Further Exploring the Gig

Organized by US Ignite and Google Fiber, the Gigabit Explorer Challenge threw down the gauntlet for developers to aim sky high in creating applications that would fully leverage gigabit fiber. It was held on November 2-3, 2013, at the Google Fiber Space in Kansas City, Missouri, and drew teams from the previous Hacking the Gigabit City March 2013 hackathon as well as new ones.

Watch a video recap of the event:

Health Care

• Develop health data access strategies, such as that proposed in this Knight Foundation grant application
• Leverage or support our local expertise in gene sequencing using high bandwidth and local cloud resources
• Create a deidentified database of complex medical images for better research and predictive treatment solutions
• Use high quality videoconferencing experiences to provide greater access to mental health services
• Use real-time collaborative virtual environments to encourage active youth and reduce childhood (or adult) obesity

Education

• Develop an in-class curriculum for CIZZLE, using real-time Curiosity rover data to help students model produce collaborative 3D models to support human life on Mars.
• Connect learning experiences inside and outside the classroom using OpenPath, and allow students to share their unique educational experiences with other students.
• Use instantaneous voice recognition software to support Mayor James’ Turn the Page initiative in support of grade level reading.
• Explore the idea of collective learning experiences, imagining what MOOCs look like in a gigabit environment.

Other Areas

• Start the development of a video wiki for KC that enables community members to contribute short videos as explanations to understand next-gen app development and draw upon existing content
• Walk through Kansas City wearing Google Glass and GG recognizes the buildings or surroundings and gives you historical information relevant to the location or use it for similar function at a KC museum (e.g. Steamboat Arabia museum?)
• Online Gaming – rendering, server farms, level testing, distributed processing, and live streaming – all are huge potential opportunities
• Use streaming video to help improve public safety and emergency response

Technology Brainstorm

• Can we create a Kansas City supercomputer using distributed processing power and if so, what problems can that be used to address?
• Are there big data sets, analyses and applications that can be better used as we offload processing to the cloud?
• Beyond literacy help, what other applications are there for seamless, immediate voice recognition technology?
• Everyone knows video hogs bandwidth…what kinds of multiple, bidirectional streaming applications spark your imagination?