Air.u and whitespace wifi

(cross-posted from the Disruption Department Blog)

From the Verge.com yesterday I ran across a story about the Air.U coalition using whitespace on the wireless spectrum to cross large distances between wifi nodes.  I find this really exciting.

While the group is working first with universities, I’m looking forward to the work they might be able to do in urban and rural communities that lack large-scale access to broadband.  I feel the momentum is turing in our direction, with more and more groups investing in the technology to make large scale adoption of broadband internet in low-income communities possible.

I am committed to the belief that the internet is a civil right.  Students in low-income communities deserve to have access to the global educational community.  Students deserve to have their own playtime online.  They deserve to be able to learn how to create something online and share their cool work with others.

They also deserve to have teachers, now emboldened with the possibility their students have access at home, that can connect them to the world and the vast knowledge at their fingertips.

Cooperative Catalyst has been a voice of advocacy in the past, is stronger advocacy for community wifi something that people in the coop would be interested in working on with me?

Check out the story here.