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Unity - My experience with gov/non profit groups

August 8th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Frustration
A personal rant…

Like Mike, I’m very concerned about Michigan. I’ve been trying to be a good citizen by helping rather than simply complaining but I’m getting very frustrated by my limited experience with government and non-profits that attempt to help the situation. I don’t mean to disrespect those involved. The people I’ve met through my involvement in these organizations have been some of the brightest people I’ve known. However, despite all of our best intentions and energies, I have personally observed almost zero tangible positive results. (with a few rare exceptions)

The other day I was notified that a new IT organization called ConnecTech is coming to Lansing and they would like someone from our organization to serve on their board. I’m sure ConnecTech is a fine organization with lots of people with great intentions, but what about the 3 other “IT Groups” in Lansing with nearly identical highfalutin goals and almost zero budget?

The Capital Area IT Council, LINC, ITEC, in my mind, all share a very similar goals. To a lesser extent, LEAP, Prima Civitas, The Lansing Chamber of Commerce, Capital Area Michigan Works, GLUGG, MEDC, SBAM, all too share similar goals. My frustration is that I get asked to join more organizations than I get to see tangible positive results from my participation in said organizations. Why can’t these organizations unite and make a real substantive change? We are past the point where band-aid solutions will fix Lansing. Government is not going to fix Lansing. Only we, the engaged public, can fix Lansing.

Some would argue that each of these organizations serves a unique purpose and mission and that more people working on the problem will provider greater results sooner. I dismiss this argument now that I have seen how it works first hand.

One of the primary inefficiencies of the multitude of nearly identical programs is that each one of these organization spends a significant amount of its resources on two key items 1. Growing Membership 2. Increasing Revenues. This accounts for 90-95% of our work in some of the organizations I’ve participated in. That means 90% of the time we were NOT furthering our stated goal, just fueling the bureaucracy. And since most of the revenue comes from government and private charity, it means that government is using your tax dollars to finance multiple organization’s with duplicate missions with almost no regard for tangible results.

My desire as a tax payer and a private corporate sponsor of many of these organizations would be that they unite and focus on results based programs utilizing collective input from our incredibly small Lansing “IT market”. This community is so small that we should be careful to avoid dividing it, and that is the result of multiple organizations. Lansing is the past the point where small changes are going to make an impact. In my opinion, if these organizations don’t unite they are all just polishing the brass on the titanic. It’s all going down.




3 Ideas to focus on for Lansing:

- Excite our population about Science and Math, you can start by requiring Science and Math teachers to have a background in their subject matter. An English philosophy major shouldn’t be teaching Physics.
- Lower and simplify corporate taxation rates for all companies, stop picking winners with complicated tax incentive programs like MEGA and Invest Michigan.
- Stop supporting GM and the UAW. Stop making excuses for both of them. GM hasn’t innovated in years and the UAW is protecting a monopoly. Give it up guys.

my.02.

→ 2 CommentsTags: Politics · Blogroll

(Video) New Liquid Web Data Center Tour Video

July 31st, 2008 · 2 Comments

This video was completely made in house by Jason Grasshoff and myself at Liquid Web. We focused on making a highly professional data center tour utilizing only in house resources and controlling the presentation and editing completely. We used a jib arm and a dolly for almost every single shot, providing a high quality feel to the production. The audio was done by Les Wooten who has been featured on the History Channel and many other well known stations.

Take a look at the finished product and let me know what you think.

→ 2 CommentsTags: Blogroll

Forecastfox, best firefox add-on eva.

July 16th, 2008 · No Comments

I <3 Forecastfox.

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Liquid Web Ground Breaking of DC3

June 29th, 2008 · 7 Comments


The Liquid Web ground breaking event (video above) included a five minute tour of the two existing liquid web data centers, a brief presentation by Matt and then some words from Governor Jennifer Granholm. On stage are former mayor, and all around amazing guy, David Hollister and Delta Township Supervisor Joe Drolett. In the crowed were Representatives Rick Jones and Joan Bauer. I wish I had the memory to list everyone that attended.

Below is a playlist of four of ten (that I know of) resulting broadcast press clips from Fox 47, NBC 10, ABC 53, and CBS 6.

Links to Print and Online Coverage:
The Michigan Business Beat Chris Holman interviews Matt and I. (Edited down to the Liquid Web Portion)


Lansing State Journal:
LSJ 6/29/08
LSJ 5/28/08

Data Center
Knowledge
Web Host Industry Review
Jennifer Granholm Blog
Tier1Research (main industry publication)
Governor Granholm’s Twitter
Governor Grahnolm’s Blog
Capital Gains Magazine
Holt Community News
Delta Community News
Web Hosting Blog

Images:
Presenting
Presenting
Governor Granholm
Shot from upstairs
Gregg and Granholm
Granholm and I

Liquid Web DC3 Event Page

→ 7 CommentsTags: Personal · Video · Politics · LiquidWeb · Blogroll

Follow up to how I broke my phone, LoveSeat Scooter tow

June 11th, 2008 · 1 Comment

→ 1 CommentTags: Blogroll

Broken Phone

June 11th, 2008 · No Comments




Broken Phone

Originally uploaded by BigTravMan

This is what too much fun at work looks like… totally worth it.

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Feb 2008 - Bush “hadn’t heard gas will hit $4 a gallon”

June 9th, 2008 · No Comments

You’d think that one advantage of having an oil tycoon for a president would be that no matter how stupid he is at least he would have accurate information regarding the oil industry. Yet, no.

Why should we continue to trust his rhetoric?

→ No CommentsTags: Politics

PR: “Liquid Web Soon to Announce New Multi Million Dollar World Headquarters Location”

May 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

LANSING, MICHIGAN: May 23, 2008
Liquid Web Inc, Michigan’s largest web hosting and data center company, is in the final stages of announcing the location for it’s brand new multi million dollar world headquarters facility. The new 90,000 square foot facility will have power and bandwidth capacity to support 25,000 additional managed dedicated servers and several hundred additional highly skilled technical employees.

Liquid Web will announce the complete details of their new World Headquarters at a invitation only press conference in the coming weeks. For more details on the press conference, please email tstoliker (@) liquidweb.com”

Liquid Web World Headquarters

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Eric Schmidt Google CEO on Cloud Computing

May 9th, 2008 · No Comments

Good presentation on Schmidt’s vision for cloud computing and Google’s recent partnership with IBM.

→ No CommentsTags: Video

Happy April Fools Day - Worst Day on the Internet

April 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment

Beware of trickery on the interwebs today.

→ 1 CommentTags: Blogroll