New local web site covering technology in the Chippewa Valley. Come visit.

We'll be including more video in the Chippewa Guide as time goes on - for now, here's the first stab at the Chippewa Guide Video Channel, featuring some recent sights and sounds from the Chippewa Valley.

We want to know what's happening in the Chippewa Valley so that we can tell everyone else.  Know of a great upcoming event?  A favorite restaurant?  An interesting story about something that is going on?  Let us know. 

We're also looking for anyone who'd like to write about the Chippewa Valley.  We'll offer a blog to anyone who can convince us that they have something interesting to say - just let us know. 

You can send press releases, or any other information to us with the contact form at the top of the guide, or just email us at sales [at] chippewaguide [dot] com.

Keep in touch!

We're on the lookout for web sites in the Chippewa Valley.  If you have a favorite site, or you publish a site, let us know.  If the site has an RSS feed and you'd like to see it aggregated in with our Local Blogs section, that's even better.

In general, if you know about anything interesting going on in the Chippewa  Valley, we want to know about it and spread the word.  So please fee free to send us anything of interest through the contact form, or just email us at sales [at] chippewaguide [dot] com

Keep in touch! 

The Chippewa Guide photo contest is now open. You may upload your photo entry by clicking on the camera at the left or by clicking here..

You may submit your photos between now and April 30. On May 1, we will begin judging. All judging will be on-line, and readers of the Chippewa Guide may all vote on their favorite photos.

There will be one prize for each category in the contest, and one grand prize for the highest rated photo in the contest. The grand prize will be a $50 gift certificate with the Eau Claire or Menomonie Chamber of commerce, good at any Chamber of Commerce member. Other prizes will be announced throughout the month.

A few rules:

• Photos must have been taken in the Chippewa Valley.
• You must provide a description of the photo, letting us know what the photograph is, and where it was taken.
• You may enter as many photos as you wish
• We will be the sole judges as to whether the photograph is appropriate for viewing on this web site.
• In the case of a tie in the voting, the publishers of the Chippewa Guide will decide the winner.
• All personal information about the entry will be kept private. Only the photograph, description, and title of the entry will be displayed.
• We will disclose the winners at the time that the contest closes. All non-winning participants may remain anonymous.
• If your photograph contains a recognizable image of a person, you must have their permission to post the photograph here. We will remove any photographs from the site if someone complains about a photograph of themselves. These entries will not be eligible for a prize.
• By entering this photograph, you grant the Chippewa Guide non-exclusive rights to use the photograph on the Chippewa Guide web site (with credit to you as the photographer) after the contest ends. You may of course continue to use your own photograph in any way you wish.
• You may only enter photographs that you have taken yourself, or which the photographer has given you permission to enter.

I've seen some discussion lately and have had some conversations with people revolving around the question - If this is the "tech corridor" of Wisconsin, why don't we have the kinds of web interactions and tech events that tech areas usually have?"

You'll ask yourself - what the heck does he mean by that?

I'm a web developer, and I build interactive web sites as a freelancer, mostly for nonprofits. This site is actually a pretty good example of what I do. Almost all of my clients are from outside of the area - in fact, one of the reasons I built this site was to try to have a local client - myself. I get clients on the coasts, clients in the Twin Cities, but in the Chippewa Valley, the general response I get is a blank stare. I'm beginning to believe that the Chippewa Valley isn't ready for Web 2.0.

This site is a good example. When I approach local businesses, they often think that this is a great idea, but they don't seem very much interested in participating, despite the fact that it's a great source of free publicity. Nonprofits that I approach in the area seem very wary of building a web presence that lets their constituents talk back to them. The idea that the Internet is inherently interactive seems to be lost on most people here, and I don't know why. I long for kindred tech geek spirits, and I'd love to meet you. I know you're out there.

We are in the process of expanding our listings of local music performances. You will be seeing more listings for local music that are provided by the good folks at Playing Here. These listings will appear on the pages for the individual cities on the web site, and are also being incorporated in the big events calendar.

We will continue to add other resources from the web as we find them. Note that bands and venues can now appear in the Chippewa Guide either by submitting events directly to us, or by submitting them to Playing Here (although submitting them directly will make them appear more places on the guide.)

If you are part of the local music scene, we're looking to talk to you - we would like to have more locally-based video and audio of music on the site - let us know, and we will be glad to work with you.

So -- last night we were having a staff meeting (me, the Knapsack Naturalist, Kaytie the Wonder dog, Earl-who-must-walk-all-over-the-keyboard-while-I-type, and of course Chip. We found ourselves wondering what you folks out there in Internet-land would really like from the Chippewa Guide. We've put together a modest poll, lurking over there to the right. Please let us know what you'd like, otherwise we're just flying blind while trying to guess. As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas, please send them to us at sales [at] chippewaguide [dot] com

Thanks!

The Chippewa Guide is looking for contributors. That can mean a lot of things:

• Do you have a local blog or podcast? Would you like to have us put your blog's headlines in our local blog widget on the home page, and get you more readers? Let us know.
• Are you interested in writing about local issues, arts, performers, or anything else about the Chippewa Valley? Join Scott Montesano by having a blog on the web site. Just let us know you're interested.
• Have a business? Do you want to make more money? Put a listing in the Chippewa Guide and let people know about your business.
• Have an event or performance you want to publicize? List it here for free and also have it appear in Google Calendar automatically.
  
• We are interested in collaborating with other web sites and organizations in the Chippewa Valley. Let us know how we can work with you.
• We are currently particularly looking for videos and photographs of the Chippewa Valley.

This time of year all of the local pet shelters are full of animals needing a home. Out here at the farm we've had a wonderful procession of animal friends over the years, none of whom came from a pet store.

To both help out the animals, and to help you find a companion animal to keep you company, we're introducing the new  Chippewa Guide Pet Directory.  

You can use it to look for animals in all of the local county Humane Societies.  Our thanks to the kind folks at Petfinder.Com, who provide the computer magic to make this possible.