Students get a bad rep around Gainesville sometimes for throwing a metaphorical four-year party, trashing the place because we don’t have to live with the resulting mess. You’ll hear this when any vote on taxes does or doesn’t pass, when discussing student driving habits or when we throw the parties that land us among the top 5 party schools.
But all 50,000 of us have an opportunity today to fight this image by giving back to the community, in a politically neutral way, without spending a single cent of our beer money: convince Google to build the nation’s fastest Internet network in Gainesville.
The “contest” began when Google began its search for a town between 50,000 and 500,000 people (Gainesville: about 117,000) to test its new network, which would allow you to download the contents of a DVD in about 5 seconds.
What else it means will take a lot of imagination, as that increase is about 100 times faster than what we’re using now. Already, the best minds at UF, Shands and in Gainesville’s business community are dreaming up ways to use this technology. If you belong to a club, play Internet video games or take online courses, we’re sure you can come up with awesome ideas, too.
With online start-ups, such as Grooveshark already based in Gainesville, it’s easy to imagine new tech job opportunities springing up here. By helping to better Gainesville, we might create more jobs.
If this sounds good, visit Gig4Gvn.com for a list of easy ways to get involved. The contest ends in less than two weeks, so get a move on making “Go Gators” go faster.
