Silicon Prairie News – Last Call to Action

Silicon Prairie News accepted a guest submission from me about motivating the Omaha-Council Bluffs Area about Google Fiber. Please read the article and do some of what it suggests, like:

• Nominate us at the Google Fiber for communities page
• Become a Fan of this movement on Facebook
• Get as many people involved today and tomorrow as possible

We can do, but we only have two days left.

Interesting BringGoogleFibertoOmaha, Google, SiliconPrairie

• Be Active in the Community – Bring Google to Omaha

  Posted on March 2nd, 2010 admin 11463 commentshttp://www.assuredts.com/toppij/?p=1146Be+Active+in+the+Community+-+Bring+Google+to+Omaha2010-03-03+00%3A09%3A35admin

  I am still trying to raise awareness of Google’s Fiber Internet access roll-out project. However I am not getting the traction I wanted. If you want really High speed Internet Access, for all the good it will do for You, the Omaha-Metro Economy and The Omaha-Metro Community, then you should do something. Take Action, tell your friends, tell your family, call people in power… do something.
   
  Here is what I did, and what I think you should do: I called the Mayor’s Hotline, KPTM, WOWT, KETV, and The Omaha World Herald. I called the Mayor’s Hotline, because he is the big decision maker in town, and I contacted the news outlets because they can each reach all of Omaha rapidly.
  

  

  This place could use some Incredibly fast internet

  
  Here is all of their contact info:
  • The mayor’s hotline – (402) 444-5555
  • The Omaha World Herald – (402) 444-1000
  • KETV Channel 7 news – (402) 978-8954
  • WOWT Channel 6 news – (402) 346-6666
  • KPTM Channel 42 news – (402) 558-4282

   
  This is what I did, but see what creative ways you can alert everyone in Omaha to Google’s Fiber Internet access plans. Tell them about how this could create jobs, how it could bring Videos into the home in seconds, How it could make Husker Games available anywhere at anytime, How, with the help of the medical community, it can be used to save lives and How it can do things I haven’t thought of but you will.
   
  If you are talking to Google, this is also to their advantage. Since they already have an Office in Council Bluffs, they already have a staging point for planning. Since they want to service Internet Service Providers as well they can work with Cox and Qwest. They want Technically inclined home users and people to move away from dial-up, and we have plenty of people who want this and want to ditch their dial-up.
   
  Any questions, drop me line at toppij@gmail.com or give me a call 402-714-7539. I would like to involve all of Omaha and the surrounding communities so give it your best shot, and if you would like to help but don’t know how, talk to me and we will work it out.
   
  Also see my First post on bringing Google Fiber to Omaha and all my recent blog posts about Google Fiber in Omaha.

  Interesting BringGoogleFibertoOmaha, Community, Fiber, Google, Omaha

• Bring Google Fiber to Omaha

  Posted on February 12th, 2010 admin 11249 commentshttp://www.assuredts.com/toppij/?p=1124Bring+Google+Fiber+to+Omaha2010-02-12+20%3A04%3A38admin

  Google has some big news about Fiber Internet. They want to run Internet directly to homes and businesses at 1 Gigabit per second. Check out Google Fiber for Communities page and sign up for it now.
   
  To put this in perspective, let me use a plumbing analogy. Dialup at 56 Kilobits is like a leaky bathroom faucet, it let’s the data trickle through, at 1 drip per second. Cable or DSL at 5 Megabits is like turning the faucet on halfway and getting a stream equal to 42 drips per second. Google’s fiber would be like the spigot that fills your bathtub or waters your lawn at more than 4,200 Drips per second, more like a torrent than a collection of drips. (I guess a faucet -> Hose -> Hoover Dam analogy would have been more impressive, But I like accuracy.)
  

  

  Fiber is good for your diet and your Internet connection

  
  But why does that matter? Have you ever wanted to get that video off your home computer? Have you ever wanted to connect to your work PC from home, but couldn’t stand how slow it was? Have you tried email more than 1 or 2 pictures at a time? Have you ever, even for a second been sick of waiting for that progress? Have you ever waited for you medical records to be transfered to your specialist while waiting for answers on a life threatening ailment?
   
  Then imagine all the new things this change would bring. Did you like that new blockbuster movie, then head up to Netflix and download it in Hi-Def in just minutes. Have you ever wanted to download a 3d model of that house or that car to get a closer look before wasting your time with that real estate agent or car salesman?
   
  Economic benefits abound too! There will be more jobs making this new infrastructure, not to mention the Information Technology opportunities once the network is in place. Non-technical business will have incredible improvements too. Law enforcement could move mounds of evidence in seconds. Medical and Engineering information that would have taken days can now be put into expert hands in minutes. Imagine having all your information for anything just a moment away. Those are the simple benefits that we can easily see now, after this is rolled out we will find so many new uses for it that we could even imagine now.
   
  So I went to the Google Fiber for Communities page and I enrolled Omaha/La Vista with the answers listed below (and I filled out a bunch of simple questions honestly).
   
  Google asked why my community would be a good place for Google to bring Fiber service to, so I told them:

  Here in Omaha and it’s suburbs we have a disproportionate amount of IT Businesses like InfoUSA(La Vista/Omaha), Yahoo (La Vista), First Data (Omaha), Cosentry (Bellevue), Google (Council Bluffs) and many startups from individuals to Business incubators like the one University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) Houses. Combine the businesses with the technically inclined residency; it seems to me that everyone wants better internet service for their personal projects. All this should make for a receptive welcome.
   
  There are several other ISPs here including Cox and Qwest, and Qwest attempted Fiber roll-out with mixed success. With clout like Google’s, you may be able to arrange deals with these local ISPs to help with the ever expensive `last mile` and truly get the most out of the available technology. Since one of your goals is openness having these ISPs already in place provides an opportunity as a backbone provider.
   
  I will post this to my blog before the sun sets on Omaha, calling for the People of my Community to sign up for this as well.

   
  When asked about the quality of my Internet service I said:

  The quality of my current service is mediocre at best, It seems fast most of the time, but then as soon I have to download something or upload a real file it fails or becomes sluggish. Customer service could be better, for a simple move to a new apartment I was billed extra several times (for one move), and it took no less than 5 calls in total.

   
  Surely you can think of your own reasons that we need this, if for nothing else, sign up to bring more jobs to Omaha. If you cannot think of you own reasons copy and paste mine. But if your can, put your own reasons in, nothing is more convincing than earnest and heartfelt sincerity.
   
  Now hurry up! Sign up Omaha For google fiber now! If you know any political figures in town, get them involved. If done right this can be of enormous Personal, Community and Economic Benefit.
   
  Also see all my recent blog posts about Google Fiber in Omaha.
   
   
  I used the USGS Faucet dripping calculator to crunch these numbers, and I assumed that 1/2 ml = 1 drip = 60 Kilobit (Minor rounding was involved).

  Interesting BringGoogleFibertoOmaha, Google, Omaha