I just visited Pittsburgh, and they offer free wireless for up to two hours a day throughout the downtown area.

Last night at a gathering in Shaker Heights, I had opportunity to talk with Abulimen Alli, Director of IT in East Cleveland. I asked about the lull in the discussion of citywide wifi for Cleveland. Several months ago there had been quite a buzz around the possibility of wifi innovation that would make internet access free to affordable for the city’s low income residents. here Cleveland might soon become a truly 21st century town with commuters able to ride the RTA while surfing the net (rather than driving their cars to work). I asked Abu what had happened. He said that in East Cleveland they are on schedule with bringing the technology closer to street level. Norm Roulet writes about it here. Mayor Brewer, when asked what’s happening with One Cleveland (is it now called One Community?), suggested that what he is working on is One East Cleveland.

So this morning I went looking since I haven’t see anything in the Plain Dealer of late about this topic. Well, wouldn’t you know it; Lev Gonick was recently interviewed on Meet the Bloggers on the very topic (s). Meet the Bloggers with Lev at Midtown Brews .

Apparently Cuyahoga County Public Library’s director Sari Feldman is one of the most innovative thought leaders in this area – getting on board with technology including ebooks and audio.  Here’s a list of wifi hotspots in Greater Cleveland. Does anyone know where to access the best free wifi finder online?

I was referring to this post by Norm Roulet. I like this line:

"WiFi offers immediate economic development impact at many levels, bringing the IT savvy creative class out into the streets and to area businesses, on even the most dismal NEO evening, and making them appreciate the region as progressive and desirable. A smart regional WiFi strategy may have much greater impact bridging the digital divide for residents who cannot afford or gain access without concerted public initiative.

I also learned something about WiFi 'mesh' deployment from Jeff Buster's post, so thanks!

Pennsylvania passed legislation that, "allows existing municipal systems to continue to operate and provides local governments and authorities a one-year window to develop these networks. Municipalities that are providing telecommunications service through a municipally owned or created network as of January 1, 2006 can continue to offer" WiFi, and that included Philly. Read more here. 

I like what Norm at RealNeo has to say about the economic development impact of WiFi (follow link in Susan's comment). How goes their effort to bring free public access WiFi to East Cleveland? 

I'm sure Lev Gonick is up on this, but just in case (no pun intended) you're not...
It is not going quite as swimmingly as they had hoped in Pennsylvania. Check out the news here.

And here is an innovative way to thinking about distributing access via wireless community mesh on lightpoles.

Get your access now while it's affordable. Happy earning and learning online.

If you didn't make it to the Midtown Wednesday I-Open event with OneCleveland, you can read the notes here.

On a beautiful spring day like today, I wish Whiskey Island had wifi access. One could watch the tide lapping the shoreline --lift binoculars and try to imagine seeing wind turbines turning 14 miles out in Lake Erie from a restored Coastguard station. What a future we could have here in Northeast Ohio with a little know how.

Mark Ansboury, Chief Operating Officer, OneCleveland will discuss WiFi-ing Northeast Ohio and leveraging high-speed Internet access to drive economic development as the headliner at this Wednesday's I-Open event.

See event details here.