At noon on Tuesday, the online part of the competition will finally be over. There will be no more scoring on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, no more quizzes and no more Gigatown sign-ups.
The efforts of Gigatown campaigners online will be added up and account for 50% of each finalist's score. Each finalist will also be judged on their plan laying out what they would do if they won the Gigatown competition; this will account for the remaining half of the score.
The Gigatown winner will be announced on November 26 and will become the first city or town in New Zealand to have Gigabit speed internet, which is 10 times faster than a 100mbps ultra-fast broadband connection.
Gigatown Dunedin team leader Josh Jenkins thought Dunedin had a good chance of winning thanks to the massive efforts made by the community.
Dunedin is doing well in the battle for social media dominance. As of Tuesday, the city topped the scoreboard in all areas with 28.7% of the social media share, 6093 quiz points, and more than 28,000 sign-ups.
Our closest competitors were Nelson, which had 19,000 sign-ups and 4395 quiz points, and Gisborne, which had 24% of the social media share.
The once-mighty Wanaka, which consistently topped the scoreboard in the first round of the competition when it scored a points adjustment for population, has fallen by the wayside but still managed to hold on to 19% of the social media share, and had only slightly fewer sign-ups and quiz points than Timaru and Gisborne, despite having celebrities such as Bear Grylls supporting Wanaka's campaign.
This week, Chorus launched the registration system required for public voting on the Plan for Gig Success category, worth 15% of the plan's score.
Once voting opens on November 19, supporters will be able to log on and view each town's plan and vote. This system will be locked so only New Zealand numbers are eligible and the cellphone number can only be associated with one supporter account. Supporters will not be able to vote unless they register their cellphone.
Mr Jenkins said he was confident in Dunedin's plan which had been formed by Dunedin's Gigatown steering group based on community feedback and feedback from the Gigatown judges.
The steering group comprised Dunedin City Council staff and councillors, leaders in business and education and online specialists.
Supporters will be able to vote for any of the five towns in the finals, not restricted to voting for the centre they signed up to support.
