What made Charlotte a Google eCity for 2015?

Google announced Charlotte as the 2015 eCity of North Carolina. Why, and what does this mean? To begin with the award is for businesses being online, not residential users.

A little background: Google came out with the eCity Award three years ago to recognize the strongest online business community in each state, the “digital capitals of America”. Last year’s winner in North Carolina was Cornelius. To determine the award Google and an independent research firm, IPSOS, analyzed the online strength of local small businesses, including having a mobile friendly website, a blog, active on social networks, and/or being ecommerce oriented. Read the IPSOS methodology. The team researched nearly 13,000 small businesses in the US to determine this year’s winners.

Lilyn Hester, Google public affairs manager for the South East said “Charlotte’s small business community is on fire, making the most of digital tools, be they Google tools or others. I know that enthusiasm for the digital frontier inspires my friends at Google Fiber every day.” (Mary Ellen Player and Jess George of Google Fiber's Charlotte team were in attendance.)

Does this mean the honor was awarded in part because Charlotte has become a Google Fiber city, and this is a good marketing move on Google’s behalf? Perhaps. Was Kansas City an eCity? Check. Austin? Check. Salt Lake City? Check. All of these are Google Fiber cities. Regardless of any relationship between them we are thrilled Google Fiber selected Charlotte, and the eCity award is another strong endorsement of our community!

The award was presented on December 14 at Amelie’s French Bakery, and it was a photo op with Senator Thom Tillis and Mayor Jennifer Roberts in attendance. It was a surprise to see the Senator in Charlotte to present the award. He is known for being against net neutrality, while Google is committed to the principle of net neutrality. We hope the Senator's appearance is a positive sign of his interest and support of broadband in the state. If so, it couldn’t be more welcomed! Senator Tillis said the eCity award is a great way to recognize Charlotte’s leadership in tech and innovation.

After Mayor Roberts accepted the award and highlighted the value of Charlotte’s small business community, she introduced a tireless champion for entrepreneurship, Terry Cox. As readers know, Terry is both the President of BIG and co-founder of Charlotte Hearts Gigabit. Terry said “congratulations to Charlotte on showing the rest of the state how it’s done!” Terry went on to say that as an advocate for entrepreneurs, she works with large and small businesses, and has found that using digital tools quickly opens up vast new horizons, new partners and collaborators, new customers, new geographies, new ways to sell, and new ways to connect.

It was also good to see Kent Winrich, Director of the Fibrant municipal broadband network in Salisbury, in attendance. Fibrant became one of the first ISPs in the country to offer 10 Gigabit Internet service to all residents and businesses of Salisbury (read article).

We are thrilled that Charlotte was the recipient of the 2015 Google eCity Award, and can’t wait for Google Fiber deployment in the city.

Charlotte Showing of CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap

On December 1 Charlotte Hearts Gigabit was proud to promote the screening of the movie CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap. A summary can be viewed below:

The movie CODE exposes the dearth of female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gender gap and digital divide. The film highlights breakthrough efforts that are producing more diverse programmers and shows how this critical gap can be closed.

Pam Torres, SVP at Bank of America, joins Terry Cox in providing a few opening remarks.

Bank of America had a strong showing at the Epicenter, site of the movie screening, with over 70 employees in attendance. Pam Torres, SVP and Senior Business Executive of Technology, gave brief comments prior to the showing.

Special thanks to Paula Paul, who originated the idea of showing the movie, and worked hard to get it to Charlotte. Thank you Paula!

Attendees gather for the movie at the Epicenter.

Charlotte Hearts Gigabit is on the City of Charlotte Digital Inclusion Steering Committee. We believe that the benefits of being a Gigabit city are minimized where segments of society are under-represented. We need more women and minorities in computer science, filling the job opportunities coming about in the connected digital world. Please join us in supporting this effort. Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and email us (info@charlotteheartsgigabit.com) on how you'd like to work with us.

Summary Video from GigWOW Event

If you missed Charlotte's GigWOW event in September, Charlotte Information Strategists created the following highlights video:

GigWOW Highlights

GigWOW was an event where Charlotte leaders explained how high speed Internet will benefit our community, followed by live Gigabit Internet demonstrations from Skookum, Cardinal Solutions, and T1V.

Look for more GigWOW events in 2016. Would you like to participate in the next one? Contact us at info@charlotteheartsgigabit.com.

Google Fiber Making Progress on Huts

As the Charlotte Observer reported earlier this summer, Google Fiber construction has begun in Charlotte. One of the most active areas is Highland Creek, and one of our readers took photos of a nearby fiber hut which we are posting here.

Each fiber hut is approximately 11 feet wide, 26 feet long, and 9 feet high, and sits on property of about 1,400 square feet. Huts are located on city properties with no higher use, such as available space on wastewater treatment facilities, fire stations, cellphone towers and city maintenance facilities.

Google Fiber is leasing space for the huts from the city at $2/sq. ft. for a term of 20 years. It is projected the city will receive approximately $56,000 for each fiber hut over the course of the 20 years.

Each fiber hut can serve 20,000+ homes at a range of 30+ miles. There is no relationship between the hut location and a neighborhood’s place on Google’s activation schedule. As of 10/4/15 Google Fiber has filed permits for 14 huts – see list here.

If you are interested in Google Fiber you can check your address on this official site for Google Fiber in Charlotte. Signing up will also put you on their mailing list so you’ll be among the first to know when Google is coming to your area.

Have you seen a Google Fiber hut near your neighborhood? Send us your pictures!

GigWOW Experience Attracts Crowd in Charlotte

GigWOW audience - Image courtesy of T1V

Over 130 business leaders from across the Piedmont came to see what Gigabit Internet means at Charlotte’s first GigWOW Experience held on Sept. 17. DC74 Data Centers hosted the event and provided a Gigabit Internet connection. This connection enabled demo companies to show off their Gigabit apps, and for attendees to try out Gigabit speed for themselves. The theme of the event was: See the possibilities of what can be done with faster Internet. See it. Touch it. Experience it.

Charlotte CIO Jeff Stovall speaks at GigWOW

The event began with a keynote presentation from City of Charlotte CIO Jeff Stovall, who described the unbounded opportunities a Gigabit Internet platform will provide. He remarked “It isn’t just doing more on the Internet faster, but it’s about having a platform that can change the way you think. It’s about having a platform with the ability to move data with low latency.” Jeff went on to say that it’s not just data, it’s the ability to capture, process, and analyze data in seconds. “It’s interactivity”. Jeff admitted that “no one knows definitively how Gigabit Internet will lead to changes in Charlotte, but we know it will be exciting”. We couldn’t agree more!

AT&T and Time Warner Cable (TWC) representatives were present and updated the audience on their infrastructure upgrades in the region. AT&T GigaPower is available in some areas of Charlotte and Gastonia (check GigaPower availability here) and TWC is in the process of upgrading their network to Maxx speeds by the end of the year (see TWC details).

Next on the agenda was a panel of local business leaders discussing what a Gigabit Internet infrastructure means for Charlotte. Panelists were:

Mary Ellen Player - Google Fiber

Valerie Truesdale – CMS

Eric Freedman - Knight School at Queens

Fred Boucherie - Good Entertainment

Mary Ellen was quickly put on the spot to answer when Google Fiber will be available in Charlotte. With nearly 4000 miles of fiber to install, the construction efforts will take a long time. She said that while they are going as fast as they can, Charlotte is about a year away. Google Fiber chose Charlotte for a lot of reasons, including our fast growth and our efforts to transform our community. In Kansas City Google Fiber has witnessed a startup community that came out of nowhere, with a group of fiber homes KC Startup Village, and a startup commercialization program Digital Sandbox KC. Mary Ellen told us that Kansas City is now referred to as Silicon Prairie!

Valerie described the mission CMS created in 2012 to create the 21st Century Learning Environment. It was a high goal at the time as none of the schools were fully wireless, the teachers were nor given laptops, there was no guest network, and the school computers were running XP. Now the schools have wireless and every student in grades 5-9 have access to a Chromebook. “Digital Learning is a revolution” explained Valerie. In 2015 home Internet is “as essential as lights, water, and other basic utilities”. Increasing student engagement, and extending learning time beyond the school day are key CMS objectives.

Eric remarked that it’s one thing to consume access, but it’s another to be truly systems literate and have a deep understanding of the tools. Teaching students to code, design, tell stories, and understand value based criteria that are embedded into the architecture of the information system is key. “We are seeing an alignment of work, play, and learning” Eric explained, which is “dependent on high speed Internet”. Our opportunity is to turn technology on its head and playfully engage the general public. Creativity and experimentation paves the way for leveraging technologies like Gigabit Internet.

Fred described how the Internet not only has transformed the distribution side of the film business, but also on the production side since everything is file based. It is now possible to develop cloud based processes and IP workflows that could not be done before. The lack of latency and the increased speed of Gigabit is critical. “Our business has been transformed” said Fred. And it’s not just film, but online gaming as well. Gigabit “allows and enables a whole economy around game playing” remarked Fred. He compared high speed Internet with freeways, and how businesses will gravitate to the opportunity. And it doesn’t hurt in attracting talent to the area either!

Cardinal Solutions demos a Gigabit app at GigWOW on a T1V ThinkHub display.

The speaker panel was followed with Gigabit App demonstrations by:

·         David Callaghan of Sparks Ignite

·         Skookum (video of their presentation: https://youtu.be/gIYHz1QCuYg)

·         T1V (video of their presentation: https://youtu.be/Q3_yWhIdwmU and blog post: 4 Ways Gigabit Internet Will Transform Charlotte)

·         Cardinal Solutions

The event concluded with hands-on time for attendees, who ecstatically reported speeds of 300Mbps + on their phones! Representatives were on-hand from Salisbury’s Fibrant network, and from the Gaston Gigabit Committee.

Charlotte is fortunate to have two residential Gigabit service providers, Google Fiber and AT&T GigaPower, and a third residential ISP provider in TWC who provides 300Mbps Internet service. The high speed infrastructure will aid in Economic Development, Fostering Entrepreneurship, and Attracting Talent. The Charlotte Agenda reported “One person I spoke with at the event said his out-of-town friends are already talking about moving to Charlotte because it’s a Google Fiber city.” That’s what we want to hear!

((* Note: In order to achieve gigabit internet speeds you need to have a computer, modem, and AC wi-fi router that support the speed. We recently purchased a gigabit wif-fi router for less than $100 (TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router) and have been pleased with the results.))

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