Gigabit City recap: Google is giving a sandbox, but will Kansas City bring its toys?

So I’m at the Central Library last night to hear all of the ideas that came out of the all-day Google fiber brainstorming session. A bunch of folks are here, too, eager to hear the ideas. And some of the ideas are great, like using the high-speed Internet connections to stream video of lectures for students. No more buffering means you won’t lose today’s ADD kids (or, at least, that’s the idea). And some of them aren’t so great.

So what’s the take-away from last night? You can see for yourself in the video above, which was shot by our friends at the library. But really, the brainstorming session was mostly to put the ideas out in the world with the hope that the right people will take ’em and run with ’em. Will it happen? I’m cynical, and for all the talk about helping the urban core, I have a hard time seeing how high-speed Internet will help people who don’t have Internet connections or computers, let alone know how to use a computer. But I’m hopeful.