The A2Fiber project is coordinating the City of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan's efforts in responding to the Google Fiber for Communities solicitation:

"Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people."

Here's a sample of what some other cities around the country are doing to convince Google to install fiber in their communities.

Asheville, N.C. The city's Google Fiber Asheville. Blog Asheville gives a rundown of all of the ways you can track everyone's efforts. The Asheville Live Cam is tracking local efforts.

Boulder, Colo. The city's Boulder Fiber project is led in part by investor Brad Feld, who calls out the city's "(a) smart, well-educated population, (b) a university at the core of the city, (c) a bunch of national labs, (d) a solid legacy of tech startups, especially around storage, cable, and telecom, and (e) a strong culture of independence which was well suited to all things Internet."

Duluth, Minn. Sen. Al Franken speaks up for Duluth and reprises his role in commercials for that city as the "Duluth Answer Man" in the 1980s.

Grand Rapids, Mich. The Grand Rapids Press asks "Is the emperor wearing any clothes?" in a story by Troy Reimink. In one of the few bits of journalism that calls into question any of these efforts, he characterizes the effort as a brilliant marketing move by Google. "Cue the sound of laughter from Google execs as they pass around flaming $100 bills to light their cigars -- money they saved by having ordinary citizens do their marketing for them."

Iowa City, Iowa. The Iowa City Area Broadband Coalition is coordinating efforts in that city. They are assisted by a grassroots community effort called Iowa City 1up, which notes "Qwest offers an abysmal 7Mbps in Iowa City - Google Fiber is One Hundred Forty Six Times Faster. Google Fiber is 51.2 times faster than Mediacom's "20Mbps" service - but you'd never notice, because Mediacom internet never actually works!"

Madison, Wisc. The University of Wisconsin's Babcock Dairy produces a special "Google Fiber" flavor of ice cream, with Google colored M & M's and granola for fiber.

Edward Vielmetti has been on the internet since 1985, back when 1.5 Mbps was fast enough for an entire college campus. Reach him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com .