Soapbox Engage Blog

This year has been quite a ride for us at PICnet, especially with strong pickup in the community of our Non-Profit Soapbox services.  After hiring a new project manager (great to have you aboard, Alex!), we're continuing our recession-busting expansion.  We're looking to keep pace with the project inquiries coming in to us on a daily basis, and we could certainly use another set of hands and a sharp mind to keep pace with the proposal writing needed.

Needless to say, we need more hands on deck!  So, we're hiring for our new Business Development Associate position.

Ever wonder which government agencies oversee the items that end up on your dinner table? Well, as you may have guessed, the answer to that question isn't so simple. For example, a slice of pizza? Well that depends on whether the slice has meat on it or not. I'm no expert on the matter, so let me leave it to the folks at the Government Accountability Project's Food Integrity Campaign to explain:

Easy one! The FDA. Wait, the USDA! Wait! Actually, it depends on what's on your pizza. Does your pizza have meat on it? If so, the USDA is regulating it. Plain cheese? The FDA gets that slice of the pie! Under the system, each agency performs its own pizza inspections. The USDA inspects meat pizza plants daily. Meanwhile, the FDA will inspect the same plant's cheese pizza every one to five years. Does that make any sense?

Hmm, yeah, I'm still confused, but that's the point! That's why I'm so glad to roll out the red carpet for one of our newest Soapbox sites: http://food.whistleblower.org!

For those of you keeping track, you may remember whistleblower.org was mentioned here a little less than a year ago when we launched their main soapbox site. That's why we were so pleased when the Government Accountability Project approached us shortly thereafter about putting together a second site for their new Food Integrity Campaign. Anytime an existing client comes back looking for additional work, we couldn't be happier, but in this case I was double excited just because it seemed like such a fun project.

There's few things I enjoy more in the Joomla! world than having the opportunity to meet members of the community.  Between session talks and evening drinks, the conversations are amazing.

I've been to Mongolia, South Africa, Brazil, and lots of places in between, and the stories I hear from the Joomla community are incredible.  People's rich background of experience, their willingness to contribute, and excitement for the future keep fueling my tank as President of Open Source Matters (Joomla's non-profit organization).

This weekend (Saturday, Oct 15, 2010), I get a chance to bring it back to the home crowd at Joomla!Day DC.  I'll eloquently and diplomatically sum up my thoughts in two words:  I'm stoked.