Kansas City has had gigabit connectivity for a while now, but there’s still work to be done finding out how the community and its entrepreneurs can best harness the potential.
Next Thursday, Feb. 13, Mozilla will re-launch Building the Gigabit City 2.0 downtown at the Kansas City Public Library, partnering with KC Digital Drive and others to “develop and experiment with education and workforce development opportunities on next-gen networks,” according to the event’s Eventbrite page.
KC Digital Drive managing director Aaron Deacon, who helped spearhead the first event more than two years ago, said there’s been a lot of unnecessary hesitation at the viability of gigabit networks.
“There seems to be a culture of ‘Well, there’s no business fiber offering’ or ‘We don’t really need a gig for our startup’ that ignores the brand-new market of institutional and home users with advanced connectivity that KC entrepreneurs have a first crack at,” he said.
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It’s an all-day event that will pair technologists with educators and community leaders, but Deacon said he’s really hoping to get those community leaders there in the morning to set the table for the day, then have the technologists and educators participate in the afternoon workshop. It all wraps up with a reception.
Mozilla, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, is launching a $150,000 Gigabit Community Fund toward innovation in education and workforce development in Kansas City, with the event acting as a catalyst to create impactful pilot projects.
“We’ll have a lot of teachers and non-formal educational practitioners at this event, working on projects now and through the year, who can conceptualize what effective apps or projects might be in the classroom,” Deacon said. “But they lack the technical know-how to implement or in some cases see what’s possible. Connecting with the technical community will help that.”
The group is looking to get technologists involved, but not just as a charitable endeavor. Despite the program being early-stage piloting, Deacon believes many of the ideas will have commercial viability.
The event is free and open to the public. Participants can sign up for either just the morning session—9 a.m. to noon—or an all-day session, which includes lunch, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a reception.
For more details, visit the event’s Eventbrite page.
