First the good news, then a story.

It's looking ever more likely that the near future will see the United States chasing other parts of the globe in creating large WiFi networks in metro areas where all comers can tap into high speed access to the Internet, very cheaply if not free of charge.

Google, for its part, is pushing things along by launching a "GoogleFi" network that covers Mountain View, California. The 11.5 square mile network will allow the plethora of start-ups dotting that area of Silicon Valley – from the funded to the mom's basement variety – to innovate and create and tinker and toil under the blanket of open and unwired Internet access. According to Niall Kennedy's Weblog, "Each WiFi user must have a Google Account and Google can pinpoint your location on the network based on your current access point."

Thomas Friedman contends in The World Is Flat that the movement toward free and open access to information, data, audio, video, etc. (downloading) and to publishing, communicating, collaborating, etc. (uploading) – both easily and freely from any number of remote points – provides one of the bases of a "flattening" effect. The flatter the world becomes, so the theory goes, the more people get to stomp onto the playing field, compelling everyone to strive toward ever higher standards of innovation.

The potential payoff of free, easy, and plentiful access to WiFi networks could be nothing less than stunning. There's the obvious: sipping a latte under a palm tree at your city park while checking your e-mail, IM-ing your pals in Rio, all while watching K-Fed and Britney on YouTube. There's the sort of obvious: a Blackberry and a laptop with WiFi access (and sometimes one out of the two) is on the verge of literally replacing the traditional office and transforming the way in which work tasks take place.

And then there's the avalanche of things we haven't thought of yet, such as cities learning how to leverage municipal WiFi with vehicle tracking. The more uses people and companies and government can glean from wireless networks, the more they will expand, benefiting all and compelling Friedman's flat world to create more, work more seamlessly, and collaborate better. All while sitting at the 50-yard line or getting your toenails painted mauve, if that's what does you fine.