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The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

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Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There always was a paper trail. The purpose of the app is/was to send a set of numbers from the precinct to central.

I'm kind of amazed at how it failed. 1,681 precincts in Iowa - that data could fit on a floppy disk.

IKR? And for all options they may end up with, they chose an APP. WHY? Does laptop not exist anymore? Does phones lack the ability to open webpages anymore?

Hasn't logging in been one of the things we perfected over 30 years?

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#142
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple RESTful mobile-friendly web page could have handled this easy. What were these people thinking?

Counterpoint, the primary use environment of the application will be on a smartphone. Web applications are not even second class citizens on iOS. In a situation where the user will be entering data all night, opening and closing and refreshing, variable internet connection quality and so on, all else being equal I would imagine the ideal platform would be a native application. I lean towards agreeing with you that a…

Maybe but I would guess that none of those factors were even considered.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#143
post #131

Shadow has got to be the worst name for a company associated with politics, unless you want to rub it in everyone's face

I’m truly astounded that anyone thought this was a good name and took the time to write this marketing copy: Why Shadow? When a light is shining, Shadows are a constant companion. We see ourselves as building a long-term, side-by-side “Shadow” of tech infrastructure to the Democratic Party and the progressive community at large. https://shadowinc.io/about

That makes it even worse.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#144
post #67
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know whether I heard correctly or if the number was accurate, but I heard someone throw out $60k as the amount paid for the app development this morning on the radio. That sounds like a lot of money to a lay-person, but assuming $100/hr, which seems like at least a reasonable ballpark rate, that breaks down to 600 man-hours, or 15 man-weeks. That is a very tight deadline to turn out a critical app like this.…

60k for an app that runs results collections for the Iowa Democratic Caucus sounds absurdly low. By comparison, just to get an app like that assessed for security issues --- and my assumption is that this is not an especially complicated app --- you'd already in the neighborhood of 20k.

Why they can't just do a https website with login is beyond me.

Why an App? We all know there's nothing in it but boilerplate.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple RESTful mobile-friendly web page could have handled this easy. What were these people thinking?

I think that realization is something that comes with experience, and I'm guessing these people had very little real experience.

The company was co-founded by a Google alumna.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#146

The owners and staffers at Shadow INC have a severe conflict of interest. The company is loaded with former Clinton staffers and the CEO sent a tweet in support of Buttigeig, who recently paid tens of thousands to the company. Other suspicious dealings are a premature victory announcement by Buttigeig's campaign and a leak of a picture of paper tallies which included a PIN allegedly used to login to the tally app. Lo…

" I'm not necessarily trying to suggest anything"

Aren't you though? I mean, your post is essentially "CLINTON" "ALLEGED" "SEVERE" "LEAK" . Lot's of words meant to imply some grand conspiracy. The reality is almost certainly that the developer (who has an unfortunate name) probably just didn't have enough time/budget to put out a decent product. Not everything is an actual conspiracy.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#147
post #66
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Shadow is a firm that makes custom software for Democrats and progressives. If I can ask, why the specific nature for their clientele? Isolating your solutions to a specific political party seems strange to me especially if the emphasis on making money. If anything, money normally supersedes political leanings at the end of the day which makes the whole fiasco even stranger to me. Wouldn't you want to provide a solu…

Hey, I'm really glad you asked, and I'm happy to share. The reason that most people start companies in politics is because they have strong political leanings. You do it because you believe strongly in something or someone and want to support it, even if it pays less or sucks. Even if you wanted to cross the aisle, it would be hard. If you work for Democrats, Republicans will not work with you. If you work for Republ…

I don't know how strong political beliefs correlate with technical ability, but from my anecdotal evidence, the people I work with are highly competent and not very political.

While highly political people I know don't seem to work in tech.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#148
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that realization is something that comes with experience, and I'm guessing these people had very little real experience.

The company was co-founded by a Google alumna.

That doesn't mean as much as you might think.

Working in the depths of google and running a company are two very different things.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#149
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m truly astounded that anyone thought this was a good name and took the time to write this marketing copy: Why Shadow? When a light is shining, Shadows are a constant companion. We see ourselves as building a long-term, side-by-side “Shadow” of tech infrastructure to the Democratic Party and the progressive community at large. https://shadowinc.io/about

That makes it even worse.

Really? They're basically saying: 'shadow' is your 'buddy' who is always there for you. So, we want to be that.

In retrospect, it sounds bad but really, it's just a nothingburger.

Re: The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

#150
post #38
post #6

I think the author's take on this is a bit heavy with hyperbole, but there's no doubt Iowa was a mess last night. My son was there working as volunteer, and so was his ex-girlfriend, who's still a close family friend. I was chatting with them both throughout the evening and into the wee hours this morning. They worked different locations in the Des Moines metro area and the results they reported to me were pretty clo…

Any database should work just fine for this application. 1678 precincts. 11 candidates. 2 rounds. That's 37 thousand records to fully represent everything.

You can fit this in a google sheet with two tabs. 1678 rows, 11 columns, two tabs. Your central tabulators can create filter views for the precincts they are responsible for recording, and it includes full auditing of who changed what cell and when. Where can I collect my $60k?
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