Interesting piece by Anthony Townsend on municipal wireless touching on some issues which are too important to ignore. For us here in the Netherlands the whole debate is pretty much moot seeing as we do not have any worthwhile wireless initiatives anywhere.
His focus on using the internet to enable local providers instead of providing an escape route from local use is a very valid one. Used correctly concentrating content providers and other services around the locality of a single access point can be a very empowering thing for that local community.
What is needed to realize this is just a tiny dash of vision.
More interestingly the internet of things as recently envisioned by Bruce Sterling can really meld the real world with the virtual and revolutionize the way we live. The vision that when all objects are spimes, wireless is everywhere and systems are intelligent enough makes me think about gift economies (again).
