MuniWireless

As US Internet rolls out the first phase of the city-wide network in Minneapolis, tech blogger Peter Fleck offers a 12-point program for turning ’sterile municipal wireless into something akin to community wireless.’As US Internet rolls out the first phase of the city-wide network in Minneapolis, tech blogger Peter Fleck sounds off on how to turn ’sterile municipal wireless into something akin to community wireless.’

Fleck is no stranger to strategies for building community around networks. When he’s not writing his own tech blog, he is the tech master for a community cancer center in Minneapolis. He has been following developments in his city’s proposed city-wide network for some time.

This week, he is sharing thoughts on things that US Internet, the service provider in Minneapolis, could do to enhance ongoing community support of the network even as problems with outages and intermittent signals are worked out in the difficult start-up phase of deployment. Fleck commends USIW for addressing coverage problems as complaints come in and for refunding monthly fees for customers affected by outages.

Beyond that, he suggests ways of turning these difficulties into opportunities to build long-term customer good-will and enhance the network’s value the the community. They’re great ideas that could apply anywhere.

Among other things, he suggests offering residents free accounts for a year “and we’ll help you troubleshoot problems,” a forthright blog in which company officials update citizens about the network and the company, and assisting residents in optimizing their home networks for Wi-Fi connectivity because “you will learn as much as we do and foster good will.”

Click here to read Peter’s recommendations.