Google Fiber in KC Comes With $70 Per Month Pricetag

Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, MO

Google announced today that its intriguing fiber-based Internet service will cost users seventy dollars per month. In exchange, subscribers get service that's "about 100 times faster than a basic cable modem," according to an article in today's siliconvalley.com.

Those willing to pony up an additional fifty dollars per month would also receive "cable-TV-like service over the fiber, and a tablet computer that works as a remote."

The last option got my attention. Using a tablet to interface with a lightning-fast fiber connection opens up wonderful possibilities for home and institutional uses. While the service is expensive for most mom-and-pop consumers, someone who works or socializes online may find this opportunity an online bonanza. The key concept in Google's initiative is video, which can take advantage of the Internet speeds Google's fiber gambit offers.

Hopefully, Google's Internet service takes root in KC, and we will be able to witness how truly fast Internet speeds impact work and leisure.

PS. The July 27th online edition of The Washington Post includes an article outlining Google Fiber's service options to residential customers. Curiously, Google chose not to include business-oriented services at this time.

KC Gets Ready for Google Fiber

KC, KS mayor Joe Reardon (left) and KC, MO mayor  Sly James
at Google Fiber launch (photo from Google)

Google Fiber is a broadband network which, according to a story in siliconvalley.com, offers speeds of one gigabit. That translates to "100 times faster than the average broadband connection." Google chose Kansas City (both Missouri and Kansas) as its metro experimental animal for Fiber's initial launch. The presumed gold in this product is the relationship between broadband speed and productive endeavor. Most interested parties have touted the broadband upgrade as a launching point for new enterprise, innovative work, and overall civic ben essere. Those assertions, however, don't parallel the service's proposed focus, which is "primarily...residential homes, along with some community organizations like schools and libraries."

In fact, Google has been far from revealing about its intentions with its eponymous Fiber service. (A dedicated Google webpage and related blog provide some thin details.) Google has, according to the siliconvalley.com story, local officials "in the dark" concerning issues such as pricing plans and launch date. "Google officials have only said," according to the article, "there will be a 'major announcement' this summer."

(Image from deadline.com)

Speculation about Google Fiber includes its connection to the launch of Google TV. A June 5th post in engadget com noted a GFHD100 IP set-top box has been registered with the FCC. According to a cable industry analyst quoted in a Kansas City Star story on the registration, the box is a fundamental step for an enterprise to sell television packages. The Star's article also pointed out that Google applied "for an FCC license for an 'antenna farm' in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Such a collection of satellite dishes could be critical for capturing commercial television programming. The company has also gained licenses in Kansas and Missouri to sell television service."

I'll be visiting Kansas City this summer, and I'll try to learn more about Google Fiber and its impact on the metro area and its people.

PS. The July 27th online edition of The Washington Post includes an article outlining Google Fiber's service options to residential customers. Curiously, Google chose not to include business-oriented services at this time.

New Venues Jazz Up Miami, Kansas City Art Scenes

South Miami-Dade Cultural Center

We live in the New York metro area and, for better or worse, within the orbit of its powerful art movements and institutions. Sometimes, "New York" gets it all wrong: witness the Museum of Modern Art's chutzpah in raising its basic admission fee 25% (to twenty-five dollars per person) to cover "operations". Fortunately, there are American cities that have a much better idea about how to bring the arts to the community.

Miami is a case in point. There's much more to South Florida's art world than the world-famous Art Basel. I wrote earlier this summer about "Sketchy Miami," a "bottom-up" approach, in which emerging local artists posted profile sketches online. Meanwhile, an interesting, collective push in the region to attract more "top-down" art venues appears to bearing fruit. According to the Miami Herald, two new sites are opening this month. One of them, The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, will house a number of arts organizations, including those on the experimental edge. (The warehouse's "grand opening" declaration is something of a misnomer, as events have been held at the site for some time. However, the Miami Light Project and other arts groups are moving into the site, thus the "grand opening" justification.) The other is the South Miami-Dade Cultural Center, a nice, new, shiny building in what has been characterized as an artistically "underserved" district. In other words, it was an artistic Siberia -- until now.

Meanwhile, Kansas City has proudly opened what looks like a beautiful performing arts center. Named after the locally prominent Kauffman family, which owned KC's Major League Baseball team in its glory years, the venue features a slick Moshe Safdie architectural design that, in and of itself, will be a draw. The venue's opening is all to the good, and can only encourage local arts. While not well known, Kansas City has a surprisingly vibrant artistic community and is home to the excellent Nelson-Atkins Museum,  which features some of the finest classical Chinese art outside of Asia.

The Miami and Kansas City openings are refreshing reminders of how living, breathing art contributes vitality to a community and region. The concern is that significant funding is going into glitzy structures rather than to artists and their work. (MOMA's multi-million dollar artists are another story.)