By Rob White
Today I read an article in Government Technology e-Magazine about the newly selected cities that will join Kansas City metro area in getting the next round of Google Fiber… Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas! (The Google Perspective: Gigabit Internet in Local Government, May 28, 2013, by Colin Wood)
Though I am not really surprised that either city was selected – each has been recognized as an emerging tech center – I was surprised that the Google representative interviewed described that one of the leading reasons for selection was that local officials in each city “wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
According to Google Senior Communications Associate Jenna Wandres, “Provo, Austin and Kansas City are all locations with public demand for gigabit Internet, but they also have leaders with vision… and that’s what Google was looking for.
“If you look across those three markets, you’ll find that the main common denominator is that they’re all emerging tech hubs… They all have really strong startup scenes, they have a plethora of entrepreneurs, people who have great ideas and have tech skills, at least the excitement to carry out those ideas and really develop this next generation of gigabit applications that we believe the future of the web will be founded on.”
The article goes on to describe how Austin and Provo had local champions that kept “pestering” Google. And the leadership example noted for the Kansas City effort included formation of a bi-state innovation team initiated by the two mayors after being selected.
Doesn’t this sound a lot like Davis? An emerging tech center that includes a nationally ranked university and an emerging startup “scene”. It does to me, and I think we need to do more to help external parties see us that way as well.
And which among us hasn’t said at one time or another, I sure could use a little better bandwidth? In fact, Yolo Leaders from each city, the county and community organizations just met in Winters last week to hear about broadband needs and opportunities. And I continue to hear from those in the AgTech sector about the need for broadband facilities in our more rural areas to serve the data needs of potential startups and farmers alike.
Regarding the need for more bandwidth, Wandres states “if you look at innovation of Web services right now, we’re kind of hitting the ceiling imposed by today’s Web speeds… Here at Google and [at] many other companies we’ve talked to, large and small, engineers have these great ideas for products that they want to deploy to customers, but Web speeds are just draining their ability to do that. We really believe that this is an investment in the future of the Web.”
After reading the article, I thought back to several of the conversations on the Vanguard over the last few weeks. It occurs to me that this is one of the primary reasons that the City of Davis identified the need for a Chief Innovation Officer. But it also clearly outlines that we as a city need to work together as a single voice, telling a cohesive story to gain these types of opportunities.
Admittedly, I am not an expert in this area. But I am now aware of at least some in the community of Davis that have some extensive knowledge, and I realize there are probably a few more at the university.
So, of course, I put in my call today to Ms. Wandres to see if I too can’t lead the Davis effort in a persistent pestering of Google. But I am also challenged that we in Davis need to look beyond Google Fiber and see down the road… see if there are opportunities that we haven’t yet imagined or might just now start to be discussed. Maybe it’s getting more involved with the new spectrums being discussed by the federal government to increase wireless broadband availability… like the efforts being discussed currently by the FCC.
Thoughts on this subject? Please let me know. And you if you want to be involved in the heavy lifting, plan to attend the next DSIDE meeting at the Davis Chamber offices on 3rd Street on June 13th at 8:30 am.
Hi Rob
Was there an application process and did Davis apply?
Here you go: [url]http://daviswiki.org/Google_Fiber_for_Communities[/url]
my view is that davis is on the trailing edge of high-tech. we want to think we are sophisticated and all, but we aren’t very tech savvy. i’d like to see a more concerted effort by the city to move into this century.
The insufficient bandwidth in Davis, with many areas having no better than DSL service, has repeatedly been identified as a local economic constraint. I’m pretty sure the BEDC recently listed it as one of the top 5 or 10 constraints, so I’m pleased to read the City is considering taking additional action on this front.
-Michael Bisch
SODA- I believe David has given you at least some of the info on our past efforts. I can say that our efforts now will be much more robust and I am confident that the City Council and leadership are willing and engaged in this endevour.
And thanks to Davis Progressive and Michael Bisch for additional comments of support.
Getting Google to deploy fiber out here would be nothing less than amazing. There is a lot of potential here that I can see. I would love to go to the planning meeting and volunteer some of my time to help bring Google Fiber here, but the meeting is during a work day for me.
Is there a website/Facebook/Twitter/some way of communicating the city’s efforts in this area specifically? The Vanguard is an excellent place for getting the info out there, but I’m afraid of missing something as I’m not a daily reader.