Dialogue Partners - what's the big deal?
 

People are abuzz about this Our Voice Our Hamilton contract. Does anyone else think this is a tempest in a teapot? Who cares if they asked a question about HSR or pulled some pictures from the Internet for their Pinterest account. The city itself took stock pictures for farmer's market ads last summer.

Two issues I can see: one that a bunch of disgruntled bloggers wish they'd scored a $400,000 contract, and two that the city is spending $400K on a wordpress site, twitter account and Pinterest site. Fair enough on the second, though you don't hear the same people crying every time the city overspends on everything else, but seems to me a lot of people online have a massively enlarged sense of their importance in this city and this is just a battle for online supremacy.

It's just a very visible example of misallocated spending which also happens to be directly associated with social media.

People may not scream as loud about other misspent tax money, but then the recipients of the contracts aren't poking us in the eye about it on twitter either.

As far as I'm concerned, if it sheds light on the horrible situation in city hall, it's a good thing. Should it just be ignored because everything else gets ignored? I don't understand your point really... I don't think people are bitter that they didn't get the contract. Most probably didn't bid and didn't want it anyways. But that doesn't mean you can't lament the fact that a co op student could do a better job than they did - for free. Most people would expect that for that kind of money, it would have been an actual professional consultant that bid. Take a look at what the same company did in Calgary - it's a joke http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald...c-ea0e8af9344a

just seems disproportionate. Also you're probably only seeing a small part of the project. My point is that it seems like other motives at play, which makes me think we won't see any light being shed on mis-spending.

Here's my thinking: If they haven't done even the simplest of fact checking (with regards to "what is HSR" and photos of Hamilton, Ohio), then what are the odds they're going to make sure they've dotted all their i's and crossed all their t's in the final report?

It just shows that they don't give a shit about the contract and are completely phoning it in.

I don't think there were other motives. You make it sound like all the people who didn't win the bid were conspiring in the background to blow this up on twitter as soon as it launched. I'm pretty sure the entire twitter thing was just a random assortment of (social media savvy) Hamiltonians latching on to something "so sad it's funny".

Your post kind of rubs me the wrong way because it has a tinge of that attitude where the people who get engaged (whether on twitter, facebook, or in the real world at meetings, or by writing letters to council or starting campaigns) are the "usual suspects" or "activists" or have a bug up their ass for some reason - and that the silent majority of hamiltonians don't agree with them so they should not be listened to.

In my mind, the silent majority of hamiltonians are silent because they really don't care. they have given up on the city. they live their life of having an affordable mortgage with an easy commute to wherever they work and ready access to shopping. Their main beef is "high taxes", but they haven't bothered to get informed about what's necessary to lower them (intensification being really the only solution).

When only a small percentage of the population is engaged and trying to make a difference, I think that we should be branding the other 90% who do NOTHING as the "usual suspects"

It's such a sad state of affairs.

This train-wreck happened precisely because social media savvy people were so far ahead of the dolts at City Hall. The mainstream media were late to the party and had to catch up.

coalminecanary sums it up so well.

There's a change-by-us meeting on Monday, and I'll bet it will be packed. For many people this latest fiasco is the tipping point.

Is it really such a big deal or sad state of affairs? Compared to all the other problems this city has the fact that they asked a question on Twitter seems a bit of a stretch to me. I don't mean to disparage local activists but I really hate this sense of exclusivity activists can get - we can't even tender a contract with a company in Ottawa without people getting miffed. That's where I see the enlarged sense of importance - just because you're committed or specially engaged doesn't mean you have some special right to say how the city is to be run.

Durandy, I think you're combining two distinct issues: civic engagement; the tendered contract.

With all due respect, you are clearly entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. The details of the contract mess are clearly spelled out and can be viewed from many sources, including The Spec, CBC, and RTH. Even the politicians could not duck this debacle.

On civic engagement, we will disagree. In my opinion, residents who are engaged in civic life and committed to a great city in which to live and work are to be thanked and encouraged. They have no special rights, and usually lack the influence held by much more powerful interests.

I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was a disgruntled blogger or just a very internet savvy person who made up Dialogue Partners and scored this and other contracts. There are people who specialize in making up bullshit that looks believable enough.

Consultancy can be such a scam at times. This is one of them. Make up a website, corral a few people with "experience in the field" for a bio and a photo, and get good at hitting the Control + C and P keys to add extra content to a boilerplate "report."

I'm well acquainted with and very accepting of the concept of paying for knowledge. I'll happily pay a plumber $100 to come over and take care of a vexing problem that turns out to be a simple 5-minute fix, because what for him is a simple 5-minute fix could turn into a disastrous $2,000-dollar boondoggle if I get my mitts on it and screw it up.

But these people aren't plumbers. There's a name for people who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for "reports": shysters.