IFSS Land - Latest Comments

Re: Speaking

Dscheberle — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:14:08 -0000

There is so much silence on this website. Have you been abroad?

Re: City of Austin Website Controversy

ianstrainseymour — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:51:50 -0000

It is ironic, but not atypical. Just as many of the rules and lessons of word of mouth marketing are being relearned b the social commerce set, so are many of the rules of grass roots and neighbourhood politics.

The folks are Responsible Growth for Northcross for example, have done a great job of using the web and social media to get their message out and to organize.

Re: City of Austin Website Controversy

Pete — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:45:23 -0000

Doesn't it seem ironic to use globalized social networking software to transcend distance in order to protest a local issue? Cool confluence, though, of distance/software/local issues.

Pete

Re: City of Austin Website Controversy

ianstrainseymour — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:29:00 -0000

For you Sam? All if forgiven.

You raised some great points. I think the comparison to the music industry is a good one. While not as sexy as the music & film industry, the technology industry is a big driving force in Austin's rise of the last 20 years.

Re: City of Austin Website Controversy

Sam Eder — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:19:11 -0000

ps- forgive the typos, no coffee for me, yet ;)

Re: City of Austin Website Controversy

Sam Eder — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:17:37 -0000

Sound like a great idea! Leave it to you to come up with something like this so quickly!

I do disagree on one point in your post, however. I think we are right to be outraged about this issue. The city, like others across the country, is facing a major budget crisis- driven in good measure by falling tax revenue. In this environment, injecting $700k in to the local interactive industry, has immediate impact on the economy and trickle down benefits to the City's coffers. There numerous studies that show that money spent with local companies has a great impact on that economy than money spend with companies elsewhere. But that isn't the only focus of our outrage.

The other issue at hand is that this decision reveals a huge disconnect between the City Council and the Austin interactive and tech communities. Why is it that an RFP of this size was a surprise to all but a handful of people in Austin? Were there townhall meetings? Did the city reach out to leaders in the Interactive community for feedback? When only 3 of the 200 plus RFPs were returned, did they reconsider the how the RFP was conducted? I think these are all valid questions to be asking our local government, especially before they spend that much on a project like a website overhaul.

Finally, given our reputation nationally, it seems almost insulting that the City would consider this selection and not reach out proactively to quell the uproar. If the City had picked a regional band out of California for its opening day celebration, they would have anticipated the firestorm and (hopefully) gotten in front of the story before it spiraled out of control. I guess our reputation as a leading city in interactive design and that reputation's impact on our local economy means very little to our city government.

Re: SMX Search Analytics?

ianstrainseymour — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:47:54 -0000

Looking forward to it to...would love to see if we can get our panel together for coffee or a drink prior to us getting onstage. When you do you get in? Maybe we could talk Monday afternoon/evening before things get going?

Re: SMX Search Analytics?

Dharmesh Shah — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:20:47 -0000

Look forward to our panel.

See you in Toronto!