The Bridgewater-Raritan School District recently released a new version of its web site. The redesigned home page, which is the key to all of the improvements, provides a dramatically different look and feel to navigating about the various areas of interest.
The major improvement is in the nature of the menu bar at the top of the home page. In many other web sites, the home page and its menu disappear once a person has drilled down to the desired topic. Not so, here. As you click on your chosen topic, the original menu bar remains visible. This allows you to change subjects easily, quickly and effectively.
The Bridgewater-Raritan Schools’ home page menu bar displays the following eight all-encompassing topics: District (General); Budget; Curriculum; Departments; Schools; Superintendent‘s News; BOE (Board of Education); and Community. Just pass your computer’s cursor over any one of these topics, and a pull-down menu will appear, providing you with many more choices.
If you’d like, try it out at www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/index.cfm
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Will Newspapers Make the Cut?
In its early days, when television took hold and began to expand across the country, many people thought that the days of radio broadcasting were numbered. Confounding many experts, though, broadcast radio did not disappear, but gradually changed its programming and prospered.
Who would have predicted that decades after the rollout of TV, today’s old-fashioned, analog airwaves would still be filled with over-the-air broadcast stations pumping out talk radio, sports and music? Would anyone have dreamed that Sirius and XM would be delivering specialized radio programming via satellite and getting customers to pay for it? Or that existing radio stations are now upgrading their broadcasting systems to carry superior quality HD (high definition) digital channels for free?
New Jersey already has 9 such radio stations broadcasting 12 HD radio channels, with more coming. From Central Jersey, we can already pick up HD radio from neighboring states as well.
Today, the print newspaper industry faces a challenge similar to that of early TV, as it grew to become a major competitor to radio. This time, it’s the Internet and cell phone technology which have both reared up to spar with print media. However, just as radio did not die out with the growth of TV, print newspapers will not go away. As they are already doing, newspapers will adapt and use the Internet as a complimentary delivery medium to their print operations.
No one now knows just how far the transformation of the newspaper industry will go, because the answer is bound up in two factors: 1) The inability to forecast with any great accuracy the unpredictable, long-term behavior of the buying public and, 2) The lack of information about how new technological innovations and marketing techniques will affect consumer behavior 5 to 20 years out.
Not all newspapers will make it, but those who are nimbly adaptable should thrive in an information and entertainment market in which their delivery systems will be a combination of newsprint, Internet and other, yet-to-be-discovered formats.
Note: 1. For specific information about the location and call signs of broadcast HD radio stations, see http://www.hdradio.com/find_an_hd_digital_radio_station.php 2. Traditional AM/FM radio receivers cannot pick up the new HD radio channels; a new receiver is required.
Who would have predicted that decades after the rollout of TV, today’s old-fashioned, analog airwaves would still be filled with over-the-air broadcast stations pumping out talk radio, sports and music? Would anyone have dreamed that Sirius and XM would be delivering specialized radio programming via satellite and getting customers to pay for it? Or that existing radio stations are now upgrading their broadcasting systems to carry superior quality HD (high definition) digital channels for free?
New Jersey already has 9 such radio stations broadcasting 12 HD radio channels, with more coming. From Central Jersey, we can already pick up HD radio from neighboring states as well.
Today, the print newspaper industry faces a challenge similar to that of early TV, as it grew to become a major competitor to radio. This time, it’s the Internet and cell phone technology which have both reared up to spar with print media. However, just as radio did not die out with the growth of TV, print newspapers will not go away. As they are already doing, newspapers will adapt and use the Internet as a complimentary delivery medium to their print operations.
No one now knows just how far the transformation of the newspaper industry will go, because the answer is bound up in two factors: 1) The inability to forecast with any great accuracy the unpredictable, long-term behavior of the buying public and, 2) The lack of information about how new technological innovations and marketing techniques will affect consumer behavior 5 to 20 years out.
Not all newspapers will make it, but those who are nimbly adaptable should thrive in an information and entertainment market in which their delivery systems will be a combination of newsprint, Internet and other, yet-to-be-discovered formats.
Note: 1. For specific information about the location and call signs of broadcast HD radio stations, see http://www.hdradio.com/find_an_hd_digital_radio_station.php 2. Traditional AM/FM radio receivers cannot pick up the new HD radio channels; a new receiver is required.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Heading Off Problems at the Park Commission
One of the problems that still faces the Somerset County Park Commission is its apparently sloppy practice of awarding contracts. The prognosis is not good.
The current batch of commissioners, acting as a whole, cannot seem to grasp the simplest concept that the public is able to judge its recent behavior in awarding a $225,000 contract and clearly perceive it as wholly inappropriate. That advertising contract is the latest example in the denouement of the park commission’s ongoing missteps. Three vendors were in a pool, but only one bid on the project. Doesn’t that mean that the solitary bid should not have been accepted and that the commissioners should have gone back out and found more bidders?
Was Rick Fontana, Somerset County Freeholder and liaison to the park commission, at the meeting when this occurred? If so, what did he say? If he wasn’t present, what is he doing about it? According to press reports, park commissioner Robert Horowitz seemed to be the only one present who argued forcefully and “protested the method used to solicit professionals to join a commission pool to vie for such work.”
I’ve observed Horowitz at one or two prior commission meetings, and it’s usually discernible when something is bothering him. He seems to have a sense when all is not right and he is not bashful about expressing it to his colleagues on the commission.
Interestingly enough, the same Courier News article which quoted Horowitz, disclosed that a large chunk of the contract “would pay for newspaper, magazine and signage advertising, including (to) the Courier News and Home News Tribune.” That’s a good example of getting something out on the table for all to see.
The park commissioners should be bending over backwards to choke off even the slightest appearance of what could be perceived as conduct unbecoming of public servants.
See Courier News article, “Park Commission contract generates questions.” at http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NEWS01/801180338/1006/NEWS06
The current batch of commissioners, acting as a whole, cannot seem to grasp the simplest concept that the public is able to judge its recent behavior in awarding a $225,000 contract and clearly perceive it as wholly inappropriate. That advertising contract is the latest example in the denouement of the park commission’s ongoing missteps. Three vendors were in a pool, but only one bid on the project. Doesn’t that mean that the solitary bid should not have been accepted and that the commissioners should have gone back out and found more bidders?
Was Rick Fontana, Somerset County Freeholder and liaison to the park commission, at the meeting when this occurred? If so, what did he say? If he wasn’t present, what is he doing about it? According to press reports, park commissioner Robert Horowitz seemed to be the only one present who argued forcefully and “protested the method used to solicit professionals to join a commission pool to vie for such work.”
I’ve observed Horowitz at one or two prior commission meetings, and it’s usually discernible when something is bothering him. He seems to have a sense when all is not right and he is not bashful about expressing it to his colleagues on the commission.
Interestingly enough, the same Courier News article which quoted Horowitz, disclosed that a large chunk of the contract “would pay for newspaper, magazine and signage advertising, including (to) the Courier News and Home News Tribune.” That’s a good example of getting something out on the table for all to see.
The park commissioners should be bending over backwards to choke off even the slightest appearance of what could be perceived as conduct unbecoming of public servants.
See Courier News article, “Park Commission contract generates questions.” at http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/NEWS01/801180338/1006/NEWS06
Monday, January 21, 2008
Newspapers Deliver
Several days ago, in two area newspapers, I read about how the Somerset County Park Commission still seems to be having difficulty in making fundamental changes to its procurement practices. That underscored to me how we rely almost exclusively on the accurate reporting of two journalists, Martin Bricketto and Joe Tyrrell, to stay on top of what’s going on with the behavior of the commission and with the oversight responsibilities of the Somerset County Freeholders.
When the Wolff and Samson report was released to the public last year, a furor broke out over the policies and practices of the park commission. I attended several public meetings and heard supporters of the status quo walk up to the mike, talk about how things weren’t that bad at the commission and that “media frenzy” was largely to blame for stirring up the pot. The message seemed to be that if only the press would go away, the bad news would go away.
Well, when a tree falls in the forest, it still makes a sound, even though no one is there to hear it. It just so happens, in this case, that when the trees of the park commission scandal began toppling over, somebody was there to listen to the crackling of the branches. Some of those who heard the noise, like it or not, were reporters sitting in public meetings of the freeholders and of the park commission, taking notes, asking questions, digging up facts, and bringing that information back to newspaper and Internet readers.
There was no media frenzy. I read all of the columns and attended many of the same meetings at which reporters were present. I don’t recall them writing about anything that did not actually happen, or that the public did not deserve to know.
When the Wolff and Samson report was released to the public last year, a furor broke out over the policies and practices of the park commission. I attended several public meetings and heard supporters of the status quo walk up to the mike, talk about how things weren’t that bad at the commission and that “media frenzy” was largely to blame for stirring up the pot. The message seemed to be that if only the press would go away, the bad news would go away.
Well, when a tree falls in the forest, it still makes a sound, even though no one is there to hear it. It just so happens, in this case, that when the trees of the park commission scandal began toppling over, somebody was there to listen to the crackling of the branches. Some of those who heard the noise, like it or not, were reporters sitting in public meetings of the freeholders and of the park commission, taking notes, asking questions, digging up facts, and bringing that information back to newspaper and Internet readers.
There was no media frenzy. I read all of the columns and attended many of the same meetings at which reporters were present. I don’t recall them writing about anything that did not actually happen, or that the public did not deserve to know.
Friday, January 18, 2008
A Man of Integrity
Every once in a while you come across a story so honestly persuasive, that you just can’t ignore it. Walter J. Kavanaugh of Somerville is just such a story.
I never knew the man and I never had the honor to cross his path either personally or professionally. But when he died recently, it was clear from press accounts about his life that this was not an ordinary politician. There was a flavor to the news narratives about him that had a ring of genuine sincerity. My gosh, I thought, those stories are actually true. Senator Kavanaugh was a good man and a good public servant.
He belonged, in many respects, to the same class as another much-admired politician, the late Congressman, “Tip” O’Neil of Massachusetts – they both were imbued with that indefinable quality called integrity. They also appear to have had the same old Irish wit and charm which can be so compelling to people of all ethnic backgrounds.
Senator Kavanaugh leaves a legacy and an example for all elected and appointed public officials which are not easy to replicate. I only wish that more would try.
I never knew the man and I never had the honor to cross his path either personally or professionally. But when he died recently, it was clear from press accounts about his life that this was not an ordinary politician. There was a flavor to the news narratives about him that had a ring of genuine sincerity. My gosh, I thought, those stories are actually true. Senator Kavanaugh was a good man and a good public servant.
He belonged, in many respects, to the same class as another much-admired politician, the late Congressman, “Tip” O’Neil of Massachusetts – they both were imbued with that indefinable quality called integrity. They also appear to have had the same old Irish wit and charm which can be so compelling to people of all ethnic backgrounds.
Senator Kavanaugh leaves a legacy and an example for all elected and appointed public officials which are not easy to replicate. I only wish that more would try.
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