The city of Madison’s efforts to host Google’s new high-speed Internet technology will be opened to public comment and contribution Thursday.
City Council declared its support last week for Google Fiber, the broadband Internet technology that could offer up to one gigabyte per second to communities found to be acceptable testing grounds.
This will be the first public meeting devoted entirely to the city’s application for the technology. City officials hope to harness some of the public’s enthusiasm and ideas so the application can be a truly community based initiative.
“The big thing is trying to figure out how to channel the excitement in the community,” Ald. Mark Clear, District 19, said. “That’s something that the city can’t really take the lead on, it’s a very grassroots thing.”
Clear added a stakeholders meeting was held Tuesday morning to begin to organize a more collaborative effort between various community agencies and institutions. Present at the meeting were representatives from the University of Wisconsin, Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Madison College and Downtown Madison Inc., among others.
Madison will submit an application by March 26 expressing the city’s interest in hosting the new technology. Clear said a YouTube channel will be created and city residents will be invited to submit videos showcasing how the city would be the perfect trial community for the technology.
UW Chief Information Officer and Vice Provost for Information Technology Ron Kraemer said the search for support should not end with city agencies and officials, but should extend to all Madison residents, especially UW students.
“We have tens of thousands of students living off campus, we want to ensure that there is better connectivity available to researchers, graduate students and those living off campus,” Kraemer said. “To give them the ability to work with high speed networks, day or night, wherever they work, would be a great benefit.”
The meeting to open up the conversation on the city’s application process will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at Olbrich Botanical Gardens on Atwood Avenue.
