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Old 01-04-2010, 08:53 PM   #1
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Cincinnati buys Mayor, other politicians Kindles to save $25K/year

From http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...108/301040058/

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Cincinnati taxpayers will buy Kindle e-readers for the mayor and city council members to read documents on - and to save more than $25,000 a year in unused paper.

A Kindle DX costs $489.The city will pay a one-time purchasing cost of $7,200 for the 10 units and accessories, plus an additional $120 a month fee. Now, the city spends more than $2,616 a month in copies of ordinances put in council members' packets for committee meetings and weekly council sessions, Clerk Melissa Autry said. That math means the city will save $25,632 a year in paper, she said.

...
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Old 01-04-2010, 08:58 PM   #2
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Wow, that's a lot of paper.
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:02 PM   #3
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Ghiz said she loves her Kindle, but that she and others - including council aides - will still need paper copies because they take notes on them. She also said the Kindle light and cover, as well as other accessories, must be bought separately.

PDFs of documents will be e-mailed to City Hall employees without Kindles. Some paper copies also still will be available in the clerk's office, Autry said, for people without computers.

Now.........tell me again how this saves money?
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:15 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by desertgrandma View Post
Ghiz said she loves her Kindle, but that she and others - including council aides - will still need paper copies because they take notes on them.

...

Now.........tell me again how this saves money?
It might not save as much money as projected, but that's just Ghiz's opinion - she doesn't seem to be a big fan of the whole idea. And even though it's painful, notes can be taken on the Kindle too. She also thinks accessories will need to be bought separately, though the article says
Quote:
The city will pay a one-time purchasing cost of $7,200 for the 10 units and accessories, plus an additional $120 a month fee.
I wonder what the $120 a month fee is - wireless charges? amortized insurance?

Successful or not, this is going to be one interesting experiment!
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:17 PM   #5
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should have waited for the Que or some other larger format reader with stylus input.

or purchased the Boox from me since it has really nice PDF support and allows stylus input for note taking.
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:22 PM   #6
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should have waited for the Que or some other larger format reader with stylus input.

or purchased the Boox from me since it has really nice PDF support and allows stylus input for note taking.
Or maybe you should have just gotten to them first.
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:26 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by anurag View Post
It might not save as much money as projected, but that's just Ghiz's opinion - she doesn't seem to be a big fan of the whole idea. And even though it's painful, notes can be taken on the Kindle too. She also thinks accessories will need to be bought separately, though the article says

I wonder what the $120 a month fee is - wireless charges? amortized insurance?

Successful or not, this is going to be one interesting experiment!
There is no wireless fee for the Kindle. Perhaps its for newspaper deliveries? Or magazines, or blogs?
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:27 PM   #8
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There is no wireless fee for the Kindle. Perhaps its for newspaper deliveries? Or magazines, or blogs?
That's what I meant - perhaps also for wireless delivery of the documents they intend to make digital.
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:39 PM   #9
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Another example of the blind leading the blind in American politics and pandering under the guise of saving money. If the first universities which tested the DX for use by students came out with a very well reasoned look at what is wrong with the DX as a way to save paper and use for document management is not enough to show these people what sort of white heffalump they are buying into, well, I suppose people get the government they deserve.

What a monumental waste of resources...I seriously doubt they will print one less sheet of paper thanks to these DX's. Just how are the supposed to take notes during meetings putting the notes where they belong in the document relative to the discussion/debate? And not a change having one DX each is going to save $25k in printing fees...if each individual council member is printing $4k-$5k in documents per year then they have far worse issues to consider. What about the dozens of staff members who read, markup and review the documents before the council member even see them? Each of those folks will have their own print out, at least one if not several copies per reviewer will be printed. Now if those people were using true collaboration software and putting their comments into the document and sharing electronically, then we are talking...but no way this ends well...these DX's are going to end up in a surplus auction inside of a year. I would love to see the video from the first council meeting with every member looking at their DX for the first 20mins then grabbing the printed copy deftly tossing the DX into they bag or under their legal pad...

Best we can say is at least they tried...they failed before starting but it was at least a start. Hard to make a correct decision until they fail a few dozen times, it is our government after all...
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:51 PM   #10
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That's what I meant - perhaps also for wireless delivery of the documents they intend to make digital.
Except there is no interconnection for the DX...everything must go through Amazon via email then out to the DX's. So a mailing list to each person with a DX needs to be used and there is the whole idea of confidential documents passing through a non-secure 3rd party in Amazon...who we already know snoops into the documents they handle...how long before some sort of important confidential document is leaked out through the black hole that is Amazon?

Just not a smart choice as far as I can see. Now here is where wifi works OK for a ereading device. Of course there are still security concerns even with WPA2 or better encryption. I suppose encrypted documents could be passed through to Amazon, but what the heck will Amazon do with them and then how would the DX itself decrypt the encrypted document? Maybe via the browser? Download the document over the broadband connection of course it's not as if mobile phone services are encrypted enough to be secure at all...a real boon to the media as well as those seeking for inside info from the city council...snoop their DX.

Not trying to wiz in the Cheerios here, but everything about this is wrong, not because the device is a bad idea, but because the device is not in any fashion geared toward this sort of use.

Of course if anyone has watched the Chief's or Royals play for the past decade or more, then one might understand why this might seem smart to the voters of KC...
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:53 PM   #11
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I'll bet they end up at their homes not in any sale. I just wounder if they'll make their taxpayers buy their novels too.
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Old 01-04-2010, 09:58 PM   #12
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Except there is no interconnection for the DX...everything must go through Amazon via email then out to the DX's. So a mailing list to each person with a DX needs to be used and there is the whole idea of confidential documents passing through a non-secure 3rd party in Amazon...who we already know snoops into the documents they handle...how long before some sort of important confidential document is leaked out through the black hole that is Amazon?

Just not a smart choice as far as I can see. Now here is where wifi works OK for a ereading device. Of course there are still security concerns even with WPA2 or better encryption. I suppose encrypted documents could be passed through to Amazon, but what the heck will Amazon do with them and then how would the DX itself decrypt the encrypted document? Maybe via the browser? Download the document over the broadband connection of course it's not as if mobile phone services are encrypted enough to be secure at all...a real boon to the media as well as those seeking for inside info from the city council...snoop their DX.

Not trying to wiz in the Cheerios here, but everything about this is wrong, not because the device is a bad idea, but because the device is not in any fashion geared toward this sort of use.

Of course if anyone has watched the Chief's or Royals play for the past decade or more, then one might understand why this might seem smart to the voters of KC...
A very good point. I doubt document security was one of their concerns when ordering the DXs :-)

And I agree they should have waited for the new ereaders - this is a long term investment (if they hope to save any money) and today's ereaders aren't exactly long-term investment material.
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Old 01-04-2010, 10:02 PM   #13
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Since the Dx's are connected to an Amazon account, how is accountability handled?

How do they keep the new owners from downloading books?
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Old 01-04-2010, 10:03 PM   #14
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A very good point. I doubt document security was one of their concerns when ordering the DXs :-)

And I agree they should have waited for the new ereaders - this is a long term investment (if they hope to save any money) and today's ereaders aren't exactly long-term investment material.
Thanks...and you are very right...all they needed to do was wait a few weeks, heck even 3-4 months and there would be devices able to do something worthwhile. I wonder if they can return them bfore 30-days is up...hehehehe....

And the investment in creating an infrastructure to support these devices into the city's IT ecosystem is going to cost a lot as well. Of course that is something which will need to happen eventually anyway and they are starting on a very small scale here...so the positive is they did not order 100 DX's...

Tim32127:

I would hate to be the politician who is caught reading Lolita during a city council meeting...
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Old 01-04-2010, 10:09 PM   #15
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Since the Dx's are connected to an Amazon account, how is accountability handled?

How do they keep the new owners from downloading books?
It is an honor system...of course the user can pay for the book with their own credit card or the DX's can have that ability disabled in the Amazon account to begin with...remember the ability to order can be controlled in the "Mange your Kindle" section. still there is the issue of how does the council member justify using a device purchased by the taxpayer for personal use...yeah, some books make sense for a person working on a city council but in general those would come from their discretionary funds but if there ever is an audit, these folks better have their arses covered for sure... We've all see public figures brought down for equally trivial activities like hookers & crack in a no-tell-motel...

Where is Marion Berry now anyway? Oh, wait, he failed upwards!! gotta love America!!
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