So, you're a refugee from the wrong side of the digital divide...

...sitting in an unwired public library with your laptop or tablet, and it's getting close to closing time.  What are you going to do?

Well, if that public library is in Forest Park, Illinois and you're a cardholder, fear not, according to the Forest Park Review. 

Just check the Internet out and take it home with you.

I'll have to admit to some mild skepticism when I first came across this story, so I sauntered over to the library's website-and do you know what?  It's true.

No mention either in the story or on the website as to whether that 21-day checkout will include some kind of bandwidth limitation, and it'll be interesting to see if the question of whether the connection should be filtered comes up (they're lending the devices to patrons as young as 12).

All in all, an intriguing effort to say the least.  Hope it plays out well so more libraries pick up on it.

Two hours...and then what?

 
Kansas City Star:  Union Station Wi-Fi gets fiber backhaul, "courtesy" of Time Warner Cable.

Pardon me while I don't dance and shout at this news.  Read down a little further in the story and you'll see why:  If TWC's grubby hand is already in your pocket, you're welcome to all you can use.  Otherwise, it's two hours and then "see ya"-unless, of course, you've got room in that pocket for a nice grubby hand.

Gee, I'm sure that would have gone over nicely with everyone doing business down there had they been asked beforehand, which they probably weren't.  I mean, imagine being told something like "Unless your customers are already being divested of a nice chunk of their disposable income by Time Warner, we only see the need to give you two hours' worth of assistance in attracting and keeping them in hopes that you'll snag some of their disposable income."  Who'd have signed on with that?

Maybe someone ought to have asked Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes and Noble, the Mid-Continent Public Library and a host of other entities that used to "partner" with AT&T in a similar rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul fashion how well that worked out for them. 

Some folks just don't-or won't-learn from experience-either their own or someone else's.