----------------BY

JULIA L. +

GIA S.----------------

THE GOOGLE BUILDING CHELSEA

Basic Facts- 111 Eighth Avenue, NY, NY 10011

- Former Commerce Building of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

- 18 stories, "Googleplex East"

- takes up an entire city block

- 3rd largest NYC building by sq. footage

- 550,000 sq. ft.

- 2,000+ employees

- $1.9 billion deal

Why So Pricey?-Co-CEO of Taconic Investment Partners says Google was attracted to the building's "technology offering"

-fiber-optic cables transmitting high-speed data that lie under the building

-"fiber highway" along Eighth Ave/Hudson Street and Ninth Ave

-"one of the most vital connection points to the world's telecommunications networks"

-Houses such giants as Verizon, Sprint, Level 3 Communications, Nike, Web MD, etc.

Building Specs- Full-block sized floorplates

- 14.5 foot high ceilings

- Easy access to transportation

- Big enough to start a data center, but NYC energy costs are prohibitive

- Most of Google's data centers in rural or suburban areas

Carrier Hotel (Colocation Center)- A type of data center where equipment space and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers

-"Colocation facilities provide space, power, cooling, and physical security for the server, storage, and networking equipment of other firms - and connect them to a variety of telecommunications and network service providers"

- "Colocation facilities generally have multiple locations for fibre optic cables to enter the building, to provide redundancy so that communications can continue if one bundle of cables is damaged. Some also have wireless backup connections, for example via satellite."

Community Outreach- Google announced creation of NYC's largest contiguous free wireless Internet zone

- Region bounded by W. 19th St., Gansevoort St., Eighth Ave, and the High Line Park & Fulton Houses (public housing project)

- 2,000 low-income residents affected

- Only in public areas, not apartments

- “They know this is vital for us as a community and to help our people grow with the times” –Miguel Acevedo, (runs youth programs at Fulton Houses)

- NY Daily News claims "the digital divide just got a lot smaller -- in Chelsea and Meatpacking District at least"

-Demonstrates Google's immense power...responsibility?

- How much responsibility does Google have in providing free wi-fi to a bigger region than just Chelsea? They have the capability to provide access for a much larger area.

- Digital divide. Should free wi-fi be a public welfare service since we are in a day and age that is moving towards consumption of the Internet?

- Especially for people in the low-income housing we spoke about in previous slides, should Google have a public responsibility to grant them free wi-fi and its services?

- Technological inequalities such as the digital divide are areas which public welfare should be aiding in.

- Google has the technology to provide this service, and it would not cut into their bandwidth a significant amount. Google would also only be losing a small profit from their billion dollar company.

- Companies that have a tremendous amount of influence should be held to some sort of standards regarding responsibility towards the larger population.

http://www.datacentermap.com/usa/new-york/new-york/111-eight-avenue.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/free-wifi-chelsea-thanks-google-article-1.1235508

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/12/22/it-is-official-google-just-bought-one-of-new-yorks-biggest-buildings/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2010/12/googles_19_billion_office_buil.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20101231104059/http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/12/03/wsj-google-has-bought-111-8th-avenue/

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