New Book Expands Muni WiFi Discussion
Beyond Public Access
January 19, 2006, Oakland, CA - Based on months researching Philadelphia's municipal wireless initiative, a new book from columnist and business strategist Craig Settles shifts and expands the discussion about the business case for cities' muni WiFi efforts.
Beyond Public Access
Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless: Applying lessons from Philadelphia's WiFi story is a roadmap for using municipal wireless and mobile workforce applications to cut costs and run a better, more responsive government operation. Using a combination of narrative and directive, Mr. Settles tells how Philadelphia launched its citywide WiFi initiative, and gives readers a foundation for planning their own wide-scale wireless project.
The book advances the premise that cities, as multi-million and multi-billion dollar business operations, need to treat WiFi as their commercial counterparts do, and deploy it to improve cities' mobile workforce, office and asset management operations. The resulting cost reductions and productivity increases provide the ROI to drive social and economic development efforts, as well as defuse some of the negative political impact.
Those reading this book will discover that operationally, Philadelphia did many things right. Starting with consensus building and identifying key stakeholders to help write the business plan, Wireless Philadelphia worked at a pace and with a level of professionalism and thoroughness that city and county governments should emulate in their efforts.
Mr. Settles' book also makes the point that many cities are not aware of the incredible amount of work and coordination that is involved if they want to reach their goals. The WiFi network by itself has little value, even for public access, without the proper applications, content, constituent programs and marketing provided by the municipality.
Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless is published by Hudson House Publishing and retails for $39.95. The book is available from the publisher's Web site - www.hudsonhousepub.com/fgf. It will be available from Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and other retail sources in February.
Craig Settles, a columnist for Mobile Enterprise Magazine, is also President of Oakland, CA-based Successful.com. His services, workshops and books help organizations use Internet and wireless technology to increase revenues, reduce costs and improve business operations. Mr. Settles' blog provides on-going information and support for readers - http://roisforyou.blogspot.com.
For additional information, call 510-536-4522, or e-mail today.