NOLA Fiber

NOLA: Fat Pipes for the Silicon Valley of Ed Reform

tdomf_1c25d — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:47:23 +0000

I am part of an army of people making New Orleans the most significant hub of public school reform in the country:
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1659767,00.html

I moved here to help build this:
www.newschoolsforneworleans.org
It is considered one of the most innovative school reform shops ever built.

When I moved here, I had a garage for the first time in years. Ok, its a shed. To stay sane in 05-06 I built an electric motorcycle in here. I ride it to the IP Entrepreneur hub every day it doesn’t rain. We bent a few motor vehicle laws to share it with the rest of the entrepreneurs in NOLA at minute 22 of this episode of Launchpad TV: bit.ly/ottTC

Now, I am starting to build this: bit.ly/bk07H8

I get my inspiration in this shed. I am typing on a desk that sits on the same concrete as the rolling chassis I started with for the bike. Here is where the ideas flow. Here is where the next ideas will be hatched.

The future of our work involves video – lots of it. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/07/magazine/20100307-teacher-videos.html?ref=magazine#/readingaloud
We need fat pipes for this work. The guy narrating those videos was the subject of the NYT Mag cover story last week. He was in the shed last week talking shop about how we can change the education world from New Orleans.

The millions of kids currently getting a crappy deal in their schools deserve better. We are getting to solutions faster than anyone else but its too slow for those kids. We need your help getting there faster. Please plug us in.

Sincerely,

Matt Candler

The bike and the shed: bit.ly/atJrOX

Film Industry needs google!

tdomf_1c25d — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:40:26 +0000

I work in the New Orleans Office of Film and Video and if the city were to be awarded Google fiber it would play an integral part in moving the film and production industry forward. As the city has positioned itself a a creative hub for both television and film, having a fiber network would only work to encourage increased production and the expansion of post production services here in the city.

What this can do for New Orleans

tdomf_1c25d — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:40:09 +0000

As an employee of the New Orleans Office of Film and Video I have seen first-hand the tremendous growth the film and video industry has experienced post-Katrina. I believe that a fiber network in New Orleans will not only support the continued growth of this industry but will help New Orleans to continue to reinvent [Read More...]

Film Industry- post production, distribution and more!!!!

tdomf_1c25d — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:39:39 +0000

Dear Google,

My name is Jennifer Day and I am the director for the New Orleans Office of Film & Video. Being awarded the fiber optic network would open up unlimited avenues for progress and development for the city in the realms of post production, animation, and digital design as well as distribution. One of our challenges to growing our market in these areas is the lack of accessible bandwidth needed to transport data to the traditional hubs of New York and L.A. This fiber optic network would provide a powerful infrastructure foundation for progress in cultivating more post work here in the city by making data sharing more efficient and reliable. I am also excited for the potential growth and experimentation in distribution this network could bring to the city. As we know, more and more media is being consumed via the web. The network would allow for local innovation and implementation of new distribution models expanding New Orleans film industry into this virtually untouched phase of production.
Review the facts, New Orleans is a city on the move. We are a city full of hope, ambition, and really a sense that anything is possible. Come be a part of a very special place- where everybody is somebody and community means everything!!

Sincerely, Jennifer Day

Happy Trails Animation

Bryan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:41:39 +0000

Happy Trails Animation began as a husband and wife team in their two-car garage. Today, the Portland, Oregon Animation Studio employs a steady stream of former Disney and Cartoon Network animators delivering award-winning cartoons and animated shorts. After landing a series of high-level contracts with Lions Gate Films, Sony Records, and a pending deal with Walt Disney, the independent studio was looking for room to grow. Tax incentives in Michigan and Pennsylvania, nearly lured the expanding studio, but a call from a member of our New Orleans tech community encouraged Happy Trails CEO Andy Collen to take a closer look at what our city had to offer.

Conference calls were held with Louisiana Economic Development, meetings arranged with the City Office of Film and Media, and site selection trips planned by Greater New Orleans Incorporated. Even Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal sat down with animation studio executives to put the best possible incentive package together. It was a wonderful example of state and local organizations coming together to attract new business.

The Digital Media tax credits and incentives offered in Louisiana were far more aggressive than those of Michigan and Pennsylvania. A building in the heart of the New Orleans “Tech Quarter” seemed a perfect location. Unprecedented cooperation from local higher education institutes such as UNO and Loyola would allow the studio to tailor make an animation curricula, creating a highly skilled and near endless workforce supply. Not to mention a unique culture and atmosphere in New Orleans that has historically been a breeding ground for the creative class. Yet after months of negotiations, the project staled. Despite all of the incentives and intangibles, nothing could overcome one major stumbling block: bandwidth. Without a dedicated network to handle the massive amounts of bandwidth high-def animation rendering required, Happy Trails had to make the difficult yet necessary decision to look elsewhere towards expansion. Lessons learned. Opportunity lost.