Campus News in Brief

Google Fiber in Pittsburgh

This Friday is the deadline for city and county governments to express interest and submit proposals for the new Google high-speed network. This innovative experimental fiber-optic network can achieve speeds of up to 100 times current cable, DSL, and fiber-optic networks with a delivery speed of one gigabit per second.

According to Carnegie Mellon University president Jared Cohon and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, the cities must show that they have the interest and resources to support Google’s project, and the website www.pittsburghgoesgoogle.com. The competition to attract Google’s attention is wide ranging, spanning 80 cities and 200 Facebook groups, as individuals and companies alike try to gain the network that could almost instantaneously download any book in the Library of Congress, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Google, which plans to select winners by the end of the year, announced the Google Fiber for Communities Program on Feb. 10, and will charge competitive rates to a demographic spanning 50,000 to 500,000 people, all while paying for the costs of installation and operation of the network. Citizens, businesses, and universities are encouraged to visit the website and show their support for the city of Pittsburgh.

Skinner joins history project

Kiron K. Skinner, an associate professor in the department of social and decision sciences in H&SS, was appointed to the Advisory Board for the George W. Bush Oral History Project as one of two historians. Skinner is also the director of the International Relations and Politics Program and has served on the National Security Education Board, on the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Policy Board as an Iraq and Afghanistan war advisor, and on the National Academies Committee on Behavioral and Social-Science Research to Improve Intelligence Analysis for National Security.

The Oral History Project aims to study the life of Bush, the 43rd President, especially through the White House years, as an oral history for the Miller Center of Public Affairs in the University of Virginia. The Miller Center is the only one in the country that documents the lives of former presidents. In addition to Skinner, members of the Advisory Board include Karl Rove and Mark Langdale (president of the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation).

Skinner co-authored The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin and authored Turning Points in Ending the Cold War, as well as five other works.