Creative Content From The Water Board?
When you live in San Antonio Texas on top of the Edwards Aquifer, water is a subject that simmers on the back burner almost all the time. We do what we have to and take the regular moves between drought and flood in stride. I get the feeling that folks ’round these parts really do care about the topic of our water, but sometimes it appears not enough (yours truly included) to really learn a great deal about it, even when we are now in Stage 1 Drought Restrictions.
Who’s fault is that? A citizen has the responsibility to stay informed, but doesn’t the local governments and ngo’s involved in such critical matters also have a responsibility to communicate these concerns in ways that can cut through the clutter of daily life? The Water Board of Bryan Texas seems to have taken that challenge head on.

pages from a Water Board of Bryan Calendar
By wrapping an all too often dry topic like water consumption in an up to date package like the one above, perhaps more people will actually read the literature that comes from the Bryan Water Board and learn more about the challenges that their city is facing.
Hey, if a box of chocolate covered puffed rice can carve our an identity that helps build relationships with their customers then why can’t a government agency?
One could make the argument that this type of approach might rub some geezers more traditional citizens the wrong way, but still, a moment here to applaud a local government agency with the courage to risk such an approach. We constantly complain that government doesn’t try to innovate, so when a local bureaucrat goes out on a limb and injects some creativity into their area of responsibility let’s make the effort to support their effort.
Bravo Bryan.
Content Developer Comments
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Great post DC. Very interesting approach to sending SMS. Is the source code for this actually available anywhere? Thanks! Comment on Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application by JustUs1776
Great post. I'm a LAMP Developer and I was wondering if anyone has been able to build their own GSM server. That is, a server that can utilize a GSM modem to send direct, local messages to cell or IP phones. I'm working for a not-for-profit health care organization and have a suite of applications that I'd like to improve communication turn around time by sending SMS messages our nurses IP phones and our Physician's cell phones. I've found a ton of services that are all cost prohibitive and was hoping for an open source solution. Comment on Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application by Roy
My son's teacher would like to be able to send short text messages to students. I'm looking for a simple solution that would allow him to broadcast to 20-40 students a "reminder" about class info. This article looks very promising, but It appears to be server based. Can this type of program be modified to run run stand-a-lone, ie flash drive, desktop...? comment feed...