News Summary

Greetings from City Hall Plaza and, quite possibly, a short distance into the future.

This editorial is being conceived using the city's new free outdoor WiFi network that was unveiled last Thursday.

Sitting at an outdoor table near City Hall, a laptop with a WiFi card easily hooked up to the Internet.

Open a Web browser, pull down a tab, select HarborLink Networks and you're in.

The consortium responsible for the network, Partners in Wireless, has plans to spread this service from Clark State's Leffel Lane campus to Wittenberg University and beyond.

The idea, of course, is not to litter the WiFi corridor with editorial writers carrying laptops.

Partners in Wireless — Neighborhood Housing Partnership, HarborLink, AVETeC, Clark State, Wittenberg, CFA Networks, Center City Association, Springfield City Schools, the Turner Foundation, the city and Community Mercy Health Partners — are a savvy bunch. They have looked at the future of communication and seen that we soon will find a lot of uses for such a network. Phones, PDAs and things we haven't even heard about in the near future will make Dick Tracy's video phone look pretty lame.

Communications of all kinds are becoming untethered from any specific location.

More importantly, it puts Springfield in a 21st century frame.

While a WiFi network alone won't attract people and business to this area, it is one piece in place needed to make this an attractive community in this new century.