I’m a member of the Steering Committee advising Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez on his Wireless Miami-Dade initiative.
The Mayor’s office has been holding a series of (not that well publicized) focus group meetings on various topics.
Today’s three-hour meeting, set for 1:30pm, is on “Privacy and Security” issues, and I’ll be one of the lead-off speakers. If you’d like to attend, it’s taking place at the Stephen P. Clark Center, located at 111 N.W. 1st Street, Suite 2910, Conference Room 29-A.
The Stephen P. Clark Center, by the way, is very accessible by MetroRail: it’s the building in which the “Government Center” stop is located. To get to the 29th Floor, take the escalator down to the ground level, pass through security, then take the elevator bank on the right to the top floor. The meeting is open to the public, and covered by Florida’s rigorous Sunshine law, so you don’t even have to sign in in order to attend, despite what they’ll tell you at the front desk on the 29th floor.
Incidentally, the latest news from the staff is that they are now leaning towards a WiMax/Wifi hybrid system, sort of on the Portland model (but probably not free, rats), which given the size of the territory we’re talking about seems much more reasonable than wifi alone.
Please report on the meeting. I’m curious as to what kind of registration system & personal infromation will be required in order for citizens to use the system. Thanks!
Focus group meetings are an occasion in which people express concerns to the staff. What will actually happen likely won’t be clear until the RFP stage down the road….