Web PR "experts" make excuses for misrepresenting Greensboro in Google report

On March 17, 2010, Steketee Grenier & Company published a report that claimed to evaluate how well cities were doing in generating interest in their pursuit of Google's fiber optic internet access by measuring activity online. Steketee Grenier is a public relations firm located in Grand Rapids, MI (also competing for Google) who claim to be "key influencers (sic)" focused on "providing measurable return."

They are not so good at measuring -- they are better at dissembling and shifting blame.

The firm published a nice looking report on March 17th in which they reported that Greensboro's Google Fiber Facebook group had 901 members.

That was wrong. There were over 5,300 at that time.

I posted a correction on the firm's blog, giving them the accurate number with a link to the Facebook group so they could see for themselves. That was on March 19th when, as I commented, Greensboro had over 5,300 members. Heck, as early as March 11th, Ed Cone noted that Greensboro's Facebook group had topped 4,000.

The error remain uncorrected in Steketee Grenier's "report."

Then they release an updated second report on March 25th. This one would get it right, right? Wrong. This "updated" piece of junk reported that Greensboro's Facebook group had "grown" to 2,908.

So, again, I posted a comment on their blog asking them why they got Greensboro's number wrong twice now, even after their initial error was brought to their attention.

Look at this condescending load of crap offered up as an answer:

It would be entirely plausible for any city to see a sudden swell in membership after our data was captured. In fact, this was often the case.

To quote the second report: “[...]Greensboro’s significant growth in fan base from 901 to 2,908.”

Congrats on the rapid growth!

The doofus can stick his congratulations in his upper peninsula. I'd be more concerned, were I him, with demonstrating a little integrity by acknowledging and correcting the errors -- you know, for the sake of preserving my reputation as a professional influencer.

Contradictions at the N&R betray lack of attention

One week after announcing that "Everything we publish in the newspaper" will now appear on their website, (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor John Robinson excuses the absence of a news story from their website to a reader with "We don't put everything on the web site."

He also writes that County Commissioner Skip Alston "is mad at us and has announced he isn't talking to us." Alston announced (video) that he is not willing to talk to a specific reporter but said he will talk to other N&R reporters.

News & Record as official mouthpiece

With all of the hand wringing about what value may keep newspapers afloat, one thing I am certain is a losing proposition is being a megaphone for government propaganda.

The Inside Scoop posted an excerpt from a City of Greensboro press release today that reads, in part: "a draft of the Google Fiber application will be published later today for residents to view and provide input."

Yet, when it became clear that a draft of the application was not published, when it was brought to the attention of the reporter that the press release author said elsewhere that the draft will not be posted until Thursday, one day before the application is due, the reporter declined to update the post.

That's stenography, not reporting.

"You couldn't find more fertile ground." Lassiter shows Google why Greensboro.

With a focus on Greensboro's colleges and universities, Tom Lassiter brings us this brilliant look at why Google should pick Greensboro.

Where's the draft of the City's Google application for public review?

[Update II: The City plans to post a draft of the application here, today.]
[Update III: It appears as if none of the application is actually posted. Not sure if this is temporary.]

There are three days left before the deadline for the City to respond to Google's request for information. We were promised:

"We will post a working draft on the GoogleGreensboro.com site the week of March 22nd as well."

 Where is it?
 -------------------------
[Update: I submitted the following records request to the city's public affairs director.]

"Please provide me with what City staff has compiled, to-date, as answers to the questions in Google's request for information regarding their fiber optic internet access. To be clear, I am not seeking background information, but the specific answers to the questions Google asks in their RFI, in whatever form and in any degree of completion in which they may exist.

"A public posting of these answers to the internet will suffice, but either way, with Google's deadline just three days away, I hope you can appreciate the urgency of this matter and that a response to my request, either to me personally or publicly to the internet, will be forthcoming as quickly as possible."

Greensboro moves to accomodate greater transparency

[Hat tip: Triadwatch]

According to state law, any communication involving city employees or elected representatives having to do with city business is subject to disclosure under public records law. With the exception of information from former Council Person Sandy Carmany, none of my records requests have ever included information from representatives' personal email accounts. They should have. It is the content of the email (i.e. city business) that dictates whether an email should be public record, not the email account that is used to send or receive.

Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young announces that the city has taken steps to make providing emails from personal accounts for public access easier for elected representatives. Triadwatch says this went out as a memo to council members:

Recently Council has received multiple request for city related emails that are from Council's personal email accounts. We have created an email account named Council_Public Emails. This account was created for your convenience. If you choose to use your personal email account, please forward city business related emails to this address:  CPE@greensboro-nc.gov.

Piece of cake.

Me on Google in the N&R

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record published my guest column yesterday (on the front of the ideas section, even). Many thanks to editorial page editor Allen Johnson for the opportunity.

I once tried to impart my excitement about a then-young Internet to a local executive. "Why do I need e-mail when I have a fax machine?" he asked. That was 1995. The first Web browser had just been invented, Internet access was one one-hundredth of today's speeds and Google was still three years away from launching its search engine.

Nearly everything we know as the Internet today -- online stock trading, social networks, mobile phone apps, YouTube -- happened since that conversation. While it may not have been crystal clear in 1995 what was coming, it was obvious that tremendous opportunities were to unfold.

Greensboro did not capitalize on those opportunities particularly well.

We now have a remarkable second chance.

 Continue reading "Greensboro plus Google makes sense."

Which city council person will propose this?

Sue brings to our attention a reasonable approach to keeping meetings of public bodies transparent in the day of text messages and bluetooth headsets. From her post, quoting the Washington Post:

When the San Jose City Council meets just miles from the Apple and Google campuses, its members shut down all portable electronic devices, as though they were in a theater. If they’re on and they get a text or e-mail from a lobbyist or anyone discussing city business, they must say so right then and there.

Experts say San Jose’s policy is a model for open government in the digital age. Other cities and state legislatures are adopting their own rules at a time when officials are increasingly fielding requests for lawmakers’ cellphone records, e-mails and text messages.

“Essentially what we’ve said is a public record is a public record,” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said, “no matter where it exists.”

Most excellent

Now THIS is the right kind of effort to put behind Greensboro's pursuit of Google's ultra high-speed fiber optic internet access.

From the GoogleGreensboro blog:
----------------

The City of Greensboro will be setting up laptop computers throughout the city this weekend. These “voting booths” will provide residents the opportunity to nominate Greensboro for Google Fiber. This weekend’s locations include:

Saturday, March 20
Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA (7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.)
Greensboro Children’s Museum (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.)

Sunday, March 21
Gamestop, Friendly Shopping Center (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

The Absent Minded Waiter

A Steve Martin comedy classic.

Greensboro, NC Mayor Bill Knight on Google Fiber

Thanks for pitching in, Mr. Mayor.

Artisans: Make the Fourth funner

Got art? From the Grassroots Productions blog:

Organizers for this year’s Fun Fourth Festival in downtown Greensboro are accepting applications for crafters, skilled artisans and dealers of vintage-era items for their Craftscene and Vintage Village on Saturday, July 3. More than 100,000 people are expected at this year’s festival.

All items for sale in Craftscene must be of original design and handcrafted. Design and artistic excellence are considered for paintings, graphics, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography and mixed media. Items must be acceptable for family viewing.

Health care reform's impact on your wallet

I found this nifty calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation that allows you to quickly see what the effects of the proposed health care reform would be on your pocket book.

Greensboro good

As seen on Greensboro 101.

On February 1, 2010, students from Greensboro's colleges and universities marched in commemoration of the Greensboro Woolworth sit-ins and in celebration of the opening of the International Civil Rights Museum.

WFMY scrubs Google story errors, replaces with new errors

Yesterday, WFMY reported of a Facebook group formed in support of Winston-Salem's pursuit of Google fiber that they, in about 24 hours, "already have more than 5,200 Facebook supporters!"

That was reported on their web site and, I'm told, on air. It was wrong. The Facebook group had 188 members yesterday. Here is a screen shot of the error:

Instead of acknowledging the error, instead of telling their audience that the 5,200 number was wrong, WFMY just scrubbed their old report -- just zapped the old information into the ether, as if it never happened. They removed the incorrect information but failed to bring it to the attention of their audience that what they first reported was wrong; content, I guess, to let people carry around false information.

And here's the funny part -- funny as in it make you want to cry, funny -- they replaced the error with new errors. In place of the previous error, on the same web page, they now write [original links preserved]:

On Monday, Winston-Salem announced they were vying for the the Google Wi-Fi [sic] as well.   They are making a push with Facebook.

They have changed the images on the official city run Facebook page to reflect the Google push. 

Two more pages have also been created:

"Google Fiber For Winston-Salem"

"Bring Google Fiber To Winston-Salem" 

The problem? Click on the links. Those are not "two more pages" -- those are the same single Facebook page. Oh, and it's not "Wi-fi" either.

Brad and Britt take my call on Greensboro's pursuit of Google's fiber

WZTK's Brad and Britt were talking about all the hub-bub across the country as cities try to get Google's to consider them for Google's fiber optic internet access trial -- as we are in Greensboro. I called into the show and we talked about it on air.

WFMY errs in Google story

From a WFMY story on the pursuit of Google:

"Keep in mind...Winston-Salem has only been vying for this spot for about 24 hours....and they already have more than 5,200 Facebook supporters!"

That is wrong. The Winston-Salem Google fiber Facebook group currently has 188 members (see screen shot below).

GreensboroSports.com Basketball Bracket Challenge. Mmmmm... win ribs!

GreensboroSports.com has a free online NCAA basketball bracket challenge going on. First prize is a $100 gift certificate to Shane's Rib Shack. Enter here.

Gaga for Google

From Business Week, with a reference to city councilor Danny Thompson's original concept and the reason for the cargo crate:

"To set themselves apart, some municipal officials are naming cities after Google, owner of the world's largest Web search engine. The city of Greensboro, N.C., is preparing an "Operation Google" gift package for delivery to Google headquarters and has earmarked $50,000 for promoting a Google broadband effort."

No blog? No problem. New Google group: Google Fiber for Greensboro

I've started a new discussion group on Google's discussion host: Google Fiber for Greensboro. Now, even if you don't have a blog, you can easily express your public support for Google choosing Greensboro for its ultra high speed internet trial. As a bonus, comments posted in the forum appear among all the other Google related blog posts and news stories at Google4GSO.com

Don't forget these other ways for you to publicly support the initiative:

• Join the Facebook Group
• Post a video to YouTube and tag it with the words "Google" and "Greensboro" and it will automatically appear in the video feed at Google4GSO.com

And, most importantly, while not public, you can nominate Greensboro directly to Google here.

"Indestructible" screening tomorrow in W-S

[Hat tip: Often Awesome, the series]



Tuesday, March 16, 2010
8:00 p.m.
Tickets $7.50, additional donations graciously accepted

a/perture cinema
311 W. Fourth Street
Winston-Salem, NC
722-8148 or aperturecinema.com
Q&A to follow

Official website can be found here.

The British are coming

As long as I've been in Greensboro, I have never been to one of these Battle of Guilford Courthouse Revolutionary War reenactments. We drove by the park last Saturday, and I could see that there was more to it than just battle reenactments -- fife and drum corps, color guards and camps. I'm going to the next one.

How fast is ultra fast?

Google is proposing to hook up a city with fiber optic internet that will provide access at speeds of 1,000 Mb/s. How much faster is that than your current access? Test your internet access speed here.

Mine is 5.43 Mb/s download and 0.37 Mb/s upload. Google's internet would be 200 to 2,700 times faster than my current Time Warner Cable Road Runner internet service.

Define leadership

From Ed Cone:

Al Franken actively supporting Duluth's bid for GoogleFi (thnx to BW for the pointer).

Anyone seen Bill Knight lately? Where are Skip Alston and other elected officials on GSO's bid?

Mike wins billboard design contest

Mike Baron, contributor to the Greensboro blogosphere, won the city of Winston-Salem's contest to design a billboard to promote the census. Congratulations, Mike!

Greensboro libraries director Sandy Neerman on bringing Google fiber to Greensboro

Thanks to Jeff Sykes for shooting and editing, to Sandy Neerman for her time and to the library staff (site, blog) for putting a shining jewel in Greensboro's crown. Google, you should be so lucky.

VF cutting jobs?

Unsubstantiated but forwarded from within the company, word is that VF Jeans Wear Division is sending local jobs to Panama -- having the "let go" train the replacements first.

Mainstream? Can you check it out?

Update, from Michael Grossman in the comments: "Here's what we have so far, reporter still working on it: http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/03/11/article/vf_to_open_office_in_panama_city_cut_some_jobs_in_greensboro

Greensboro good

Found on Greensboro 101:

Defending mediocrity

In a previous post about the City's hired gun, PR firm RLF Communications doing such a lame job with the online efforts to promote Greensboro's pursuit of Google, I asked:

"[Will Greensboro] coddle mediocrity because it would be impolite to step on the toes of certain insiders or are we going to be grownups and put the success of this effort above other considerations?"

Joe Killian writes an article in which people step up to express their preference for the former.

Greensboro's official Google web effort an unmitiaged disaster.

RLF Communications, the PR agency hired to build and manage Greensboro's official web site supporting our pursuit of Google should be removed from the web effort, not paid for it and their pimp, Action Greensboro, should apologize for bringing them to the party.

It is no secret I had an interest in offering my professional services to the City for this project. I suggested that multiple web developers be given a chance to submit proposals. We were not. Instead, RLF was chosen without a competitve process and their efforts have been an unmitigated disaster. Consider:

1. Their "web site design," for which they propose to charge the city $1,000, was little more than a slightly customized blog. Something the City already had at its disposal for free.

2. The customized blog is broken. Its layout does not display properly for some users.

3. The professional content management, for which RLF proposes to charge the city $2,000 for 24 days worth, has yielded numerous embarrassing and uncorrected grammatical errors and the inclusion of off-topic videos with vulgar language.

4. The online activities proposed on the blog are poorly planned and unnecessarily difficulty.

This is an amateur effort -- worse, really -- and it is an embarrassment to Greensboro. What is Greensboro going to do about it? Coddle mediocrity because it would be impolite to step on the toes of certain insiders or are we going to be grownups and put the success of this effort above other considerations?

Greensboro to Google: "Every time you F**** fart, every time you F**** shit."

"Every time you F**** fart, every time you F**** shit."

What? Where?

In a video in the city's hand-picked list of videos in support of Greensboro's pursuit of Google on their professionally managed web site. Let me repeat that: Someone from the PR agency Greensboro hired to manage its Google web site chose this video for the City-sanctioned YouTube channel.

If it were salty language in a video about Greensboro's pursuit of Google, maybe one could justify it. But it's not even. It's a video by some spammer talking about how to spam YouTube. (Check it out. Salty language throughout, quoted remarks at the 5:01 mark)

[Update: The offending video was removed Thursday morning.]

"Tell Joe Williams to come down and talk to us."

Following up on a story first reported by by Yes! Weekly's Jordan Green, WXII's Bill O'Neil has a great piece on Simkins PAC member and former landfill opponent attorney Joe Williams now working for a company that wants to re-open White Street Landfill.

Bill is a great reporter*, his corporate higher ups are boobs who will not allow WXII's videos to be embedded, so you'll have to click here to watch.

[* With bonus cool points for his on-air acknowledgment that he got onto this story by first reading it on Yes!'s blog.]

"All contestants become the property of the City of Greensboro."

From the latest at the City's professionally managed pursuit-of-Google blog.

"Upon submission, all contestants and entries become the property of the City of Greensboro..."

"This giveaway is just one way Greensboro citizens can show its support for Google Fiber."

"Winners will be selected at random based on creativity..."

 [Update: As of 8:30 Wednesday morning, "selected at random based on creativity" has been corrected. The other two remain -- a bit of a puzzle, apparently.]

Ross on Google in Greensboro

Ross Myers at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

Why is the Center for Creative Leadership sending me spam?

Memo to Center for Creative Leadership: if Nielsen Info or Edith Romain Holdings or whatever name they are operating under told you that they have a list of people who would want to receive email about your upcoming seminar on how to get mojo, they lied. Because I did and I don't.

Shooting Neerman

Jeff Sykes and I shot some video of Greensboro Public Library Director Sandy Neerman talking about the internet, the library and luring Google to town at the central library this morning. (Well, Jeff shot, I asked questions)

Greensboro is really very luck to have Sandy in charge of our libraries (site, blog). She is brainy and describes herself as an introvert, but when she starts talking about libraries she is a fireball of heartfelt passion for knowledge and learning.

Jeff's challenge will be to edit ten minutes of her interesting insight and commentary to a ninety-second or so YouTube clip. We might have to release an extended director's cut.

Did you know Greensboro has a mime team?

"The Daughters of Excellence Mime Team of Greater Higher Ground minister under the anointing at Greater Hope Cathedral in Greensboro, NC"

Rowe be shillin'

When it comes to boosterism, there is none better than the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record. When they recognize a rising tide of interest for an endeavor, when the press releases start coming from the right people, the N&R puts aside objectivity, sidelines the facts, and casts its reporters in the role of promoters. As an alt weekly editor friend of mine might say, they become positively whorish.

You might think since I'm all for this Google ultra high speed internet initiative, I'd be pleased with the local paper becoming a propagandist. Nope. Not when it comes at the expense of sidelining a part of the grassroots community support Google is looking for and covering up shortcomings in the official paid-for effort on the web.

In his article today, N&R columnist Jerri Rowe writes this:

"Our city launched the site Friday, and on Monday, it began asking the creative among us to upload video clips and write blog posts..."

True. The city's site blog does ask for that kind of participation. Did Rowe bother to notice whether submitting that kind of content is feasible? Because it's not. There is a link to an empty YouTube channel, with no ID or password offered for uploading. There is no facility to make a blog post. So yeah, the city asks us to upload videos and make blog posts -- and Rowe neglects to report we cannot.

What's strange though is that, while promoting the City's official web site as doing things it doesn't, Rowe ignores Google4GSO.com, a conduit to, well, blog posts and YouTube videos by the people of Greensboro on the subject of bringing  Google here. And it's not empty. It's grassroots. It's genuine and I suspect Google would get a kick out of it, even if it doesn't have the stamp of approval of the right people.

Ed on Google in Greensboro

Ed Cone at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

"The miraculous becomes commonplace..."

"The miraculous becomes commonplace — that’s how many experts describe what could happen a decade from now as Internet users come to expect speeds 100 times faster than today’s consumer data transmission speeds."

-- the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's Richard Barron looks at how Google's ultra high speed internet access would help Greensboro

Ever seen a $10,000 blog?

The City of Greensboro launches its GoogleGreensboro web site, designed by hired gun PR agency RLF Communications. From the press release:

"RLF is providing comprehensive support for the Google Greensboro campaign by assisting with web-site design and development, development of a marketing campaign to engage the public and interest of Google and tracking of results from the effort."

Google hosts blogs for free at Blogspot.com. Ed Cone created one for the City's Google pursuit. They've had the password for nearly two weeks. They declined to use it, waiting instead for a "web site" that is a blog -- and it is a Word Press blog to boot, not even a Google-powered blog.

More from the press release:

"There is interest in ensuring that the social media platforms remain open and accessible by the public wanting to engage in the Google Greensboro campaign efforts. Having the city engage RLF directly avoids any appearance of fettered access and hopefully alleys any such concerns."

The City's blog allows people to make comments on posts. Other than that, it is unclear what kind of unfettered access it provides to social media or what kind of special experience in unfettered access public-meeting-boycotting RLF Communications brings to the table. The City's blog has nothing like the unfettered aggregation of blogs posts, videos and links at Google4Greensboro.com -- up and running since prior to the City's public meeting about the Google initiative ten days ago.

Also from the press release:

"In addition, considering there were only 4 weeks left for this effort (going on 3 weeks) we did not have time to write specs and issue a RFP for this purpose."

Having been told by City Council Representative Danny Thompson that the city might hire someone to build a web site for this endeavor and having already built what I considered a significant portion of what it should include, I sent an email on Monday to the City that read, in part:

"[A]lthough time may be to pressing to compile a formal request for proposal, you might consider asking local web companies to offer you proposals for what they would do, the cost and turn around time. I'd be interested in offering such a proposal for your consideration. I could have it to you in half a day."

Although the City orginally was saying that Action Greensboro would cover the cost of the PR agency, that has turned out not to be so. The itemized costs for the City from the press release:

Overall Strategy, Ideas & Action Plan Creation: $2,000
Website Design & Copywriting: $1,000
Website Management & Updating of Content in March: $2,000
Promotion & Management of Contests: $4,000
Reporting, Tracking & Strategy Meetings: $1000
TOTAL $10,000

Google4GSO Badge

The people of Greensboro on Google's fiber trial.

For display on your web page or blog, copy this code and paste it where you want it to appear.

<a href="http://www.google4gso.com"><img src="http://www.google4gso.com/images/badge.jpg" /><br /> The people of Greensboro on Google's fiber trial.</a>

Time's a wasting

How long does it take to start a blog? To start Twittering? To join a Facebook group?

If you are the City of Greensboro, the answer is weeks.

Bill and Pam and Jay on Google in Greensboro

Jay Ovittore talks with Bill Flynn and Pamela Furr on Rush Radio 94.5 on 3/5/2010 about the efforts to bring Google Fiber to Greensboro.  

So, tell me about this Google thang

"The Google trial will be a win for whoever gets it, regardless of the depth of the bath the company takes. It's a long shot for Greensboro – but hey, someone has to win."

A really good article on Greensboro's pursuit of Google's utlra high speed fiber internet access by Paul Clark, in the Rhino Times of all places.

Jay on Google in Greensboro

Jay Ovittore at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

On Greensboro paying Time Warner Cable for dark fiber

Triadwatch scours the City Council agendas with a skeptical eye. I'm thankful he does, there is a lot of minutiae in them in which some important things can get overlooked.

In the comments to this post about Greensboro's pursuit of Google, he asked why there was a line item in the agenda for this week's City Council meeting. (p. 96) for a payment of $107,000 to Time Warner Cable for "dark fiber" per the "franchise agreement."

I asked the City's public affairs office to clarify. They put me in touch with John Gribble the franchise and right of way guy in Engineering and Inspections. Despite some technical difficulties, Gribble persisted and got me the documents that explain. Although technically no longer a franchise -- cable system franchises having been taken over by the state -- the City does have a signed agreement with TWC to pay them $100,000 per year to lease fiber for its institution network, the network that carries data between city computers and facilities. The $107,000 is this year's payment, including tax.

Robbie on Google in Greensboro

Greensboro City Council Representative Robbie Perkins at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

Dead dog leads to animal cruelty charges

I saw this video on Greensboro 101 today. Don't watch it if you don't want to see a dead dog chained to a tree. The description at YouTube says:

"Animal Control took [the dog] to the shelter where they performed a procedure to examine her stomach contents. The result - empty. This dog was starved to death.

"Three days after Shari's original call to Animal Control, they took the findings of the investigation to the magistrate and animal cruelty charges were filed against the guardian of this dog. "

The case number in the YouTube description checks out: a charge of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, court date March 17th, 2010.

Avvett Brothers cover "Greensboro Woman"

2014: The New York Times becomes a print only newsletter for the elite and elderly

[Hat tip Michelle Cerulli]

A "history" of the internet, from the invention of the World Wide Web through the 2015 introduction of Googlezon's EPIC -- Evolving Personalized Information Construct.

My reply to WFMY

My reply to WFMY's comments on faking the black book.

-------------------

Dear Ms. Hooper,

Thank you for the reply. I searched your web site for "black book" and am unable to find any text or video reporting the clarification.

While I am sure the implications of misrepresenting the binder are clear to you, for Mr. Lougee's benefit, I'll explain.

1. The real binder has been withheld from public inspection. Were WFMY to have seen it, it would raise questions about access under public records law.

2. To have had access to the real binder and not describe what was in it would have raised serious doubts about WFMY's investigative rigor.

3. Unsubstantiated accusations sprang up in Greensboro about a "black book" containing the photos of black police officers and illegitimately used to try to implicate them in wrong-doing. While numerous external and internal investigations failed to identify such a book, another black binder was identified and has come to be called the "black book" -- it has become a stand-in for the mythological black book never found to exist. The real binder is a legitimate case book, a fact attested to in a sworn affidavit by the former Greensboro city manager -- a matter of public record unreported by WFMY.

To display a binder thick with material and making it appear as the "black book," as WFMY did, is a visual misrepresentation in support of an urban legend instead of the reality that the binder contained photos of nineteen officers compiled into a photo line-up with 114 total pictures -- officers who were on duty at the time of an alleged assault on a female by, as the victim alleged, a black police officer.

I am pleased to hear that you will continue to report on this story. Perhaps in the future you will take an interest in aligning your reports with the facts, instead of using stagecraft to unnecessarily foment divisiveness in our community.

Cordially,
Roch Smith, Jr.

WFMY responds

On Monday, I sent an email to the president of Gannet's broadcasting division, bringing to his attention WFMY's unwillingness to respond to inquiries from Jerry Bledsoe, Ed Cone and me about what seemed to possibly be misrepresentations in its reporting on the "black book." Gannet owns WFMY.

Today, I received the email below. I cannot find the clarification to which it refers on WFMY's web site. The original video that started it all appears to have been removed too, although you can see a screen shot here.
-----------------------------------

Dear Mr. Smith:

Last night we aired an update of our story to clarify that the black binder shown in connection with our recent broadcast of our interview with Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy was not the purported “black book.”  As to your questions about our interview with Chief Bellamy, our broadcast speaks for itself.  If you need any additional information beyond what we reported, you may want to contact Chief Bellamy.  WFMY plans to continue covering this story.   

Thank you for contacting us.  We hope that this addresses your concern.

Deborah Hooper

President and General Manager

WFMY News 2

Obscura Day

Obscura Day, March 20th: "An international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places."

Including a free viewing of a "private cabinet of curiosities" in Elkin, NC and a free tour of "Elsewhere's living museum and 58-year collection of re-organized thrift and surplus" in Greensboro.

Alexander on Google in Greensboro

Alexander at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

She said yes!

Seeing this video of the CEO of Baltimore's public schools talking about how his organization would benefit from Google's ultra high speed fiber internet got me thinking about getting some of Greensboro's leaders on camera doing the same to support Greensboro's efforts.

When Jeff Sykes offered to deploy his sweet new video camera in service of Greensboro's pursuit of Google, I wrote to Sandy Neerman, Director of Libraries for Greensboro to ask if she would make a video with us about how the libraries could benefit from Google fiber She said yes in about two minutes. Thanks, Sandy!

Film at eleven.

Time Warner, GSO mayor team up

"Time Warner Cable and Greensboro Mayor Bill Knight will host a kick-off for a new educational initiative focused in improving science, technology, engineering and math education."

- Triad Business Journal

Speculating on da Google

Jeff Martin speculates on how Google will choose where to install its ultra high seed fiber internet.
----------------------

I think the winner will be where municipal and Google-owned dark fiber converge.
Tell me our prescient leaders plowed dark fiber when they were constructing the urban loop.
Tell me at least part of the WIRED grants to Piedmont Triad Partnership bought some dark fiber.
Tell me the city is plowing dark fiber as it constructs the Downtown Greenway.
Tell me the city is plowing dark fiber as it widens New Garden Road.
Tell me they plowed dark fiber when the aerotropolis was paved.

Jonathan on Google

Jonathan Davis at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC. (more)

Area day camp directory

Its alphabetical-only navigation is a bit of a drawback, but for sheer volume of information, Piedmont Parent's directory of area summer day camps is impressive with 129 listings.

The vanishing "only"

Mark this one as an encouraging small thing done right. A story in the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record on the conviction of a man for cruelty to animals originally reported that the man was sentenced to "only"  six to eight months. The "only" has be removed, hopefully with a little note to the reporter about why.

Google Update

An official update on Greensboro's pursuit of Google from Assistant City Manager Denise Turner, courtesy of City Council representative Nancy Vaughan.
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The public meeting on Wednesday went well. The feedback was positive; there were about 25 people in attendance as well as a great number of on-line comments. In addition, all of the local media outlets were at the public meeting. We also received solicitation for a number of interviews from other media, including Business Week – our efforts are getting notice.

At the meeting, we also unveiled the logo associated with the effort, titled “Google Greensboro” (see attached). The logo idea was Councilmember Thompson. It was designed electronically and built by Jay Jones of the Engineering and Inspections staff (for less than $100!).

After reviewing the feedback, is seems the application focus should highlight the following aspects of Greensboro:

-Education

-Healthcare/Public Safety

-Transportation/Logistics/Product Distribution

-Community/Residential connectivity

We will ask Zack Matheny to take the lead in identifying "team leaders" for each of these topics. The team leaders will be asked to recruit people from their fields of interest who would be willing to 1)let us use their names and titles as supporters of Google in our application; 2)appear on video saying they welcome Google to Greensboro or 3)send a community interest application to Google (this is part of the on-line Google application). The team leaders need to be recognizable in their fields of interest. Of course we will want to include an official expression of support from the City Council as part of the RFI as well. Councilmember Matheny has asked the Manager to prepare a resolution in support of the  Council to consider a support resolution

The second item we discussed was the social media outreach. We need to create a platform to share the application progress and connect social media outlets, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. There have been on-going conversations in the blogosphere on the best way of going about this with varied opinions. We will have a defined direction in the next few days which I will share with Council.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Denise

Denise N. Turner, Assistant City Manager

City of Greensboro  

300 W. Washington Street

Greensboro, NC  27402-3136

Phone:  336.373.2002 Fax:  336.373.2117

http://www.greensboro-nc.gov

Greensboro is Googley: Local filmmaker launches web series

I was taking a look at the latest local videos on Greensboro101 today, when I saw this one. It turns out it is a preview of a web drama my friend and long-time Greensboro resident filmmaker Les Butchart is producing through his Highway 29 films. (With some really good local actors too.) The series is "The Hive," teased with "Living here can be murder on your friends."

I'll bet Les could go for some ultra high speed fiber internet from Google.

Earl Grey from THE HIVE @ Yahoo! Video

Blogging ALS

Local filmmakers Andy Coon and Blake Faucette recently started a blog called Often Awesome to tell the story of their friend Tim who is living with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), a progressive degeneration of the nerves that control voluntary muscle movement.

As they set about to document Tim's life on film, Andy and Blake often post other video about ALS and other people with ALS. Today, they featured this poignant video.


The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Roch on Google

Me at the City of Greensboro sponsored community forum on luring Google's ultra high speed internet access to Greensboro, NC.