Reporters covering the goings on at California’s Capitol in Sacramento want a WiFi network installed in the building so they can go online to post timely blogs and articles at a moment’s notice.
The Capitol Correspondents Association of California said that they might be up for paying for up to half of the costs, so that the state doesn’t have to add to its huge deficit while providing adequate Internet access for reporting on things like… the deficit. If a penny of taxpayer money goes for Capitol Wi-Fi, it had better be open to all, not just state-accredited reporters.
Sacramento’s politicians use the Capitol police to keep critics from talking to the media inside the Capitol, but with Wi-Fi, sources and reporters will be able to get together on the spur of the moment. And online journalists can blog the shenanigans live, as they happen. If any of the Capitol’s bureaucrats oppose open Wi-Fi it’ll be because of this, not cost issues.