Three organizations that submitted a joint proposal for San Francisco’s TechConnect project released an audacious proposal today. Megacorporations IBM and Cisco, together with local nonprofit Seakay, issued a press release which included some more details of their bid for San Francisco, but also a pledge to move forward with their plan to create free municipal networks, regardless of whether they win the TechConnect bid.
The release is not available on their websites, but it is reproduced on Muniwireless.com, along with some commentary.
One interesting thing is that they seem to imply that there has been some pruning of the bids,
SF Metro Connect’s announcement follows upon their selection as a short-list finalist in San Francisco’s current bid for a municipal wireless network offering free and universal coverage. SF Metro Connect was interviewed by the City’s Tech Connect panel on Thursday, March 16th.There’s a lot to like in their proposal, and their focus on digital inclusion is refreshing. They also commit to real privacy protections, which is also a contrast to some of the other bidders.
The fly in the ointment here is, of course, money. It’s not immediately clear to me how they plan to pay for all this stuff. Their proposal seems to be some sort of a mix between donations and reselling access.
There’s a lot to sort through here (their proposal is over 1100 pages!), but they are making some very interesting proposals.