In the economy of the mind, bandwidth is the new oil, and the fiber optic network Google is proposing to build would be up to one hundred times faster than residentially available broadband in New Orleans. Bandwidth is the growth hormone of an information economy, and the best way to accelerate the entrepreneurial momentum gaining critical mass in New Orleans is through more bandwidth.
Fiber would give the film and digital media industries infrastructural reasons to go beyond short-term use of our tax credits and actually establish roots in New Orleans. It would allow significant expansion of those industries in terms of post-production, animation, and rendering capabilities. Profound short-term benefits would manifest for our higher education institutions, our biomedical & aerospace industries, key local robotics projects, the work being done locally on the SmartGrid, our schools, and more.
Google’s consideration of New Orleans would also send a powerful message to the national tech and entrepreneurial communities that New Orleans is a serious contender to be the national digital media hub.
It’s a big win for us, but of course, the project would only turn out what we put into it, so see what New Orleans has to offer.
What People Are Saying
“As a business in a catastrophe exposed area (hurricanes), the ability to host all of our mission-critical data and client information offsite via hosting is integral to us being able to provide uninterrupted service to our clients, both personal & commercial, during and after a storm. Efficient transfer of data is vital to our success and the security of our clients.”
– Robby Moss, Hartwig Moss Insurance Agency
“As the relationship between the City of New Orleans and Latin America continues to strengthen, tw telecom will look to make New Orleans a major hub for IP traffic to Latin America.”
– Mike Nictakis VP/GM, tw telecom
“Fiber would allow me to grow my business and partner on more truly &39;interactive&39; projects. The ability to have access to this sort of backbone would create a much stronger connection between the development community here in New Orleans and elsewhere around the globe.”
– Peter Bodenheimer, Cycle Interactive
“Our core business relies upon rapid information transfer. Faster and more robust transfer would enable us to enhance the services we deliver to our clients, and gain efficiencies in how we deploy our scarce resources.”
– Chris Flood, Orleans Public Defenders Office
“As a virtual development company almost all of our correspondence with employees and clients is done over the internet, and our versioning systems are done in the cloud. If we were able to work with a direct fiber line our data-heavy transactions would become exponentially more efficient, and we could comfortably move more of our processes on to services like GMail, Google Code, or the App Engine. A much higher speed internet connection is the next necessary step to moving our society in to a more open and connected age, and we would love to be a part of that.”
– Jameson Quave, Voodoo Software, LLC
“We are currently maxed out on speed. I actually had the priveledge of being the only one one online on our network last week and noticed an incredible difference. I just had our IT guy try to find us something faster. His answer was that we are currenlty maxed out. Although it is working for us – we could work much more efficiantly if we had faster connections. We are a design based business – sending, receiving, and searching for images on google and could certainly use the increased speed. “
– Phil McKinney, Urban Earth, LLC
“I moved to New Orleans from the DC area, where I had FIOS (fiber). Just like there, I run a business from my home. The difference in capability between cable and fiber, particularly on the upload, is amazing. Having fiber readily available will allow me to move of our operations from DC to New Orleans. “
– Jodi Lasky, Analysis First, LLC
“As a young entrepreneur who currently runs a retail business and is attempting to launch music and video ventures, this would be an amazing opportunity. I am currently in the process of working on remote recording studio and video editing work that can be done online in real time.”
– Aaron Hyde, Brewstock, LLC
“We provide data analytics consultancy. To analyze huge amounts of data, we need to be able to securly transmit it across. Currently, data analytics professionals have to physically go to a client’s site to analyze data as the current infrastructure in USA is too slow to receive and send huge chunks of data. With the advent of Google Fibre, that problem may be reduced significantly and that may help us reduce our travel time and cost significantly. “
– Shuchi “SK” Khurana, Axon Innovations LLC
“The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s work with educational institutions and a variety of community outreach efforts would be enhanced by having this additional fiber-optic capacity available. Current strategic planning is underway to utilize more technological means for offering music and arts education throughout this region.”
– Babs Mollere, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra