Many of us don't think this is a normal recession where there's a dip and things basically return to normal. For example, I have a startup in the local media/marketing arena. Many of the newspaper companies are thinking this "dip" will be like others. I couldn't disagree more. We're already seeing many shutting down or scaling back dramatically. I think this is true for other sectors as well.

I'm convinced that the way local marketing and advertising is done is fundamentally changing. Take Search/Google for example. There's now more local business lookups done via the search engines than in print yellow pages yet a typical small business owner is doing what they've done for decades. The "good news" about the recession is that many are actually recalibrating and asking themselves what they should be doing differently. This spells a huge opportunity for the organization that figures out how to address that gap yet to bridged. Gratuitous plug ahead :) Our plan is to build what I think of as a virtual digital marketing agency made up of local independent marketing consultants. Our value prop to consultants will be somewhat akin to a franchise business without the major capital outlay. That is, we'll develop the product and "operations manual" that they can run with and split the spoils. We'll start with Search since it's the best foot in the door and even in this economy continues to grow 20% per quarter.

We'll be in town March 3-5 and hope to connect with as many folks as we can. If one has an interest in this arena, we hope to visit with you. I hope to work with Tac to help us reach the TechBoise community as he's done a great job of building this community which would be a natural fit.

Moreover, it's an economy [especially in Idaho] reminiscent of the beginning of the fire scene in Disney's 'Bambi'. The animals in the forest are staring to act all cagey, and then that first whiff of smoke....

Right now the good old boys in state govt are about to divvy up the federal spoils...and let's face reality, even though technology is the #1 segment of Idaho's economy....tech people do not have a seat at that table. Brian Whitlock is a 'tech person', representing INL? Jeez, gimme a break.

What does this tell you? 1st: they don't have clue how to seriously spend that money so it really does some good in 2-5 years. 2nd: for all you techies, in the immortal words of Gordon Geecko, "if you're not on the inside, you're on the outside."