When Topeka Became Google (and Google Became Topeka)
Think Big Topeka, the 2010 Google Fiber Campaign
Long before I was focused on cloud infrastructure and IT support, I was deep in Topeka's local online community scene. This is the story of one of the wildest weeks in Topeka's internet history, and the part I played in it.
Think Big Topeka
In February 2010, Google announced plans to build and test an experimental, ultra-fast fiber-optic internet network in a handful of trial cities across the country. The very next day, local software company owner Jared Starkey created a Facebook group called "Bring Google's Fiber Experiment to Topeka." It grew to hundreds of members within days, and enthusiastic supporters soon started meeting in person.
The name Think Big Topeka came out of one of those early meetups — the idea being that the effort was about more than just Google, it was about the city itself. From there it grew into a core team of six, with no formal structure, boards, or hierarchy — just loose consensus and a shared enthusiasm for the city. I was one of those six, alongside Alissa Sheley, Brendan Jensen, and Jared Starkey among others.
Our biggest move: Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation temporarily and officially renaming the city “Google, Kansas” for the month of March 2010.
How Far It Went
- ▸ Grew a Facebook following of over 10,000 people
- ▸ Staged a flash mob at a Heartland Visioning community meeting, revealing Think Big Topeka t-shirts en masse
- ▸ Formed fans spelling out "GOOGLE" on the ice at a RoadRunners hockey game
- ▸ Landed national media coverage from NPR, CNN, Slashdot, and newspapers across the country
Google's April Fools' Response
A few weeks later, Google returned the favor. On April 1, 2010, Google replaced its own homepage logo with the word "Topeka" — a full April Fools' Day joke built around the city's stunt. A blog post from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, styled as the "CEO of Topeka, Inc.," explained the decision, joking that Google employees would henceforth be called "Topekans," and that the company's joint Mars colonization venture with Richard Branson would be renamed "Project Vireka" — a blend of Virgin and Topeka.
For one day, typing google.com brought up "Topeka" in the familiar multicolor logo, and the story was covered everywhere from CNN to Consumer Reports. Schmidt was careful to note the prank didn't mean Topeka had a leg up on getting picked. He was right.
The Day After
The Topeka Capital-Journal covered our reaction the evening Google's prank went live, and it captured the group's mindset well. Alissa Sheley told the paper the win belonged to the whole community, not just the core team, and that we'd already be asking ourselves how to top it the very next day.
Jared Starkey, who started the whole thing with a Facebook group the day after Google's initial announcement, put it simply: it took roughly twenty people working around the clock for six weeks, driven purely by belief that something could happen if they worked hard enough for it.
What Actually Happened With Google Fiber
Here's the part worth being straight about: Topeka's campaign was a huge cultural moment, but it didn't land the fiber directly. In March 2011, Google announced its first Google Fiber deployment would go to Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri — not Topeka.
That said, I believe Think Big Topeka's campaign played a real part in putting the state of Kansas on Google's radar in the first place. We went first, we went loud, and the national attention that followed made it a lot easier for people to picture Kansas — including Kansas City, just up the road — as a serious candidate. Without Topeka's stunt kicking off that wave of coverage, it's fair to wonder whether Google Fiber's first home would have ended up in Kansas at all.
Looking Back
Being part of the six-person core team behind Think Big Topeka, and running TopekaTweetUp alongside it, was about the same thing that drives my work today: building and supporting online communities, and using whatever skills I had to help a place I cared about get noticed. Topeka didn't get the fiber directly, but it got a moment in the national spotlight — and helped put Kansas on the map for what came next. I'm glad I got to be part of making that happen.