Give Google credit -- the company's plan to test a high-speed fiber-optic network connecting 50,000 homes or more somewhere in America is shining a spotlight on small-town municipal politics.
First, the mayor of Topeka, Kansas ceremonially declared the city renamed to Google, Kansas for the month in order to publicize and support that city's efforts to land the deal.
Not to be outdone, Duluth, Minnesota Mayor Don Ness has created a "viral" video for that city's effort to "suck up" to the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant. He's calling the plan "Google Twin Ports."
His plan: The first-born children of Duluth will be henceforth renamed "Google Fiber" and "Googlette Fiber," respectively.
Being Minnesota, Ness introduces the video as a "parody," lest anyone suffering from a raging case of irony deficiency get the wrong idea about the proposal:
Note to Ness: Nobody outside of Duluth knows what you look like, and had the video been released without explanation, some publications would have been naive enough to believe you. And that's how a real "viral" sensation is born!
In other words, the next town to come out of the woodwork begging for Google-funded broadband, commit to the joke! (I'm looking at you, Ellensburg, Washington, with your abundant hydro-electric power and quality state school.)
Jackson West is thinking about starting a blog with nothing but hilarious small-town news items.
