Leave it to community activists Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff to come up with ideas for D.C. while on vacation. After returning from a European vacation last week, Imhoff wrote in his introduction to DC Watch’s regular email newsletter about a surprising discovery the two had while on the Portuguese island of Madeira — the small island was totally covered by a public and free wireless internet system. A number of local municipalities have built similar systems in the U.S., with the largest example being Philadelphia’s citywide network, which is now in its planning stage. Private telecommunications companies have in a number of places acted to prevent governments from getting into the business of providing free (or subsidized) internet. The organization Free Press has more information about the political struggles and also a nice map of municipal broadband systems including wireless networks.

It seems in the week back in the city Imhoff has also done some research and he responds by pointing out in today’s newsletter that anyone — including a private organization or company — could provide the service. We’ve written about wireless before on a number of occasions: about the network at Dupont Circle, the Open Park Project‘s difficulties negotiating with the Smithsonian, and we even suggested to the Post the city should build such a system with their budget surplus. Public WiFi is not completely foreign to the region — the city of Alexandria’s system is apparently operating well after launching for several downtown areas last summer.

We think that a project designed to bring universal internet access the city combined with equipment, education and training for those who do not already have a computer could be a win-win situation for everyone involved: tech-savvy professionals could work anywhere and not worry about finding a hotspot out of the office, and every citizen could have equal access to the arena where increasingly our civic discussions and economic life is moving.