VOTE NOW! SIDEARM is getting a makeover!

Hello!

Busy day here at the ICS offices!

There’s a header special coming your way VERY soon, and we’ve been polishing a new color scheme for the SIDEARM interface.

We’ve got it narrowed down to a couple finalists, but we want your input too (since, after all, you’re the ones who have to look at it every day!)

Here’s our finalists:
Version One
Version Two
Version Three

Which one do you like the best?

Post us a comment and let us know!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
ck

The Benefits of a YouTube Channel on Your Site

As more and more of your administrative and coaching staffs say "More Video, More Video, More Video!!!" we are here to inform you of the benefits of a YouTube Channel for your athletic program. We have had many of our newer clients take advantage of this when we began offering this option this past summer.

Kelly Loft and his staff at Southwest Minnesota State and John Beisser and his crew at Wagner are both taking full advantage of this tool and integrating the video on their sites.

Adding a channel increases your reach, being able to add videos for all sports beyond the five 10-minute videos you are allow to post in SIDEARM and since there is no limit, you don't have to recycle any videos any longer. Add video highlights to game stories, the potential is endless.

On SMSU's site, Kelly actually records a weekly roundup of his sports on his front page, but on his football index he embedded a YouTube video that is on his YouTube channel.
http://www.smsumustangs.com/index.aspx?tab=football&path=football

Wagner has archived all of it's football season highlights on one sport file page.
http://www.wagnerathletics.com/sports/2008/8/8/FB_0808085804.aspx?path=football

ADVANTAGES OF ICS CREATING YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL?
- The biggest reason is with a YouTube Channel created on your own, your videos are capped at 10 minutes apiece. Through ICS’ partnership clients may upload videos of 70 minutes in length apiece. This allows you to upload your coach's shows, classic games, a monthly recap of your sports programs and entire games split into halves.

- ICS can help brand the site in ways that clients cannot do on their own

CONVINCING YOUR ADMINISTRATION TO ADDING A YOUTUBE CHANNEL
If you encounter a tough time convincing your Director of Athletics or other higher administration about adding a YouTube Channel, show them these channels and this might open their eyes about the benefits of this great tool and those who are utilizing this.

http://www.youtube.com/ncaa

http://www.youtube.com/vatican

http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel

http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom

Email me if you would like to discuss adding this to your site
jjoss@internetconsult.com

Stay tuned, we will be going over revenue generating tools next week and keep your eye out for a header redesign special

Behind the scenes...

... is where I typically work, which is why I expect many of you may not have heard of me. I have however contributed, in varying extents, to many of the applications you are using on a daily basis, including the All Access and Storefront components of SIDEARM. I also developed the underlying database connectivity component which is used by all our pages, but that's probably too much geek talk for you.

When I'm not working on SIDEARM stuff, I manage the corporate side of the business, so if you have any non-athletics projects, like a university website, holiday villa database or any other custom requirements ... do get in touch.

Before I go on, I should probably mention that I've been working at ICS, as a full time employee, since 2006. I feel like I've been a part of the family for much longer though, going back to 2003 and my days working here, as a fresh faced student intern, while I was still a graduate student at Syracuse University. I had heard about the wonderful opportunity the company provides, for students looking to get real world work experience and promptly submitted my resume, soon after landing on the shores of this country in 2001. In case you're counting, yes it did take Jeff 2 years to get back to me, so don't feel too bad if he's a little slow in answering your calls.

I imagine you're now wondering which shores I landed from. So, continuing the backwards introduction, I should tell you that I'm originally from Bombay, India where I obtained an undergraduate degree in engineering, before tiring of the warmth and greenery of its tropical climate and making the move to Syracuse, with its beautiful monochromatic winters.

Hi, I'm Ravind

My name is werD

It seems to be the month of introductions so I’ll fall in line. I’m Andrew. Office calls me Drew. And I’m a lowly part-timer, subject to all “deserving” ridicule, target practice, intimidation, verbal abuse, etc..

When work is to be done, of late, I’ve found myself retreating to the Apple Corner, a composite of the dead iMac G4, an alabaster reminder of years past, my handy (and new!) Macbook pro and one, glorious, black mirror, the iMac powerhouse of 2008, Rubin’s latest addition.

She is my new desk for 2009. If you haven’t already guessed, I am not a developer. I play with pictures. I bend, brighten, embolden, enlarge, fade, erase and create your headers. I’ll call this Andrew’s Outsourcing. Lead designers do their magic, then call me out in Appleland,

“Drew. Hey, it’s Chris.”
“Hey! What’s up my brother? Want to chill or hang out tonight. Bar and billiards? I’ve always wanted to learn, man!”
“Actually not tonight, kid. (undisclosed school name) needs their headers redone immediately.”
“Oh. Haha. Of course.”
“Let me know if you need anything, Drew.”
“Ok, Chris! I will! Thanks for thinking of me! Maybe some other time then?! (imagine each phrase as part of a crescendo until finally I’m on my toes yelling, “maybe some other time then!” to a friend I’ll never have.)

I retreat to the garden of Eden and look at myself in the big black mirror and duck as Justin throws a ball at the back of my head. I take it as a sign of endearment and whip around with a big grin on my face. He is snarling. Literally foaming at the mouth and snarling. I am scared and turn around to finish your headers with a sense of urgency I can only describe with this poem..

(tune in next time for Andreeeeew’s Outsourcing!)

Introducing the ICS Sales and Training Force

I am sure a full biography of Jamie Joss and my role at ICS isn't necessary as I have worked directly with almost everyone in our client database either as a colleague in sports information or worked with you in forming your partnership with ICS.

I will say that I have experienced many of the situations you have dealt with or are dealing with in your careers as communications professionals having served as a sports information director for 15 years myself at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Colgate University, High Point University, Lake Superior State University, St. Andrews College and Winthrop University. I am also completing my third year as Director of Online Services for CoSIDA.

For those of you who don't know, in my role as Director of Sales/Training I am among the three employees (Art Director Jesse "James" Salucci and Director of Interactive Media Graeme Downes) who work remotely from our corporate headquarters in Syracuse, N.Y.

I work from my home office in Port Orange, FL just south of Daytona Beach pictured below (couldn't take it on my iPhone with myself in it). If your teams are down this way for Spring Trips, let me know I would love to stop by your game, help out with stats or just get together for dinner or lunch.


However, this will be changing as there will only be two remote workers once I transfer back to Syracuse in May or June of this year. We have several factors in our family controlling the timing of this move with the major one being the birth of our second son Jace who is due to arrive in March, but the way he has grown over the past two weeks and obviously among my wife Jodi's wishes we could use an early delivery.

Chris and Jesse have been working feverishly on Design Version 6.5 of Jace and are hoping Jodi and I approve this new design soon so we can integrate to birth phase. Mark is also working on the foundations of SIDEARM 7.0 when Jace turns 18, that he can start using this at whatever college he volunteers in the SID office for. We are taking early incentives such as free SWAG to schools interested and I don't think there are any compliance rules violations for recruiting volunteers office workers :)

As the SID profession provided everything in my life and has helped make ICS what it is today, it's only fitting that the profession helped me find my wife Jodi (Devereux) Joss, a former SID herself at RIT and Glenville State (WV) and I know some of you worked with her in the past.

We do have one son Jansen (22 months) who is hard to track down now that he has his game legs underneath him. We have the two South Office ICS Enforcers (Mascots) guarding the compound and look forward to keeping order in the Syracuse office when they make the trek north. Kramer (right) and Newman pictured below and offer free rides to children under 3 (sorry no saddle).

Aside from myself providing training sessions or answering questions about SIDEARM software operations, I hope many of you have had the opportunity to work with our project manager/training specialists Yogi Nahar and TJ Teager. They have been a tremendous addition to our ICS team and I am sure have helped you through the development of your SIDEARM site and through training sessions for those who were upgraded to SIDEARM 2.0 this year.

The past few weeks have been more back to my roots with the NCAA convention which I can't chronicle any better than Mark "Twain" Frantz. It was just an enjoyable opportunity to see SIDs who have made the progression to administrative roles and having the opportunity to take part in the glitz and glamour of the convention. It was also the opportunity to meet so many of the ADs and Assistant ADs who we worked with on the development of your sites but we have not had the opportunity share our appreciation for their partnerships and support.

I will be posting more often now that we have this great tool and also since Mark showed me a more efficient way to post even while in the car on his quest to and from the NCAA Convention. Yogi, TJ and I will be offering tips and tricks to using SIDEARM.

We also encourage anyone to submit any unique ways you have found of doing things in SIDEARM or cool things you have accomplished using the software that you would like to share with everyone in the ticketing system under the pull down tips/tricks which Mark will be adding in the coming days.

Thanks to everyone's support and loyalty to ICS and our SIDEARM solution and don't hesitate to contact us with anything you need.

JJ

NCAA: The End

Visit the Official Photo Journey of Our Adventure

Well folks, I write to you from the comfort of my desk back in my office in Syracuse, wading through the hundreds of emails and tickets that I received in my absence. It's a blistering -4 degrees outside, rather windy and somewhat snowing - ah it's great to be home.

I wanted to thank all of you that have been following the chronicle of our journey - hopefully it was worth a laugh or two over the last few days, as it was certainly a blast for me to post. Thanks to everyone that sent in their comments, and especially those that passed along birthday wishes (and caviar dreams) to me personally. Hopefully this also serves as an introduction to our blog, as everyone from the office will be posting to it in the months ahead - check back soon for more updates!

So long for now from the snowy north!

Yours,

Mark

NCAA: Nearly home

We've almost made it home after about 7 hours of driving. The GPS
says we're getting close but Mother Nature has given us the usual sign:

Yes friends, it be snowin' in the 'Cuse...

NCAA: God Bless America

We're currently retracing our steps back to Syracuse, racing back to
our families, beloved pets and Chris K. After a rocky but predictably
traffic filled start, we navigated the myriad of belts around DC and
Baltimore and made it to the relatively sedate Interstate 83.

Learning our lesson on the way down, when hunger struck we immediately
hunted for food lest we end up in the grand stretch of nothingness in
the backwoods of PA. We stumbled on a Burger King and loaded up on
the finest grease that American has to offer, and tanker up the
Navigator on the way back. That's when we spotted him.

He was standing in front of a Liberty Tax Service, and dressed as the
Statue of Liberty, waving at the cars going by. Here are my issues
with this:

1. It's 7:30 on a Thursday night in January - who is looking to get
their taxes done?

2. It's about 10 degrees outside where we were.

3. Do I trust a tax service that employs guys that'll dress up as
ladies to handle my federal returns?

4. Did I mention how cold it is?

In any case we were intrigued, but sadly neither of us could snap a
picture with our phones. Lady Liberty though, sensing fame, struck a
'wassup' pose. I guess he likes his job. We left him behind and got
back onto the Interstate.

Home beckons.

NCAA: It's All Over

Everything started winding down around 3 o'clock, with the last few
folks stopping by the booth to say goodbye. Our final visitor was
Will from the PSAC, and when we parted ways at 3:20, we started
breaking everything down.

Jeff's goal was to get everything apart, boxed and in the car by 4:30
to try and beat what we can only assume would be "LA-grade" rush hour
traffic in Washington and Baltimore. So the deconstruction process
was frantic, and involved a lot of "improvisational" packing (probably
better termed "stuffing")

Amazingly, we had everything in boxes and crammed in the car by 4:40,
only ten minutes off of the goal, this earning us a silver star on our
tradeshow efficiency report. We said a tearful goodbye to Jamie as he
boarded the shuttle to Reagan, and then peeled out of the hotel and
headed for the Interstate, and the long trek ahead.

6+ hours more in the car. With Jeff. On my birthday.

Fun!

NCAA: The Secret is Out

Thanks(?) Chris for informing everyone of my dark secret - yes indeed
I have turned thirty years old, putting myself one year closer to
eligibility for the White House.

Spending my birthday here at the NCAA is certainly a change of pace
from my normal birthday - generally I spend the day either hunting
with Dick Cheney or next to the Chocolate River at Wonka's factory,
playing wiffle ball with the Oompa Loompas. But it has still been a
good day, especially hearing kind wishes from our clients that have
stopped by.

We're winding down here, just a few hours from packing up to head home
- I will say that, if I had my choice, I would rather NOT spend the
last third of my birthday in the car - but it will worth it to get
home and see my 6 month old.

Hopefully she'll be asleep when I roll in late tonight...

ICS LEGEND MARK FRANTZ TURNS 30

I hereby interrupt Mark’s continuing coverage of the NCCA convention for a breaking news announcement.

ICS LEGEND MARK FRANTZ CELEBRATES HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY TODAY

Yes folks, you heard right, ICS team member and programmer extraordinaire turns the big 3-0 today. In honor of the event, I tried to do some research to come up with some equally exciting events that also happened on this date in history.

To my amazement, there are a whole lot of terrible things that happened on January 15th, the least of which, surprisingly, was the birth of our very own Mark Frantz.

Here’s a brief list of the horrific events that seem to surround January 15th.
1919 - 2 million gallons of molasses flood Boston, MA. drowning 21.
1934 - 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die
1951 - "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000
1953 - 16 car Federal Express train loses brakes & crashes in Wash DC station
1969 - Nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
1979 - Mark Frantz Born
1993 - 7.5 earthquake strikes northern Japan, 2 die

Fear not, however – there have been some non-tragic events that have occurred on this date as well:
1939 - 1st NFL pro bowl, NY Giants beat All Stars 13-10 in Wrigley Field
1965 - Rock group Who releases 1st album "I Can't Explain"
1967 - Super Bowl I: Green Bay Packers-35, KC Chiefs-10 in LA
1972 - Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Terry Daniels
1974 - "Happy Days" premieres on ABC
1975 - Space Mountain opens (Disneyland)
1990 - 42 year old George Foreman KOs George Cooney in 2 rounds
1994 - Hague motorist with .51% alcohol in blood, breaks Dutch record (.47%)

Mark also shares his birthday with a couple celebrities… including Lloyd Bridges, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and Mario Van Peebles.

So, please join me in wishing Mark a Happy Birthday!

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming: The ICS NCAA Trip.

NCAA: Final Day

Hard to believe, but this is our last day here at the NCAA
Convention. Seems like only yesterday we started exhibiting. Oh.

Without the need for an early morning candy run, we slept in. Or at
least I tried to - for Jeff and Jamie "sleeping in" apparently means
getting up at 6:30-7. Dragged out of bed and tossed unconscious and
clothed into the shower, I slowly woke up, got ready and packed our
bags for our afternoon departure. Then we headed down for breakfast.

It was a lovely (and expensive) buffet with all manner of food from
eggs and bacon, salmon, to a roast pig on a spit, complete with an
apple in it's mouth and coconut cocktails. We spent the meal
lamenting the SU loss and discussing the potential market for giant
flower pots, deciding that the only consumer we could think of would
be Shaq's house.

Now it's over to the booth to get set up...

NCAA: Cocktails and 'Cuse

Cocktail hour couldn't come quickly enough, but it delivered the
throngs of attendees that we were waiting for. I'm not going to say
that we got hundreds, or even dozens of leads, but definitely the most
so far this convention.

You have to take the 'lead' idea with a grain of salt - there are very
few schools that haven't already had some communication with Jamie.
This is evident by the fact that strangers walk up and bypass the
usual pleasantries and present us with "which one of you is Jamie?".
At that point we generally launch into a game of Six Degrees of Jamie
Joss, because frankly, reader of this blog, Jamie knows you, somehow,
some way.

So cocktails went well, but it came quickly to an end as we jetted
immediately at 6:30 to head to our night time activity, the SU
Georgetown game at the Verizon Center in town.

Jeff was able to track down tickets online during the day in the
Players Club, a nice open area with pool tables, boardrooms, fancy
bathrooms, a bar and leather seats. It was a classy spot, once we
finally arrived with a few friends in tow - Zak, Jason and Jackie from
the CUNY.

It was a fun time, except for the 14 point devastating loss to the
much hated Hoyas. At least the booze took off some of the sting.

Tomorrow we pick up the exhibiting once more, and finally packing up
and heading home in the afternoon. Should be action packed...

NCAA: Moving Right Along

In my line of work, it's not something I do very often, so it's only
now that I've come to an inescapable conclusion: standing is tiring.
No, seriously. I don't know how basketball coaches and flamingoes pull
this off for long periods of time.

I suppose this sounds a little like whining. But hey, I'm a
programmer by trade - we are pretty much raised in the seated
position. We aren't designed for standing - heck I don't even lay
down at night, I just sort of roll on my side in the seated position.
So really, 5 hours on my feet is stressing every dormant muscle I have.

The good news is we have a chair, in which I am presently sitting and
I must say I heard the angels singing when I finally sat down.

Despite my verticality fatigue, we've still had lots of visitors this
afternoon, some new leads and some more friendly faces like Zak from
CUNY, Dan from the MIAC, Curt from UNE, Meredith from Chowan, and a
few others...

Almost cocktail hour...

Sent from my iPhone

NCAA: Familiar Faces

Entering hour three of the exhibiting, and things have picked up
somewhat. A few more leads, and a few more friendly faces, including
Lenny from NJIT, Gregg from TCCC and the folks from Vassar and Winona
State.

While this may seem like a bunch of familiar faces, but in reality,
for me, they are often only familiar names and voices. With so many
clients in so many places, I rarely know what mamy of them look like,
and when they introduce themselves they are usually drastically
different than what I imagined. Generally shorter in my experience.
I can't imagine what folks may think I look like before they meet me -
I would guess probably ogre-ish and foul-smelling.

Not too far off, I guess...

NCAA: It's Begun

As the bell tolled eleven, the doors have swung open, and we are
officially exhibiting. So far that hasn't meant a whole lot - in the
first hour we've had a minor lead and a couple of current clients have
stopped by to say hello, including Emilie from the CSAC, Bob from the
CCAA and Barry Obama from the WH.

Our recollections of last year are that things will pick up - most of
the days are full of conference and divisional meetings, but at 5:30
there's a cocktail mixer down here and we got a ton of slightly tipsy
ADs to sign up last year...

Back to the pitchin' ...

NCAA: Day Two

Too bright and early, I was awakened from my steak coma (from Smith &
Wollsnsky's last night) to partake in an ICS tradeshow tradition: the
candy run. As anyone who has visited our booth in the past can
attest, we always have a full candy dish. We don't travel with that
candy - the TSA might object, thinking perhaps we were planning on
threatening a diabetic pilot by stuffing him with candy and then
withholding his insulin. No, instead we always head out to a local
Walmart, Target or a guy in the back alley selling Krackel out of his
minivan, to pick up our sweet stock.

It's always an adventure to traipse about the local area looking for
these places. Today we headed into Alexandria looking for a Walmart
which Google suggested was there. Alexandria is one of those towns
though, that hides modernity by forcing standard chains to modify
their look to fit into their old world look. Consequently looking for
a fancy brick Walmart amidst fancy brick Holiday Inns and fancy brick
Wendy's is like trying to find a Sonic in New England. Can't be done.
We finally chanced on a grocery store and was able to score the bags
of candy we needed. After a brief stop at a McDonalds for Egg
McMuffins we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for the show.

Oh, the picture above? View from the room - you can kind of make out
the Washington Monument...

NCAA: Finally Setup

After an hour of work, a lot of swearing, and two bouts of fist
fighting, we finally completed putting the ICS booth together. If you
haven't seen the new booth, it's pretty easy on the eyes, and looks
better than the picture can do justice.

I'm a newbie to this particular display so I was relegated to cleaning
up boxes, popping on the decorative screw covers, and generally
staying out of Jeff and Jamie's way. Yes, Jamie arrived shortly after
we did, which was undoubtedly a positive because he's the only one who
knows how to put it together.

Our day one tasks finally completed, it's time to go get some dinner
and rest of for a long day of tradeshow tomorrow...

NCAA: We've Arrived!

Our long car ride trip complete, we opened the door of the Navigator,
and waded out of the piles of fast food wrappers to head into the
convention center. We had driven around to the loading dock, and
sauntered in like we knew what we were doing. Security recognized us
immediately as troublemakers.

It's a liitle known fact to folks that don't work tradeshows, but
there's a mob worthy racket involved. In this case we needed to move
our tradeshow cases from car to booth, probably about 100 yards. But
the group that runs the show basically has 1 rule:

If you can't carry something or it has wheels they have to do it for
you. For money. Stupid amounts of money.

That's how we found ourselves handing our cases to an unassuming dock
worker that probably bench presses cars for fun. He hauled everything
onto a forklift, and informed us that our tradeshow booth weighs 515
pounds.

That's a whole lotta selling power.

Time to set up.

NCAA: Almost There

Based on my calculations, we've been in the car for 47 hours and have
traveled over 2600 miles. This was all by computed by hand, so it's
only a rough estimate.

Of course, no traffic the entire way and five miles from the resort?
Traffic jam...

Please. End. This. Ride.

NCAA: Lunch Time

Around noon on our epic trek Jeff came down with a mad case of the
'non-drug-induced' munchies and we began searching for a place to
stop. Unfortunately between Hazleton and Harrisburg there is a single
restaurant, a place called Funck's Family Restaurant, which we decided
not to visit. Subsisting on Diet Pepsi and Mento's (ingested in a
safe, non-explosive method) we were able to push through to a Wendys
in Union Township near Harrisburg.

Apparently this Wendy's is, in fact, the best Wendy's in America,
because the entire town was waiting in line when we arrived. Twenty
minutes later, and a near miss with a burly tattooed fellow who would
undoubtedly have broken me in half were he not jonesing for a small
Frosty and Spicy Chicken sandwich, we headed out and back onto 81 South.

Onward.

NCAA: Still on the Road

I'd just like to point out to everyone that Pennsylvania is a long,
long state. The photo above is generally what we've seen for the past
two hours - a gray, lifeless landscape not unlike the moon, or
Syracuse. Only 3 and a half hours to go, the navigation system
informed me between crying bouts.

Of note is the number of ICS schools we've already passed on our
Journey, including one epic sign that listed Kings, Wilkes AND
Misericordia. We'd stop in and say hello, but frankly I didn't have
time to shower this morning, so it's probably best if we don't.

More updates soon - for now back to imagining colors other than white
and gray.

Jeff and Mark's NCAA Adventure

Howdy folks!

Jeff and I (with some help from Justin) just packed up the tradeshow
display, loaded the Navigator and began our long trek south to the
NCAA Convention. To chronicle our adventure, and maintain my sanity
during 72 uninterrupted hours with my boss (including 12 hours in a
car), I'll be posting periodic updates to the blog. Check back soon!

In hour one, we just spent 10 minutes listening to the Lincoln
Navigator voice tutorial, who just explained the she was 'only a
computer' and not to get upset if she didn't understand our command.
My goal now - attempt to get the Navigator navigation system to cry...

Please allow me to introduce myself…

As my first post on the newly revamped ICS blog, I thought I should take a moment to tell you about myself.

I’ve been with ICS for nearly four years now, and am a proud member of the well-oiled-machine that is the ICS Art Department, where I spend the majority of my days designing the new look, feel, and experience of your new website.

On the personal side, I’ve been married for just over a year now – no kids as of yet (though if you ask anyone in the office, they’ll assure you that we’re going to have octuplets someday) , and we happily live in a suburb to the north west of Syracuse.

I’m a complete Photoshop shortcut junkie, have a desk is that often littered with toys (including the newest addition to the collection, a screaming “flying” monkey that I can fling across the office at unsuspecting co-workers) , and have a slight addiction to Wild Cherry Pepsi.

In an earlier post Jesse mentioned our connection prior to ICS – our rock band. Believe it or not, I have ties to another member of the art department pre-ICS, too… Jeff Passetti (who is our reigning flash header god) was actually my roommate in college both freshman and sophomore years. I’ve know both Jesse and Jeff for over a decade now, with less than half of that time spent at ICS – and let me be the first to say how lucky I am to be able to work with some of my best friends.

I’m off for now – but fear not, loyal ICS blog readers, I shall return!

How much bandwidth is enough?

I recently read an article in the New York Times about how hotels are having a tough time battling the issue of user bandwidth (http://tinyurl.com/8j5kn5). Five years ago, users were primarily using the hotel internet for email and web browsing, but now consumers are downloading huge files and conducting high definition video conferencing sessions.

In our field, server bandwidth is also a major issue. Having a webserver with multiple websites is perfectly fine, but what happens when hundreds, even thousands of users all want to access the same server’s files simultaneously? Without sufficient bandwidth (upload, not download) sites slow down and users become frustrated.

The biggest issue is that bandwidth is very, very expensive. A single site can use terabytes of bandwidth each month, which equates to thousands of dollars. Professional Internet Service Providers (ISPs) then have to be able to handle the amount of traffic needed and still try to keep costs down; despite their efforts, these costs continue to rise.

Just to put all into perspective, last month I saw what was the biggest spike in any archived media file by an ICS client. Syracuse Athletics archived a video file on the All-Access section of their site (a new head football coach was hired). Through All-Access, this single video, which was only 30mb, utilized a terabyte of data transfer in less than 48hours (it received over 12,000 views). The servers hosting this file never crashed and operated just as they would if only a single viewer had accessed the video.

Just as hotels have to constantly look for new solutions, so must we. Each day we are researching new ways to manage files and reduce costs. Through new compression formats and network architecture, we are able to battle the increase in bandwidth costs by minimizing the amount of bandwidth necessary to perform the same tasks. This all trickles down to the paying customer (the client or the All-Access subscriber) who pays for this service. There is just no room for complacency in this business.

Jesse James: The Man, The Myth, The Bassist?

Since this is my first post, I thought it would be a good opportunity to let you all know a bit of background about myself. I was born on a cold December night in 1980... Ok, maybe not that far back. I graduated from Syracuse University (The pre-requisite Alma Mater for all ICS employees it seems) with a degree in Industrial Design. While I could get into the years of blood, sweat, and tears I spent honing my design skills to make your websites the gems of collegiate athletics that they are today, I think I'd rather tell a little story about rock'n'roll and fate. It was at SU that I met one of our other legendary ICS design team members, Chris Kirkegaard. When we weren't busy designing, we were playing together in a band called "The August Project." With Chris on drums and me on bass, there was no stopping us groovin' throughout bars, clubs and amphitheatres across the snowy tundra of upstate NY. When I joined ICS 4 years ago and invited Chris onboard shortly thereafter, I knew our time as the musical backbone of AP would translate into excellent design synergy.

Strangely enough, I have discovered that our first website for AP is still up!?? You can check out what Chris and I were up to a short century ago right here!
The Official August Project Website
See! Rock'n'Roll, Design, Websites, ICS... It was all fate!