Greensboro Is Talking

Who would of thunk that we had 73812 telephone poles in Greensboro?

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Steketee Greiner Co. has released their latest tracking report on Community Google Fiber efforts from across the Nation. Greensboro moved up from #10 to #9. Asheville came in at #7. North Carolina is the only state with more then one city in top ten.

.pdf report here

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Derek Slater a policy analyst for Google, mentioned the possibilities on the Google Policy blog on July 23, 2008, of coalacing around the end user owning the last mile of our boudband infrastructure by asking the question: “What if you could own your Internet connection?”

He raised it again there on Nov 20, 2008 …this from that post:

The idea of customer-owned fiber may seem odd at first, but it is important to remember that many items that consumers buy today would have seemed very strange not long ago. Until the personal computer, a computer was something that only large companies owned. For decades, telephones were available only for lease, not for purchase. Fiber to the home could be the next technology that moves into the realm of consumer property.

While we certainly concede that there are many practical questions about this model’s viability and that this is not a panacea for America’s broadband challenges, we do hope the paper spurs further investigation and experimentation in broadband deployment. Our country needs as much creative thinking as it can get to determine how to deliver fast, open Internet access for everyone. Customer-owned fiber could be one piece of the puzzle.

The following video is a 5 min portion of a presentation he gave to The Association for Computing Machinery on the paper Tim Wu and he completed for the New American Foundation on “Homes with Tails”.

Complete video of the presentation or parts there of here.

You can watch the presentation given to the New American Foundation on the concept here.

Is this where Google is headed with their Fiber to Communities Experiment? If the largest capital layout for broadband deployment is in the last mile , it would seem that there would be value to a company pursuing going into the ISP business to explore business models that encourage property owners to invest some skin in the game.

I read somewhere (looking for the link) that adding fiber to ones home could potentially increase its resell value by up to $4,000…interesting when one starts to calculate the possible impact that that could have on our community tax base or a Real Estate Agents commission..

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Here’s your chance to help with Greensboro’s RFI application.  The city has provided the narrative portion of the application for folks to contribute/add/subtract.  Time is winding down so step in, see what’s there and add your golden nugget that will make Google want to come to Greensboro!

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Tom Lassiter does an outstanding job showing Google why Greensboro is the right choice.

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Community Brainstorming Session today, hope to see you there.

Where: Greensboro Public Library – Central Branch – 219 N. Church St.

When: Sunday, March 21, 2010 2:00pm-4:00pm

What: Informal gathering of community members pursuing ways that Greensboro can distinguish itself from others in the Google Fiber for Communities Initiative.

Who: Everyone is invited

Why: To provide additional opportunities for interested community members to meet and share ideas in support of Greensboro’s Google Application process. Thank you, again, to the Library for providing us a meeting location.

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Dale S, Frederick, MD asks Google:

“Do you expect financial incentives or committment from the host communities?”

Goggle Responds:

“No, we are not asking for any special privileges or incentives.”

Read More and ask your own questions with Google’s Q & A for Local Governments Moderator App

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From now until March 26th, we’re asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through the Request for Information (RFI).

If you are a local government official please send us any questions or requests for clarification using Google moderator. With Google moderator you can submit your questions and vote on others, we’ll answer common questions in our FAQ.

497 people have submitted 148 questions and cast 4,850 votes

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From the Site:

Our Funds Available and Historically Underutilized Business pages outline the opportunities that exist for you to apply for stimulus funded programs administered by the City. Opportunities will come in different forms depending on the need of the program – either through requests for proposals (RFPs), contracts, or grant applications. Funding is limited to nonprofits and businesses. Visit these pages frequently to learn about new opportunities.

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