Monday night the Ann Arbor City Council met to discuss the new Google Fiber, ultra high speed broadband network. It was a very big turnout, and you can see a number of the participants and their thoughts on YouTube. The current Google Proposal will increase both the reliability of our current networks and the speed by somewhere around 100 times, making a lot of applications and interactive products possible that aren’t currently viable.

This type of infrastructure would have profound positive impact on the region, greatly giving us the advantage in a number of areas. In our own field, I would expect this would facilitate the development of a number of new high speed Internet applications, built well ahead of the worldwide competition in this space.

The City of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan are jointly working on a proposal to Google, which will be submitted before the deadline on March 26th. Community support is a major part of the proposal, so they are asking for lots of help from everyone. The organization A2 Fiber (@a2fiber) recommends a number of things you can do, including creating your own YouTube video.

It seems to me the most straightforward thing to do would be to write something, such as a tweet or a blog post about this, and then go up to the Google Fiber for Communities site and recommend Ann Arbor. As you’re filling out the form, you’ll see a place for a link to your tweet or blog post or heck, even your YouTube video.

If you’re reading this and your community is also trying to submit an RFI, then certainly get involved. If not, please consider supporting Ann Arbor’s bid. This is not just a good opportunity for Ann Arbor, it’s a good opportunity for the region as a whole.