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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Dallas investing in public digital media

By William Addington of Williamedia

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William Addington

Dallas has long had a technology sector, but what it has lacked is a Silicon Valley-like social scene to go along with it. Surely one of the most public parts of the Silicon Valley is the people and their incomes who make up the various web projects and companies. Companies like Google would never find Dallas as a possible home until such a environment existed.

Social networks that we know today may have originally been cultured from this scene of local web-based individuals meeting each other through the internet that they used and explored in its first boom. That kind of environment has, in the last half decade, created what is now called a digital media revolution, which has brought tools of professional media production to individuals who might have never touched such a repressed and regulated industry. Surely you noticed the YouTube celebrities patronizing what is now termed as "old media." Some of these artists or funniest home videos creators have made a business out of their 15 seconds of fame and produced quality content that has entertained thousands and even millions.

As Dallas tries to build its own urban communities in its city center, it needs a structure to help people connect with each other. Just like a local band is promoted by the Dallas Morning News daily free paper, Quick, to make the paper appear more hip to their target market, digital media makes it easier for communities to share and meet each other. Digital Media allows such localized expression of content to be made available to those who want it. MySpace gave small local bands the world using the internet, but what is Dallas doing to encourage itself in every expression, especially in the digital media realm?

Dallas has recently shown some sign of the digital media trend in its latest "urban community," Victory Park. If you have watched a Dallas Stars hockey and/or a Dallas Mavericks game since 2007, you may have seen the giant moving digital HD video screens at Victory Plaza. They are sold to advertisers as one of the largest public HD digital art galleries. The Victory Media Network controls these screens, and as part of the regular programming, digital artwork is displayed during most of the the day along with custom advertisements, made in-house for the huge screens and their transient abilities. You can submit material for public display or find more info at the Victory Media Network website.

William Addington

Victory Park's HD screens will not be the only ones in the widely-labeled Uptown area of Dallas. A new building to be built where the Hard Rock Cafe used to be located will contain a similar idea. The new residential structure will include a glass egg-shaped structure at the triangle intersection with an artfully-arranged video screen described to display digital artwork. Of course, this is all to appeal to the new generation of digital residents, but somehow I expect the internet connections in the new building will still be slow and lack needed fiber-optic connections. This is a sure sign of neglect of a proper framework needed for the future internet generation, but so far I have not investigated this question related to this project. I would recommend to builders, though, that they invest energy and money into this very important step towards modern structures that they construct.

Will Dallas ever really get it when it comes to the new digital revolution? I think it's possible because there is an industry of video professionals and geeks in Dallas. One idea is to bring more people together and hang out together, but from what I have witnessed, you will not find Dallas geeks hanging around the free wifi at Victory Park near the huge HD screens. It takes something altogether different to get geeks together into a location-based community that establishes itself into a job center like Silicon Valley.


Pegasus News content partner - Williamedia

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Comments

danieldessinger Anonymous

I have to agree with you, William. Dallas has made important strides towards digital relevancy, but still lacks that Silicon Valleyesque identity. Addison / North Dallas is an important technology sector in DFW, but nowhere near Silicon Valley.

I don't think there will be another Silicon Valley. There might evolve some other sort of Web Geek community in Dallas, though. With DFWSEM, DFWIMA, DSVC, your Dallas WordPress Meetup, and a few others, perhaps Dallas could earn a certain degree of recognition someday.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

snowboard9

snowboard9 Anonymous

My partner and I relocated to Dallas 10 yrs ago from Fort Lauderdale due to a new job. Our first idea was: "Hey, let's take the mass transit train from DFW to downtown, head to a Starbucks and check out some cool places to live near a bike path or park, etc". Well, needless to say step one was not even there, never mind the rest.

I do have some hope for Dallas but our current leaders don't have a clue. Sure they want to build their Taj Mahal (or Trinity River) but ignore the simple basics such as : (1) Mass transit from DFW and burbs to DT (2) Trees and grassy areas (3) Free and abundant street parking (4) Cops on horses or bikes (5) Business tax incentives (6) Hosted art and music fairs (7) Great publications like Pegasus !

Everything is doable except for mass transit. Clearly, DFW does not want mass transit interfering with the parking golden goose. We'll see what happens in the next decade.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rawlins Gilliland

Rawlins Gilliland Verified

Snowboard, it was odd reading your post considering the pieces I have written for Pegasus and more recently 'D' that pretty much dispute the claim that Dallas is devoid of much that you seek and yearn for and expected and want.

I think maybe you are spending too much time in the suburbs contemplating Dallas instead of being in Dallas contemplating the suburbs.

To your points: Dallas is flawed more than an unedited George Bush script. BUT:

Is currently working toward the largest (10,000 acre total) park of any city in the nation with lakes and a nearly 3000 acre forest. Which has DART currently being built through it to connect to Carrollton and thus Richardson, etc, which last time I looked were...suburbs. Meanwhile I have been to two art fairs in one week. From Deep Ellum to Fair Park. Want tax incentives? Look at Victory Plaza and either smile or weep. Want trees? Try the forest behind my house that stretches, oh, 17 miles.

To really 'get' a city people need to 1) be there and 2) get out and get around. All over the town rather than ‘your’ parts. I put my money where my mouth is on this issue and I highly recommend it. Life is too short to do otherwise.

Meanwhile, keep the faith and have fun doing it. And bear in mind that Dallas has no one center of gravity. Rather it is not obvious what is there when it is spread out and most of the people you meet here are at best familiar with their own turf, having, like you, moved here. In Ft. Lauderdale, you knew there was a beach. But in Dallas, as I have written ad nauseum, the lion's share have no idea that there is a lake, a forest, hiking and bike trails all over...and in the process of becoming interconnected into an amazing sytem. The piece I wrote for Pegasus was called 'The Hidden City' for a good reason.

And that is what Dallas is... a huge and varied place that is unknown to the vast masses of its residents. I wrote that Pegasus 'Hidden City' piece in response to people like you...who posted a bemoan about what they wish was here, while being unaware that in many cases, to one extent or another...(and occassionally in spades as I wrote in the 'D' magazine article after being told by a 'D' editor that Dallas has 'no street food like other cities') in in fact available...if not under your nose.

Bottom line; in Dallas, you cannot count on others to lead you to adventure; you must initiate it.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rawlins Gilliland

Rawlins Gilliland Verified

PS: Left out: In response to your #4 point, I can show you cops on horses and bikes in Uptown and Cedars, etc. Per #3; The free and abundant parking I find in no large car city.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

snowboard9

snowboard9 Anonymous

Rawlins, thanks for your feedback. First, I live in Highland Park near the Katy Trail so I have little to complain of in the way of trees and things to do. Unless I misinterpreted, the article was about downtown Dallas and not the greater Dallas area.

Most of what you state is "there" is simply not today nor ten years ago (which was my stated point of reference). This includes mass transit from the burbs nor airport. Parking? I agree most interesting cities have a parking problem - for good reason. DT Dallas has a parking problem for no good reason. Finally, sure Texas has lots of trees, lakes and even a national park but like you say I sounded like an unedited Bush script, you sound like an edited Iraq War status Bush script.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

James Scott

James Scott Verified

Some of those things are happening very soon or in the sort of near future as far as mass transit - next year will connect downtown with Deep Ellum & Fair Park (probably in time for the State Fair). Within 5 years, you'll have your DFW connection, so things are looking up a bit as far as mass transit goes.

This place will never be NYC, DC, Chicago, Paris, etc., but I think it's come a long way and is getting even better. All that's left is for people to stop complaining about it and actually using it.

I think the major complaint I have is that service ends relatively early, so if you actually wanted to use it to go out at night, you pretty much have to be done by 11:30. I don't think those times will change until ridership increases.

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Andrew Laska

Andrew Laska Verified

I have to agree with Rawlins mostly. If snow's comment was about downtown then its even more difficult to understand.

I take mass transit from a 'burb to my real job almost everyday as do a significant portion of my co-workers.

The bulk of horseback and bicycle cops I see are in downtown. The parking in Dallas is MUCH better than most major cities I've visited. Business incentives are flowing out people's ears in downtown.

One thing which bothers me, however, is the attitude of separating the burbs mentally from Dallas proper. That's one thing that people here do and it hide the real synergy and diversity of the area. Everyone does it. I've read DMN reporters doing it. D magazine people doing it. Jim Schutze has done it. (Sorry Jim.) I think I've even seen a touch of it in our Mr Rawlins on occasion. (end rant.)

4 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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