Innovation and Technology for Govt. Solutions

Reviewing the technology and process used by Local/State Government feels like we are still in 90's. I believe applying the latest trends and innovative technology (like cloud computing, Web 2.0/3.0, etc..) to the Govt. will increase the service and performance of the country bringing a phenomenal change in the way we live our lives today.

With the new president encouraging huge budget for healthcare and technology, no wonder we will see many changes in the way the information is changed, like having the CMS and all the State Medicaid system residing on a single private cloud and sharing information and services across the network. This type of infrastructure change will allow to cut down millions of tax dollars spent on a single system rather then all the state systems. Also imagine getting twitter updates, videos, and building network connecting everyone within a system.

I am glad to see few have already taken initiatives envisioning the change I see.

Please check the new technology transition plan by obama: Change.gov


Check this video listing the game plan for change with technology by Obama:


This video shows one the initiatives:

choosing the right cloud provider

Trying to choose a cloud provider for my app this is what I came across and I believe this helps a lot to narrow down few decisions to pick.

Cloud Computing Comparison

Publish at Scribd or explore others: cloud comparison cloud computing

Here is couple of other information on bandwidth from ISP, if you want to host your own servers.

checklist for choosing bandwidth from ISP

Comparison of ISP's for bandwidth

Analysis on % of Bars/Population/Density/ZipCode

Here is the combination of my previous analysis comparing the no of bars with the population and density for each zip code in Austin, TX. This graph shows the current market of bar business spread across Austin based on the demographics.

This could be used by anyone looking out to setup a new bar to review the competition and potential of choosing a particular "LOCATION".

Hope this is helpful.

Density & Population Matters for Bars

Anyone who want to setup a bar already knows that the "LOCATION" is the most critical attribute for his business. All the sales depends on where you are located and how accessible you are to your customers. Usually downtown draws more crowd as being a traditional place of business. I was comparing the numbers of downtown individual bar sales to that of neighborhood bar sales and saw that neighborhood bars are better.

The exotic lake side bars(Oasis,carlos n charlies ..) cashin few extra points for the view. The population and density of a particular area is one of the most critical point to be considered if someone wants to run a safer game rather than experimenting on lakeside. Few bars like Sherlocks, Trudy's, CoolRiver, Z'Tejas, Chuy's, trulucks have huge sales compared to other individual bars located in downtown. Talking about campus cain & ables, hole in the wall, trudy's , spider house, crown and anchor cater to the college crowd have high sales number always.

Any neighbourhood bar within a high density area has a higher probability of success. The zip code area 78705 has the highest density in Austin which is the campus area and looking at the sales of cain and ables, the new place cuatros it does make sense.

I still have a little confusion about judging between density and population. As there are higher denser places with less population compared to other areas, it is hard to fix up on which one to pick. Nontheless, having an avg. population with good density or having avg. density with good population will always be something to consider.

Below is a chart of population and density classified as per zip code.

Chartlink

(click on the image to enlarge)

Density chart: (click on the image to enlarge)
Population chart:(click on the image to enlarge)

*Density - (people per square land mile)

You can have a look at the zip code mapping at this link: ZipcodeMapper

Here is the link to the detail statitics of Austin Demographics: Austin Demographics by Zipcode

ref: http://www.zipskinny.com/

Alcohol Sales on W 6th Street

If you are into the Austin downtown bars, you might have already heard about the buzz on the W 6th Street. It looks like the bar on the W6th are pulling in more crowd lately.

Below are the sales figures.



(Click on the image to expand)


Belmont , The Ranch, Molotov Lounge are places which drag in huge crowd. I believe the huge parking space and the new condos are the major factors which started these places to be more attractive. Off course, people always want to go to better and new places. No one can get away with Austin's bar hopping culture.

Below is the trend for 2009.


I still working pulling out charts for 5th and then will throw out a complete comparison combining all the posts.

Austin Downtown Alcohol Sales

For my passion for bar business, I started researching on the bar/club business in Austin, TX. This is my first post about the analysis.

Below is a little chart showing the mixed beverage tax receipts of the Bars/Clubs/Restaurants in Austin downtown (78701 & 78702).





I will be posting out further analysis comparing W. 6th to E. 6th, 5th.. so on, downtown vs campus vs other neighborhood bars, bartender analysis, interviews, property evaluations, type/concept and other stuff. Keep waiting..

ref: All the data was gathered form Tabc website.