Last year about this time everyone involved with broadband or technology or even anyone hoping to get involved was watching Google closely as they were making the decision of which lucky community would become the Google Gig Community. According to just about everyone’s estimation, Duluth made the shortlist – but they weren’t selected. So what happens to a town that almost make the big time. Well, according to the Duluth News Tribune, they’re doing just fine.

Attendees to the Fall Broadband Conference post-conference session led by Duluth resident and Google Gig Champion Ben Damman got to hear a lot about the process of becoming a Google Gig contender. The planning, the rousing, the excitement and some of the luck. I’ve written before about their efforts and their plans for success…

So there you have it – some of the magic beans for driving a community broadband effort: get diverse group involved, make the goal clear, communication, transparency and social media to mobilize.

The Duluth News Tribune article looks at what has happen since – and perhaps because of – the push for Google Gig.

In Duluth, the effort brought the technology community together with a common mission, Ness said. And that created business connections and an assessment of the city’s existing IT infrastructure.

“Never before has Duluth seen the sort of IT investment as we have in the past 18 months and that continues,” Ness said last week. “We are seeing a massive expansion in inter-city transmission fiber lines, several middle-mile fiber projects and Involta building Duluth’s first-tier, one-level data center. Leaders in Duluth advocated for this investment and made it happen themselves — we didn’t need Google to make it happen.”

And bringing Google Fiber to Duluth could still happen.