NextGen Climate Action has leased space at 234 W. 15th St. and is having an Open House at 6pm tonight for interested parties and folks wishing to welcome them to the area. This is being sent to you as a supporter of the Hilltop Campus Village effort, but also as someone possibly interested int their mission. The office is next to Nicole's Chicago Style Clothing, and close to the Eastside Bakery at Harrison and 15th.
Come welcome Will to the Hilltop! For more information on the organization, go to www.nextgenclimate.org.

(DES MOINES) - Gov. Terry Branstad today issued the following statement upon learning of the passing of former Des Moines Mayor Richard "Dick" Olson:

"Dick Olson was a fine mayor for the City of Des Moines. Dick's accomplishments, including the Des Moines Botanical Center and the skywalk system, are still prevalent in Iowa's capital city. He was a very dedicated public servant who served as both a Des Moines City Councilman and two-term Mayor. He will be greatly missed."

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KWQC-TV6, the #1-rated NBC affiliate in the Quad Cities, has announced its programming line-up for the 2014-15 broadcast season.
The 2014-15 broadcast season will see a few changes at KWQC-TV6, most notably, the addition of 6 hours of locally-produced news. Starting August 18th, the station will drop the second run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and expand the News at Noon to one hour.
September 6th brings another big change. KWQC will become the only station in the Quad Cities to offer weekend morning news. The station will move its weekend Agribusiness shows to 5 a.m. to make room for Quad Cities Today Weekend Edition starting at 6 a.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays. QCT Weekend will then break for NBC's Today Show and resume for an additional half hour on Saturdays and a full hour on Sundays.
KWQC VP and General Manager Ken Freedman said, "The community deserves to have a local news option in the morning on weekends. As the news leader in this market, it makes sense that we are the ones to provide that option."
QCT Weekend will be anchored by Brian Boesen, who recently returned to KWQC-TV6 after co-anchoring at WFIE, the NBC affiliate in Evansville, Indiana, for two years.
"We couldn't be happier to have Brian back in the Quad Cities, and back on KWQC," said News Director Rich Kurz. "He's a natural behind the desk and his local roots make him a perfect fit to anchor QCT Weekend."

Leader in Unified Communications Educates Customers on Importance of Choosing the Right Cloud Voice Solution for Your Business

DAVENPORT, IA - July 31, 2014 - Midland Communications, a leader in unified communications, announced today that the company has collected and documented the five telltale signs to look out for when selecting a cloud voice provider. With the appeal of enhanced office productivity and increased profitability, it's no surprise that this technology has taken off. As the benefits of cloud voice continue to stack up, many small and mid-sized businesses are wondering how to choose the right solution. Midland Communications outlines the five most important aspects to consider when evaluating cloud voice.

Strong, Local Presence in the Business Community: Even before you consider the solution selecting the right company to install and service cloud technology is the first step. One of the most important factors to look for is a technology company that operates in the same area that you do. They have a foundational understanding of the market that you are in, they understand the culture, and can administer customer service very quickly. When your partner has a presence in your community you can instantly make changes and interact directly in case any issues ever come up. Inexperienced remote providers can often hide in the Internet abyss, so they don't have to deal with installation problems. Focus on finding a partner that is always willing to meet face-to-face and generate solutions to problems as they arise.

Understand the 3 Critical Factors to Successful Installation: Businesses need to make sure that they are working with a technology company who is well educated in the technical side of a transaction. The 3 most important factors are Quality of Service, a Proper Router and POE Switches. Installing a communications system without paying attention to these aspects can instantly jeopardize performance and call clarity. This is where inexperienced companies cause the infamous jitter, latency and lack of redundancy that annoy many of today's users. When an inexperienced provider sells a boxed, "plug and play" solution, the system usually will not work properly. Without properly assessing the network and reorganizing it so everything is streamlined, users experience a messy network with lots of dropped calls in the short-term, and expensive re-installs in the long-term. More experienced providers understand the complexity and can actually streamline this intricate web of information to deliver better performing cloud voice technology and in some cases, reduce turn their phone system into a profit center.

Offering a Premium/Low-Price Model. The problem here is that low-cost solutions usually do nothing for the business in the long-term, as they lack scalability. Business owners are usually prone to purchasing barebones systems, but in the long-term these end up being much more expensive, due to the shoddy foundation that low-price systems usually offer. As the business starts to scale, more features become necessary and communication infrastructure grows in complexity. Usually the low-price solutions are limited in their functionality, which means that as the business grows and demands more from their communications infrastructure, they won't be able to get this functionality. Simply put, these limitations usually lead to patchwork solutions that can't stand the test of time. Look for providers who assess your business needs in the long-term and refuse to take the quick cash to eventually leave you with a magnified problem later.

Negotiation Power with the Carrier. Some of the best features of phone systems require successful integration with telecommunication carriers. Local providers have the ability to port numbers, allocate proper bandwidth and probe the network to determine whether the carrier can support the bandwidth demands you will be placing on them. This is another reason why only local providers are best suited for business interactions.

Long-Term Contracts. Plainly put, only deal with companies that don't require long-term contracts. The fundamental reality of a long-term contract is that it favors an underperforming provider. This misaligns incentives and shifts the transaction in favor of the provider rather than the needs of the customer. Deal with a company that has enough faith in their ability to serve their customers so well that they propose a month-to-month, cancel-anytime agreement. This will eliminate a lot of providers from the equation but does wonders to ensure that your provider's incentives are aligned with your best interests. Most companies that get caught in those contracts find that they are virtually unbreakable. If you see a long-term contract, run.

By focusing on these criteria, businesses can ensure that they are working with only the best providers, who will leave them with a more powerful, robust and efficient network to run their business.

ABOUT MIDLAND COMMUNICATIONS

Midland Communications began more than 60 years ago in 1946 as the Worldwide Marketing Arm of Victor-Animagraph Projectors. In 1977 a communications division was formed due to a partnership with NEC America. Today, As a distributor of NEC America, for 33 years, Midland Communications has a customer base of more than 3,000 satisfied customers that include general businesses, government agencies, Universities, colleges, hospitals, and hotels.
Midland provides a wide range of communication services including VOIP, PBX and key systems, Wide Area and Local Area networking, computers, Computer integration, voice mail, CCIS, and video conferencing and paging systems. Our philosophy is simple, provide quality products at a fair price, backed by an average emergency response time of twenty minutes, and the best service in the industry. For more information on Midland Communications, call (563) 326-1237 or visit www.midlandcom.com.

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