Wireless Minneapolis Creating Virtual "Front Doors"

This fall, Minneapolis will be among the first major cities in the country to go completely wireless. The construction process has begun, starting in Downtown Minneapolis, and will be completed in six phases (Downtown, Midtown, Southwest, North, Northeast and South).

While it will be owned and managed by a private company, everyone in the community will benefit greatly when the wireless network is completed thanks to a strong community benefits agreement that the City of Minneapolis negotiated with US Internet.

One benefit is the ability to create community portals -- Web pages that are the "entry" points for folks who are logging onto the wireless network. Anyone who has a computer with wireless capabilities will be able to access these community portals, even if they are not a paid network subscriber.

The City of Minneapolis is in the process of developing the first set of these regional community portal pages for each of the six construction phases. A series of community meetings will give people the opportunity to learn more about the Wireless network and community portals, and to give feedback about what they would like to see included on their area portal pages.

Even if people cannot attend one of the planned community meetings, they can provide input into what kinds of civic information should be available on the regional community portals by completing an on-line survey.

The regional portal pages are just the first phase in a larger plan for the entire set of wireless network portals. The regional portals will serve as a framework that the city can use over time to provide Minneapolis neighborhoods and communities with a wireless network portal presence.

Here's more information on Wireless Minneapolis, and how you can stay informed of the process.