Create. Set. Go - Social Media Innovation by a Dunwoody Mom

Dunwoody is a city of entrepreneurs.   You can't walk around a corner without running into a home or strip-mall office with a locally grown business born from a Dunwoody resident's idea.  Kristalyn Mumaw is a Dunwoody mom like others who invented the next big idea to bring together other like-minded entrepreneurs and inventors to make the most of their concepts.

Kristalyn   and I kicked around this idea over coffee at Crema and I offered some technical tidbits and SEO pointers.  I couldn't be more proud of my friend, colleague and most of all - fellow Dunwoody Mom launching her enterprise on the world.

Social Sharing Site Create.Set.Go Launches with Unique Focus

Niche-Focused Website Catering to People with Ideas Delivers Focused Discussions

Atlanta, GA (March 27, 2014) – ---Former Silicon Valley marketing strategist, Kristalyn Mumaw, today unveiled www.createsetgo.com, a collaborative community and discussion website. Create.Set.Go, a single-purpose social network, enables users to freely interact with each other to share, discover and engage in unique conversations around new ideas and areas of common interest.

Create.Set.Go’s topic-focused format provides unique opportunities for one-on-one and group discussions, feedback, and collaboration, as well as encouragement for users to broaden their collaborative circles, instead of relying on existing social circles or on geographic proximity. Initial topic categories include: Technology, Fitness, Apps, Music, Sports, Baby/Kids, Pets, Apparel/Accessories, Environmental, Entertainment, Art, Community Movement and much more.

“For example, say I thought it would be a great idea to make a dog collar that contains cooling gel to help keep dogs comfortable in hot weather. I can post my idea within Create.Set.Go’s pet topic section and open the discussion to others who share an interest in pet care. The richness of Create.Set.Go is the ability to discuss one’s idea with anyone from another pet owner, to a pet care specialist or even specialty product designers on the other side of the country.”

“We want to help people with ideas engage with each other around shared-interest discussions,” said Mumaw, Founder and Community Innovator. “By bringing people together, Create.Set.Go provides a social platform to bring new ideas to life, broaden relationships, and foster a culture of innovation.”

Unlike other social networking sites that serve up an array of disconnected content, Create.Set.Go’s topic-based format allows users to maximize their online productivity without disruptive off-topic commentary or intrusive advertising.

“One of the founding principles of Create.Set.Go was to create a community with a conscience,” states Garland Duvall, Co-Founder & Luminary. “Community users will find a reward indicator next to the comments section in the site. This feature will be active soon, allowing an idea poster to reward an idea commentator points for useful or productive feedback. These accumulated reward points can be converted to real-value rewards in the Create.Set.Go reward store in a future release.”

“We hope the reward system serves as a catalyst to creating a community focused on usefulness in their interactions,” continues Mr. Duvall. “As well, it is in place to establish Create.Set.Go as a community specifically designed to reward helpfulness and minimize bullying, an issue that plagues so many social sharing sites and apps these days.”

Create.Set.Go is the brain-child of Kristalyn Mumaw, Founder & Community Innovator. Joined by technical gurus, Garland Duvall, Co-Founder & Luminary and Tim Morris, Senior Luminary, the Atlanta-based team enjoys a shared mission of providing a focus to social sharing, facilitating interest-based collaboration and promoting responsible social networking.

“Seeing double-digit growth in the use of social networks during 2013 and similar growth projected for 2014, we strongly believe people with ideas need the creative and collaborative focus and options provided by Create.Set.Go,” says Ms. Mumaw.

Visit www.createsetgo.com to start getting social around your ideas and interests. Registration is free.

###

FURTHER INFORMATION

For additional info, including interview requests and images, direct enquiries to:

Contact:           Kristalyn L Mumaw

Email:              km@createsetgo.com

Phone:             (678) 310-4522

Twitter:           @StrategyPeach

Warren Huttmacher Quits??

From Facebook tonight

Did Warren quit during City Council and I just missed it??

A new city manager for Johns Creek was appointed tonight.
Warren A. Hutmacher will be Johns Creek's new city manager. Council members and mayor unanimously appointed him at tonight's meeting.
Hutmacher is currently the city manager for Dunwoody.
He begins his new duties in Johns Creek April 29.
He's a man of upstanding value, said council member Kelly Stewart.
Update:  Warren made his announcement at closing public comment after the news was distributed via Facebook and Twitter.

So You Want to Go Back to Egypt....

From the AJC - New debate over Dunwoody cityhood

So you wanna go back to Egypt, where it's warm and secure.
Are you sorry you bought the one-way ticket when you thought you were sure?
You wanted to live in the Land of Promise, but now it's getting so hard.
Are you sorry you're out here in the desert, instead of your own backyard?

Eating leeks and onions by the Nile.
Ooh what breath, but dining out in style.
Ooh, my life's on the skids.
Give me the pyramids.

Well there's nothing to do but travel, and we sure travel a lot.
'Cause it's hard to keep your feet from moving when the sand gets so hot.
And in the morning it's manna hotcakes. We snack on manna all day.
And they sure had a winner last night for dinner, flaming manna soufflé.

Well we once complained for something new to munch.
The ground opened up and had some of us for lunch.
Ooh, such fire and smoke.
Can't God even take a joke…Huh?….(NO!)

So you wanna go back to Egypt, where old friends wait for you.
You can throw a big party and tell the whole gang, that what they said was all
true.
And this Moses acts like a big-shot, who does he think he is.
It's true that God works lots of miracles, but Moses thinks they're all his.

Well I'm having so much trouble even now.
Why'd he get so mad about that cow, that golden cow.
Moses,he seems rather idle, he just sits around.
He just sits around and writes the Bible.

Oh, Moses, put down your pen.
What…Oh no, manna again?
Oh, manna waffles….
Manna burgers...
Manna bagels...
Fillet of manna...
Mannacoti...
Bamanna bread!


Writer: GREEN, KEITH GORDON / GREEN, MELODY
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All kidding aside, gang...

Here are the key reasons for all of the conflicts exploding in Dunwoody

1)  Bad advice in the form of "when you make your decision about what should be in the zoning code, think about what you would want to live next to."  I blogged on this one some months ago during the Zoning Rewrite.   Dunwoody is not now and has never been one big homogenous group of people who all think the same things about all issues.  There has always been a broad diversity of thought that wasn't obvious when we were all huddled together in the same foxhole, fighting DeKalb County.  All of the organized groups and professional complainers are what you get when you encourage the populace to judge what's best for all of the city based on individual preferences.  How's that working out for you, Denny?  Not so great anymore, huh?

2)  There is no attempt at coexistence between any of these factions represented in the opinions flying around.  Further, city council from Day One has chosen to lead by deciding which "quality of life" standard is acceptable and which is not by personal fiat from their chairs.  Now you have widespread civil disobedience in addition to open warfare in council chambers.  If the populace is encouraged to think "I want the city to legislate my personal choice of life in my home and to hell with everyone else - they should be banned," what else do you expect to get but endless infighting.  In the future, I will be looking for leadership that encourages tolerance and coexistence between different lifestyles, even if they disagree with some personally.

There's always going to be someone looking for a reason to be unhappy.  You won't get 100% buy-in.  But you can reduce the conflict with good leadership.  Will we get a council that can, collectively, take this leap?  Time will tell.

Community: Life or Death

Food for thought for your Friday.

Back in 2002, I attended the annual convention of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals in Toronto.   Lots of keynote sessions and seminars and roundtables about the laws governing and best practices of carrying out research in human patients.

The one standout session was an address by Dr. Jerri Nielsen.  Dr. Nielsen gained notoriety in 1999 for treating her own breast cancer while stationed at a South Pole research outpost - during the Antarctic winter.

While a researcher herself, her talk wasn't about research.  Her talk was about life in some of the most extreme conditions ever experienced by people.

The research station buildings were all covered by an environmental dome as added protection from the elements.  Unlike most of the world that can travel almost on demand, travel is restricted for half the year at the South Pole.  You can't leave during the winter.  Aircraft can provide dropped supplies in an emergency but there are no landings.  Or takeoffs.  There's nowhere to go.  If anyone tries to travel outside the dome after the sun goes down, they're dead.  

Not uncomfortable.  Not inconvenienced.  Dead.

And their body won't be recovered until sunrise, if at all.

That means that the 40-odd people of all shapes and sizes have to get along with each other.  Conflicts ranging from the self-centered snit to the all-encompassing blowout had to be resolved to everyone's mutual satisfaction or they weren't going to survive.  You can't have "I win, I get my way, so you lose" as the standard for your conclusion.  You have to build true peace in the community even as there's disagreement or disapproval over the problem du jour.

Dr. Nielsen had lots of anecdotes about how to adapt.  Basically, she had to learn that the environment was going to change her life, no matter what man-made constructions had in mind.  She'd put some gear down in a particular place and, because of the snow underneath the building constantly compacting and shifting, the gear would end up sliding over to a wall.  After moving it around a few times with the same result, she decided to let the gear store itself where it landed because it wouldn't move any further.

Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole - how it looked when Dr. Nielsen was stationed with its crew.  A new station was completed in 2010 and the dome removed that same year.

  There were stress-relieving traditions that awakened with the polar sunrise.  The most daring souls joined the "200 Degree Club" when the outside temperature rose (!!!) to -100 degrees Farenheit.  It involved running  from a +100 degree room inside the complex, out the dome, a couple of laps around the ceremonial South Pole marker and back inside wearing only heavy boots and (for men) a blue baggie that comes with a bottle of Crown Royal.

A key element of the 200 Degree initiation.  The dome mentioned above is in the background.

It had to be pretty tense in there for anyone to think that was a good idea.  Dr. Nielsen shared that she was a proud 200 Degree member and did it without the Crown Royal baggie.

But the true test of the community's character came when Dr. Nielsen realized she had cancer and couldn't hide it from her crewmates.  It was winter and night - all six months of it.  The other crew members needed to help but none of them were oncologists or surgeons - how could they help?  Nielsen was the only doctor and was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the crew were the "wrong" people for a cancer patient.

Or were they?

First step was to communicate the medical emergency to McMurdo Station on the coast.  Messages were relayed up to the USA.  Medical supplies including IV kits, surgical kits and chemotherapy agents were airlifted.  (Remember, no landings for six months....)  Medical personnel were not part of the airlift; a communications relay was set up to talk the crew through the procedures Nielsen needed, from excising lymph nodes to hooking up an IV and hep-lock to mixing a chemo dose and adding it to the bag.

Step two:  decide who would perform the biopsy.  Of all of the PhDs and other advance-degreed personnel, which of them would perform the most difficult part of the treatment.  None of them.  Because in their minds, the PhDs weren't qualified.  The minor surgical procedures attempted were performed by a welder from the machine shop.  Said Dr. Nielsen, "A welder knew best how to take a material apart and put it back together again."  They could follow verbal technical directions and pick up new hands-on techniques on the fly.  It's so simple that it's not obvious to anyone who isn't living under life-and-death conditions.

Nielsen wasn't passive in all of this.  She was the team's doctor.  Her morale, her choices in how she mentally dealt with the situation had downstream effects on the psyche of every other member of the team.  She described her self as "introverted", shy, even "mousy".  She had to dig down deep and find some guts she didn't know she had not just for her survival but everyone's well being.  The members of the community were all that deeply connected at the station.  They had no choice other than dying out.

The instant the sun rose and the iced runway was safe to use, a flight landed at the Pole with a replacement physician and Nielsen was on her way back to the US to complete treatment she started herself.

The take home lesson Dr Nielsen wanted the audience to have was the lesson she herself learned at the station:

In any community, all members are needed, no matter who they are, or what they do.  It's important to accept people as they are.  You never know when someone's greatest weakness will become their greatest strength.  

The SLUP process has always been wrong for regulating home occupations

Karma is a b***h.

Less than five months after Heneghan, Deutsch, Bonser, and Shortal gutted the carefully-crafted permitting process for home occupations (with attention to every detail to avoid blatant nuisances while making the law internally consistent) a SLUP application has shed light on their hasty decision and the problems created in its wake.

First some background.

In spite of the widespread practice of home occupations in Dunwoody with very few confirmed complaints, Dunwoody leadership has broken away from other cities and imposed a grueling public process.  The first time a SLUP for a home occupation with customers was pursued, it was a disaster, both for the applicant and the membership numbers of the HOA involved.  City government didn't come out of it looking too good, either.

Next came the zoning rewrite.  Home occupation regulations were on the agenda because those trying to drum up opposition to them made it a "hot button'.  It really isn't a hot button, but Heneghan and Deutsch and their friends insisted on beating the drum.
During the zoning rewrite, the sounding board realized that the purpose of a SLUP (Special  LAND Use Permit) could be misused for home occupations.  SLUPs were intended to change the development character of a lot.  Home Occupations, in the original zoning rewrite, are only intended to allow business activities by the full-time occupant of the property as long as they do NOT change the character of the neighborhood, or generate activity beyond what is considered normal in that area.   Totally different things. So the consultants developed a permitting process that would have made it simpler for home business owners to comply, without the public dog-and-pony show that leads to the histrionics and slander that the first applicant endured.  The added benefit of the permitting process is that it could be modified to include whatever limitations you wanted:  time limits, public notifications, periodic reporting - anything!  Plus the public was still to be notified within a certain radius, comments both pro and con could be submitted and considered, anonymous complaints could be filed to Code Enforcement, the whole nine yards.  All the while, the same stringent standards of home occupation regulations were in effect:  certain occupations were banned outright, noise and smoke and the like were banned - nothing on that end was loosened, in fact, they were more clearly defined for better regulation.

The new code was passed unopposed by Community Council and Planning Commmission.  There wasn't even any discussion on the matter.

But at City Council itself, the political machine was grinding away.  Everyone expects Shortal to try to ban acknowledgement of home businesses outright, he's the only one whose ideas of a "neighborhood" are consistent, even if they are outdated.  Heneghan and Deutsch knee-jerked to that one element:  they didn't bother to acknowledge that the type and operations of home businesses were still very strict.  They objected only to the permitting process.  They demanded that the dog-and-pony SLUP for home businesses be maintained with absolutely no changes at all.    I'm not convinced they even read it.  Further, these same council members demanded that city staff research the home business regulations of other cities to see how Dunwoody matches up.  That research showed that most other major cities that permit home occupations (some comprising as much as 50% of the commercial base) had far fewer regulations in place with no degradation of "community quality.)  The "research" was discarded as it did not support the foregone conclusion.

 On top of that, a member of Community Council deliberately misrepresented the content and intent of the code to smear home business owners and inflate opposition.

To add to the irony, these are the same people who think back yards should house farm animals without the homeowner having to submit a single piece of paper and that complaints about animal nuisances should require several signed statements from neighbors, instead of anonymous reporting for other code enforcement problems.  That's what we call a "double standard".

Upon this action, I had a conversation with a couple dozen fellow home business owners about the outcome.  (Only a small fraction of the several hundred in operation but it was the best one person could do, informally.)  All of them were disappointed that even though they get on with their neighbors, they are considered "nuisances" by definition.  They all decided that they would simply carry on with business as usual and refuse to comply - employees, contractors, customers, or whatever.  None of them have had a complaint lodged against them.

That brings us to the present day.  A potential home business owner has filed a SLUP to operate a very small scale home daycare center to supplement her income while being a full time parent and to serve her local community.  I find it miraculous that anyone would voluntarily enter this process considering its history.

So what's the problem?  The process so far has not seen too many of the mistakes that were made the first time around.  (I've been withholding commentary on the process as I am not living in the neighborhood and therefore not impacted by it and I wanted to see what would happen before analyzing it here.)

The problem is that the Planning Commission (the first official committee to publicly review the application) asked the applicant to accept a 10-year limit on the permit.  She readily agreed, as well as answering all concerns that were brought to the meeting by nearby homeowners.  According to city legal counsel, SLUPs can't be time-limited.  And wouldn't you know it, Heneghan is all freaked out because his ASSumptions about being able to limit the time frame of SLUPs isn't legal.

This is what happens when certain council members do not consider the outcomes of their decisions before implementing them.  This is what happens when you  make assumptions about the future without talking to your lawyers.  This is what happens when you discuss or enact legislation that you haven't read, or are trying to manipulate by talking out of both sides of your mouth.

John - this snafu is your fault.  You were so eager to keep home occupation SLUPs in place that you didn't stop to consider that they regulate property use the wrong way - SLUPs regulate the land, not the full-time occupant.  The Zoning Sounding Board and Community Development tried to circumvent that problem while "preserving neighborhoods" and you totally blew them off.   You threw some of your "friends" under the bus and for what?  Your decision wasn't legally sound or even consistent with your previous actions or other legislations you want to see enacted.  A true epic fail.  I hope the first comment you make on March 24 is that you own up to your mistake and revisit the administrative permitting process that was recommended in the initial rewrite.  

Try to make a decision that mitigates the impact of a use, and doesn't pass personal judgement on the alleged intention of a homeowner.  Try really, really hard.

Dunwoody's Teachers of the Year

The Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce celebrated its area teachers by naming a Teacher of the Year from each of the Dunwoody feeder cluster schools.

Most of Dunwoody's elected officials and the Chamber's board members have children in area public schools.  Ensuring quality education and supporting our teachers is not just a political issue.  It's personal.

View the list of winners with their school and grade/subject.

Candle in the Rain

Congrats to Stan Jester, running unopposed for DeKalb County School System's District 1.

You know that the Central Office is nervous about this outcome when one of their lackeys posts to DeKalb School Watch 2 expressing hope that Stan "understands his role".

If you're on the straight-and-narrow, "Fred", you have nothing to worry about.

Don't forget to Vote Jester for GA State Superintendent of Schools

Dunwoody Building Code Point & Counterpoint

The next City Council meeting on March 10 will include discussion on building ordinance changes.

Let's see if the link to SIRE on the city's website works.

Bottom line, the proposal on the table is to guarantee that any building over 3 stories tall must be built with fireproof materials (concrete, steel, etc).  Anyone who has seen a news report with an apartment fire in DeKalb County can see the logic here.  This type of construction is supposed to slow the decline in value that apartments always seem to face.

Counterpoint:  the construction industry is not too happy with this.
In a recent Constant Contact mail, the Council for Quality Growth spelled out their opposition to this requirement.  Essentially it would make construction of apartments and similar sites prohibitively expensive to build.

The incentive for this amendment came out of the plans for the "senior living" apartments presented to the DHA on Sunday.  The representatives stated outright that their complex is to be "stick built" - that is with wood, rather than concrete/steel.

Some random thoughts:

Check out the comments in the link to the DHA meeting above.  Interesting point that "Dunwoody doesn't want apartments - unless it's built for seniors, then that's OK."  Not the first time we've seen plans edited because "Well, we want plans that accommodate my lifestyle and choices, but not for anyone else."  Don't get me started down that road.  Any council member who talks out of both sides of their mouth on any part of the municipal code is playing with fire come election time.

To the Council for Quality Growth and its friends:  Dunwoody incorporated because so many apartments were being thrown up (so to speak) and the homeowners felt their quality of life threatened.  Many long time Dunwoodians don't want to see more apartments built in this city.  Take. The. Hint.

I've been hearing about the "high demand" for these types of developments from different directions.   Does anyone have any numbers to back that up?

Now you know the issues and the players.  If you have something to say, you know where to be on March 10.

Google Fiber: Is anyone reading the fine print?

Who wants the fastest internet connection possible?  Everybody, right??

Google is evolving from a mere search engine into an ISP with its new uber-high-speed fiber optic Internet network.  Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, Austin, TX, and Provo, UT.  The Metro Atlanta area is next on the agenda for expansion.  Dunwoody filed a joint application with neighboring cities to be part of the new project from Google.

This was in 2010.  It is now 2014 and Google is in talks with specific ATL areas into which they are considering expanding their network.  Bottom line:  not Dunwoody, as far as anyone can tell.

So naturally, now there are drumbeats of "I WANT MY GOOGLE FIBER!"  But aside from the promises of internet speeds that leave both Uverse and Comcast in the dust, what exactly is in this deal?

Hmmmmmmmm.......

Let's look at Google's own documentation.  What is required of those who want Google to be their ISP?

The Terms of Service indicate that the homeowner has to pay for the installation of the fiber optic cable.  Depending on the area of town, that means they will be working on local poles, or digging through rights of way to add the cables.  Not bad, so far - that's the same standard for any internet/cable TV provider.  Most of the rest of the terms are standard boilerplate for ISPs.

There are two items that should raise yellow flags.

First:  payment

Billing and Payment
You may need to utilize Google Wallet for certain payment transactions relating to the Google Fiber Services. Your use of Google Wallet is subject to its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (which incorporates the Google Inc. Privacy Policy by reference), to which you must agree to utilize Google Wallet’s services.

This means that not only is Google selling you internet and TV services on Google Fiber, but they will be processing their payments internally.  Google Wallet isn't even an *option* as a bill payment system - it's required.

When using a payment processing provider such as PayPal or WorldPay, or even some bank services, the sensitive financial information is kept completely separate from the vendor.  For example, when PayPal processes a transaction, the vendor receiving the funds never sees the bank account or credit card information.  With Google Wallet (and by extension, Google Checkout for ecommerce, which I *never* use) your financial information is now part and parcel of Google's database.  Right along with everything else about you on Google....  More on that later.

The last item in the terms of service is this:

Businesses
If you wish to subscribe to any Services on behalf of a business, please contact Google Fiber directly. Additional terms of service apply to use of the Services by a business.

So if you telecommute for your job, or you work from home - and you only contact your customers via internet - you're not eligible for Google Fiber in your home.  So even if you don't engage in the dreaded "customer contact" at home, or you're a telecommuter, or you're an elected government official working from home on some days, you're not eligible for Google Fiber if you're using it for business from your residence.  That's not a small item to note: a large segment of the people who will be most interested in high-speed internet of this caliber are going to be using it for work.  Of course, "don't ask, don't tell" is pretty standard in Dunwoody daily life so you could try that approach too.

Next there's the Privacy Notice.

The Privacy Notice in short promises that personal information about your account is not shared without your consent.  On the surface that sounds just great. However...

 Even if you consider that Google is collecting info on your computer, TV, shows you watch, mail you send, etc.  "But Adrienne," you may ask, "Uverse and Comcast collect TV usage data too, so they can collect aggregate data for marketing.  What's the big deal?"  The big deal is that Google realigned all of their systems, including those of their acquisitions, like YouTube so they are easier to cross-reference related information.  Google Plus was more than just a new social network:  it was a means of creating a "unique identifier" that tied all of your online information together in Google's database.  Your activity online can be cross referenced with all of your other information indexed by Google, along with your financial information on Google Wallet and Checkout.  Other ISPs do not have this inherent ability.

"But Adrienne, the privacy policy is legally binding.  We're protected from that kind of data mining."  You're protected from honest employees under optimal circumstances.  The privacy policy is useless against criminal hacking (like the Target debacle last year).  The privacy policy is useless against disgruntled employees (does the name Snowden ring a bell?).  The privacy policy is useless against something as simple as human error.  

The questions of data collection of your TV/internet/mail usage aggregated with everything else on Google is not just me and my tin foil hat percolating over conspiracy theories in a corner.  PC World magazine raised the question a year and a half ago in their analysis of Google Fiber services.  (Example of Google data breach in the UK via PC World.)

Then there are other realities.  Like - what kind of speeds are we talking about?  Can they deliver as well as they say?

The only subscriber agreements available are for Kansas City and Provo.  Here's Kansas City as an example, along with all of the costs for each level of service.  The top speeds on the Internet are 1 gigabit per second, both upload and download.  That's fast enough to watch a video on YouTube without buffering or stalling.  A great promise but as a failsafe, the Network Management page states the following:

CONGESTION MANAGEMENT
In the unlikely event that users' aggregate demand exceeds the available capacity of the network and creates acute congestion, Google Fiber will employ various techniques to ensure that subscribers continue to have a positive experience. In times of acute congestion, Google Fiber Internet service bandwidth will be fairly allocated among subscribers without regard to the subscribers’ online activities or the protocols or applications that the subscribers are using.

That's a process called "bandwidth throttling":  the deliberate slowing down of internet traffic speeds.  In Google's case, they promise to only do so in cases of extreme usage (which isn't defined specifically), although in other countries with more restrictive governments, throttling can be used to inhibit information altogether.  

Finally, each subscriber (that is, each household) has to register and pay for installation of the fiber optic.  These are individual choices.  So if some homeowners have Google Fiber available and purchase it, there's going to be a whole lotta climbin' and diggin' in the infrastructure.  But if it's optional, others will opt out and may be inconvenienced by any "infrastructure improvements" related to GF.  And how does Dunwoody handle disagreements over infrastructure?  Hmmmmm........  Here's an example.  And another.

Does Google know that there's a lot of squabbling over infrastructure in Dunwoody?  Well, there's enough Town Hall and City Council meetings on YouTube, so I'm guessing that would be a "yes".  I think it would be naive to imagine Google doesn't consider internal conflict resolution in a decision to expand, especially when the evidence is voluntarily dumped onto their servers.

But to end on a positive note and not be a total buzzkill, Dunwoody should consider its lack-of-place on the ATL expansion list as an opportunity rather than a slight.  If Google Fiber does expand into Atlanta, Avondale Estates, etc, Dunwoody has the opportunity to watch what happens.  How long does construction take?  Are there any hidden costs?  How do the neighbors manage the inevitable inconvenience of installation, especially if they're not going to sign up?  Does the service deliver what they say?  Dunwoody can learn the answers to these questions without making the commitment up front.  Let someone else be the guinea pigs and work out the problems.  Then Dunwoody can make a more informed choice about whether to get on board with Google Fiber and how to work out the agreements to our advantage.

Here's to watching the experiment without being a guinea pig.  

The Corner at Orchard Park...

... the former site of Timmy's Pub and the Flat Iron Grill (from 10 years ago!) is supposed to be....

(drumroll please...)

A dentist's office.

This according to the fine gentlemen I happened to meet on the construction site while running into Kroger.

Orchard Park is shifting to more professional offices with fewer restaurants.  (Starbucks was replaced by an optometrist's shop.)

Whoever occupies the space, I hope they make that corner a success.  The location and layout are great, I'm amazed the previous enterprises weren't successful and the space has been vacant for so long.

All Winter in a Day

Preserving the good memories of SnowJam 2014 as the flowering trees begin blooming in Dunwoody. 

Snow midget building a snow midget?  ;-)

MUSH!!!

Look closely. You'll see two very cold and pissed bluebirds. 

Remains of the last snowman. 

SnowJam 2014

EAT ME!! Taste of Dunwoody 2014 Recap

The Crowne Plaza Ravinia should be the official home of Taste of Dunwoody from this moment onward.  The larger venue and more parking allowed for more mingling, more eating, more dancing, and less feeling cramped.  It was a almost-miss-people-you-know-because-you-rarely-see-them-dressed-and-made-up (sorry Amy....) and  party-until-you-fall-asleep-in-your-makeup kind of night.

As the night got started the sponsors gathered in front of the stage with Yacht Rock Revue for a group photo.

(Jill....  Thanks for following up on that photo.  This is where it's going!)

Food highlights, because I arrived hungry.  (If I make a mistake with the restaurant names or can't remember one, someone post a correction in the comments)

The theme of the night was ahi tuna - many restaurants presented a variation including tuna tartare on fried plantains, seared ahi, and Legal Sea Foods had a tuna sashimi with pickled greens and ginger.

Most unusual sampling of the night that was still successful and unlikely to incite someone like Gordon Ramsay into a profanity-riddled rage goes to the salmon sashimi with chocolate (!) basalmic dressing and micro greens.  (Yes, I tasted it, it worked, it was creative, amazing and I went back for seconds and thirds.)

Best italian:  Brio for the gnocchi with bolognese featuring braised short rib.

Marlow's won Battle Shrimp-n-Grits.  Again.

Best fusion:  Tin Lizzy's with their Korean-inspired spicy beef and veggie taco

Best Chowder - do you have to ask?  (Legal Sea Foods)

Most Deliciously Evil:  the deep-fried lobster and gouda nuggets, which was next door to Cafe Intermezzo's Oreo Cookie Cheesecake.

My three kids are the pickiest eaters on the planet so any night with creative food is a night in paradise.

Now for the visuals:

Feeling the love!

The night begins!  Prime time for the best sampling when the doors are now open to the public and dinner is served.  Get used to this ballroom:  the State of the City will be delivered here in March.

Sound check must have been earlier in the day.  Yacht Rock showed up in their performance duds and we all got to mingle before they took the stage at 8 PM.

Smile for the blog!  A rep from Marlow's shows off Shrimp and Grits.  I took this picture with sauce dripping from my chin.  (Psst - Marlow's has a coupon deal for Chamber members.  Don't miss it!)

Lobster and Gouda Man!  Needless to say, they had run out of food by the end of the night!

Another friend with a duck pate and microgreens canape.  Dude had me at "duck".

The girls from Tin Lizzy.

Yacht Rock Revue takes the stage.

Very kind of them to leave the Captain & Tenille divorce story alone for the night and just crank out the tunes.

Silent auction and bar area.

More silent auction and restaurant sponsors from the POV of the bar line as my other half and I burned through drink tickets.  

The obligatory self portrait next to the sponsors listing.

The alcohol has worked its magic and the dance floor fills as Yacht Rock returns from their break.

But seriously, folks....

The most frequent words of the night were "thank you".  Terry made it a point to visit each of the restaurant reps and thank them for being a part of Dunwoody.  CHOA's development team made it a point of thanking all of the sponsors for their support in making the event happen at all.  It's too easy for Dunwoodians to go for the jugular at the slightest (lack of) provocation.  Don't forget to acknowledge the positive; it's good for you.

This flyer was distributed at the sponsor seating areas highlighting the work that CHOA does in the areas receiving funding from last night.  In case it's hard to see, even on the full-size image, the key details are:

CHOA had almost 850,000 patient visits last year alone.  Some of them might have been kids of the folks reading this post right now.  

CHOA counted almost 150,000 inpatient stays last year alone.

The Marcus Autism Center, one of the projects benefiting from the gala, treated 5,400 children from 140 countries around the world in 2013.  

The downstream impact of the Marcus Center is far beyond kids with autism.  Everything the center learns from teaching autistic children can be applied eventually to youth with a host of other conditions that are unrelated, but involve compromised sensory processing - including:

• ADHD
• Brain injuries
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• Other childhood developmental delays without a definable cause
• Genetic anomalies, including mitochondrial disease
• Stroke
• Treatment to restore hearing (cochlear implants, etc)

Because of the funding raised by Dunwoody Friends and Taste of Dunwoody, there's an entire population in Atlanta and beyond who have a chance to be as happy and enjoy life as everyone did last night.

Dunwoody Businesses - Are You Looking For a Few Good Interns?

The Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce is looking to pair up area businesses with second-semester seniors from Dunwoody High School.  As part of the new Education initiative by the Chamber, the Internship program will help Dunwoody High School seniors get the introductory work experience they need to become successful in careers over their lifetime.

Area businesses who have internship openings are welcome to contact Sarah at the Chamber office (678-244-9700) for more information.  The internship program is a unique opportunity for the business community at all levels to contribute to and reinforce the relationship with the youth and families of Dunwoody.

The Education Initiative information will be posted to the website in the near future.  (I'm standing by waiting for the call to assist when the committee is ready.)

Here's the original email from the Chamber:

LOOKING FOR A 2014 SPRING INTERN? Attention Chamber Members: Dunwoody High School is looking for local businesses to help integrate classroom learning with structured work experiences related to a student's career goals for second semester seniors this SPRING. This program is still in the beginning stages of development. We are looking for companies in the areas of Journalism, Broadcast, Engineering, Finance, and any other company that desires to provide students with a well-rounded internship experience. Internships will need to begin in the first 2-3 weeks of February. Internship Guidelines: -Will be for Second Semester Seniors - May be PAID or UNPAID - Students must work at least 10 hours per week - Internship must begin after 1:45 in the afternoon - Business must provide Dunwoody High School staff an Evaluation of Performance for the student at 4.5 week intervals and post internship report -Must provide proof that student is working (pay stubs, time-sheets. etc) If you are interested, please contact: sarah@dunwoodycommerce.org 678-244-9700 *Please Provide Contact Person, willingness to Commit, and list of job responsibilities to the contact listed above.  Help serve our community by providing unique educational experiences for our youth.  The Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce is working to complete an internships.com page for businesses and community members to post or search for jobs/ internships. Keep an eye out for further information about this in the next 2 months!

Water Main Break on Tilly Mill Road - again.

UDPATE @ 11:15 am

Dunwoody Elementary was evacuated to Dunwoody High.  Kids will be bussed back to DES for dismisssal.

Power died in Dunwoody Village at 11 AM, including traffic lights.  Head chef at First Watch was not happy.  Due to ice on power lines from Ole' Faithful?  Leave a comment.  :-)


Pack your patience this morning for school, preschool, GPC, and work.

Report from Channel 11 w/ video and slideshow

This is the second major water main break on this street in just over a year.  The last one was October 2012 and occurred between Briers North and The Madisons.

DeKalb crews had trouble shutting that one off too.  And after the initial patchwork repairs were done, the metal plates were in the street so long that Harry Pothole shot a feature about them.

Look on the bright side - Dunwoody's going to get its skating rink after all.

Now DeKalb is going to keep wondering why Dunwoody is unhappy with them.

Happy Hump Day!

INTRODUCING: Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce v 5.0

www.dunwoodycommerce.org

Re-evaluating and updating the Dunwoody Chamber site is as much a New Year's tradition in our house as much as a bottle of champagne, baked brie, and watching Ryan Seacrest until 1 AM.

But seriously folks, a change in leadership at the Chamber is an opportune time to review the site's functions, and compile feedback from the board, from members, and from the public about how to make it more usable.

There were some new problems to be solved.  The large banner in the previous edition was supposed to be clickable - as in click the picture and get a page of new information.  Didn't work.  Hence the translucent grey bar with text in it that couldn't be styled.

There was talk of hosting podcasts/video/audio archives.  The drivers I had available weren't up to the job and didn't work consistently in all browsers or devices.

Then there's the "real estate" question.  Everyone has their favorite piece of information or their favorite widget that they want to see on the front page, above the fold.  That was tried before and the page was crowded and busy in no time.

Most of all, whatever solution was implemented, it had to be easy to learn and update by office staff and volunteer committee chairs.  

The solution to this "wish list" was a full-scale software upgrade. Since 2009 the site was published in Drupal 6.  Drupal 6 was created before the boom in JavaScript animation, slideshows, and all of the interactive interfaces typical in tablets and newer smartphones.  The overhaul upgraded the Chamber to Drupal 7 with accompanying modules to streamline the features expected on the web.  

The interface you see above is intended to get the most popular and urgent information into the visitor's screen ASAP, and make it easy to discover something new during the trip.

First, the banner.  Go ahead, give it a click!  With a small amount of planning an editor can upload an image, write up a page of information and in a moment it becomes part of the slideshow.  The upgrade also allows editors to schedule their content to appear - or disappear - at appointed times, making the effort to manage the pages even easier.  The banner was resized to add a new column:  a list of upcoming events with links to descriptions and online reservations resides in a sleek column that is easy to find, yet not jumbled with everything else.  

Second - the icon bar below the banner is the latest solution to the "real estate" question.  Run your mouse over each icon (or tap on it if you're using a tablet.) More goodies appear in a hidden "mega-menu" that only becomes visible when you want it.  By employing a mega-menu, more content can be added to the front page without cluttering it.  From the front page, you can search the member directory, find job postings, find the "hot deals" listings, and review news and lists of our newest and returning members.  Just for fun I threw a video into one of the panels.  Chamber members can log into their brand new, streamlined Member Information Center from the front page as well.  Best of all, it's easy to update by office staff when it becomes necessary.  There's a couple of new additions in the pipeline at the moment.

Third - mobility.  This site like its predecessors is comfortable to use on any size screen from a tablet up to a TV set.  But what if you're on a smartphone?  The best solution in the past was to use a stripped-down site provided by ChamberMaster, the third-party providing support for all of the membership functions.  Again, that wasn't cutting it.  This design is "responsive":  that means the website detects the size of the screen a visitor is using to view it, and then rearranges the content so it's most comfortable to view.  So now the entire site -every little page, blurb, widget, webform, and goodie - is available for absolutely any screen.  (I'm still keeping the ChamberMaster site active, just in case this site needs repairs or upgrades for an extended time.  The essentials will always be available.)

Have a stroll around and find even more goodies:  all committees using social media have their feeds and links available:  see who has Twitter feeds and or FaceBook "Like" boxes with the latest posts.  Did you find a page particularly useful?  Hit a share button at the bottom of the page.  Event information can be sent around via the most popular social networks as well as email and text message.

The most current and fast moving information (like the latest Business Radio X shows and "Business Connection" articles) are organized into blogs.  Blogs are the fastest and easiest way to take an article and get it onto the site without the hassle of having to organize it, put it in a menu, etc.  Very useful for our PR staff who don't have the time to futz with learning a website.  Log in, plug it in, and done.  Right now there are two blogs.  Depending on how some committees and their communications evolve, there may be more.

But wait.  There's more.

Some functions are "sleeper agents".  They're loaded in because there's an indication that they may be needed in the forseeable future.  But not yet.

Translations - if it becomes necessary, pages may be translated into other languages.  The visitor can either select the language they want to read, or the website can detect the browser's default language (if it's other than English) and present the correct translation if it's available.  You may have noticed there are significant Spanish- and Chinese-speaking communities around us.  This add-on may end up bridging several gaps.

Document management - don't you just hate it when you stash your Word or PDF files in the "cloud" and you can never find them again?  Ditto.  If it becomes necessary, documents will be stashed in a library with permanent links and even a custom sort-and-search function so you can find what you're looking for via title, date of publication, committee, department, or any other criteria.

Audio/Video - YouTube has a lot of uses but if you need to host an exclusive podcast you need your own drivers.  Mobile-friendly audio and video drivers are at the ready when we get the call.

Per-Page theming.  An oldie, but a goodie.  Should any committee desire it, individual pages or sections of the website can get a completely different look and feel and layout than the rest of the site.  This function was used a couple of years ago (the Dunwoody Music Festival the original YPODs page, and the first Greater Perimeter Business Expo were themed by their pages, even though they were all parts of the main Chamber website) but you never know when you'll need it again.  

And that brings us up to 2014.  Always growing, always improving.  Although it doesn't look like it, the programming of this website was a one-woman job.  When you're organized and you're determined to get your system to work for both your visitors and editors responsible for updating it, you can make magic!

So with this launch - my schedule just opened up.  If one of your corporate New Year's resolutions is to bring your website into the 21st century, drop me a line via my blogger profile or Facebook page.  Your company can benefit from a brand new solution made just for you.