Event hopes to bring more support for Google's high-speed Internet

“We fully support what the city is doing,” Ad Club President Chad Wiebesick said. “Numbers (of supporters) matter, so we’ve got to get the numbers up.”

The campaign is in response to Google’s plan to bring a fiber optic network to select cities throughout the United States. The network would be capable of processing one gigabit of data per second, which would provide Internet service that is about 100 times faster than most Americans have today.

Cities, however, must compete against each other to convince Google why they should be chosen. Pittsfield Township and Saline are other communities in Washtenaw County vying for the project.

Wiebesick said the campaign will have a 30-foot van full of laptop computers to encourage people to express their support by submitting a formal request on the project’s Web site.

He said the van will also contain video equipment to encourage people to make a short YouTube video on why Ann Arbor should receive Google’s high-speed Internet. He said volunteers will be walking around the area with smartphones to make it easier for people to create videos on the spot.

The videos will be submitted as part of A2 Fiber’s YouTube video contest, which is collecting 30-90 second videos to be submitted to Google as further evidence of the community’s support for the project. Top entries will be eligible to win prizes such as iPads, local gift certificates and a digital camera.

Wiebesick said, weather-permitting, the event will also have a Ferarri on display.

“We want to illustrate how fast Google is,” he said. “We’re going to make it fun.”

Erica Hobbs can be reached at ericahobbs@annarbor.com.