Google picks KCK/KCMO for ultra fast fiber network

[kcjak]

On a side note, my partner works for a business on the MO side of 39th St between State Line and SW Tfwy.  He says yesterday a Google employee was going around to businesses on 39th, inviting them to a free small business meeting sponsored by Google where local small businesses would receive training on how to best leverage the new network.  Very cool.

[bahua]

Well the WSJ article is a bit misleading.  KC doesn't have 2900 tech companies, it has 2900 companies that have an IT shop or are a tech company.

As they say: Business runs on IT.

[NDTeve]

On a side note, my partner works for a business on the MO side of 39th St between State Line and SW Tfwy.  He says yesterday a Google employee was going around to businesses on 39th, inviting them to a free small business meeting sponsored by Google where local small businesses would receive training on how to best leverage the new network.  Very cool.

Hopefully will be a boon to grow even more. Exciting!

[KCJhawker]

On a side note, my partner works for a business on the MO side of 39th St between State Line and SW Tfwy.  He says yesterday a Google employee was going around to businesses on 39th, inviting them to a free small business meeting sponsored by Google where local small businesses would receive training on how to best leverage the new network.  Very cool.

http://www.kansascitygetonline.com/

[shinatoo]

As they say: Business runs on IT sales .

[ignatius]

Here's the original source that WSJ was referring to..

TechAmerica Foundation : Cybercities 2010 Press

One stat that stands out, looks like KC has highest % concentration of tech workers (per cap % of total employment) in the Midwest and most major cities in the US.  Heavy duty tech cities like Austin, Seattle, San Jose, Boston, etc would of course be higher but KC has higher % than Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, MSP and other large corp cities that I would think have more IT shops. Denver was only one notch above KC.

I always thought Raleigh Durham was more of a Tech City than KC yet KC has nearly twice as many tech employees.  RD probably has more true tech companies though (as opposed to non-tech biz with an IT shop, which KC probably has more of).

[mean]

Kinda hard to sell anything these days when your phone system is down, email is down, your Blackberry is on the fritz, your ecommerce web site is down, etc. Not impossible, but certainly hard.

[kboish]

cyborgs are attacking!

[kboish]

well...there was a spam bot post in here earlier, but i guess it got removed.

i posted this earlier, but apparently it was also removed. Google has an "official" blog about this project with some Q&A. Nothing groundbreaking in there but worth checking out.

[url]http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com//url]

[pash]

.

[AJoD]

I stopped in. Google did an incredible branding job, took over the whole space, color-coordinated down to the jelly beans, painted the walls, printed quality posters with local businesses all over the place, paid for Fresher than Fresh and The Good You for everyone. Really impressive from an event perspective. Content was geared toward small businesses without websites, so pretty introductory in some respects, but a good primer on AdWords, Places and Analytics. Lots of time for individual attention, though I didn't engage with any of those folks.

[pash]

.

[AJoD]

Should have posted this here a while ago, but kept forgetting. I'm helping to organize a large-scale ideation session about how Google Fiber can benefit area households. This is happening next Monday at the Central Library. We've got an impressive list of business, civic, and entrepreneurial leaders from the area coming to brainstorm on Monday, with the expected output at 500-600 ideas and 25 or so more refined concepts. Results will be "open-source" and published to the event website http://gigabitcity.smckc.com in early November. But there is a public reception at the library on Monday night where you can see an initial readout of the day's work and give your own input if you like.

There's a blurb here in The Pitch: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/buildin ... id=2636547
RSVP at the library website: http://www.kcpl.lib.mo.us/event/buildin ... er-roadmap
Press release: http://www.pitchengine.com/thebrainzoom ... ty/173549/

Hope to see some of you there!

[KCMax]

KC prepares for Google fiber: Group braintstorms ideas

Some examples of ideas brought up in a couple of those categories include:

- homes with sensors that will be able to identify security and fire risks and notify emergency personnel instantly online
- real time personal access to healthcare professionals via the web
- virtual mentoring programs for students and virtual job shadowing
- real time transportation applications such as live stream of routes and traffic solutions

[earthling]

KC prepares for Google fiber: Group braintstorms ideas

Some examples of ideas brought up in a couple of those categories include:

- homes with sensors that will be able to identify security and fire risks and notify emergency personnel instantly online
- real time personal access to healthcare professionals via the web
- virtual mentoring programs for students and virtual job shadowing
- real time transportation applications such as live stream of routes and traffic solutions

Those may be good ideas but can all be done with a 10Mbps connection. They don't need fiber.

[KCMax]

What about something like that parking notification system they have in San Fran?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/busin ... wpark.html

Could we use it somehow for our mass transit systems? The traffic grid?

Or is that not a good use of fiber either? For us non-techies, I guess its hard to know what exactly the Google investment means technologically. Anyone else have good ideas?

[FangKC]

Google brainstorming: KC Public Library could be data center for startup businesses

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... -city.html

[KCMax]

The New Capitals of High Speed Internet

The twin cities of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri will soon launch a high speed fiber network that is one hundred times speedier than what’s currently available. The cities see the network, which will be rolled out in early 2012, as an opportunity to boost their economies and draw in new business.

“There’s a hotbed of ideas flowing back and forth across this community. I think everyone sees it as an enabler,” says Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council, one of many groups brainstorming ways the network will change the region.

But Marcusse admits that the idea of such a fast Internet connection is mind-boggling. Leaping so many orders of magnitude is almost too futuristic for people to wrap their heads around. “It’s an interesting exercise because everybody seems to feel that it’s going to mean something very positive, but we’re still working on figuring out what that is,” Marcusse says.

[coreyo]

Google brainstorming: KC Public Library could be data center for startup businesses

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/p ... -city.html

Interesting brainstorming...but damn it's already damn cheap to use Amazon's cloud as a data center.

[justin8216]

This service is supposed to be avail 1st qtr 2012???? .... Has anyone seen google trucks around stringing up overhead fiber cable yet ... I sure haven't.