Dennis Deery

We hear a lot of talk around election time about term limits for Congresspersons. People are concerned about long-serving elected officials losing touch with their constituents, and about the difficulty of unseating incumbents due to the advantages of running as an office-holder. I’ve never been a fan of the idea of term limits. I think there’s much to be gained from some of the long-time office-holders developing a large skill base in dealing with issues.

The Barca Report A European Union report on regional economic development efforts. Widely recognized as one of the authoritative works on regional E.D. (tags: ed development)

The 3rd edition of the great Age of Conversation book is soon to be released. This series collects a number of essays dealing with social media issues. I’m very pleased to announce that an essay of mine will be included in the latest edition of the book. A lot of the writers collected in this edition are great current thinkers on social media, so I’m happy to be in such great company!

So, did you bother to read the Congressional Budget Office scoring of the health care reform bill passed this weekend? Did you know that this bill could actually reduce the deficit? Funnily enough, many opponents will say they don’t believe the CBO numbers. Somehow though, when pressed, those opponents don’t seem to have any numbers of their own. You think this will bankrupt the nation? Show me your numbers! There is an incredible lack of perspective on this issue, in my humble opinion.

[Librophile - Finding Free Audio Books Made Easy](http://librophile.com/) A massive collection of free audio books. (tags: [audio](http://delicious.com/ddeery/audio) [books](http://delicious.com/ddeery/books)) [Chabin Concepts](http://www.chabinconcepts.com/index.html) A network of economic development professionals. They've produced a good report on what makes a good economic development web site. (tags: [ed](http://delicious.com/ddeery/ed) [website](http://delicious.com/ddeery/website))

Plan Cruncher A nifty tool to help you compress your business plan into a one-page summary with cool icons. (tags: businessplan business entrepreneurship)

QR-Code Generator Generate your own 2D bar codes. Now that more people are carrying iPhones and such, more people are able to scan codes and get info. (tags: barcode qr)

[2010 Torrents (Home of the (UNOFFICIAL) SXSW Torrents)](http://sites.google.com/site/sxswtorrent/2010) A collection of music from all the artists appearing at South-by-Southwest. Gigabytes of free, legal music. (tags: [music](http://delicious.com/ddeery/music) [mp3](http://delicious.com/ddeery/mp3)) [flame | peter blaskovic | escape motions](http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/#top) Very cool drawing tool. (tags: [design](http://delicious.com/ddeery/design) [wallpaper](http://delicious.com/ddeery/wallpaper) [art](http://delicious.com/ddeery/art)) [Wordpress Themes - SimpleThemes](http://www.simplethemes.net/) One of the best collections of Wordpress themes I've ever seen. (tags: [wordpress](http://delicious.com/ddeery/wordpress) [themes](http://delicious.com/ddeery/themes))

Congratulations to our friend Maryrose Lyons of Brightspark Consulting, who recently took home a gold medal at the 2010 Digital Media Awards in Ireland. Her blog is definitely worth a read. 

[Google Analytics for Facebook Fan Pages - PHP, Web and IT stuff](http://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2010/google-analytics-for-facebook-fan-pages/) An easy technique for using Google Analytics to track your Facebook fan pages. Handy! (tags: [facebook](http://delicious.com/ddeery/facebook) [analytics](http://delicious.com/ddeery/analytics)) [Ugolog - Video monitoring online](http://www.ugolog.com/) A free service to offer online webcam monitoring of your home. (tags: [webcam](http://delicious.com/ddeery/webcam) [security](http://delicious.com/ddeery/security))

Free For All: Web Design Resources | CreativePro.com A great collection of resources for web designers - wireframing stencils, browser testing, free icons, etc. (tags: icons design web)

The Best Android Developer Resources — Constant Contact Labs A great list of resources from someone who’s currently working on developing an Android app. (tags: android development)

Expand Your Web Design Font Choices, Part 1 | CreativePro.com An easier way to embed fonts within your web using an online hosted service. (tags: font design css)

Cool Infographics - Cool Infographics - 16 Infographic Resumes, A Visual Trend A really awesome collection of resumes for designers - presented as information graphics. (tags: infographics design)

Congratulations to our friends at the Council of Rural Initiatives on the launch of their new web site, developed by Irish Rose Consulting. This was a short-timeframe project, so we made use of Wordpress with a pre-developed template. We’re happy to be able to support the efforts of this new organization working for rural Wisconsin. [](http://cri-wis.org/)  

Our local newspaper editor was kind enough to consider a submission from me. The following article appeared in the November 25, 2009 edition of the Dunn County News. Health-care reform is the hot topic in the United States these days. I’ve been encouraged by the number of people discussing the issue while I’m out and about, at the store, the pizza joint, the post office. Sadly, too much of our focus has been on the small number of screaming matches that have erupted in various forums.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a rural issues forum held here in Menomonie by the Center for Rural Affairs. CFRA staff are barnstorming the upper midwest to hear about the issues facing rural areas. Heidi Clausen, a reporter for The Country Today newspaper wrote a nice article summarizing the event, including a few choice quotes from yours truly. 

Since our time living in Ireland, I’ve been using a great online service called ConnectMe Anywhere. This service allows you to purchase phone numbers in dozens of countries and forward them to your own phone. Using this, I was able to provide a U.S. phone number that rang my mobile phone in Ireland, and since we’ve moved back I’ve been able to keep an Irish phone number that rings here in the U.

I recently attended the Midwest Rural Assembly in Sioux Falls, SD. I wrote a short guest post on the Wisconsin Rural Partners web site describing the conference. 

It’s been quite a long summer, but we’ve survived and Kathleen has returned home from her long sojourn in Detroit. We decided a short break was in order before the fall semester starts, so we booked a last-minute deal to Washington, DC. Kathleen did her master’s degree at Gallaudet in DC, and I’ve worked there a lot, but we’d never been there together, so this trip was a good chance to share stories and favorite places.