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City Of Houston To Offer Free Email To Residents
Don Symes writes: "The City of Houston is getting ready to roll out 'free' email and web-hosted word processing. First to libraries and fire stations(!?), poorer areas, then to those who can afford ISPs."
It would be interesting to compare the cost of Internet Access Technologies' multi-million dollar contract with private ISP access, especially for the dozen other cities considering similar deals.
No wonder. If you're only giving them 1000 access points (PCs) for the whole of Houston then no wonder they'll have to queue for or even book their internet access. What good is a free email account when you dont have easy access to it?
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
There is Hotmail, Yahoo and a ton of other free email services. Why spend tax payer money for another one? What is it going to offer that the other ones don't? You can have all the email accounts you can track, but you still need a computer to access them.
If they really want to make a different, why not provide vocational training for the disadvantaged so they can actually learn a skill to help them better themselves. Now, that would be money better spent.
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www.moneybythenumbers.com
An interesting question - hadn't occured to me. A new variation on the "Make money stuffing envelopes at home" scam could be the "Make money remailing spam" scam. Of course, this leads to the question of what proof of residency is going to be required to get an account? What stops spammers from just strolling in (or sending agents to do so) claiming to be "Carlos Moreno" ("Charlie Brown" for the Spanish-impaired) and asking for their free account.
...which they proceed to use to spam mercilessly until it's yanked (if it ever is) and they just stroll into a different library or fire station and claim to be "Dave Smith" and ask for their free account...
What kind of terms of service will the city impose and how bad does somebody have to screw up to lose their privileges, and how soon will the fight start over whether it's privilege or right?
Yet another important question. Can a spammer, who is a legitimate resident of Houston (or Hosuton) have their account revoked for ANY reason?
I still like the idea of widening Internet access with programs like this, but these are troubling questions that don't appear to have any easy answers.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
I noticed a small bit when RTFA:
"People who verify their residence will get a SimDesk account number to access the software, including word processing, and e-mail."
What precisely does "verify your residence" mean? My guess is that it means you will have to have a house, or an apartment, or some other solid place to live. People who are living out of a cardboard box need not apply. So although this is lowing the bar, certain people will still be denied access.
Despite that, this is a dramatic step in the right direction. Although some say that only a thousand access points is too few, remember that the majority of Houstonians won't be using the public terminals -- they have their own connections -- and they probably don't even go into the neighborhoods where these will be installed.
Anyhow, if people who can't afford the 'net are lined up to use these, that's a good sign to me. What I'd be most afraid of is that these people would simply have no interest in using them, either due to ignorance or because a particular library terminal is part of a gang's turf.
Just how will this change anything? There are already many free e-mail providers out there (e.g. Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, email.com,... etc.). If they're so concerned about bridging "the digital divide by making computers accessible to every Houstonian," wouldn't it be a better idea to get computers into these poor homes first, so they'll have a way to access the Internet without having to go to libraries, fire stations, or police stations every time they want to check their mail or do anything else? Houston could even provide the poorer areas with free (or discounted) Internet access, or they could use one of the few, but remaining Free Internet providers.
As a resident of Houston, it's actually a breath of fresh air to hear about forward thinking initiatives such as this. NO, this does not = free Internet access (as some readers have concluded) but this does give many of Houston's less fortunate (read poorer) citizens access to resources otherwise reserved for those who can afford a computer and regular Internet access. In my eyes, every step to elevate citizens beyond their financial boundaries, through the use of technology, is commendable.
On another note, Houston is also experimenting with electronic voting tablets. They've already invested millions and have held a mock election. I hope this is the beginning of a trend. When I was in SF for training a few months back, I couldn't help but notice the "Peace Love and Linux" symbols on every other sidewalk corner downtown. The perception of a Linux loving community is pretty cool and very forward thinking.
PRIME - Indivisible by anything but ME!
Houston's had free internet access in libraries for as long as I can remember. So what's so good about offering email? :)
The effort will (hopefully) involve an appropriately scaled public information campaign -- that's probably the only way to reach a good number of the city's residents who stand to benefit from email.
It's easy to say that the effort would work just as well if the promoted hotmail or yahoo, etc., but would that be appropriate? What if hotmail goes under (or gets hacked!) - as a Houston taxpayer, I don't want city employees providing free tech support for those services.
Now if the email is anything like the public works projects going on downtown, we're in big trouble (along the lines of 4,000 servers providing about 10 email accounts), but nevertheless, I think this is a good idea.Spam, we can just turn them on to Houston's spamgourmet
who's moderating the meta-moderators?
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/aug01/voice110
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