In a previous post we alluded that Google has changed the landscape of the Internet. That’s a massive understatement.
It’s not just their search engine, it’s the tools that they developed to improve the Internet for ‘user experience’. Sure, Google is an easy target, but on the whole, I think that their impact has largely been positive. Most of their improvements are about software to make the Internet run faster, but Google Fiber is a real-life hardware project that is drawing businesses to Kansas City, KS.
Fiber is much faster than traditional wires and in case the reason why speed is important is lost on you, you don’t want to pay developer (or anyone really) salary and have them bottle-necked at bandwidth speed. When you work with large files, or with large groups, there are large amounts of bandwidth used and it’s all going on the same network.
Fiber optics have been examined by several local governments in regards to economic development for attracting businesses. Success has varied, bandwidth is just part of the equation when it comes to Internet and software based businesses. If there isn’t an existing workforce there, your community needs to somehow convince skilled workers to move there. Now we are talking about schools, culture, nightlife, availability of other career and/or educational opportunities (!important)compared to other communities. These are the workers who are in demand, they have options.
So congratulations to Kansas City and the leaders who made this happen, because it’s not just about fiber.
