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Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Actually, IndyGo has a chance to make some money from this should they actually go after the two posers, er, “vendors”:
They should be able to collect the full amount from both companies rather than split it. Why?
Because if one of them had managed to do what they conned IndyGo into believing they could do, the other would be on the hook alone. One company’s efforts doesn’t seem dependent upon the other’s completion so every failure is solely capable of holding up the show.
Think of it like two tunneling companies digging through a mountain to create a passage of transportation, whether it be a road or railroad tracks. If both companies are given a specific point to reach within a particular point in time and neither company reaches the landmark, they’re both at fault, independently. Had one company reached the targeted position, they would have been paid and the other failed. By not accomplishing either goal, they’re both on the hook for failing to allow the project to complete.
I’m sure someone will claim that if you are skydiving and have main and backup chutes, made by two different companies, and both fail, “you can’t die twice”.
I’m still new to the tech game – I got my start when I was 17 – you can say that’s a late bloomer, but in 1979? Anyway, I have maintained most of that time, “There’s not a shortage of software developers but a huge shortage of good developers, and an even bigger shortage of great developers.”
If you were to put your developers in a room and instruct them, “all of you who are good, great, or terrible developers to go these corners (pointing).” which corner do you think they’d go to? Some might be humble enough to go to the “good” corner, but you can guess where the rest will go.
CBS4Indy had a story the other night (during Sweeps – surprise!) about the License Bureau failing to restore a former driver who had a 10-year suspension and he was told, “it was a computer glitch”. I wonder if Boeing could get away with saying they had a computer glitch…twice? Would Avail and Flowbird say they have a glitch?
Somehow I get the feeling the IndoGo board wishes they could have had someone vet this situation a bit more thoroughly *before* the contracts were signed. Question to the board: “If you’d known Foothill Transit awarded Avail $10 million contract in 2015 to complete a job for them in two years and it’s still not done, would you have signed with them?” and the answer is, “No.” …need I go on? Aside to say it sounds like Avail is trying to ride at least two horses at the same time.
And for Flowbird…”IndyGo’s board authorizes staff to extend the free-fare period until Dec 9 if need be.” Okay, so they get to Dec 9 and it’s still not working, what’s Plan B? C? D?
This is starting to look as sad/comical as when Congress was trying to grill Zuckerberg (the first time) when they knew nothing about what was going on, probably had never signed onto Facebook themselves, and Zuckerberg seemed to know even less. They could have really pinned his ears back. Why is it for legal proceedings they have qualified experts write their questions, brief them, or even step in and do the questioning but they presume that because they know how to play Windows Solitaire they’re qualified to deal with tech on their own?
Did you not read the article? The majority of your questions were answered within it…
James, few of the things I questioned are answered in the article. And IBJ could have really taken them to task…
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I’ve received a lot of personal email and phone calls from friends asking my take when the rumors were circulating. I’ve referred almost everyone to one of the long-time books which is about the insides of the tech industry but very accessible to non-techies and sheds light on a lot of the things we’re witnessing (and not just with IndyGo). It’s by Frederick Brooks, Jr: “The Mythical Man-Month” (1975) Things true in ’75 which are still true now.
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This article wasn’t enough to offset the shoddy ran$omware article but it was close.
Let’s be real here…. this thing was never going to make money anyways. It’s all about a very small, yet vocal group thumping their chest and saying “look at Indy…we have transit! Just like Chicago! We even called it The Red Line some we can pretend we are headed to Wrigley!”….. meanwhile our money is wasted (for those of us who pay federal taxes), our time is wasted, and we ruin some of our best streets. What a joke.
Public transit does not make money, it is a service provided by the government.
It is the same as roadways do not make money, sidewalks do not make money, streetlights do not make money…. They are a service that is provided by the government to better society.
Also, you posted your comment twice, perhaps learn to use the internet before complaining about others ineptitude…
Let’s be real here…. this thing was never going to make money anyways. It’s all about a very small, yet vocal group thumping their chest and saying “look at Indy…we have transit! Just like Chicago! We even called it The Red Line so we can pretend we are headed to Wrigley!”….. meanwhile our money is wasted (for those of us who pay federal taxes), our time is wasted, and we ruin some of our best streets. What a joke.
Democrats are great at spending money without considering the consequences.
Here in the fifth most conservative county in ‘merica, Republicans like Brainard and Christine Altman are salivating at the prospects of spending money on this as well. Plenty of Republicans south of the border supported it, including your mayoral flag-bearer Merritt.
Just because IndyGo and its board of directors is inept, doesn’t mean investing in public transportation is a bad idea. Perhaps, it just means IndyGo needs a new board of directors and maybe some better staff. Maybe they need more funding also to hire more experienced staff. I don’t claim to have all the answers. But, accountability should start at the top. When will the mayor, council, and whomever else appoints the board of directors demand accountability?
how is it possible in today’s technology age to even let this thing get off the ground with riders and go live and not have a basic ticketing system in place? Unbelievable! When on earth did they realize they needed a digital system here? Uber, Lyft, everyone has these basic systems in place to accept payments. And for the city and the people running this to not have any clue what is going on or why it’s behind schedule is just unfathomable. People need to be fired. Oh wait, ti’s the government, so they never will be.
Milwaukee has an App for their public transit. I can download the app, buy a ticket and show my mobile phone to the buy driver showing the ticket and I take the bus. It’s really not that difficult.
Gabrielle it seems to be a problem here in Indianapolis. I don’t know why they didn’t choose to go with an established vendor who already had a program up and running. And who is the person at IndyGo that was responsible for making sure and checking on the progress of these two systems. That person should be fired.
Gabriel, “It’s really not that difficult” is you talking as a user, not a developer – that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But it’s like turning on the faucet and saying, “see? water…it’s easy!” but that says nothing about the engineering involved in getting the water there. Mind you, I’m not defending the software idiots
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What I’m going to be watching for aren’t the expected errors we’ll see in the shakedown runs but things like Tuesday, Wednesday, January 1, 2020 and Saturday, February 29, 2020. Good software shouldn’t worry about them, but in the next 3 1/2 months, those are the dates most likely to cause problems.