I think this is a good approach (whichever the location).<div><br></div><div>Hundreds of communities (at least) will apply, so those that seem to have their act together -- and offer a truly unique value proposition to Google -- probably stand a better chance.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best wishes, </div><div><br></div><div>Eric</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 5:23 PM, Steve Smith <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sas@lava3d.com">sas@lava3d.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div class="im">Tom Johnson wrote:<br>
> Hey, it can't hurt, can it?<br>
><br>
> Here's the site to nominate Santa Fe for Google largess:<br>
> <a href="http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/</a><br>
</div>Without volunteering to lead such an effort, I think it would be (even)<br>
better if those interested in bringing really good bandwidth to the SFe<br>
area were to get together and develop a good story about how/why this<br>
would matter to SFe and/or why/how SFe is either "unique" in it's<br>
need/value or how it is somehow "representative" such that a Google<br>
success here would lead to a template or model for lots of other regions<br>
similar to our own.<br>
<br>
What makes SFe unique? The sfX city ED contract suggests that SFe has a<br>
lot of underemployed creative talent that would be best served by our<br>
becoming a magnet for lots of distributed contract/project work.<br>
Entertainment and High Tech alike seem to thrive on high-bandwidth.<br>
High Bandwidth with Low Latency and High Reliability is a constraint,<br>
not a driver. If we have it, things will be possible that would not<br>
have been otherwise, but it is not as clear that having it will lead us<br>
to do any of these things spontaneously. sfX is one of the places that<br>
might help to demonstrate or explain some of this (if/as we become more<br>
successful). There is a bit of a chicken-egg problem. It is hard to<br>
demonstrate the things that come with high-bandwidth, low-latency,<br>
high-reliability networks if you don't have one.<br>
<br>
The First Mile initiative and others in the area are probably better<br>
equipped to establish the case than sfX is... but I think we can help to<br>
make their story more compelling.<br>
<br>
Maybe someone can do some demographic analysis? How many semi-isolated<br>
cities are there of Santa Fe's size? Are they all bursting with<br>
disaffected creatives just looking for a chance to exercise their work<br>
from afar? It seems like there is an argument in them thar numbers<br>
somewhere. Spokane WA, Eureka CA, Flagstaff AZ, St George UT,<br>
Fayetteville AR, Knoxville TN, East Bumfuddle NW, etc.<br>
<br>
Is our uniquely ancient city-plan/infrastructure and multi-cultural<br>
nature relevant? Does that make us someone worth helping because we<br>
"deserve" or "need" it, or does it make us a "good example" for other<br>
places with similar but different circumstances?<br>
<br>
Google uses numbers like 50K-500K people served by one of their<br>
installations. That suggests that regions of that scale (on the low<br>
end in my interest) are what SFe could become a template for?<br>
<br>
Google doesn't play pork-barrel games. If they choose us, it will be<br>
for a reason. Rather than try to guess their motivations and game<br>
them, maybe we should just try to do our own (self) analysis and try to<br>
see why we *would* be a good candidate for their largess, put it out<br>
there and see what comes of it.<br>
<br>
I think we might consider asking 1st-Mile to focus us on what we can<br>
contribute to an argument they may already have in their back pocket...<br>
<br>
- Steve<br>
<br>
--<br>
Los Alamos Visualization Associates<br>
LAVA-Synergy<br>
4200 W. Jemez rd<br>
Los Alamos, NM 87544<br>
<a href="http://www.lava3d.com" target="_blank">www.lava3d.com</a><br>
<a href="mailto:sas@lava3d.com">sas@lava3d.com</a><br>
505-920-0252<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><br>Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator<br>ARTS Lab<br>GC: 505-993-6884<br>office: 505-277-2253<br>cell: 505-227-1086<br><a href="http://artslab.unm.edu">http://artslab.unm.edu</a><br>
</div>