Some quick clarifications on what you’ve reported thus far:

The New America Foundation (www.newamerica.net) and Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org) have been the lead organizers of the event we hosted yesterday in Philadelphia (not the Ethos Group). The report was a collaboration among New America Foundation, The Ethos Group (www.ethoswireless.com) and the Center for International Media Action (www.mediaactioncenter.org) and the New America Foundation is the lead organization, not Ethos.

Our event was scheduled well ahead of the announcement by the City Council that they would hold a public hearing (not vice-versa). Councilmember Rizzo invited us to move our event from the Philadelphia Ethical Society (where it was originally scheduled) to the City Hall council chambers, an invitation we accepted.

Contrary to Greg Goldman’s assertions and the Wireless Philadelphia press release, the report does not advocate for _public ownership_ of the Philadelphia Wireless Project. In fact, the report concludes that the City of Philadelphia may have been better served by following a _non-profit ownership_ (NGO) model as was originally proposed and supported by the local community (and has been proposed in Boston).

We did release the report ahead of time (though embargoed) to key stakeholders (including Wireless Philadelphia) and interested press — feel free to contact me directly if you’re ever interested an advanced copy of New America’s research. Meanwhile, you can download a copy of the report at:

http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/philadelphia_story

–Sascha Meinrath
Research Director
Wireless Future Program
New America Foundation