Google Fiber efforts off-track, bloggers say : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — When the city began its effort to sell Greensboro as a test ground for the Google Fiber project, there was no mistaking the enthusiasm online.

Tweets were tweeted, Facebook groups launched, and the city’s many blogs lit up like a tilted pinball machine.

Everyone wanted to be part of bringing ultra-high-speed broadband to the city, enabling Internet speeds up to 100 times faster than regular broadband.

Two weeks later, many of the project’s most vocal supporters say the city has shunned help from the online community — and that could blow Greensboro’s chances.

“I think (the city) has been tone-deaf to something unique,” said Roch Smith Jr., a Web designer and blogger whose Greensboro101 site aggregates blogs. “We have a blogging and independent media-making core in the city that I think would be an advantage.”

Much of the criticism centers on the city’s hiring of RLF Communications, an award-winning local marketing firm that handled the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum here.

RLF created a simple blog using entry-level design, something some people felt could have been done for free by amateurs. RLF charged the city $1,000 to create the site and $2,000 to maintain and update it this month. That’s just one part of a $10,000 marketing budget.

Critics say that’s too much for what the city got.

Smith admits he wanted to build the site himself but said he would have supported RLF’s online efforts — if they’d been good.

On his blog (www.roch101.blogspot.com) Smith has called RLF’s online efforts “amateur.” He has pointed to grammatical errors and poor formatting for some Internet browsers .

On Wednesday, a spokesman from RLF referred questions to city staff and leaders but said the company is working on a full-scale marketing effort.

Darryl Jones, the city’s information technology director, said he has heard the criticism and wants bloggers to be involved, but he wishes there were more focus on the positive.

The Web site is just one piece of RLF’s marketing effort, which likely will extend to billboards, celebrity endorsements and heavy real-world marketing, he said.

Ryan Shell, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council last year, said he would have lent his marketing skill for free.

After the city’s first open meeting, Shell said he proposed a second — a meeting that everything that could be done to lure Google was being done. Shell said that meeting never happened.

“I think that could have brought a lot of people together,” he said.

Sue Polinsky, a blogger and owner of TechTriad, a Web design and Web-hosting company, said she has been watching the process, and although it had a shaky start, she has been troubled by online negativity toward RLF.

Everyone wants to land Google, she said. People shouldn’t be fighting for control or credit. They should be working together.

“People forget it’s a team effort,” Polinsky said. “Everyone can do something positive. But fighting if it’s not all done your way — that’s the kind of small-time thinking that is going to hurt us in the long run.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com

ryanshell

March 11, 2010 - 7:06 am EST

Joe,

I thought I'd elaborate a little bit about that "second meeting" for your online readers. The purpose of the meeting would have been to:

- Bring all interested parties, and their resources together
- Discuss what is currently in the works (if anything)
- Brainstorm ideas on how to make Greensboro stand out (this should be a creative period where ideas are exchange and open conversation is had)
- Discuss deliverables and what next steps are

There's a bit more detail here: http://greensboropolitics.com/another-google-public-meeting.

I agree with Sue about negativity towards RLF - their a good group of folks.

I also agree that people should be working together. We seem to have an energized group of folks that want to help, but no one is steering the ship and engaging the creativity.

On another note, any word if the Greensboro Coliseum will be renamed the Google Arena to get some attention during the ACC Tournament? :)

Ryan
www.ryanshell.com

lexalexander

March 11, 2010 - 7:55 am EST

I think the N&R could provide a useful service by developing some sort of chart or graphic that would include all the main features that any online recruiting effort should include and that would compare how well Greensboro and the other cities in the running execute, or do not execute, on each of these features -- not just a Web site, but each community's entire cybereffort.

Joekillian

March 11, 2010 - 9:00 am EST

Ryan:

Thanks for the extra input. I had 15 inches to get all this across and though I tried to include everyone's perspective much of what everyone had to say had to be extremely abridged.

jmoffat

March 11, 2010 - 9:54 am EST

Joe -- while I understand the space limitations, that's a lazy excuse -- especially considering this story is much more important to the online edition than the print edition. Write two stories, one for print and one for online. Or just write the story and then snip what can fit into the print edition, plugging the rest online. Yeah, you might have to smooth a transition or two, but I'm sure you talked to more than three people who had viable opinions about this and could have provided more depth to this story.

Especially considering the audience for this particular story -- your bloggers and online subscribers -- you should have provided them more. They're the ones fueling this Google fire.

March 11, 2010 - 10:25 am EST

Jmoffat:

I had another story to write yesterday and another to finish up today -- but I take your point. I'll take some quotes and outtakes from the story and put them up on our Inside Scoop blog for those who'd like to see.

rooster8786

March 11, 2010 - 11:03 am EST

Excuses, excuses, excuses. If you're a "reporter" report. If you're a writer, write. If you're lazy, admit it. For a story about Google and the be all/end all savior they are supposed to be for all that is wrong with Greensboro, you would think you would "dig" into the facts about what GSO needs, has, and can provide. Maybe a compare and contrast, with a little investigation, where GSO stands against other vying for this wonderful opportunity. And FYI, a tilted pinball machine does not light up, it goes dark and shuts off.

mumbarger

March 11, 2010 - 2:01 pm EST

Thanks for the laugh this morning. As a colleague of Joe's, I can tell you that he is the exact opposite of lazy, and anyone who knows him and sees what he does on a daily basis would agree.

Joe Killian

March 11, 2010 - 2:09 pm EST

Let me say this up front and without reservation:

Not being a pinball wizard myself the entirety of my research into tilted pinball machines was one in my grandmother's bar in Greenport, Long Island when I was a kid. That one (which I believe was "Rocky" themed and may have been replaced with an "Adams Family" one when that film came out) did indeed light up, make a lot of noise and act crazy but otherwise become completely useless when it was tilted.

I have been informed by a number of people since this morning's paper came out that while they have heard of this happening with some pinball machines the vast majority of them simply go dead or light up just a "TILT" sign at the top.

To any pinball enthusiasts who I may have offended with this generalization let me offer my deepest apologies.

March 11, 2010 - 3:19 pm EST

Joe -- please know that I wouldn't describe your work as "lazy", just the excuse. And as a pinball aficionado, it depends on the type of machine you're playing. Some do, in fact, light up.

Illiterati

March 11, 2010 - 10:04 pm EST

+1 to Killian.

overmonk

March 11, 2010 - 9:58 am EST

"Darryl Jones, the city’s information technology director, said he has heard the criticism and wants bloggers to be involved, but he wishes there were more focus on the positive.

The Web site is just one piece of RLF’s marketing effort, which likely will extend to billboards, celebrity endorsements and heavy real-world marketing, he said."

No offense intended, but this approach is simply obtuse. Google is the single largest purveyor of ONLINE advertising, and our city's IT Director wants to use billboards? Celebrities? And this is the big plan? Google AdWords and Google Analytics are the two most effective online marketing tools ever invented, but rather than show even a modest understanding of new media marketing, we're going to do essentially put an ad in the back of Rolling Stone? Are we also going to program our webpages with COBOL?

This is embarrassing. Look, Mr. Jones, if you want bloggers involved, set up a blog and let us contribute. We know this technology pretty well, we can really help! And we want Google Fiber more than you, trust us. It'd be easy - Greensboro pays for the web hosting (or ask for it to be donated), and then solicit wordpress designs in a 7 day competition, recruit volunteer moderators/editors (grammar /typos only) and let us tear it up.

I really don't mean you any insult, but if this is the whole plan, but you really need our help.

sciolist

March 11, 2010 - 2:26 pm EST

I have to agree with overmonk on promoting the city through Google's tools and services. Buzz, Wave, Groups, Blogger, etc... should all be used to promote the city.

As many of the bloggers here know Google purchased Blogger sometime back. googlegreensboro.com was created in WordPress. Let's please pay attention to the services we're using to promote Greensboro.

newtogso

March 11, 2010 - 12:48 pm EST

I'm confused. Are bloggers the only ones that will use this google fiber. They certainly act like it. If they want to lead, set up a parallel effort and stop wasting time chastising RLF and the City for what they are doing. Matter of fact, the more efforts the better...who care if it is centralized by the City?

March 12, 2010 - 1:14 pm EST

@newtogso - while I am a blogger, my interest in Google Fiber has nothing to do with blogging, which is really a very low bandwidth endeavor. And my interest in castigating RLF and out City's IT leadership has a lot to do with the shape of the Internet as it is vs. the shape it would appear to have vis a vis their efforts. Speaking frankly, and any number of social media marketers would agree with me, their efforts are the equivalent of choosing leeches over laproscopic surgery. It's not that we want to undermine their efforts; far from it. We want them to be successful, we REALLY WANT them to succeed, but right now, what they're offering up won't even make a first round cut.

To the point. We're wooing the interest of a tech company who specializes in online advertising and search engines. And we're using, quite literally, their competing blogging product, celebrity endorsements, and billboards. All that's missing is a NASCAR team ad. With all due respect to my racing fan neighbors - we're going to be a laughing stock in Mountain View.

citywatcher

March 11, 2010 - 2:05 pm EST

It certainly appears that the infighting is all over who get the credit for attracting google. There are people who want to be in the spot light and say they played an important role in attracting google. I think we all need check our egos, work together to get this done. Otherwise the infighting is just going to cause Google to look some where else.

March 12, 2010 - 1:18 pm EST

@citywatcher - I don't see this as infighting at all. I'd happily do what I can to contribute with as much anonymity as the web offers me. My only issue is that I feel quite strongly that the efforts being rolled out are tried-and-true bricks-and-mortar advertising techniques brought to bear on the single largest purveyor and proponent of new media e-commerce and marketing.

We're bringing a knife to a gun fight. I doubt we'll even be considered with these efforts.

Ross Myers

March 11, 2010 - 2:25 pm EST

If I recall Action Greensboro had been primed to foot the RLF bill with private funds...till the checkbook snapped shut for some reason moving the bill over to the taxpayers.

That aside, now that its ours we need to use it.

Lex that's a good idea. Getting a larger perspective on what other communities are doing can only strengthen our efforts....maybe we could even get Roch to consider adding some National feeds to his Goole4GSO also.

There are a lot of good ideas already out there falling off Facebook pages, scattered across blogs and buried in comment boxes. Let's pull them together.

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