YEP! That’s exactly right! Smartronix, a technology company in Maryland was awarded an “initial” $9.25 million-dollars (of the $18 mill) to redo the Recovery.gov 2.0 website within 6 months. The purpose of the site is supposed to be able to track the $787 billion dollars for the economic stimulus. Many people have been raising their eyebrows at this deal. I have not seen the requirements document for this project so it is hard to cast judgement BUT even without that document, on the cover it seems to be a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a website. Now maybe we are oversimplifying the project, I mean it’s going to be more about data management, data integration and mashups than it will be about creative design right? So that more than justifies at least $9.25 million– YEAH RIGHT? This feels like yet another bloated deal to some large defense contractor!
I don’t know how you personally feel but I don’t feel comfortable with my tax dollars being used this way, are you serious? I have a different idea, how about the Gov’t just make the data available and let entrepreneurs and developers create their own mash-ups. If you let the market just have the data you’ll spur new businesses and be able to achieve the same goals at a fraction of the price, OR go this el cheapo route and just use Twitter to broadcast in real-time where stimulus funds are going. How much would that cost us taxpayers, ohh maybe just a full time gov’t employee at $38k per year, but I digress!
I’ve been doing some research on possible subcontracts and found 1 sub so far, a Washington DC Ad agency called Synteractive. They will be a subcontractor to Smartronix on this effort and will apprently be tasked with Search Engine Optimization and other web 2.0 aspects. Funny thing is when I look at their site I almost fell out of my chair, you visit it and let me know your thoughts BUT there is nothing on this site that says they get Web 2.0, Social Media, or SEO in fact their site looks like a throw-back to the Netscape days. I thought this couldn’t be right, I must be looking at the wrong site. So I decided to look for the company in social media spaces, if they are going to be a part of new web Gov’t redesign effort and helping them specifically with web 2.0 technologies then surely they too are using the tools right?
WRONG! I went to the Synteractive Twitter account and literally heard crickets and saw that their twitter page had cobwebs all over it. They had a total of (wait for it, wait for it) 21 followers! That’s it 21 followers, they only follow 6 people and the most shocking of all — they only have posted 5 Tweets, that’s it 5 tweets. The tweets start on Feb 2nd and end Feb 4th of the SAME year! And this is the subcontractor for web 2.0 efforts for an $18 mill Gov’t transparency website? I can’t believe I’m actually typing this. It sounds more like something the Onion would produce but unfortunately it’s true. Ohhh and for those of you who may not like my tone, I’m not just some blogger with an attitude or a private firm who bid on this project NONE of the Above. I do however, have a Gov’t background in my career. For 5 years I worked for the City of Baltimore Mayor’s Office as the Technology Advoate and for 2.5 years I worked as the Dir. of Information Technology for the State of Maryland Tourism division, so I have witnessed 1st hand the types of ridiculous proposals sent in by companies to develop databases and websites.
I hope to be proven wrong and I hope to speak with these companies in the near future to uncover more details. Stay tuned to my tweets. OHH and PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGTS ON THIS ISSUE IN THE COMMENTS!
http://www.gazette.net/stories/07172009/businew173541_32523.shtml