Swimming with Sharks

Richard Clapp, mayor of Sarasota, swam 

with bonnethead sharks (which eat 

only crustaceans and small fish) to interest Google.

The mayor of Duluth, Minn., threw himself into the ice-ringed waters of Lake Superior. The mayor of Sarasota, Fla., immersed himself in a tank filled with bonnethead sharks, simply to one-up him. The mayor of Wilmington, N.C., said that he would even jump out of an airplane — with a parachute, of course.

... Google’s offer of a network with speeds of one gigabit per second, or 100 times faster than many of today’s high-speed connections, could be a great selling point for a recession-plagued town. Newspaper.

Hi-Speed Internet has support in Sarasota

SARASOTA COMMUNITY SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ULTRA HIGH-SPEED INTERNET

Sarasota, FL: A community effort is underway to bring an experimental ultra high-speed internet service to Sarasota, and you can show your support for it. Google plans to launch a test system in a select few locations in the United States for a fiber network with unprecedented speed. The experimental system would provide internet connections 100 times faster than what most Americans currently use, according to information released by Google.

Google is asking municipalities throughout the nation to submit information about their communities via a Request for Information (RFI), which will be used to determine where the experimental networks will be built. Civic groups can also nominate their community. A group of community leaders within Sarasota is working to provide the requested information to Google by the deadline Fri., March 26, 2010.

To learn more about the fiber network project visit here and here.

To show support for Sarasota becoming one of Google's test markets, become a fan of I Want Google Fiber in Sarasota on Facebook.

Jan Thornburg
City of Sarasota
Public Information Officer
941-954-2613
941-650-9693 (Cell)
941-954-4113 (Fax)