TOM FRIEDMAN introduces some thinking that sounds familiar and welcome:
Mr. Rasiej wants to see New York follow Philadelphia, which decided it wouldn’t wait for private companies to provide connectivity to all. Instead, Philly made it a city-led project – like sewers and electricity. The whole city will be a “hot zone,” where any resident anywhere with a computer, cellphone or P.D.A. will have cheap high-speed Wi-Fi access to the Internet.
Mr. Rasiej argues that we can’t trust the telecom companies to make sure that everyone is connected because new technologies, like free Internet telephony, threaten their business models. “We can’t trust the traditional politicians to be the engines of change for how people connect to their government and each other,” he said. By the way, he added, “If New York City goes wireless, the whole country goes wireless.”
Mr. Rasiej is also promoting civic photo-blogging – having people use their cellphones to take pictures of potholes or crime, and then, using Google maps, e-mailing the pictures and precise locations to City Hall. . . .
“One elected official by himself can’t solve the problems of eight million people,” Mr. Rasiej argued, “but eight million people networked together can solve one city’s problems. They can spot and offer solutions better and faster than any bureaucrat. … The party that stakes out this new frontier will be the majority party in the 21st century. And the Democrats better understand something – their base right now is the most disconnected from the network.”