Larry Brilliant, founder of AerZone and Cometa, will lead Google philanthopic foundation: Google's $1 billion charitable foundation will tackle poverty, the environment, and energy issues. I note Brilliant's appointment because while a medical expert with a smallpox specialty, he's been involved in two of the most significant early Wi-Fi networks.
AerZone, a division of SoftNet, had contracts signed with several airlines by late 2000, when the parent company abruptly halted operations before networks were launched. Capital had apparently dried up just before the true dotcom crash. Cometa, any regular reader of this site knows, was an ambitious, probably overweening attempt to build the country's largest hotspot network of premium venues but suffered from numerous execution errors. The USA Today article linked to above provides the wrong shutdown date; it was May 2004, not 2003. AerZone was ahead of its time; Cometa, in some ways, behind it. (The article also repeats that AT&T, Intel, and IBM created Cometa as a joint venture. In fact, each firm made investments of cash or services, while two VCs provided other money.)
Brilliant left Cometa long before its shutdown because he felt he couldn't act as CEO and be on call for virus outbreaks. His new job melds the two roles. Brilliant may have faced business model criticism in the Wi-Fi world, but he should receive (and has received) international praise for his roles in improving the health of impoverished people. In his role at Google.org, I expect a repeat of the Seva Foundation--this article says the foundation estimates 2 million people had their eyesight restored via its programs--rather than Cometa.