Best Web Company
September 29, 2008 · Print This Article
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22 Responses to “Best Web Company”
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September 29, 2008 · Print This Article
Voting has closed. Winners will be announced soon.
22 Responses to “Best Web Company”
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Captain Jack #1? I wasn’t aware that this poll was aimed at web companies that give off a 1993 web-vibe. Cheers!
I have to agree with Ed. I’m taking these “awards” with a grain of salt. They are directed toward a small crew of DSM-area web geeks who basically nominated themselves and each other. You did not market these awards beyond your small circle and most categories do not include nominees who reside outside the metro. Let’s see…48Web is the company running the show and I happen to know that someone works at Captain Jack.
This does not appear very legit. When you add the real web design companies in the state, such as Spindustry, Global Reach, Alliance Technologies etc, then this will be a legitimate competition. As it is right now, it is a joke!
@Iacovos - You were not nominated by the community - so how does this make you more legit than the ones that were? You’ve obviously lost touch with the market.
@Ed & @Anne If you paid attention to the rest of the site instead of whining that you were not nomintated you would have found that everything is community driven. If you were in touch with the community or knew how to listen you would have had a chance to nominate you companies…. Maybe next year.
Andy - I’m not a developer for hire so I didn’t make my comments because I’m bitter about not being nominated. If I was looking for recognition, I would have nominated myself, as many other people did. I see that your WordPress blog is community driven, but your community is quite limited. Iowa consists of more than the metro area and Iowa’s web presence consists of much more than your small circle. I understand the need for local companies to get recognition but I feel like your inner circle is taking what is not rightfully yours. I know no other contest where the creator, moderator, webmaster, etc. is also up for awards. Congrats to the winners, they will get to announce their prize on their sites and impress customers.
Annie: We did the best we can to market this site and these awards on no budget while spending our time for FREE to plan, implement, design, develop this site. If you were not aware that is not our fault. We did not specifically market in the metro area nor did we specifically market to a segment of people. We broadcast a message to whomever was listening. If you weren’t listening it’s not our fault. Again we did the best we could with 0 sponsors, 0 funding, all for FREE FOR OUR COMMUNITY.
I want to make some things clear…
There is NO moderation of this site. Nominations are 100% COMMUNITY DRIVEN. I know that’s hard to understand - but we did not nominate ourselves nor are we participating in the voting. Voting is 100% Community Driven. Marketing / Advertising is 100% Community Driven Word of Mouth.
Our intent in going through all this work was to help our local tech community grow. The intent was not for setting up a hokey awards system and rig it so we could win. That may be what old school companies do with in their buddy-buddy systems but we are a new generation that does things for each other.
So if you have general criticisms about the site or how we can make it better for next year (you know - help us) then by all means leave us a comment. But if you are here to whine that you were not nominated maybe you should rethink your business and try embracing your community a little more and not attack the companies that are trying to make a difference.
Oh my, Ed and Iocavos,
The grapes, they are sour indeed. Sounds like someone has an axe to grind. Name calling isn’t nice.
Annie at least makes a lucid argument but it is based on the premise that the selection criteria were unfairly biased toward companies in the metro. But then there is no evidence presented to support the premise.
All the companies nominated seem to be actively involved in web development, focus on that as their core business and seem to do good, consistent work over time. They are all innovators, doing all kinds of cool, new things. They employ talent from all over the state. They do business with companies all over the state.
Sounds like the selection criteria were reasonable to me.
So, maybe instead of being all mean, maybe the people leaving negative comments here should just put on their big-boy/girl pants and ask how they can be considered for next year?
@Iacovos & @Annie - Andy is right, the reason why those ‘real companies’ weren’t nominated for this is because they don’t care enough about staying in tune to the local DSM (SMALLER) web community which is a big mistake (trust me, I worked at one of the aforementioned companies).
And Gloablreach… Ever heard of a div?
Adding my two cents to this conversation. Ed, Annie and Iacovos - keep in mind that the Iowa Web Awards started as a project/experiment and will grow from there. It is also intended to be the opposite of industry self-congratulation award events, which (after working seven years in the advertising agency world) I find boring and predictable.
Awards are fun and all, but they shouldn’t define your company. Your work and reputation defines you.
Don’t underestimate the small group of “DSM-area web geeks” who are the community behind these nominations. These people, who primarily congregate on Twitter, have done *amazing* things for the tech scene in our region - more than any company or organization could ever do. I am more than happy to discuss the amazing power of Des Moines’ Twitter community with you over e-mail, phone, or in person. Please reach out to me at nathan (at) lavarow (dot) com or 515.554.0502.
Instead of dismissing the community, you should be looking at it as a networking, new business and recruiting opportunity to harness for your individual companies. Paragon IT Pros gets it - they are sponsoring a tweetup tonight, in fact. Please, join us at a tweetup some time, we would love to have you!
FYI, 48 web has TONS of javascript errors in IE7.
This competition in spirit I believe was and is noble and is a great idea. If someone is bitter that they weren’t nominated and don’t think it’s legit, then why waste time visiting this site and making comments?
Competition, whether it’s in business or in competition like this, is what makes our programming and design community better.
Every Web shop in town be it “real Web design shops” as Iacovos describes (which is surprising since the ones he lists is often referred to as “template” driven) has it’s flaws and advantages.
At the very least this has opened my eyes to some nice sites done locally.
Hey, don’t get me wrong guys, I think it’s a cool idea. But the whole project is revolved around #dmtweetup people and companies. At least Trillix is up there now, and their site actually validates XHTML 1.0 Transitional/CSS2.
However I could pull up Captain Jack’s websites and find SQL errors on every page, table-based navigation and ascii-encode characters. If you’re going to boast ‘elite programmers’ and ‘advanced web developers’, don’t you think you could prevent SQL injection and figure out how to float divs?
Andy, nowhere did I “whine” that I wasn’t on this list. In fact, I wouldn’t be on this list, because I’m not a for-hire individual.
So in the spirit of ever-so-humble-positive-feedback, next year go through the phone book and look at companies. Find people who work hard and actually do a good job, unlike certain places that I won’t name (Captain Jack). Find companies with innovative designs, websites that validate to current web standards.
Picking your friends for linkback points and free advertising doesn’t give you or #dmtweetup any cred.
Good lookin’ out.
I never thought something so seemingly simple on the surface could get so steamy! I propose 2 new categories, “Most well cloaked sarcasm in a blog comment” and “Best use of a phone book” (Do they still print those?)
I second the notion to create a category for “Best use of a phone book.” & I nominate Doug for it since he thought of making a category based upon a phone book.
(oh, and, I do believe they still print a few… )
If I may, I’d like to share some accurate information about Captain Jack Communications.
Before I do that, I’d like to say how very proud I am that our company has been nominated and how seriously we take the responsibility to live up to that. I’d also like to say that I am impressed with the other nominees and consider them worthy competition.
First, we design and program to current and emerging standards. Any company that has been in business fourteen years is going to have legacy web sites in their portfolio that were developed to deprecated standards. That’s a testament to our evolution and experience. What’s important is that today, and for the past several years, we do things right: CSS, object orientation, security, validation. I haven’t seen a table layout on sites we’ve developed in years.
Second, we have the advantage of having local developers who are both energetic and experienced, bright and balanced. All of them work very hard, push new techniques and methodologies and communicate well with our clients.
Third, since our sale last year to Harvey Freese and Charlie Notis, I’ve had a unique and challenging opportunity to lead our development team, with renewed vigor, into all kinds of exciting realms: social networking, mashups, cinematic interactive backends, total bricks to bits web applications, content management systems. I can’t take credit for the innovation, that goes to the developers. But I think I can be justifiably proud that the stuff we’ve been doing for the past couple years but especially today is absolutely innovative.
In many ways, we’re a very different company than we were even a year or two ago. But, because we have such long experience, we’re able to balance all the new things we’re doing against all the lessons we’ve learned over the years.
Finally and, I think, most importantly: We don’t fear competition. We welcome it. Personally, I think it’s fantastic that there are so many people getting together to do things like this award, talk about technology, create community.
Would we be thrilled to win this award? Absolutely! Would we be sad to lose or not be nominated? Of course. But we would simply take that as a challenge to grow, to work harder and to see if we could do better next year.
Anthony Clifton
Manager
Captain Jack Communications, LLC
Kudos to Anthony for that comment.
He was accurate in several places, I’ve watched Captain Jack as considerable competition to myself (that is out of my league) & they are an evolving group as today’s web standards evolve.
NOTE: The next two paragraphs are a bit aggressive, I know, and I do not intend any disrespect (not exactly) but I do want to get the point across.
You can not honestly expect them to go back to each site they have built in the past & update it to current standards, every time that there is a change or “increase” in standards. If you do, you are a fool — just going to say that right there & leave it at that.
So, to those who are slamming on Captain Jack for not having sites up to standards or using tables, how about you send us a few links of your past work that is currently up to standards. If you can do that, then maybe I will back off, but if you can’t do that then shut up because you are being a hypocrite.
Ed -
Captain Jack Communications has been in business since 1994. Over the course of that time, web technologies have changed. Many of the clients will obviously have old, outdated markup in them, including table-based layouts.
I think Iacovos needs to be more transparent and forthcoming as to why he has such a grudge against Captain Jack’s.
That being said, in the year since CJ was bought by the owners of Freese-Notis Internet, we have designed many high-scale corporate sites, and I can’t think of ANY that use table-based layouts. Perhaps you could mention one… or two… and I would be able to comment specifically on those examples. But right now, I don’t see any specifics.
Likewise with SQL injection. You say that SQL errors are “everywhere” on sites, yet you can’t give an example. I also know for a fact that all of our recent sites using mySQL / PHP are using the most up to date injection detection available.
As part of the programming team, I personally take offense at your insinuation that we don’t “work hard” and don’t “care”, when we have been focusing our efforts for the past several years to be standards and accessibility compliant.
I personally have made a commitment to be more involved in the local web community in Des Moines (even though I still live in Ames). If that determination to explore new technologies, meet other firms and individuals, and challenge myself and my co-workers doesn’t show “caring” about the industry, our clients and business as a whole, im not sure what does.
I will gladly put any of our work up against the best in town, or even Happy Cog in LA.
http://www.wileyfinancial.com/
http://www.bornfreemotorcoach.com/
http://www.we3catering.com/
http://www.parkviewms.com/
And the very latest (launched yesterday)
http://www.nutri-cal.com/
(gee, it validates css AND HTML)
No table layouts there. In fact the only table layouts ive come across lately was when i visited globalreach.com, ahsalum.org, and iowagames.org.
We are a new company in many ways - and for the better. Your comments just don’t add up to today’s reality of what we have been providing. Like web standards, companies change.
And I for one am excited and proud to be part of not only the new Captain Jack’s, but part of the web community bringing notice to the great things going on in the state by ALL of its tech companies. Without degrading any of them.
Will we see Global Reach at Highlight Midwest? Probably not. Will people see us? Absolutely.
Spindustry, while a name that many can think of due to its large media buys in the Metro, is not one of those social-media connected companies. A few years ago I heard them give a presentation on blogging. It was pretty lame, with a simplistic view of the blogosphere and no insight on how to harness it for their customers. That is why companies such as Lava Row have sprouted up. Opportunity knocks!
By the way, I used to use Captain Jack a lot for sites in the late 1990’s -2000 and they always did a great job for very little money and I loved working with Cordell Seagren. We didn’t need anything fancy and definitely didn’t need a gang of 100 people working on our little site. Spindustry’s estimates came in sometimes 5x higher.
Ed still seems to be missing the point that neither the categories nor the contestants were chosen by those running the competition. So just to clarify, in case some are still confused:
Neither the categories nor the contestants were chosen by those running the competition.
You know, what I said two sentences ago. And what Andy said in his first, second, and third comments before Ed made his “phone book” jape. I’m sure Andy is capable of finding web companies in the phone book. But it wouldn’t do him any good, because (and say it with me this time, folks):
Neither the categories nor the contestants were chosen by those running the competition.
So you don’t like the companies nominated for this category. Great to hear. Now, where were you a few weeks ago, when Andy was begging people to nominate individuals, organizations, and businesses for various categories? At that point, your criticism would have been valid and useful.
And that’s enough arguing on the internet for me today.
Wow! I have to say I’m very impressed at how effectively and quickly Trilix mobilized their social network to achieve a big win.
Congratulations Trilix!
This has definitely got me thinking about the value of networking and how better to leverage it.