The Insider Archive
Google Fiber Coming to Philadelphia?
Innovation Matters, Volume 3, Issue 3 - March 31, 2010
On Friday, March 26th Philadelphia became one of more than 1,100 communities from across the United States who responded to Google's recent Request for Information on prospective locations for a Google Fiber Community Initiative for high-speed, broadband connectivity. The winning community will have access to Google's one gigabit per second network and will be a testing ground for a potentially transformative network offering Internet speeds over 100 times faster than normal. The City of Philadelphia's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Allan Frank submitted an application to Google on behalf of the city and has been working closely with local government, technology, entrepreneur and education leaders to gain wide support for this application.
Philadelphia's technology and entrepreneurial communities have embraced the Google initiative and have begun imagining the limitless possibilities of a Google-Philadelphia partnership. Gigabit Philly, led by Philadelphia city government, Philly Startup Leaders and IndyHall, is a collaborative movement between city leaders, technology and creative professionals and regional individuals and organizations all seeking to make Philadelphia the world's first gigabit city. The group's website, gigabitphilly.com, has become a repository for passionate, creative people to submit ideas as to what they could achieve with the gigabit network. The group will select the winning idea next month and award the brains behind the idea with a cash prize of at least $10,000 to get the idea off the ground. To date organizations including Philly Startup Leaders, The University of the Arts Corzo Center for the Creative Economy, Councilman Bill Green, CTO Allen Frank, Select Greater Philadelphia and numerous supportive community members have made donations to the prize pot.
"What Google fiber offers a creative community is the opportunity to collaborate with a number of different communities -- both near and far," says Neil Kleinman, Senior Fellow at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy and Professor, Multimedia and Communication and the University of the Arts. "Since it would make possible nearly 'real time' interaction, a musical group could combine musicians, dancers, and composers located in a number of places to produce a work that is seamless. Colleges and universities -- the University of the Arts or any one on the network -- would find that they could incorporate a master teacher into their curriculum without bringing them to campus in such a way that the students 'in the class' feel directly and instantly connected with the lecture, performance, or discussion."
With over 1,100 community submissions and more than 194,000 individuals nominating their communities Philadelphia is up against some tough competition. Regardless of whether Philadelphia is made a test site by Google, the city is already a winner because of the relationships being fostered, the community movement created and the new ideas being generated. Gigabit Philly's commitment to funding a new and innovative idea shows this community's relentless support of making new things happen in Philadelphia. Google has not made any announcements as to a date when winners or next round finalists will be notified, but anticipates the site will be chosen by the end of this year. While our city waits for word, there are still many active conversations to continue and many ways to join them.
To view the City of Philadelphia's submission to Google and other Google Fiber related information visit the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.
More information about Gigabit Philadelphia and access to the form to submit ideas to the group go to Gigabit Philly.