Wooing the Google
The collaborative effort to pitch Troy for Google's community fiber project is pushing ahead. The effort now has a site: Troygle. And the city government has gotten involved with the planning process. [Troy Record] (There's been a Facebook page for a few weeks.)
The best quick argument we've seen for Troy's bid came from Lou in a comment:
1. Because of RPI, Troy has a sizable population of folks who'll come up with clever ways to weave all that bandwidth into their daily lives, and who'll have the skills to report on the effects in detail.
2. Because there's a sizable underprivileged population, Troy's a good lab for examining the public benefits of superior data infrastructure.
3. Troy's big enough, but not too big. Significant yet economical.
Saratoga County is apparently also looking to make a pitch. [Post-Star]
As you might imagine, the competition to win this project is fierce. Towns are using basketball crowds, flash mobs and mayors with shrinkage to attract attention. Topeka, Kansas even temporarily re-named itself... Google.
[FastCompany link via @dougbartow]
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Comments
Google just bought a company in Clifton Park. Might give Saratoga County a leg up.
... said Dave on Mar 11, 2010 at 6:14 PM | link
Where the hell is Albany in all this? I'm sure a case could be made, particularly with the population density downtown. Compared to Troy, less infrastructure costs to reach more people.
Or are we just happy enough waving around the "All America City" banners?
... said Heiee on Mar 12, 2010 at 9:51 AM | link
When I sent in my nomination, I included the entire capital district. We really are a perfect area for it. Glad to see Troy's going after it hard, and hope they take into account the entire region and give us all super awesome internets.
... said Slacker on Mar 12, 2010 at 11:14 AM | link
When I made the comment cited above, I didn't work for Google. Today I do. This is disclosure. I'm not involved in the Jesus Pipe project (my term). I work in video compression. Google's a big company.
But I live in downtown Troy, advocate for it as a private citizen naturally would, and stand by my arguments.
The important aspect, in my opinion, is an unselfconscious community that's rich enough to matter yet compact enough to measure.
LQ
... said Lou Quillio on Mar 15, 2010 at 11:30 PM | link