by FERN SHEN

Google has dangled a prize and Baltimore’s tech community is throwing every bit of bandwidth they’ve got at it -– the search engine behemoth wants to wire a couple of trial locations in the U.S. with what would be one of the fastest Internet connections in the world.

Since Google announced this project a couple of weeks ago,  local tech entrepreneurs have hastily assembled a campaign, BmoreFiber, to make Baltimore’s case.

Becoming a demo site for Google would be a huge “get” for whatever city is chosen: the company would spend millions to lay web-to-doorstep fiber optic cable to 50,000 or more people.

Thrilled to be shaking Baltimore’s civic bootie at Google, instead of its fists at Comcast or Verizon, local business and government leaders (see video above) have hopped on board in droves, adding their political and financial muscle to the pitch.

The Brew caught up with BmoreFiber organizer David Troy, of Roundhouse Technologies, to get answers to some questions people might have about the effort.

Why is everybody so excited about this?

It would represent a quantum leap forward in terms of what’s possible here, what kind of web access individuals and companies and educational institutions could expect. It would be tremendously helpful for moving data, movies, 3-D medical images all kind of material very, very quickly. And it would just really put Baltimore on the map, attracting  more tech companies and entrepreneurs and innovation. This would definitely be an economic development boost for the city.

How fast would Google fiber be?

Google says it will be 1 gigabit per second, which is 20 to  100 times faster than what most people use today.

How much support do you have so far? 

We went from having nothing two weeks ago to about 600 people on the website and about the same number on Facebook,” Troy said Friday. “We’ve got 75 institutions and businesses that have put their imprimatur on it. And we’ve got a meeting set up at City Hall on Monday at 5 pm with the major stakeholders.

Getting government on board is important because Google is looking for a friendly regulatory environment and supportive local government. I’ve been extremely impressed with the level of interest from city officials. I had thought with the snow and the transition to a new administration it might be hard to get their attention, but it wasn’t.

What are you doing for money?

There’s no real money it it. I kicked in a little for some Facebook costs, but that’s it. There’s a volunteer who’s an experienced grant writer who’s helping us prepare the document.

Who are some of the main organizers?

Robert Wray (a co-founder) of MP3Car, Heather Sarkissian (also of MP3Car) and Jon Lesser, among many others.

Are neighborhoods contacting you, hoping to be included? Is there a lobbying effort within the lobbying effort?

The Patterson Park and Charles Village associations have expressed an interest. There are neighborhoods with maybe the most fit, as far as demographics and diversity. They do have a decent mix of hipsters and techies and folks who are disadvantaged and could benefit from this.

Won’t Google favor some of the more techie places that have applied, like Seattle or Madison, Wis., Baltimore?

 You would think Google would want to put this in not-the-same-old-places.

Doesn’t Baltimore have some major shortcomings, nevertheless? Verizon now is coming right out and saying they’re not going to be bringing (their high-speed Internet fiber-optic network) FiOS to the city. Not any time soon, anyway. Won’t the things that are stopping Verizon from coming to Baltimore, our old infrastructure or whatever their issues are, be a problem for Google too?

My understanding is, these problems evolved as a result of historic franchise agreements with other providers. Our purpose is not to cast stones. Competition is good.

 This would be a clean slate with respect to regulatory issues, in part because Google’s making the network “open access.” (That means numerous service providers can use and manage the systems. People could choose from any of those independent providers.)

As for infrastructure problems, it used to be very difficult to route cables but there has been a lot learned about that. There have been some other advances in figuring out ways to cram more raw data on fiber optic cables.

Any other videos up yet besides the one from Alonso?

We’ve received several and there is talk of getting one from the mayor.

Did Google set a deadline?

March 26.

How do I get involved?

There’s the website , plus a Facebook page, Twitter and Google group. Here’s Google’s site on the subject.