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Baton Rouge’s campaign to be the test site for Google Fiber continues with the launch of a new Web site — Geaux fiBR.The site, www.geauxfibr.com, was launched Wednesday. It allows Baton Rouge residents to send responses to officials about how they would use the high-speed broadband network Google is looking to test.The site gives users the option to contact Google directly or contact Baton Rouge officials through the site or social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.About 60 responses have been submitted since the site’s launch, said John Zachary, director of research at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. The number is less than expected, Zachary said, but he anticipates an increase as word-of-mouth publicizes the site.”I don’t think it’s the fact that people don’t care or are tired of it,” Zachary said. “It’s the fact that folks aren’t aware of it quite yet. It hasn’t gone viral just yet.”The Geaux fiBR name felt right as soon as it was suggested, Zachary said.”The first impulse — and we quickly discarded them — was Baton Roogle or Google Rouge,” he said. “We wanted to find something that captures some of our cultural flair with technological feel but something that was modern.”BRAC created the community response avenue while the Office of the Mayor-President is handling the official city response. The two efforts are separate, Zachary said.”We haven’t sat down at the table with our proposal and their proposal and compared them,” he said. “We plan to do that this week and compare data.” As they complete the applications, city officials have worked with the Louisiana Technology Park, an “incubator for technology-oriented companies,” said Stephen Loy, interim president of the Technology Park.The focus of the application will be the potential Baton Rouge has for success with Fiber because of technology-based companies interested in moving the city’s economy forward, Loy said.”We’ve made a lot of steps forward, and this is just a continuation of that to keep things going in that direction,” Loy said.
Applications to Google are due Friday. Zachary said he hopes to keep up the hype after that date because no one knows when or how Google will make its decision.”I hope once the 26th comes and goes — that’s really a start of discussion about this, not the end of it,” Zachary said. “It would be great to keep the momentum on this topic not just in Baton Rouge but around the state.”—–Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]