Tim Salo makes some very good points. Availability being one of them, I would like to make some points regarding that. I've not seen a figure for Minneapolis, but I have seen figures for North America saying that 68% of the population has Internet service, whatever that means. That means, I would assume, that 32% doesn't have Internet service.
The major question is, would they want it and use it if they had Internet service. I would contend that a very large proportion of them would not want it, for various reasons: 1. Those who work on computers all day at work who do not want to spend time with a computer when they get home. 2. Those with large families who are exhausted between work and family responsibility 3. People who have two, three or four jobs, and/or work double shifts because they need to have them to survive, or want to have them, to save money for something or pay bills. 4. People who spend the major part of their free time as care-givers to family members, friends or with charities. 5. People who have time consuming hobbies like hunting, fishing, playing or watching sports, carpentry, sewing, home improvements, pets, etc. 6. Serious alcoholics, drug addicts and criminals who spend much of their time in anti social behavior 7. People, mostly immigrants, mostly older, who can't read. 8 People who can't afford the WIFI apparatus, the seriously poor and homeless. 9. People who are television addicts 10.People who love to read books 11.Elderly and handicapped, who are living longer because of better medicine, an increasingly larger percentage of the society. But they are not necessarily living active lives. 12.People who can't read well or at all because of the lack of a good education. 13.People who are mentally deficient (IQ below 80 or so) 14.People who can't type well 15.Blind people who have not yet been accommodated by the computer industry. 16.People in religious communities or other institutions who are not allowed access to computers. Before Minneapolis decides to spend scads of money to provide universal Internet Service in the City, including the border areas where residents probably will be able to get it from adjacent communities, lots of discussion needs to be had. We are not a Mountain View or a Sunnyvale. Right now, I would vote for more Police and Community Service Officers than I would for municipal broadband. Ray Marshall Hiawatha ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 23:08:24 -0500 (CDT) From: "Timothy J. Salo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Mpls] Broadband Availability? Availability and affordability _are_ different. As Minneapolis and Saint Paul consider major investments in public Internet services, I believe that it is important to understand and agree on what problems are being solved. As far as I can tell, there are some for whom the objective is availability, (perhaps because they don't believe broadband services are available in low-income areas, as the previous e-mail seemed to suggest, or perhaps because they want citywide WiFi service, which isn't currently available), and there are others for whom the objective is lower price. It appears to me that there may not be a consensus on what problem citywide Internet service, wireless or otherwise, should solve. <snip> *********************************** REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
