Plone and City of Austin

4 messages Options
Embed this post
Permalink
Matt Hamilton

Plone and City of Austin

Reply Threaded More More options
Print post
Permalink
I know very little about this, but know that there was some big  
contract for City of Austin's website.  Looks liek something has  
changed, but the PR looks a bit odd:

http://www.meterthis.net/
http://twitter.com/#search?q=COA

They are saying things like:

“City is scrapping prior website proposal. Will move to open  
architecture, customer-focused structure. No more Plone. New bid  
released soon"

Which seems to imply that Plone is not an open architecture.

Anyone know more about this?  Wasn't it something to do with Cignex?

-Matt

--
Matt Hamilton                                       [hidden email]
Netsight Internet Solutions, Ltd.           Understand. Develop. Deliver
http://www.netsight.co.uk                             +44 (0)117 9090901
Web Design | Zope/Plone Development & Consulting | Co-location | Hosting


_______________________________________________
Evangelism mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
spaley

Re: Plone and City of Austin

Reply Threaded More More options
Print post
Permalink
The short version is that Cignex won this bid originally. Apparently CoA issued this RFP to many, many firms and only 3 responded. The other two were Austin-based. Most people seem to think the reason so few companies responded was that Plone was a requirement and few companies have that expertise.

One of the companies that chose not to bid gave their reasoning here: http://www.trademarkmedia.com/blog/entry/my-thoughts-on-the-city-of-austin-web-site-debacle/

Cignex gave the lowest bid, so they were about to be awarded the contract pending a final vote.

Somebody in Austin made a huge deal about this on Twitter and then lots of Austin people freaked out that a $700k+ contract to redo CoA's website was going to a non-Austin-based company. The vote to award the contract was "postponed", and now they redid the entire RFP.

I think this process has been going on for well over a year, and it sounds like a pretty broken process.

More at http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/23/daily22.html

Some of the venom is clearly (and completely unfairly) pointed at Plone, likely by those who lost out on this and know nothing about Plone itself. Plone is a convenient scape goat here. Obviously Plone is as open an architecture as they come.

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM, Matt Hamilton <[hidden email]> wrote:
I know very little about this, but know that there was some big contract for City of Austin's website.  Looks liek something has changed, but the PR looks a bit odd:

http://www.meterthis.net/
http://twitter.com/#search?q=COA

They are saying things like:

“City is scrapping prior website proposal. Will move to open architecture, customer-focused structure. No more Plone. New bid released soon"

Which seems to imply that Plone is not an open architecture.

Anyone know more about this?  Wasn't it something to do with Cignex?

-Matt

--
Matt Hamilton                                       [hidden email]
Netsight Internet Solutions, Ltd.           Understand. Develop. Deliver
http://www.netsight.co.uk                             +44 (0)117 9090901
Web Design | Zope/Plone Development & Consulting | Co-location | Hosting


_______________________________________________
Evangelism mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism



--
Scott Paley | ABSTRACT EDGE

Office: 212.352.9311
Direct: 212.352.1470
Fax: 212.352.9498

Website: http://www.abstractedge.com
Blog: http://www.brandinteractivism.com

_______________________________________________
Evangelism mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
diego7

Re: Plone and City of Austin

Reply Threaded More More options
Print post
Permalink
Plone developers need to speak up here:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/29/0529webdesign.html

I think there's lot of disinformation about this bid. From the looks of it, the second-place bidder managed to whine enough to the local rag there, blaming Plone and anything else except their own incompetence. It would be sucky if in the future, other RFP writers pointed to Plone and said, "Not open source."

Gotta let these newspaper people know that they're being taken, you know? Not like papers will do simple research themselves.... you know, like visit plone.org and see "open source CMS" written at the top? Defending against these baseless attacks is of paramount importance to all Plone developers' livelihood. There's no quotes from Cignex anywhere to be found. You'd think they'd do *something* to defend themselves and/or Plone.



spaley wrote:
The short version is that Cignex won this bid originally. Apparently CoA
issued this RFP to many, many firms and only 3 responded. The other two were
Austin-based. Most people seem to think the reason so few companies
responded was that Plone was a requirement and few companies have that
expertise.

One of the companies that chose not to bid gave their reasoning here:
http://www.trademarkmedia.com/blog/entry/my-thoughts-on-the-city-of-austin-web-site-debacle/

Cignex gave the lowest bid, so they were about to be awarded the contract
pending a final vote.

Somebody in Austin made a huge deal about this on Twitter and then lots of
Austin people freaked out that a $700k+ contract to redo CoA's website was
going to a non-Austin-based company. The vote to award the contract was
"postponed", and now they redid the entire RFP.

I think this process has been going on for well over a year, and it sounds
like a pretty broken process.

More at http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/23/daily22.html

Some of the venom is clearly (and completely unfairly) pointed at Plone,
likely by those who lost out on this and know nothing about Plone itself.
Plone is a convenient scape goat here. Obviously Plone is as open an
architecture as they come.

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM, Matt Hamilton <matth@netsight.co.uk> wrote:

> I know very little about this, but know that there was some big contract
> for City of Austin's website.  Looks liek something has changed, but the PR
> looks a bit odd:
>
> http://www.meterthis.net/
> http://twitter.com/#search?q=COA
>
> They are saying things like:
>
> “City is scrapping prior website proposal. Will move to open architecture,
> customer-focused structure. No more Plone. New bid released soon"
>
> Which seems to imply that Plone is not an open architecture.
>
> Anyone know more about this?  Wasn't it something to do with Cignex?
>
> -Matt
>
> --
> Matt Hamilton                                       matth@netsight.co.uk
> Netsight Internet Solutions, Ltd.           Understand. Develop. Deliver
> http://www.netsight.co.uk                             +44 (0)117 9090901
> Web Design | Zope/Plone Development & Consulting | Co-location | Hosting
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Evangelism mailing list
> Evangelism@lists.plone.org
> http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
>



--
Scott Paley | ABSTRACT EDGE

Office: 212.352.9311
Direct: 212.352.1470
Fax: 212.352.9498

Website: http://www.abstractedge.com
Blog: http://www.brandinteractivism.com

_______________________________________________
Evangelism mailing list
Evangelism@lists.plone.org
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
Nate Aune

Re: Plone and City of Austin

Reply Threaded More More options
Print post
Permalink
imho, the following article on The Statesmen is more inflammatory than
the one you cited because it implies that the winning bidder (Cignex)
was not proposing an open source CMS (Plone).
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/business/stories/technology/05/18/0518cityweb.html?cxntlid=inform_artr

Nate

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 12:46 PM, diego7 <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> Plone developers need to speak up here:
>
> http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/29/0529webdesign.html
>
> I think there's lot of disinformation about this bid. From the looks of it,
> the second-place bidder managed to whine enough to the local rag there,
> blaming Plone and anything else except their own incompetence. It would be
> sucky if in the future, other RFP writers pointed to Plone and said, "Not
> open source."
>
> Gotta let these newspaper people know that they're being taken, you know?
> Not like papers will do simple research themselves.... you know, like visit
> plone.org and see "open source CMS" written at the top? Defending against
> these baseless attacks is of paramount importance to all Plone developers'
> livelihood. There's no quotes from Cignex anywhere to be found. You'd think
> they'd do *something* to defend themselves and/or Plone.
>
>
>
>
> spaley wrote:
>>
>> The short version is that Cignex won this bid originally. Apparently CoA
>> issued this RFP to many, many firms and only 3 responded. The other two
>> were
>> Austin-based. Most people seem to think the reason so few companies
>> responded was that Plone was a requirement and few companies have that
>> expertise.
>>
>> One of the companies that chose not to bid gave their reasoning here:
>> http://www.trademarkmedia.com/blog/entry/my-thoughts-on-the-city-of-austin-web-site-debacle/
>>
>> Cignex gave the lowest bid, so they were about to be awarded the contract
>> pending a final vote.
>>
>> Somebody in Austin made a huge deal about this on Twitter and then lots of
>> Austin people freaked out that a $700k+ contract to redo CoA's website was
>> going to a non-Austin-based company. The vote to award the contract was
>> "postponed", and now they redid the entire RFP.
>>
>> I think this process has been going on for well over a year, and it sounds
>> like a pretty broken process.
>>
>> More at http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/23/daily22.html
>>
>> Some of the venom is clearly (and completely unfairly) pointed at Plone,
>> likely by those who lost out on this and know nothing about Plone itself.
>> Plone is a convenient scape goat here. Obviously Plone is as open an
>> architecture as they come.
>>
>> On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM, Matt Hamilton <[hidden email]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I know very little about this, but know that there was some big contract
>>> for City of Austin's website.  Looks liek something has changed, but the
>>> PR
>>> looks a bit odd:
>>>
>>> http://www.meterthis.net/
>>> http://twitter.com/#search?q=COA
>>>
>>> They are saying things like:
>>>
>>> “City is scrapping prior website proposal. Will move to open
>>> architecture,
>>> customer-focused structure. No more Plone. New bid released soon"
>>>
>>> Which seems to imply that Plone is not an open architecture.
>>>
>>> Anyone know more about this?  Wasn't it something to do with Cignex?
>>>
>>> -Matt
>>>
>>> --
>>> Matt Hamilton                                       [hidden email]
>>> Netsight Internet Solutions, Ltd.           Understand. Develop. Deliver
>>> http://www.netsight.co.uk                             +44 (0)117 9090901
>>> Web Design | Zope/Plone Development & Consulting | Co-location | Hosting
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Evangelism mailing list
>>> [hidden email]
>>> http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Scott Paley | ABSTRACT EDGE
>>
>> Office: 212.352.9311
>> Direct: 212.352.1470
>> Fax: 212.352.9498
>>
>> Website: http://www.abstractedge.com
>> Blog: http://www.brandinteractivism.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Evangelism mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
>>
>>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Plone-and-City-of-Austin-tp2987460p2994858.html
> Sent from the Evangelism mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Evangelism mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
>



--
Nate Aune - [hidden email]
http://www.jazkarta.com

_______________________________________________
Evangelism mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism