Think Big, Topeka!

Maybe you haven’t noticed this as much as I have being that I didn’t grow up here – or maybe you’re more cognizant of it, but Topeka has a bit of an image problem. I’m not saying it’s based in anything real, but remember “perception dictates reality.” For example, back in our retail days, I often chatted with Topeka clients who were very happy to drive to Lawrence to get their Mac serviced, citing that coming to Lawrence was a treat and that they would enjoy dining in downtown. A suggestion in the opposite direction for Lawrencians usually results in sneers or a snooty comment.

What’s so bad about Topeka? I know there’s some neighborhoods that are a little less than pleasant. Save for our friends at Wolfe’s, there’s not a lot to their downtown area. You know I get a thrill out of regularly sending checks to the State. (Just kidding, guys, please don’t audit me.) Is it that it reeks of politicians? It’s Phelps, isn’t it?

Well, here’s something to get excited about in Topeka. There’s a movement growing – and it’s already bigger than anything similar from any other community – that if they meet their goal, Topeka will likely experience a renaissance of new business, new jobs, new economic growth, and all of the great stuff that comes with it. Put all that together and suddenly Topeka’s image problem goes away.

It stems from Google. The undisputed king of Internet Search likes to take their billions of dollars and do interesting things with it. Sometimes those projects are innovative, like Voice and Apps. Sometimes, they just take a common service and make it free or cheap, like Gmail.  Sometimes those things involve being like Microsoft.  If you’re feeling Morbidly Curious™, leave me a comment and I’ll share my Google vitriol.

Well, their latest project is at the heart of the aforementioned movement: Google is looking to pick a few communities in which to test rolling out their own fiber optic-based Internet service.  Now at this point you might be thinking “So what?  I already have a cable modem; it’s fast.”  Let me put some numbers on this, and it’s OK if the numbers are arbitrary or don’t make sense.  Compare them to one another based on what you know about using the Internet:

Back in the day, everyone was on dial-up modems, and they were typically 28 kbps.  Again, ignore the number for sec – just remember what dialup downloads were like.

More recently, we have cable modems or DSL, which typically top out around 6144 kbps (6mbps).  The math says that’s a whopping 219 times faster.  But more to the point, when you go from dial-up to a cable modem, you feel that speed difference – it is dramatic and going back to dial up speeds is almost painful.

The Google project is promising a gigabit.  Keeping the same units, that’s 1048576 kbps, or 170 times faster that your current cable or DSL.

Let that sink in for a minute.  Still not getting the big deal?  Think about all the cool things you could do on the Internet with your cable modem that you could NOT do with dial-up.  Now think about all things you might be able to do with a gigabit fiber connection that you can’t do now.

An obvious one that comes to mind for home use is downloading a full-length HD movie in less than 5 minutes.

But more to the point of this article, think about what innovative businesses can do with that bandwidth.  Now, imagine those businesses relocating from wherever they are now to Topeka to get that bandwidth.  Pair that with some of the country’s most reasonable housing costs: think of the jobs that creates.  Think of what those paychecks mean for the local businesses, services, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. in Topeka.  Think of what the added tax revenue means in the way of public works projects to improve schools, help beautify the city …

Think Big Topeka.

And that’s what they’re calling it.  A bunch of tech-savvy folks in Topeka saw the Google announcement, envisioned its potential, acted fast, and became the first organization to rally a community around the idea of asking Google to bring their new project here.  No, I wasn’t one of them, but I love the idea.  (You gotta figure some of those innovative companies will be Mac-based…. even if not, after it arrives I want to take a week or so and download the whole Internet.)

Helping the cause is painless.  First and foremost, petition Google to come to Topeka: you can do that here.  Then go over to thinkbigtopeka.com and follow their links to contact government officials, TV stations and basically get everyone on board.  Using Twitter?  Attach the #1G4Topeka hashtag to your tweets.  On Facebook, join their group.

Ultimately, it’s a real simple thing that could have a huge impact on a community that we can and should be proud of.

Posted by brian on Feb 25, 2010 in Uncategorized | 5 comments