If I were Google, what would I be thinking right now??

We all know Google is brilliant. They have cities renaming themselves, mayors jumping into freezing cold water, and yes (guilty as charged) - you can find me this weekend on Google Island, Sarasota Florida with a Google Daquiri in my hand....

Their aggressive announcement that they will be putting ultra-broadband in a few cities has created quite a stir in the telecom industry. What does this mean? Are they going to compete with existing providers? Work with them? Are they crazy? Nope. They are brilliant.

In a few days, the Federal Government and FCC will lay out their National Broadband Strategy. And guess what - its not good for the telecoms. It is putting pressure on them to build bigger and better networks, and its also pushing them to play nice in the sandbox. Is this a good thing? I am not sure anyone (except lobbyists) can say whether its good or bad.... but it is good for Google.

There is a shift happening - and I think Google sees it (or perhaps they are driving it). The Internet is currently a very closed network. It is owned and operated by a few players that have spent the money to build our the fiber, and bring us broadband.  But the writing is on the wall, to start looking at "opening" it up a bit. Perhaps its because we are ranked 27th in the world in broadband? Or it could be that some people feel the existing providers have just gotten lazy, and are not keeping up with Jones's.

And maybe Google isn't the only brilliant company out there. Maybe Verizon sees a window of opportunity. (marriage made in heaven). Verizon is deploying FIOS (fiber to the home)... and Comcast although they were first to market, they don't have fiber to the home (its Coax). Verizon is having a tough time penetrating a lot of the market, because they were late to market with FiOS. But now... imagine a lunch with the two CEO's of Google and Verizon... and as they order their chicken salad, Lowell (Verizon CEO) leans over and asks Eric (Google CEO) and says "Hey - want to be in the Telecom business?"

So what does this all mean???  Let's review:

1. FCC is pushing for telco's to open their networks
2. Google is looking to boost fiber to the home.
3. Verizon has fiber to the home, but needs capital/help gaining market share
4. Comcast has marketshare, but not fiber to the home.

This may be a perfect storm..... .

And guess what - Sarasota may be the perfect place to see how everyone plays nice in the sandbox.... and if things get a little tense... we can all go have a Google Daquiri, and sing "Don't worry, be happy"

Mercury News covering Google Island

I love this...

A "Serious" Note on Google Fiber

I have received a lot of emails recommending we focus on the true assets of Sarasota, and not focus too much on the "sideshow tactics"... so I want to reassure everyone we are focused on the important stuff - but we also feel that the fun stuff gets people's attention a lot easier. For those who want to enter the discussion on a serious note, here is a list of things we believe needs to happen:

1. We need 10,000+ people from our city go to http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options and fill out this form. Bottom line, Facebook Fan won't be enough (but it helps). We need to show overwhelming response from the community. My best guess on how many people have done it is around 500.

2. We need to form a "BROADBAND STRATEGY" for our community. The process we have gone through in the last few weeks has shown us that we need to have a plan in place. With our Without Google, it would be wise for us to have a well-thought thru plan constructed with input from business leaders that see broadband as a key to economic development.

3. We need to highlight "applications" that can demonstrate the value and power of a ultra-broadband network. Here are some organizations we are working with:

1. Ringling College or Art and Design - Pre-Post Production, Digital Design
2. Mote Marine - Collaborative Research, Video Conf, Webcasting
3. Sarasota Memorial - Remote Care, Data Sharing
4. The HuB - Data Centers, Tele-Commuting, Tech incubator
5. Multiple Tech/Creative Businesses - Communications, Vertical Applications

4. We need our leaders to fight for us. The National Broadband Strategy is being announced next week, and I am sure many States will follow suit with broadband strategies as well. There is a lot of stimulus money going toward broadband infrastructure, and many companies are deploying fiber networks throughout the State of Florida. We need to have representation or we will lose out.

5. We need to continue to be Leaders in Technology and Creative industry. The Google Fiber campaign put us on a "map" of cities that understand the need for technology. We were the first and loudest city in the State of Florida. We need to maintain this brand, as an innovative community. Although we have a long way to go to claim our economy as "tech and creative"... we clearly have the capability, the assets and the desire to make the necessary change to move our community in the right direction. WE NEED to continue to build this brand.

So in summary... we are taking this serious, but there is a lot of work yet to be done, and we are depending on your (our) community support. Without a community with focus and purpose, noone will pay attention and nothing will be done.

Send letters to our leadership, asking them to form a Broadband Strategy, and help us improve our local economy... we can do this with or without Google (but don't tell them that yet)

My interview on CNBC

Why we love Google Island?

Last month Google announced an initiative to brings ultra-broadband to a few cities in order to demonstrate 1-Gig connectivity to the home. Ofcourse the details are still unknown, but here is my take on how I think things will rollout.

First, broadband is a complex business to begin with. There are many providers, and they share fiber, buy fiber, lease fiber. Some cities (municipalities) own fiber. And after the telecom boom a while ago, a lot of companies put fiber in the ground, but ended up never deploying networks.

Companies like Comcast, Verizon has spent billions laying fiber down to bring broadband to the home (ranging from 5mb to 50mb)... which for most of us in our home is plenty of bandwidth. For business applications, there may be more desired.

So what if Google Fiber comes to Sarasota? Ofcourse, it would be a tremendous boost to our local economy and our brand as a city. But what about existing providers (Comcast/Verizon) - don't they already have fiber here? And ofcourse there are other providers like Level3 and FPL who have fiber coming through our city s well. My gut tells me that Google wants to work with these providers. Much like when Comcast was first deploying their network in 1997, Microsoft invested a billion dollars into Comcast to help them speed up the deployment. I think Google is trying to do the same. Light a fire under Internet providers to bring more bandwidth to the home. But in order to do this, they need to find a model that works in a couple of cities.

So what kind of issues will Google face?

1. Working with the goverment - they want to see how much hassle it is to work with cities/counties/towns. The application they are having cities submit will give them a good idea on who is willing to work with Google. They will also be looking at States, and their existing projects going on regarding fiber deployment, stimulus money, capital projects.

2. Working with existing Providers - Google doesn't want to dig and lay new fiber, so they are going to look for cities that may have available fiber... or have providers willing to work with Google in upgrading the network. Google has already shown their ability to work with internet providers over the past years signing peer agreements. Nobody knows what Google will bring to the table, and what the incumbent providers will bring to the table - but one thing is for sure they have a ton of cash - lots of motive for broadband - and they have a lot of experience in building ultra-broadband networks.

3. Working with Business Community - Google may be talking about bringing fiber to the home but they may be looking for a big win in the business community first. For example, connecting university, hospitals, schools, and business districts. This is referred to as the "middle-mile" - which actually will be a lot easier for Google to make happen.

Ultimately, I think Google realizes there are a lot of unknowns - and there is no better way to find out than to just do it. They understand the basics of building broadband networks (they have one of the biggest and baddest networks in the world between their data centers) - but they have yet to dive into the last-mile (with exception of some wifi projects).

There is also an interesting marketing angle here as well... by talking about deploying 1-gig to the home and getting millions of people excited, puts pressure on existing providers to start looking at potential competition. So, this could all be a head-fake (to some degree)... Google deploys a really awesome gigabit network in a city or two, and the nation becomes insanely jealous and starts demanding their providers make it happen. Either way it is a win-win for the consumer, but there are a lot of dominos that need to fall.

So, as we wait for Google to decide on where they deploy their first network - its important to take a step back and look at the big picture. First - there is a lot of fiber out there ready to be lit up - especially middle-mile - so whether Google does it or not... they may motivate someone else to do it instead. Secondly, it may not be too critical for us to have a gigabit network to our house right now (seriously, how much youtube do we need to download) - but what is more important is getting fiber to our schools, businesses, centers of innovation, labs and hospitals. So let's focus and start there first.... and not sweat it too much.

Social Media Fatigue

I am not sure if its a medical condition (yet)... but there is an epidemic of Social Media Fatigue (SMF) spreading quickly throughout the country as we speak. Carriers are bringing the virus into our communities - and there is nothing we can do.

What are the symptoms?

1. Do you find yourself logging into Twitter less and less? Have you given up on MySpace completely?

2. Are you losing control of your Facebook Friendships? Did you break the promise to yourself to only ACCEPT people who are actually your friends? Do you occasionally look at your profile and wonder how the hell you have 673 friends?

3. Does your LinkedIn profile still have you working at a job you quit 2 years ago?

If you have these or similar symptoms... you are experiencing the early signs of SMF.

Social Media Fatigue is going to change the world as we know it...why? Because social media is expecting you continue to login 5 times a day, check your latest tweets, update your fan page, and share your photos with the entire network. If you stop - they begin to fade. And who is to blame for SMF - we are - the Users. We lost our way.... the second we looked at Social Media as a way to make money, the minute we accepted a friend request that wasn't a friend and the day we decided to stop logging every day.

How do we stop it? I am not sure we can... but...if there is an "antidote"... it is simple. We (as users) need to make social media applicable. We need to make it useful in making our lives easier and our world a better place. If we are going to fight SMF we need to be cautious of how we use social media....and more importantly if we do use it - let's not abuse it. Make relationships count. Make communications meaningful. Make the network a better place.

If nothing else ---- Give to the network more than you take....

How everything on the web is quickly becoming useless...

Sometimes things move so fast, you don't even feel yourself spinning.. kind of like standing on the earth...or moving in a fast car.... you are moving - but you just don't feel it.

Well guess what - the Internet right now is moving faster than ever - and I am not sure its going the right direction (or atleast if it is - its leaving everything else behind).

People refer to the current web as "Web 2.0" - but I think that may have been a premature name - assuming you believe 2.0 has some reminense of 1.0. Sure we still have millions of 1.0 websites out there - but they are quickly becoming obsolete.

Nobody goes to websites anymore. We are not in Web 2.0 - we are in new dimension of the Web (lets call it WebOS - kind of catchy old name, for new Web).

So what does this mean? The Web is a platform for utilities (e.g. Applications). User behavior has changed.

BEFORE: Web Marketing = Lets launch a website. Register a cool domain.
NOW: Don't bother, noone will go there - and domains don't matter anymore.

BEFORE: Lets link to other websites, and get links back to our website
NOW: Nobody clicks on links anymore - the web is becoming homogeneus.

BEFORE: Hmmm, this banner ad looks interesting.
NOW: I hate any ad, and for spite I refuse to click.

BEFORE: Let's "surf" the web - click around and explore
NOW: I don't have time to surf or learn new sites - I know where to go to get what I need.

BEFORE: I want to Blog.
NOW: Noone is reading my Blog - I have no audience... I WANT TO POST!

BEFORE: Let me email my friends to see what is going on.
NOW: Why bother emailing, I'll just look at their Wall.

BEFORE: Let me search the web, and see how I can do that
NOW: There is an app for that.

As you can see my point is simple. User behavior has changed, and I am not sure its good for the web. The average number of websites a user hits per day is decreasing NOT increasing. The average user spends more time on a few sites (e.g. facebook), and doing less discovery.

This new phase of the Web, is less about the Internet (the magical tubes that connect us) and more about the Humans behind the device. And you don't need thousands of websites to connect humans. You only really need a few. (Is that good or bad?)

We are molding the Internet into a Human media, and building form factors and tools around specific functions (applications), and ignoring the old "websites". We don't realize it, but with every Tweet or Poke - we are killing a website. Our window to the web is shifting to mobile devices (which have never been web friendly). Take the Iphone. Do you use the IPhone to surf old websites? Probably not. You download an app, and run the app. Going to the browser becomes more of a hassle.

Why are websites dying? Its actually pretty logical if you think about it. A website isn't human. It doesn't talk. It's doesn't communicate. It doesn't show emotion. It's not real-time.

If you think about it - we should be surprised they lasted as long as they did.

Why Social Media is Local

It seems like every conversation I have with people (especially marketing folks) about Social Media - they always talk in terms of Global.... and I am not sure that is the right way to measure social media.

A popular tidbit everyone throws out is "Facebook has over 350M users!!!". Which I admit is impressive - but in reality its a similar stat to "There are 25,000 McDonalds in the world". Which is another impressive stat. But the reality is I have only been to maybe 10 different McDonalds in the last few years - and for the most part I go to one or two close by (e.g. locally).

I am sure everyone I know has eaten at McDonalds at least once or twice - and some people every week. Probably a lot like Facebook. Some of my friends update their status daily or even hourly, and some still have "RIP Michael" as their status.

So is McDonalds a Global Company? Sure, but we don't really think of it that way... we think of it as a local fast food restaurant. We know its everywhere - but we really only care about the one closest to where we live.

I think Social Media is more like McDonalds than we think.

Sure, we all have friends in other states (or even other countries) - but do we really see them that often or even comment on their wall a lot? Or do we really connect more with friends who live closeby or work with us on a daily basis?

What percentage of your Friends live nearby? Probably 80% at least? So doesn't that make Social Media LOCAL?

What events and pictures do you see come across your wall or news feed? Are they nearby? probably... so doesn't that make it LOCAL?

Social Media should be defined from the user perspective NOT by the perspective of the entire network (top down).

FACEBOOK is not 350 Million networked users, just as much as the world is not 5 Billion connected humans. Facebook is a network of 130 friends (see stats) (average number of friends a user has on Facebook). Facebook is not a network of millions of fans - most pages have less than 1,000 fans and are regional in focus.

So if you are looking to engage with Social Media, and looking to market your business - you need to not forget that social media marketing is more like local media marketing than you may think.

10 Ways we can improve Economic Development in Sarasota

I have been (somewhat) involved in the economic development efforts of our city - Sarasota, Florida. I love this town, and plan to live here a long time. However, our city (like most) lacks the economic diversity to sustain a healthy economy during tough times. Like most Florida towns, Sarasota has depended heavily on tourism and real estate.

When I first began writing this article I was going to complain and whine about how this city isn't doing the right things to help strengthen our economy - but instead I figured I should take a more positive road, and lay out ten things I would do:

1. FOCUS ON OUR ASSETS - I think sometimes we try to be what we really are not. We try to convince people we have a robust work force, or that we have an awesome tech infrastructure. We need to focus on what we have that is real, strong and what can attract a new economy. For example, Ringling Art School as one of the strongest schools in country around interactive design, animation, gaming, etc. Other assets we have is a vibrant Arts community, Mote Marine and our Film Festival. We need to leverage these assets to become nationally recognized as a destination for entrepreneurs.

2. FOCUS ON ENTREPRENEURS - Focus our Economic Development efforts on recruiting and retaining entrepreneurs. We waste time and money on trying to get "big companies" to relocate. We need to bring creative and tech professionals to our city, to build a new economy.

3. BUILD INCENTIVES - We need to have incentives to attract young, emerging companies to move here while they are able to decide where they want to grow their new company. We need to have money and programs that are aggressive in bringing them here. For example - Free Office Space - leveraging programs like the HuB Incubator is doing, or expanding on this concept into a Tech/Creative Park - where companies can apply and qualify for free rent for 2-3 years.

4. HIRE A LIASON - We need someone who is dynamic and energetic and knows how to get entrepreneurs excited about Sarasota. We need someone to visit Venture Capitalists, and other cities and incubators/colleges around the State. Constantly trying to get new startups, emerging growth companies to move here.

5. GET SERIOUS ABOUT TECH - A City needs to walk the walk... and we are not leading the way on being a "green/tech city". We need to invest in more tech infrastructure, broadband downtown. We need to show the world, that Sarasota can be innovative as a city.

6. BUILD A YOUNGER CULTURE - In order to retain and attract young professionals we need to build a younger culture in Sarasota. Projects like the VINYL FESTIVAL launched by the HuB do exactly this - it reaches out to the entrepreneur, artist, young professional and shows them this city acknowledges them, and has created a social side to our lifestyle.

7. BUILD PARTNERSHIPS - Start leveraging Assets in our city and build strong partnerships with other organizations along the I-4 corridor and around the State. Build relationships with UCF, UF and Disney. Extend research and development from these colleges and others into Sarasota. For example, create programs between - UF and MOTE or RINGLING and DISNEY... setup commercialization offices, and take IP to Products - create companies.

8. BRIDGE TECH AND TOURISM - Leverage our huge influx of tourists, and bombard them with tech/creative influence. Make them believe Sarasota is a tech-city and then they spread the word, or perhaps make a decision to move here. Make them want to start their next venture here - and not just vacation here.

9. EMBRACE SOCIAL MEDIA/NETWORKING - Expand on programs like EnergizeMyBiz.com which is a social network for Sarasota. Give all professionals the tools and ability to become more connected. Leverage online tools to enhance the local school system, government and other organizations to make the city more engaged, connected and efficient.

10. LAUNCH A GLOBAL MARKETING / PR CAMPAIGN - Take some money out of budget and launch an aggressive campaign to attract entrepreneurs and creative professionals to the area. Focus on areas where there is high entrepreneurial activity, and make it known to them that Sarasota wants to be their next home.

Hope someone is listening :)