I’ve been pretty delinquent at updating any news about San Francisco’s TechConnect initiative.

The current situation is this: The city is negotiating with Earthlink for the actual network. Due largely to Kimo Crossman’s birddogging of the city on secrecy, the city is posting weekly updates on the progress of the negotiations, here.

Meanwhile, I’ve been told that Supervisor Jake McGoldrick introduced a motion to get the city to look into a city-owned network:

“Motion directing the Budget Analyst to conduct, on a priority basis, a fiscal feasibility analysis of a City-owned Wireless Network to promote digital inclusion by ensuring affordable internet access, affordable hardware, community-sensitive training and support, and relevant content to all San Franciscans, especially low-income and disadvantage residents.”

Perhaps most disappointingly, all indications from the Mayor are that the digital inclusion part of the Tech Connect project has been rolled into Gavin’s Project Connect umbrella, along with Homeless Connect and Youth Connect. It seems to me that modeling your efforts to increase internet access in underserved communities after efforts to provide services (and not housing!) for homeless folks before you’ve even created the network is an admission that the city is not serious about providing meaningful access to everyone.

Finally, the Tech Connect task force, of which I am a member, has been meeting monthly to discuss issues related to Digital Inclusion. As I suspected, the Task Force is largely window dressing. There have been some good discussions, but unfortunately, the task force is not permitted to make actual recommendations lest we fall afoul of the city’s conflict of interest laws. As you might imagine, this has something of a limiting effect on the discussions. That said, there has been some quality discussion, and I think it’s made the city a little more aware of some of the Digital Inclusion issues. Whether that makes a shred of difference in the negotiations is a whole other question, of course.

I’ll hopefully be returning to this topic over the next week with a more detailed criticism of the way the project is going as well as a report on the Tech Connect task force’s meeting with Google and Earthlink representatives.