NOthingyoumissed

Hey New Orleans people. It seems like Google wants to get into the fiber-optic game. According to their blog (thanks Mike for the tip) Google is looking to invest in a community by laying down some fiber!

So now until March 26th they’re putting out a Request for Information for people to nominate their communities. You know what I want you to do? That’s right, go here and nominate New Orleans.

Here are the reasons I gave:

1. We desperately need an influx of new ideas.
2. In a depression, we’re undergoing a technology boom. Seriously. Everyone that comes down here and checks us out leaves impressed. We were the cover story of Entrepreneur magazine, had articles in the NYT and a half dozen other places. We’ve hosted Microsoft employees who were impressed enough to proclaim that Austin has nothing on us.
3. And we’ve done that on a practically inexistent tech foundation.
4. Did I mention Microsoft? They’re doing all sort of nice things for us. TechEd 2010 will be here. Doesn’t Google to get in on the ground floor?
5. We just elected a new mayor who understands the potential of being a tech hub.
6. In the near future there will be a project to fix up a large part of the city’s sewer system, it will be a lot easier to lay down fiber alongside.
7. We need cheap, high-speed internet in our schools. What we have now is pathetic and is not helping the already resources-strapped system one bit.

I could have gone on but 1000 character limit…

They also ask for evidence. There’s only one link per nomination and I gave them this excellent post from Taylor Davidson cataloging the NOLA start-up scene.

So what are you waiting for? Go go go!

Google’s site about the project