Are we creating a bridge or a fiasco?

"This is not a bridge project," began the Bridging the Gaps event. "This is a light rail project with some other things thrown in for political cover."

Saturday, the first sunny day of the season, an eager, albeit light, audience ambled into the auditorium at LifePoint Church. When attendees settled into their seats, the event launched with a non-edited approach to bridges, tolls, politicians, government entities and vendors.

Tri-Met was held up to scrutiny using Tom Sawyer-esque comparisons. Their participation was described as an enterprising boy chomping on a crunchy apple, while everyone else paints the fence, i.e., Tri-Met intends to pay for nothing on this project, including pieces planned for the their side of the border. Yes, Washington State's responsibility includes funding the connecting pieces inside Oregon. The project's funding was described as 'novel.'

Light rail received a bashing. Tom Hann, from We The People, noted, "As long as rail is part of it, it is never going to be a cost effective alternative." He raised up other options: update and repair the I-5 bridge, consider third, fourth and even fifth bridges. Additional river crossing points were pointed to as making sense for the long term. "They incorporate redundancy into a system" that will need more than two options when earthquakes occur.

Tolls were uncharacteristically embraced. "Everywhere else in the economy user fees--pay as you go--is the way the economy works." Speakers also were quick to note, that tolls only makes sense, and are only beneficial to consumers, when consumers have choices.

The audience clapped at the video “CRC: Project cost comparison,” featuring third bridge proponent David Madore. Madore's final video question, "Is the CRC Project sky high or what?" elicited audience chuckles.

Madore's second visual, a virtual rendering of a proposed 192nd Avenue Bridge, gave him the opportunity to dispel the anti-bridge label that the media has pegged him with. “I am for a 192nd Ave Bridge," he stated. He encouraged the audience to take action. "The solution is for us to get engaged. We cannot leave it to those who want to come in and only sell services. We are the customers. We need to participate in the solution." His solution proposed that private industry be tapped to build bridges, saying they build "much more effectively than government."

Joe Cortright, known for the Cortright report, talked about the cost of the project. "Closer to $10 Billion," and not the $3.8 to $3.9 Billion that’s been widely discussed. "The initial price, $3.9 Billion, is only realistic if you could presumably walk in and buy the bridge, or pay for it outright." His PowerPoint showed the CRC project is predicated on very large borrowing, on tolls, surcharges, fees to operate light rail, and the cost to correct critical choke points inside Oregon, such as those at the Rose Quarter.

A project that involves extreme complexity and must pass through the political hands of eight government agencies was boiled down to its simplest terms during an animated feature (embedded above). Children's voices combined with flying seagulls gave a birds eye view of the Columbia River and the two current bridges. The description of the light rail train traveling no faster than the cars stuck in track erupted in chuckles and claps from the audience.

While a sunny day burst with warmth and frenzied activity outside, a half dozen more speakers and one country singer engaged the group that sat in the dark auditorium. The not to be missed moment, was the numbers person. The longest spontaneous applause and loudest hoots came during the forensic auditor's presentation.

When was the last time an accountant made you want to stand up and clap?

Video of the event will be available mid-week on couv.com.

Editors Note: The author is employed at couv.com, a corporation owned by David Madore.

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Carol Doane top finalist in Pacific Northwest Social Media Awards

It's real. Here's the Press Release for the SoMe Scrappy & Engaged  Award (I'm a top finalist!)

Every two minutes someone in Western Washington needs a blood transfusion. Sean Debutts, Social Media Coordinator at Puget Sound Blood Center, sent a direct message to Twitter follower Carol Doane to secure Doane as a champion to spearhead a blood drive. Carol Doane, the Advertising Sales Manager and Social Media Strategist at The Columbian in Vancouver, Washington, quickly agreed.

Doane's social media campaign and resulting blood donation event placed her as a top finalist for the Pacific Northwest Social Media Awards in The Scrappy & Engaged Award category. Winners will be announced after the Portland, Oregon InnoTech Conference. InnoTech is a business and technology innovation conference and expo sponsored by top brands IBM, Microsoft, Integra Telecom, Advanced Systems Group, Smarsh, MSI and others. Besides Portland, InnoTech conferences also take place in Austin, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Scrappy & Engaged category salutes best brand awareness/user engagement for under $500. Doane dubbed her campaign, "Carol's Save A Life Birthday Party," and estimated the cost at $14.99, the cost of a birthday cake. As part of her submission she created a SlideShare to describe the event, http://www.slideshare.net/TheClassicCarol/carols-save-a-life-birthday-party. "A crew of social media enthusiasts in Texas and beyond were the SoMe Awards judges," reports Sean Lowery, Executive Director of the InnoTech Conference which is spotlighting the awards.

"Social media is very personal and this campaign struck a chord for me," says Carol Doane. "I have an innate curiosity to see if I can drive people out from behind their computers to share a cup of coffee and many will, but this project asked them to extend past surface conversation and participate in a needle-in-the-arm way."

Sean Debutts, the initiator of the direct message that launched Doane's participation notes, "Carol deserves the honor after all the hard work she put into her drive and all the visibility she gave the concept."

The Puget Sound Blood Center maintains eleven donation centers in Washington and continues to benefit from Doane's efforts. "For an hour the SlideShare I created to describe the campaign was Hot on Twitter and featured on SlideShare's Health and Medicine category," notes Carol Doane. "It's all these little wins that makes diving into social media fun."

What's next on the agenda for the Social Media Strategist? "The hardest part now," she muses, "Is explaining what a social media award is to my parents."

Social media is an all encompassing term for the mixing of technology and social interaction to add value to the community. The SoMe Awards honor the best social media projects, programs and campaigns in the Pacific Northwest. The SoMe event takes place at the prestigious Multnomah Athletic Club, 1849 SW Salmon Street, Portland, Oregon 97205, Thursday, May 7, 2010 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Registration is $20 and includes two drinks and dessert. Event registrations are accepted online: http://ow.ly/1FZ1s

Information about the awards can be found on the SoMe website: http://www.someawards.com/

Award categories include:

• Best Brand Awareness/User Engagement (over $25k) – The Sugar Daddy Award 
• Best Brand Awareness/User Engagement (under $25k) – The People Like Me Award
• Best Brand Awareness/User Engagement (under $500) – The Scrappy & Engaged Award
• Best ROI (over $25k) – The Rich Get Richer Award
• Best ROI (under $25k) – The Keep Your Job Award
• Best ROI (under $500) – The Soon-to-Be Wealthy Award
• Best Social Media App – The Next Big Thing Award
• Best Agency – The House Party Award
• People’s Choice Award
• Best in Show

Carol Doane blogs on business themes at 360Convos.blogspot.com and as @TheClassicCarol on Twitter.

Nozzl Media: 360 Biz of the Month

The Nozzl Media dream team pictured left to right: Brian Hendrickson Visionary and Lead Developer, Greg Griffiths Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Steve Suo Executive Vice-President and Editor, Steve Woodward, Chief Executive Officer.

Formed in Portland, Oregon, Nozzl Media celebrates its anniversary today, March 21, and can add the distinction of 360 Biz of the Month to the festivities.

Nozzl Media resulted from the spontaneous combustion of journalists and programmers who answered the challenge to help news organizations survive. The rapidly changing media landscape has proven that people want information in real time, they want the opportunity to decide—at any given moment—what is important to them, and they want community media companies to ever more finely define: local, local, local.

Nozzl Media has given local a new definition and moved it into a real time stream of local news, local public records, and local social media conversations. Users of the Nozzl product can open up the flood gates and experience an onslaught of information as if rafting over whitewater. Or, the nozzl can be filtered to reduce the rapids to a steady drip of the desired mix of news and information.

At the first of the year, the beta version of the web widget (v1.0) was released into the wild for open testing. Jeff Bunch, web editor at The Columbian Newspaper was one of the first to beta test it. “I like the real-time aggregation and streaming of information, beyond Twitter, as their product's functionality extends to public databases.”

The team is focusing heavily on enhancing the features and usability of the web widget and mobile app. You can read more about the Nozzl Medai solution here, and sign up to try the real-time stream here.


Read our two part interview with Steve Woodward here and here.


REFERENCES:
Welcome to the Age of Robot Reporters ReadWriteWeb
Nozzl Media Corporate Web-site
Steve Suo Editor of Nozzl Media

PREVIOUS 360 BIZ OF THE MONTH:

February 2010 Moment of silence for bankrupt newspapers

January 2010 Gist

NOTE:

I receive no remuneration for the companies I recommend. Whenever possible, I do readily accept and heartily drink coffee with company representatives.