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Dell: Carbon Neutral by 2008
Dell, the Round Rock, Texas computer company, announced today that it is moving up its scheduled date for the company to be carbon neutral, which means that Dell will offset all greenhouse gas-producing activities with other activities that help reduce greenhouse gases. Dell has been a leader in the PC industry for environmental initiatives, with an aggressive and free “take-back” policy for its computers and other equipment. “In terms of producer takeback, they have the best policy of any global electronics company, period,“ Robin Schneider, of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, told CNN last March. “They went from being a laggard to being a leader.“
City of Austin Community Technology Grants Program The City of Austin has relaunched its Grants for Technology Opportunities (GTOPs) program, which provides small grants to Austin nonrofit organizations working on “digital divide” issues, such as education, serving senior citizens, technology access to low-income residents, workforce development, etc. Applications for the grants, and more information on the program, are available on the City’s GTOPs Web site. The City’s Office of Telecommunications & Regulatory Affairs (TARA) is also looking for reviewers for the GTOPs program, people to be part of the selection committee that awards the grants. There is an application for that volunteer position on the same Web site, under “Application.“
Shared WiFi in San Francisco? The San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com features an article about how San Francisco’s citywide plan for free wireless Internet—currently on hold after contract negotiations broke down and Earthlink pulled out—could potentially adopt a sharing model like Spanish-based FON. FON is a company that promotes people sharing their WiFi networks with other “foneros,“ people who have signed up for the FON service and who also share their WiFi bandwidth, wherever it is. Alternatively, people who have WiFi hotspots can “bill” people for use of the Internet connection, through the FON network and the network’s supplied software. FON claims to have more than 450,000 users worldwide. The article mentions that sharing could be an alternative for San Francisco, and cites the example of AnchorFree in Sunnyvale, California, which promotes sharing among business customers. The author doesn’t mention that the Austin Wireless City Project was the original model for a community-wide free network, nor is the CU-WIN network in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, mentioned—CU-WIN pioneered the concept of a grassroots, community-based shared wireless network for an entire city.
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