing an area with wi-fi signals, gained its first foothold in San Francisco, and ten months after the city’s first attempt with Earthlink collapsed, Mayor Gavin Newson is supporting Meraki’s model as a way to get wi-fi to a majority of San Franciscans.

When I spoke to Meraki last summer, their intention was to pay for the free wi-fi by putting an advertising bar in the browser of everyone who uses them to connect to the internets. I’ve never been able to find one of their signals, so I don’t know if they’re still doing that.

See my original post from July 2007 for an explanation of their scheme.