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Honolulu Tops 2011 Digital Cities Survey
First time accepted submitter folsomfella writes "The 11th annual survey spotlights the municipalities that best show how information and communication technology are used to enhance public service. The top 10 cities are selected in four different population categories and judged on the criteria of enterprise applicability or impact across multiple program areas, measurable progress from the prior year, hard dollar savings or soft dollar benefits as a result of technology use, innovation and a demonstration of effective collaboration."
The top 10 cities are selected in four different population categories and judged on the criteria of enterprise applicability or impact across multiple program areas, measurable progress from the prior year, hard dollar savings or soft dollar benefits as a result of technology use, proximity to totally awesome waves, innovation and a demonstration of effective collaboration.
Well no wonder...
Then again, everyone I've ever known that's lived in Hawaii has said that it was ridiculous expensive to live there...
Ah, in the colonies....
Hawaii has a dearth of IT jobs. I left there for Seattle, never looked back.
Free wifi, free public healthcare, beaches, great weather... were it not for the hostility to outsiders, Hawaii would be heaven on Earth.
.... in the United States.
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
The organization that funded this survey is dedicated to promoting interaction between private business and government. So don't expect to see any cities with their own municipal broadband. Only cities with privately provided wifi are welcome.
...but not for regular residents. Been here since 2004. The free wifi hot spots are primarily concentrated in downtown, and a few other random spots. You can see the network map at http://p2.meraki.com/network/kokuawireless ; I wouldn't call this "municipal" wifi in the slightest, seeing as it doesn't really serve anyone except the businesses that have customers coming in or nearby.
In addition, our primary ISPs, Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom are only now offering speeds of 50 mbps down to residential customers, but only "up to" and only in limited service areas. Not exactly up to par with FIOS services available elsewhere.
They did it to handle all the birth certificate requests
Table-ized A.I.
The wireless system noted in TFA is nowhere near an island-wide service. Technically it's not even city-wide. Honolulu city limits stretches from Pearl Harbor to Oahu's eastern-most point (Makapu'u.) In most people's minds, the "city" is just a 5 mile stretch from the business district to the Waikiki/University area, if not just the business district area.
Either way, my experience with Kokua Wireless is only within the business district, maybe 5-7 city blocks. Walk to the state capitol or library just outside of this area, and you'll get no signal.
When I did see it pop up on my phone, half the time it didn't work. Some setup or administration error (It's been a while so I don't remember exactly.) And this was in locations where it did previously work; so to me it felt like it all worked initially years ago, but over time random partners didn't keep up maintenance of their parts of the system.
In recent months I've been seeing Cisco boxes springing up on traffic light poles, presumably support for the upcoming APEC Conference, I don't know if this is a now part of or to later be merged into the Kokua Wireless system. But even then, still far from city-wide based on where I've seen them.
I get better island-wide free WiFi from all the McDonald's and Starbucks locations we have.
I was born and raised in Hawaii, went from Molokai, to Maui, then to Oahu. Making money is hard there, technical opportunities exist, but they are hard to come by. So in 1999 I moved to Seattle where I got to work on a High Performance Linux cluster, was part in a startup aerospace company, and now find myself doing virtualization in a government entity.
Recently, a former coworker at the State of Hawaii asked me to go to Honolulu and help with a CentOS 3 to CentOS 5 migration, during that time he told about the furloughs they have to endure and how they lost federal funding for new equipment. I really felt bad for them, because they are good people.
If you don’t have to make money (rich, retired, or student), Hawaii is an awesome place to be. But now I just work single job and my wife is a stay at home mom which a far cry from when we both worked a full time job and I even had to take on a 2nd job to make ends meet.
Honalulu is unique in that it's very isolated and its distinct native population rather underprivileged, I'm not surprised that free city-wide wifi is provided and done well. However I wouldn't say it's a testament to their skills or benevolence as the distinction may suggest.
An example where a city has gone to great lengths to provide for their residents is the city that hosts the team with the longest waiting list for season tickets in all of professional sports in North America - the reigning NFL champs, the Green Bay Packers. They are by far the smallest city with an NFL team, and it's kept alive because only residents of Green Bay can own shares in the team, and you must own a share to get a season ticket, plus the NFL has a profit-sharing program that supports smaller markets.
In many other cities with free wifi, it's often insufficient and only serves to dissuade businesses from providing wifi to customers. It's always a drag trying to keep in touch in Saskatoon when I'm touring with my band, since the free wifi is only useable at 4AM and the venue doesn't provide wifi.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Am I the only one in HI who's never heard of Kokua Wireless? Is it such common knowledge that no one thought to tell me about it? :(