It wasn’t at a press conference or inside the Inquirer
editorial boardroom. The city’s announcement to join the rush for Google’s
ultra-high speed fiber broadband came during a few minutes of a
presentation, backed by dense slides at a technology community event
inside a rock venue.
“Let’s light this joint up,” city Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank said, throwing his hands in the air and walking off stage at the fifth Ignite Philly, seemingly surprised by the cheers and laughs the slide earned.
The announcement at Johnny Brenda’s last night, a bar filled with mostly 20 and 30-somethings, came 10 months after Frank first unveiled his $100 million city technology investment vision to Refresh Philly, another young, hip, technology community event staple. Technically Philly urged continued involvement by the community and Frank and, in many ways, that’s continued.
The decision marks something of a marriage between likely the city’s two most prominent officials whom have hands in the region’s technology community: the son of a former mayor and, as City Councilman Bill Green put it last night, “the baddest ass CTO of any city, Allan Frank.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: Philadelphia to apply for Google’s experimental ultra-high speed broadband — Technically Philly
Author: Christopher Wink
