Comments on Advance Indiana™: Daniels' Support of Jones Business Ventures Under Fire

Some act as of this is the first instance of sleaz...

2007-11-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

Some act as of this is the first instance of sleaze and cronyism in the Daniels administration. Those people need to do some more research.

"I found state government to be particularly hosti...

2007-11-25T21:19:00.000-05:00

"I found state government to be particularly hostile to local IT companies. Almost all the contracts went to out-of-state firms, particularly anything that had to do with the state's web portal, which a single out-of state firm completely monopolized."

Not much has changed in this regard.

I think you will find that this same out-of-state firm still monopolizes the state web portal, the university I-Light broadband project is still not complete, and the state's GIS project is still in disarray.

I thought the new state CIO position was going to solve all this.

Scott Jones hit a home run a while back in Boston....

2007-11-25T11:03:00.000-05:00

Scott Jones hit a home run a while back in Boston. What has he done in Indianapolis that has really been successful?

I've noticed his Cha Cha search venture found it's...

2007-11-24T13:19:00.000-05:00

I've noticed his Cha Cha search venture found it's way to the Indiana State website--complete, of course with "sponsored links" when you use it.

The state's website is very professionally done, I doubt seriously that the programmers really needed to use Cha Cha to search it's own database. It would be interesting to find out if the state pays for this service.

I'm not exactly sure exactly why Scott Jones neede...

2007-11-24T10:28:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure exactly why Scott Jones needed the $2 million dollar boost because he carries that much spare chamne in his wallet.
That being said, I find the prospect of this robotic mower interesting. There's not much at their website but it appears he has something going that has the potential to be a real money maker and will create jobs here if it takes off. His ChaCha endeavor is something Google can smash in a couple of weeks. Not so with the robo mower.
In the United States, according to Golfcourse.com, there are 16,944 golf courses in operation. The breakdown is as follows:
7,955 Public Courses
995 Resort Courses
4,256 Private Courses
3,541 Semi-Private Courses
197 Military Base Courses

As you can see, when you add the 16,944 U.S. courses in with the tens of thousands all over the world then the market potential for the Robo Mower is HUGE.
If this invention of Jones actually works and is cost effective it can revolutionize course maintenance. If it works, is cost effective and reduces course maintenance to a fraction of its current cost then look for a new factory to open in Indiana and hopefully not China.

The top golf course designer in the world right now is Pete Dye. He lives at Crooked Stick which will host the important BMW PGA Championship in 2012. If Crooked Stick prooves the Robo Mower to to as claimed look for other course to follow suit.

Politics aside, if Scott Jones uses the money and creates some high tech manufacturing jobs in this area then that $2 million is nothing compared to the influx of capital.