Here is video of ACLU directly asking Chris Vein how he will support Free Speech and address Privacy concerns on the SF TechConnect WiFi Project on May 30th in San Jose. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8EAMKQMLnRQ (5 mins) As was the case at the May 19th and previous city hearings, DTIS continues to refuse to agree to any baselines or engage in a public discussion of these issues - instead shrouding the discussion in the need to keep the negotiation secret and to get the Best Deal for the city - yet they will not say what the best deal is. He also advocate that the private firm must make money on the initiative - We are giving the company free access to all the city property like light poles and building tops. The company Earthlink/Google need to figure out how to make money with the conditions the city puts on the initiative - not the other way around. Plus 5 other vendors bid the project - if Earthlink/Google can't meet the demands then the city can go to these vendors. Nicky Ozer of ACLUNC then points out that there are other costs besides money here. There was no discussion of getting digital inclusion funding as has been the case in the Philly deal. It is funny that Chris mentions the 62 criteria used to judge the vendors because they refuse to released the detailed scoring of the proposals - only summary scores, and they refuse to provide the answers to the 15 oral interview questions. One of the reviewers was later quoted Also why can't we see a significant pilot of the technology before the contract is signed? We want to see real world how privacy, capacity, coverage, work before the city commits to this WiFi Franchise Monopoly. This is looking more and more like the ComCast deal - signed sealed delivered contract that the Supervisors are forced to approve without the public playing a part in the criteria of the deal.
-- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
