Stand up for Google tomorrow -- and why Durham's a stand-out candidate

A reminder, in case you haven't heard: tomorrow (Thu.) is the time to stand up and be counted in showing your support for bringing Google to the Bull City.

Google Day at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) is the day for Durhamites to come out wearing their Google colors (wear a primary-color or black top) and tell the Internet giant that Durham is the right place for their fiber optic network investment.

The organizers ask that you begin arriving at 11am; you'll be organized by shirt color into the right bins to spell out "We Want Google" on the field of the DBAP. An aerial photo will capture the moment, as will TV news choppers from WRAL and WTVD, we hear. The crew will have you organized on-field by 11:45, with the photo snap at noon sharp. 

Mobile food vendors will be there too so you can grab some lunch after the shoot. Plan to use the Jackie Robinson and Blackwell entrance to the park tomorrow. The weather shows a beautiful, nearly 70-degree day tomorrow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's great to see the community support so strong for this effort -- and turn out tomorrow to help make it stronger!

Besides my occasional advocacy for the project here at BCR (or perhaps become of it), I've gotten intertwined in the effort from an active-participant vantage perspective as well, working on one of the sub-teams that's describing community assets and ways in which Durham is the right community of innovators to make great use of the network.

Through the process, I have to say, I've been marvelously impressed by just how well the community -- and community leaders -- have come together.

We're not done yet. But what's been accomplished so far has been nothing short of amazing, to this observer's view.

Not every community has been so fortunate.

In some communities, to hear tell, there've been turf-wars between elected officials, paid PR teams, bloggers and community voices over just who speaks for their city, and about the overall direction of the effort.

That's not something we've faced in Durham.

Shortly after Google's announcement went out, City Hall was already looking into it. The Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce also got involved.

And -- entirely through the connections in the community, and effective communication between its leaders -- people piled into the veritable Google bus.

A kick-off meeting took place the following week. Municipal leadership, leaders of start-up companies, university representatives, an elected official, citizens, staff from Durham companies and non-profits, advocacy groups like Downtown Durham Inc. and the DCVB -- all in the room, all there to talk about a common need and interest.

And very quickly, and without any leader-and-follower shenanigans, the team got down to work, dividing into sub-teams to tackle a very big application with a very big response: Durham's the right place for Google Fiber.

It should be obvious from reading BCR how proud I am to be a Durhamite. The behind-the-scenes process of how the Durham application has come together has made me even prouder.

As someone who throws the occasional blogger barb towards City Hall, I've learned in the past few weeks that if you want to know why Durham's becoming a better and better place to live and work, Wanda Page and Ted Voorhees (two of our three deputy city managers) are two of those reasons.

Similarly, Casey Steinbacher at the Chamber has been a great advocate for the process, doing what the Chamber's new mission is: connecting people to people, organizations to organizations, facilitating a large effort in a way that has made a "leaderless" group amazingly effective.

And the community organizing and publicity efforts that the DCVB's Sam Poley and his team have led have been nothing short of amazing.

To say nothing of community organizations -- everyone from RTP companies, to local schools and colleges, to downtown stalwarts like McKinney, to very passionate groups like the Durham County Library and the Museum of Life & Science -- who've stood up with great ideas and great feedback.

But don't think for a second that any of this has a formal steering committee with a chair, vice-chair and bylaws.

Innovation and energy don't always happen in a structured, hierarchical way. In fact, they rarely do.

And, ultimately, the things that have made me proud of Durham's efforts in the Google discussions come down to the reasons why I think we're an insanely great choice for Google Fiber.

We're a creative, self-motivated community. We've got people with big ideas that like to give back. We're a diverse representation of America, and of cultures and people from throughout the world. And there's few small cities with the brainpower, entrepreneurial bent, and energy that the Bull City has.

To say nothing of an embarrassment of corporate, non-profit, educational, medical and community riches.

It's why we're a great place to live, and why great things happen here. 

Come out tomorrow to the DBAP and add your face to the reasons why we're such a great place.

Reminder: there's more you can and should do to support the effort:

• Join the Facebook group (currently 2,200+ fans)
• Post to Twitter about our efforts using the hash tag #hifiberdurham
• Submit an idea on the HiFiber Durham web site or vote for an idea about how to use Google Fiber
• Nominate Durham individually for the network (perhaps the most important action you can take other than sharing this information with a friend).

Comments

[Skeptic]

Why are we dying for a corporate giant to provide a public good? Does nobody have a problem with this begging for scraps from the table?

[FWIW]

@skeptic: Uh, not really, no.

I think it's pretty cool, and am thankful to those in the community who are devoting their time and energy to this effort.

[Will]

Great post Kevin. I echo what you've said and would add that while some cities across the country have been grabbing media attention through outrageous stunts like changing the names of their towns to Google or having a mayor jump in an icy lake (really not sure how that relates) Durham has gone about our effort just as you've said, in a community-civic-corporate grassroots way that shows Durham is already a good fit for Google.

Now to find a shirt to wear for tomorrow....

[The WidowMaker, maker]

My Pitch to Google:
Since Durham is home to the fastest toboggan-sled ever built (The Widow-Maker) it only seems fitting that it should have the fastest network ever built... then I sent them the link.

[Myers Sugg]

I don't mind begging if there is no political will to do this publicly (and perhaps that isn't a good idea anyway) or privately otherwise. Verizon and its fiber product (FIOS) abandoned Durham with its soon to close "sale" to under capitalized, and unsophisticated telcom, "Frontier Communications." Time Warner, I just don't know. Seems to me that technology and lack of investment by TW, will keep their speeds slow comparatively. I know some talk about wireless connectivity, but I'm just not convinced of decent speeds, and reliability. So, why not Google? It's my understanding that if they do what they say they will do, that this will be a fee for service venture. It's not like we are begging them as much, if we are willing to pay to participate. It's just that they seem (on the surface) to be willing to make the investment, when others won't or can't.

Myers Sugg

[Myers Sugg]

I should have said, "It's not like we are begging for charity, if we are willing to pay to participate."

[Leigh]

hell yeah I'll beg if I get a lightning fast Internet connection and finally get a viable alternative to the evil Time Warner Cable. Any economic stimulus for the local economy is just gravy.

[Matt Drew]

@Myers Sugg: the technology exists for Time Warner to provide much higher speeds (DOCSIS 3). They just don't, because they have a de-facto monopoly on cable and cable-based internet access in North Carolina, which means they have zero incentive to increase service or lower prices. That's because of the restrictions on competition that were put in place in the 70's, such as exclusive cable franchises, and the lack of real competitiveness of DSL technologies.

This is precisely the kind of private infrastructure competition that we should have had for decades, and it's an excellent start to getting our broadband providers back on track to improving service and lowering costs instead of jacking our rates every year.