I have no idea who wrote this or where they got their information from, but it appears to be a paraphrasing of Glenn's recent article for the New York Times.

WiFi for the 21st Century:

Back in 2000 Adam Shand founded The Personal Telco Project, which he hoped would bring free Wi-Fi internet access to Portland, OR. Back then things seemed very simple, all you had to do was build some Wi-Fi antennas and develop software that would make the entire process affordable, then get everyone in the community to hook up these antennae and build the network, finally connect the entire network to form a free citywide network. Seemed simple, but there were a few hiccups. Some people wanted to share their own paid services over the free network which is a big legal no-no.

Also it was hard to get everyone or even enough people incorporated in the plan to actually install the antennae.

Now 6 years later after many smaller organizations seeking free Wi-Fi for their communities have disappeared, and the bigger organizations realizing there is more that

Thanks to a forum organized by Champaign Urbana Community Wireless Network in August of 2004, many of the still existing organizations got to meet for the first time and also got to speak with politicians and nonprofit groups looking to diversify media ownership. It is hopeful that with political influence things can move much quicker towards bringing the internet to entire communities for free.