It’s Courtastic!
When U.S. District Court summons D.C. residents for jury duty, it sends a letter with the potential juror’s number and a list of instructions. It also includes an enticement to show up: free Internet in the jurors lounge.
Last Thursday, four jurors attempted to wait out their civic duty online. But when they plugged in their laptops, they found the Web to be as accessible as a free lunch in the cafeteria. If potential jurors want to get online, they were told, they’d have to do it by way of a dial-up connection in a nearby room. No one jumped on the offer.
According to Nick Blend, director of the federal court’s IT department, the court had tried to contract out for installation of WiFi last year. But, Blend says, “it just turned out to be too much money.”
Sheldon Snook, a court spokesperson, says that the court’s “realistic” plans call for wireless service by spring. “We decided to handle it internally rather than go through an outside contractor,” he says. The court is hoping to make WiFi available in both the jurors lounge and the cafeteria. “It’s for the convenience of the jurors whose lives are dependent on the Internet,” Snook says.
2 Responses to “It’s Courtastic!”
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January 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Ummm… too much money? To offer wifi in a single room? If your average coffee shop can handle it, I would think that the U.S. District Court could scrape up $99 a month for a business class internet connection and a $50 wifi access point. And if it got too popular for one router, well damn, you could buy another one for another 50 bucks!
Who knows, maybe that would blow the bank. After all, they seem to think that $30 is adequate compensation for a lost day’s work.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Jamie, you got that right!