From Google:

We’re sorry for this delay, but we want to make sure we get this right. To be clear, we’re not re-opening our selection process—we simply need more time to decide than we’d anticipated. Stay tuned for an announcement in early 2011.

Here’s the post from the official Google blog; the delay was announced on Dec 15th, 2010.

I read a very interesting article about connection speeds across the globe yesterday. I believe that the faster the speeds, the more we enable innovation, learning and the economy. South Korea is certainly ahead in the race right now. This is worth a read for anyone that is interested in how the United States stacks up.

http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/11/12/real-connection-speeds-for-internet-users-across-the-world

from Governor Perdue’s website

Announces Social Networking Leader to Build Data Center in Rutherford County

Gov. Bev Perdue announced today that Facebook, the world?s leading social networking service connecting more than 500 million people, will locate a multi-million dollar data center near Forest City in Rutherford County.

The facility is expected to create more than 250 construction and mechanical jobs during its 18-month building phase. When construction is completed, the data center will employ around 35-45 full-time and contract workers. Facebook is expected to invest about $450 million dollars in the new data center. Additional construction phases may be possible in the future, depending on business needs.

“We are proud that Facebook chose to make North Carolina a „friend.? The feeling is certainly mutual,” said Gov. Perdue. “You can?t pick up a newspaper, read a magazine or flip on the television without hearing more great news about our state. The investment and jobs at the data center will be a boon to that region of the state, and will help confirm North Carolina?s distinction as a global business destination.”

Perdue said the state has been working with Facebook?s representatives for about a year to help bring together the land, utilities and incentives to make the project a success. North Carolina has become a destination for data center projects including previous announcements by Apple, Google and IBM.

Full Article

You can follow the progress on Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/rutherforddatacenter#!/rutherforddatacenter

You can read the full post on Google’s blog here.

Gov. Bev Perdue today announced that North Carolina has received $115 million in five federal recovery grants to extend broadband connectivity in North Carolina. These funds will create jobs and help spur economic development through expanded access to high-speed Internet in underserved areas.  Through two rounds of recovery funding, North Carolina has received over $255 million for broadband.

“Increasing broadband access will create new jobs up front and provide a boost for local economies to create even more jobs and a better quality of life in the near future,” said Gov. Perdue. “These improvements are especially important in rural and underserved areas of North Carolina.”

The grants are part of the second round of Recovery Act funding for broadband projects from the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Agriculture.  North Carolina has already received over $140 million in recovery broadband grants.  Gov. Perdue joined North Carolina’s congressional delegation in personally advocating for North Carolina’s grant applications in Washington, D.C., during the past year.

More information about the recently announced North Carolina broadband grants:

From Google introducing Google Fiber for Communities Website

In February we announced our plans to build experimental, ultra-high speed broadband networks. Over the past several months, our team’s been hard at work reviewing the nearly 1,100 community responses to our request for information—not to mention the nearly 200,000 responses from individuals across the U.S.

Throughout this process, one message has come through loud and clear: people are hungry for better and faster Internet access. With that in mind, today we’re launching a new site called Google Fiber for Communities, where you can learn more about fiber networks and keep up-to-date on our project. You’ll also be able to advocate for common-sense federal and local policies that would help fiber deployments nationwide.

We also wanted to thank every community and individual that submitted a response, posted a YouTube video, started a website, joined a rally or otherwise let their voice be heard. We were so honored by the grassroots enthusiasm across the country for this project that we put together a short video to say thank you:

As we explained back in March, we plan to name our target community or communities by the end of the year. We still have some work ahead of us before we’re ready to make that announcement, but in the meantime, we hope this site helps to keep the conversation going.

http://stopthecap.com/2010/05/04/north-carolina-action-alert-municipal-broadband-moratorium-bill-expected-to-be-introduced-wednesday/

Note that the bill is officially opposed by a large number of NC citizens as well as Google, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, the Fiber to the Home Council (FTTC), American Public Power Association (APPA), Atlantic Engineering, Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and the United Telecom Council (UTC). The bill also directly contradicts the Federally-approved and currently in effect National Broadband plan.

Speaking about Google Fiber, the article quotes Cerf:

“We really have no interest in turning [Google Fiber] into a business that we operate… Our first objective is to demonstrate that a wholesale model can be made to work,” Cerf said of providing Internet broadband. “The second is to document what problems arise.”

According to the article,

“Cerf, who knows a great deal about networking infrastructure from his days at the old MCI, said Google would like to deploy, test and then turn over the broadband lessons learned to true providers.”

This echoes what we know about Google’s plans for building an open network – they want to build it, learn from it, and then turn it over to another entity.

Here’s the full article on Local Tech Wire.

And several NC state legislators are attempting to ban those types of networks.

Here are some of the links:

http://stopthecap.com/2010/04/15/north-carolina-action-alert-anti-municipal-broadband-bill-is-back-better-than-ever-if-you-are-time-warner-cable/
http://stopthecap.com/2010/04/19/north-carolina-action-alert-update-get-to-raleigh-this-wednesday-and-join-the-fight/

Bottom line: this is a bad bill and it appears to have been drafted to protect current broadband companies, rather than to encourage the building of better networks.

Please contact the representatives on the “Revenue Laws Study Committee” (these are the folks who must pass the bill first, and they are the ones responsible for its creation) and tell them to vote no for this bill (see the links for more information).

Here again is the information for the membership of The Joint Revenue Laws Study Committee, so get on the phones and write those e-mails!:

(Please send individual messages to members, even if the contents are essentially the same — avoid simply CC’ing a single message to every representative.)

• Sen. Daniel Gray Clodfelter (Co-Chair) Mecklenberg Daniel.Clodfelter@ncleg.net (919) 715-8331, (704) 331-1041
• Sen. Daniel T. Blue, Jr. Wake Dan.Blue@ncleg.net (919) 733-5752, (919) 833-1931
• Sen. Peter Samuel Brunstetter Forsyth Peter.Brunstetter@ncleg.net (919) 733-7850, (336) 747-6604
• Sen. Fletcher Lee Hartsell, Jr. Cabarrus, Iredell Fletcher.Hartsell@ncleg.net (919) 733-7223, (704) 786-5161
• Sen. David W. Hoyle Gaston David.Hoyle@ncleg.net (919) 733-5734, (704) 867-0822
• Sen. Samuel Clark Jenkins Edgecomb, Martin, Pitt Clark.Jenkins@ncleg.net (919) 715-3040, (252) 823-7029
• Sen. Josh Stein Wake Josh.Stein@ncleg.net (919)715-6400, (919)715-6400
• Sen. Jerry W. Tillman Montgomery, Randolph Jerry.Tillman@ncleg.net (919) 733-5870, (336) 431-5325
• Rep. Paul Luebke (Co-Chair) Durham Paul.Luebke@ncleg.net 919-733-7663, 919-286-0269
• Rep. Harold J. Brubaker Randolph Harold.Brubaker@ncleg.net 919-715-4946, 336-629-5128
• Rep. Becky Carney Mecklenberg Becky.Carney@ncleg.net 919-733-5827, 919-733-5827
• Rep. Pryor Allan Gibson, III Anson, Union Pryor.Gibson@ncleg.net 919-715-3007, 704-694-5957
• Rep. Dewey Lewis Hill Brunswick, Columbus Dewey.Hill@ncleg.net 919-733-5830, 910-642-6044
• Rep. Julia Craven Howard Davie, Iredell Julia.Howard@ncleg.net 919-733-5904, 336-751-3538
• Rep. Daniel Francis McComas New Hanover Danny.McComas@ncleg.net 919-733-5786, 910-343-8372
• Rep. William C. McGee Forsyth William.McGee@ncleg.net 919-733-5747, 336-766-4481
• Rep. William L. Wainwright Craven, Lenoir William.Wainwright@ncleg.net 919-733-5995, 252-447-7379
• Rep. Jennifer Weiss Wake Jennifer.Weiss@ncleg.net 919-715-3010, 919-715-3010

For those not familiar with Hatchfest, it is a conference (of sorts) that, “provides mentorship, education, inspiration and recognition to the next generation of creative innovators.”

For me, Hatchfest is simpler: It’s one of the best events in the whole country for examining other people’s great ideas. It is brain food and a call to action, all rolled into one.

All the daytime events are free. You can see the complete Hatchfest schedule here (on that linked page, the small icons at the top filter the list of events by discipline). The schedule rewards careful study.

This list is just my selection and it is tech-centric. The full schedule includes many events in technology, design, architecture, fashion, journalism, art, and music.

• Thursday Apr 15:

2:00pm Storytelling vs. Storydwelling Workshop with Jim Banister, CEO of Spectrum DNA, a design media studio. @Asheville Area Arts Council(AAAC)

4:00pm Art & Copy, film screening. Art & copy is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration. Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, SCRATCH, HYPE!), it reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time — people who’ve profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry. HATCH Asheville would like to thank our sponsor of the film, 828 Design, for bringing this amazing documentary to the Fine Arts Theatre during HATCHfest.

6:00pm Opening Reception for the Design & Technology Gallery, featuring a performance by Laura Escude, an installation of Bob Moog’s Archives and complimentary drinks and light refreshments. @AAAC

• Friday Apr 16:

  11:00am Transforming WNC into An App WORKforce featuring local and regional leaders in app development. This discussion is about how we can build a group of people and companies building apps in WNC. @Innovator’s Lounge [Sched] [Facebook]

  12:00 noon Fashion keynote, Linda Loudermilk. A close-up of Linda Loudermilk: Redefining the concept of sustainability through revolutionary designs in eco luxury fashion.

  2:00pm If a Designer Can Imagine It, We Can Actually Build It Keynote with Rajeev Kulkarni, VP of Global Engineering at 3D Systems (three dimensional printing). @AAAC

• Saturday Apr 17:

  1:00pm From Play to Innovation with Brendan Boyle, Partner and Co-Chief Creative Officer at IDEO. This is a hands-on workshop good for people of all ages–bring your kids to this one! @Innovator’s Lounge [Sched] [Facebook]

  5:00pm The Creative Process and Getting Past Being Stuck Featuring all of the Design & Technology mentors. Moderated by local economic development leader, entrepreneur, designer & all around geek, Matt Raker.

• Sunday Apr 18:

  11:00am ‘Marketing your creative community – Lessons from the Marketing Professionals’ Asheville has a rich pool of talented marketing and communication professionals. Some have more traditional advertising and marketing backgrounds and experience … Panel discussion @Innovators Lounge

  3:00pm Photography Panel ‘Women In Photography’ Join us for a panel discussion about photography in the digital age. We will have documentary, portrait and commercial photographers as well Diana Stoll, editor of Aperture magazine, showing their personal work and answering questions on a range of topics. Speaker/Artist(s): Brie Castell, Meg Reilley, Dot Griffith, Diana Stoll, Rene Treece, and Tammy Mercure. Moderator: Lynne Harty @ Innovator’s Lounge

You should come to Hatchfest!

-Clark Mackey