It was during SXSW Interactive this year that the news came out that the city of Austin was about to award the $950,000 web development contract to a company in California. This is while the biggest interactive developer conference is going on down the street. A small group of us raised hashtag hell (#coawebsite) and you know what… We stopped the madness. The city voted the next day to suspend the contract award and the result is a new RFP now posted on the city's website.
Here is my live blog of the conference in process now: http://www.meterthis.net/archives/517
Today marks the first real progress towards a new web site. The city is having a pre-bidders conference for people interested in working on the site. Be sure and check out MeterThis.net, OpenAustin.org and this site for further updates as the develop.
We'll be watching over the process so you don't have to. (grin) And if any of you make it to the conference today I'll be the guy in the black shirt with the bright red macbookpro quietly taking notes. [Seriously, at this point I am here to listen only.]
[crossposted from MeterThis.net]
COA – Web Conference for RFP Bidders is TODAY 8-12-09
I hope I see some of you at this first public meeting on the RFP to rebuild the City of Austin website. Here are the details:
Attend pre-bid conference live or over the Web
If you’re interested in asking questions of the AustinGO team, the RFP committee and the Purchasing Department, you can attend the pre-bid conference at 12:30 today at Austin City Hall room 1101 (the Boards and Commissions Room).
You can also participate live on the Web during the pre-bid at the AustinGO site. A chat box will be active at this time. All questions must be submitted with the name of the requestor, company and an e-mail address. This is to ensure you are signed up as a participant and will be able to receive information and addendums resulting from the pre-bid conference. Questions will be addressed in the order they are received. Any questions not answered or addressed during the forum will be answered and posted on www.austingo.org within one week and be part of any addendum issued by the Purchasing Office. Inappropriate comments (including profanity, offensive or hate) will be ignored.
@jmacofearth
permalink to meterthis.net: http://bit.ly/coa-prebid
