It’s really discouraging to read this news article in the Austin Business Journal yesterday:

The Austin City Council is set to vote this week on awarding a contract to a California company to redesign the city’s Web site.

City staff is recommending Cignex Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. be awarded the contract valued at up to $704,088.

The city council authorized staff to begin the process of redesigning the Web site in November 2007. According to background documents from the city, 228 notices were sent out to prospective Web development companies and three proposals were received back, including the one from Cignex.

City Chief of Staff Anthony Snipes said the two other companies that submitted proposals were based in Austin. However, the proposals from those two firms were both over $1.3 million, and one of the companies was later deemed non-compliant.

That’s neither smart nor cool.  In fact, it stinks. Depending on who you believe, that’s from $700K to $1.3 million NOT circulated into the local economy.  Isn’t that taxpayer money?  Are there really no other options represented anywhere the city or state than to outsource this task to California?  We think not.  Looking at the comments generated by this ABJ story, a lot of local folks who care about Austin agree this is a terrible business decision and an even worse message to send to local hardworking professionals.

You can email the mayor and city council to register your opinion here.  They vote tomorrow.

Friends are telling us that our own Ryan Krouskup has been prominently quoted in the latest issue of the Austin Business Journal. He gave a longish interview about a month ago to an ABJ reporter doing a feature on the rising profile of open source code and it’s impact on business today. You can be sure ENTERMEDIA was humbled to be contacted and glad to offer any and all insight. Unfortunately, haven’t been able to track down a copy yet or find a link on the website–just wanted to share the news.

By the way, we had a great week. Put the finishing touches on a big website we’ve been working on for a while now…landed two exciting new website projects (one an education tool build out coming to us out of Michigan, the other a website redesign for a great local law firm)…but the biggie is that we got official word we are going to be the web team of one of Austin’s finest, most respected, and largest homegrown retail institutions!  More details soon.

Enjoy what’s shaping up to be a beautiful weekend.

About midway through the locally-produced new comedy “The 2 Bobs” (written and directed by Tim McCanlies and set to debut at SXSW this Monday 3/16 @ the Paramount), there is an important plot point where the narrative flashes back to the “early days of the internet.” A montage of website stills and film clips moves quickly to the cues of an on off-screen narrator.

We were approached last year about contributing design enhancements to the fictional websites shown in the film–to make them look more like real websites of the mid-nineties and fix a few matching issues.

Bryan, our creative director, did some fine archival research, got creative, and mocked up some very authentic-looking old-school websites to present to the editing team for The 2 Bobs. We also scripted some of the transitions into and out of the flashback.  Under a tight deadline and miniscule budget, we made a little movie magic happen.  Tim McCanlies even signed off on our work.  Just goes to show you what we’re capable of.

We’re very pleased to hear that our stuff actually made the final cut (which we hear is quite good, by the way).  We’re even thanked in the closing credits.  This is so cool.  If you go see the movie during SXSW or anywhere down the line…the website stuff about the Jenni-Cam, that’s Bryan Pape’s handiwork. Good on you, Bryan.

See you at the premiere!

Austin is fortunate to have an economy driven by undeniably thoughtful, educated, honest and creative individuals.  Let’s be sure we keep it that way by supporting hometown talent and professionalism directly with our patronage.  There are so many compelling arguments why we should do so…preserving our culture…maintaining our community…cutting down on transportation cost and waste. But here’s a very simple fact: shopping at locally owned businesses puts three times the dollars into the local economy as it would if you spent the same with a national chain. That’s in good times or bad (and all the more relevant now given the grueling recession we’re all living through).  You’ve heard it said “think globally, act locally.” There might not be a more effective, more inclusive way you can personally help fix the global economy than to support your preferred local vendors.

ENTERMEDIA is a proud member of the Austin Independent Business Alliance and gladly supports, recommends, and serves our fellow Austin area businesses.