During the June 27 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, the town's information technology director announced the details of a wireless pilot project, basically saying a bunch of public wi-fi was coming our way. This was a great moment that many citizens and Town Council members have been working hard for: open Internet connections that all businesses, residents and guests of Chapel Hill can use.

I discovered the proposal online a week or so before it was presented to the council. The Internet is great for this kind of research. While looking at a map of potential town wi-fi hotspots I discovered they weren't in the most convenient places. As a matter of fact, three of the five proposed spots (A, B, and D) are parking lots. This led me to write a post on OrangePolitics.org, the local political blog, called "Chapel Hill Wi-Fi Pilot needs different Hotspots." I even created a video, which I put online, that shows the physical locations of the proposed wireless hotspots.

After describing the locations and suggesting new ones, I went to the council meeting to speak. I was betting that most of the council members and even the mayor had read my blog post on Orange Politics. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the many thoughtful questions council members asked about the wireless pilot. I can't take all the credit because some of these questions where pretty obvious, especially if you've been following wi-fi in Chapel Hill.

Ultimately council member Cam Hill brought up the idea of putting one of these proposed wireless hot spots at the Hargraves Community Center. This was quite appropriate because of the original directive to investigate town wireless given by former council member Edith Wiggins. She believed that if wireless were going to be provided anywhere in Chapel Hill it should also include the Pine Knolls and Northside neighborhoods. So having at least one wireless hot spot in a public place where people can hang out was a good step. The town IT director agreed, and it appears we had some improvement in the plan. But what about all the other spots that didn't have usable areas?

Just because a wireless radio is in one spot doesn't mean its signal can't be spread around. So the hope is places near them will be local restaurants, parks, cafes and people's homes. Yet nowhere in the town IT director's presentation did it discuss how real people would use town wireless. It appeared the entire proposal was designed around technical and legal considerations only.

As a technologist myself I realize how important this is. But as a person who spends time online I couldn't understand why I'd use wifi in a parking lot.

This concern brought me to write another post on Orange Politics called "Where is the wi-fi?" During the same town meeting I mentioned above, another council member asked, "How will citizens know where the wi-fi is?" The mayor asked the IT director to work with the town's public information officer. A great first step. But is that enough?

My suggestions were to mark the wi-fi locations with signs, plot all the wi-fi hot spots on a map, and to hold events at the wi-fi locations to publicize them. That last suggestion is what this column is really about.

On Sept. 1, or when the new pilot goes live, I will plot their locations on a Google map at www.chapelhillwireless.org. Then I will publicly announce on Orange Politics a series of Wireless Tailgate Parties. Each day we'll be at different Chapel Hill Wireless hot spot. Bring your folding chair, a fully charged laptop, food, drinks, a video camera, wi-fi phone, or whatever. If you don't have a laptop don't worry. We'll share.

The goal is to tell everyone where these new public wireless hot spots are, find out if they work, and discover if they'll serve real people. So stay tuned and let's party together with Chapel Hill wi-fi. Wireless for people before parking meters!